October Family Trip conclusion - Very delayed and a long read!
Once we got off the train we were very busy and I totally forgot I had been blogging this trip. So I'm writing it two months after the last entry.
Train:
My mom learned very definitely that long distance train travel isn't for her. She didn't sleep the first night which didn't surprise me. Unfortunately, the 2nd night was no better. Both those nights were on the Oregon to Chicago train (Empire Builder) in our family bedroom. One thing unique to the family bedroom (and maybe the accessible bedroom) that is different from the majority of the rooms which are Roomettes or Bedrooms is that the 2 adult size beds in the family bedroom are both across the train car or perpendicular to the rails. All the other room types have the beds parallel to the windows and tracks. I'm not sure I have a strong preference in terms of sleeping but either going to the parallel bed on the Chicago to Rochester train suited her better or she was finally so utterly exhausted that she did finally sleep on the last night on the train. In between the 2 trains we had a very enjoyable walk around a surprisingly pristine downtown Chicago. I've always enjoyed Chicago but we were both really amazed that at least for the 2.5 or so miles we walked to get from the train station to River North it seemed like there wasn't as much as a gum wrapper out of place. And the train station itself is wonderful, especially with the large Atrium gently lit at night. Dinner was a wonderful Italian meal at Etta. I finally got to try Cacia Pepe. It was all very special food but it was so expensive all I could do was literally laugh when the bill came. This year I've had so many overpriced lame meals. At least this one wasn't lame. And we eat at home literally 9 out of 10 days so the occasional splurge can be laughed off as it were.
Despite the poor sleep and many near falls from a not great sense of balance and some lousy track conditions, she did enjoy the rest of the experience. One particular thing I still look back on with wonder is the new 'traditional dining' on some long distance trains, our Empire Builder included. In years past the food from the dining car was always just adequate. The hangar steak that has been on the menu forever was always a good bet but despite the illusion of a well thought out multi course meal, the various pieces were just barely ok. I'm extremely pleased to report that the days of the limp iceberg lettuce and vegetable sides that you might charitably call homestyle (bland, overcooked) are gone. If my memories of the old dining car food seem damning with faint praise, the early COVID era dining was far worse than that by all accounts. The 'flexible dining' was a straight up frozen dinner served with a salad and dinner roll. There are only 4 or 5 dinner choices and very enjoyable to watch travel reviewer Jeb Brooks put it well when he said the flexible dining offerings all taste more alike than you'd think given the descriptions.
The 1 hot dinner we had on the Empire Builder was amazing. I had Pan Roasted Chicken Breast which was described as:
Thyme-marinated chicken breast, wild mushroom risotto, English peas, fava beans, and Parisian carrots, all smothered in a morel mushroom sauce.
I'm pleased to say that EVERY aspect of that plate was fine dining quality, I kid you not. It was, without a doubt, better than 90% of the meals we eat out in any given month. The chicken was piping hot and loaded with flavor. The Risotto was rich and creamy, the peas were gorgeous, the carrots garden fresh. I just can't say too much about it all. The Green Chile Cheese Tamale appetizer was also delicious, I almost asked for a second one. Dinner also includes 1 alcoholic beverage, a change from the prior setup. Also, at present, the dining car is only open to first class (sleeper) customers. So it was pretty quiet and it seems unlikely they are seating unrelated parties at the same table, an understandable change albeit something I hope can be reverted some day as it provides a bed and breakfast like semi-forced opportunity to look up from our phones and converse with a fellow traveler or two.
Rochester:
Our time in Rochester seemed to go by extra quickly. We made a day trip to Niagara falls which went very well. We did some inane things like shop and then eat at the mall food court and I made one dinner at the apartment. In a nod to both economy and getting an early start towards Vermont my mother stayed in our apartment the 3rd night. Her asthma was somewhat active the entire trip but it was controllable and didn't seem any worse here in the (temporarily) well vented apartment than it was anywhere else.
Vermont:
We headed out quite early towards Vermont on Sunday the 17th. We took non freeway roads almost the whole way which included a long but low traffic drive through the Adirondacks. An agonizingly slow lunch at CoreLife ate up a good amount of the little bit of time we had to spare on the trip so it wasn't as leisurely as I would have liked. We had a very nice dinner near Stowe with Brian's brother and his wife. I appreciated them taking the time to come see us and meet my mom.
The next morning, we had a wonderfully scenic walk around a pond near Eden, Vermont. This having been a lingering mild fall, there was color a plenty at the pond. My mother walked about half way around then waited near the water on a dock while Brian and I power walked the other half and then back to her. The exercise helped me stay calm and relaxed. Being tour guide can be a tiring job.
As expected, my Mom and Brian's parents are amazingly compatible in their world views. If they weren't thousands of miles apart I'm sure they would be friends.
Boston:
On the way from Vermont to Boston I covered parts of the Connecticut River scenic byway. It was all enjoyable enough but other than a very rural non touristy New England charming general store/hardware store/restaurant/gas station, it was just a lot of driving. We arrived in Boston about 3:30 PM I think. Traffic was not objectionable at all but we slipped into the Alewife 'T' Parking garage just in time. There was a game that night and even a light Boston rush hour can still be scarring for the uninitiated. We made a bee-line for the standard first time visitor stuff downtown. The Old State House museum, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market and surrounding areas capped off with a sunset walk to the Old North Church. Brian got a good 2 picture series photo of my mom and I setting on a bench.
The Hyatt House Waltham worked out very well. We had adjoining and connecting but separate rooms. The next day's challenge was to get from our suburban hotel to the Aquarium T stop where our 10 am Boston Harbor cruise left from. After a tasty but surly served bagel I opted at the last minute to take the commuter rail in instead of the light rail/trolley. It made the trip faster and made the connection to the Acquarium easier. I think we actually took a Lyft for the last leg of the journey to the Aquarium because any little snag would have made us miss our boat. The weather was bright and very sunny for the cruise and though neither my mom nor Brian expressed any enthusiasm about the idea of a harbor cruise, it was actually probably the highlight of the Vermont/Boston part of the trip. We rounded out our other Boston day wandering around Harvard. To get back we took the (now almost completely refurbished) Green line almost to the end of one of the branches that went to Newton. From there we had a 45 minute walk through some tony inner suburban neighborhoods back to the car.
We went out for ice cream later in the evening (by car) and the town we went to had some streets closed for a bit of a street fair. It was a very charming end to a very charming day.
My mother was dropped off VERY early by necessity the next morning while Brian slept at the hotel. I came back with bagels and we eventually headed off to Rhode Island to stay 2 nights near his Brother and Brother-In-Law's house. Along the way we hit Bigelow Pond in Connecticut which was an enjoyable leg stretcher.
After Boston
Bigelow Pond:
Rhode Island:
The last leg of the trip was the drive home from Rhode Island. We left pretty early so I banged out some fast miles on the expressways in Rhode Island and some on Mass Pike and some slower more scenic miles on my forever New England favorite, MA-2 aka The Mohawk Trail. Rhode Island is a long shlep from Rochester so we didn't do much of note on the way home except cover a very large section of NY-23 because it was a big long piece of road I'd not been on that was sort of on the way.
Summary:
While some years have more travel than others, we cover a lot of ground most years. So we've had some epic trips, some really good trips, good trips, so-so trips and bad trips. Honestly this one was fully in Epic territory. Epic in scale, epic in time, epic in variety. There are a number of things that we can't fully control or predict that probably shouldn't but sometimes do ruin or at least put a damper on trips. These include weather, logistical issues (trains, planes, automobiles), financial surprises of the bad kind, disappointing food and dirty or sketchy environments. None of these were remotely near being a downer for this trip and honestly, from sea to shining sea, the only things that I can even remember being annoying on this trip were: a very bad Californian driver almost wiping us out on a no passing zone in Oregon, a ridiculously long delay to warm some cold soup at CoreLife, one long wait for the Silver Line in Boston and my mother losing my favorite face mask. None of these things will be what I think about when I look back on this 2 week long trip. The most unexpectedly great thing on the trip was that Chicago and Boston both were in absolute top form. This was so appreciated because urban visits have historically been tough whenever I have family visit. So I was glad my mom saw these cities at their best.
At Brian's suggestion I made a Shutterfly book with some of the best pictures from the trip and sent it to my mother. Keeping the page count down to 24 was tough. The trip was that good.
Comments
Post a Comment