San Diego's Weekend Driver » Northwest Passage

Great video from the Coast Starlight

Jack Brandais — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:00:24 +0000

Hard to believe it’s been a year since I had one of my all-time great vacations… a trip up Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight to Seattle, then a driving tour from one end of Washington to the other. Hope you enjoy this video of the Coast Starlight running through the mountain snows in Oregon. [...]

Amtrak Coast Starlight in Cascades snow

Jack Brandais — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:22:00 +0000

Here’s another video from the Coast Starlight, tunnel to tunnel in the Cascades. From Feb. 9, 2011.

From The Starlight Trip: Up the Space Needle

Jack Brandais — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Here’s a blog entry from my Starlight 2011 trip that I forgot to post. Enjoy. Thursday, Feb. 10, Seattle I awoke in Seattle on Feb. 10 to a spectacularly clear day. One of those where the locals run to the Space Needle for lunch, where I was headed. The waiter, before serving my entree of [...]

From the Starlight Trip: Breathtaking Vistas through the Siskious, Cascades in Oregon

Jack Brandais — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:23:00 +0000

From my Starlight trip, a blog entry I wrote but didn’t post. Enjoy… Around Mt. Shasta, Feb. 10 After a decent night’s sleep, those of us on the Coast Starlight today awoke to blue skies as we looped around Mt. Shasta. The big rock is covered with snow and glistened in the morning sun. I [...]

Lincoln MKT and a Trip Around Washington

Jack Brandais — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:01:54 +0000

Winter drive through the Cascades and across state finds great vistas and no challenges for Lincoln MKT. The famous LeMay Auto Museum ain't bad, either.

Train 2011: One Rainy Day

Jack Brandais — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:43:00 +0000

Since this is finishing my first round-trip up the West Coast and I’m not a weatherman, I don’t know how fast or big storms are.All I can say is that it started raining and snowing on Monday in Cle Elum, Wash., and here it is Thursday on the train in Paso Robles, Calif., and it’s [...]

Train 2011 — Rolling Along

Jack Brandais — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:42:00 +0000

After the bus trip to Portland, it’s been a nice ride down the west coast. My dinner last night was a fine piece of halibut in the dining car. Dining on a train is a great experience; watching the world go by and the waiters managing to work from a tiny prep area and never [...]

Train 2011: Bus begins trip home

Jack Brandais — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Who would guess that there’s rain in the Northwest. So a mudslide on the tracks between Kelso and Portland put all Portland-south passengers on buses. The train could get through, but they didn’t want passengers onboard through the mud.Lunch (included for sleeper passengers like me) was a Subway box lunch.With no stops (or mudslides) on [...]

GPS Doesn’t Mean Guaranteed to Put you in the right Spot (sorry)

Jack Brandais — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:56:00 +0000

So a few things I learned about GPS on the train and when I got to Seattle. First, I left my trusty Garmin Nuvi at home, thinking I would rely on the GPS I expected to have in the car I would drive, plus the two (count ‘em, two) GPS systems in my Android phone. [...]

Train 2011: Around Mt. Shasta

Jack Brandais — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:47:00 +0000

After a decent night’s sleep, those of us on the Coast Starlight today awoke to blue skies as we looped around Mt. Shasta. The big rock is covered with snow and glistened in the morning sun. I popped into the dining car to enjoy an early breakfast (not one of Amtrak’s best) while we twisted [...]