Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[MANTIS01]

Don't mind the chamois leather-look jacket but wrong shirt combo. Think black or white or like burgundy. Pastel blue is wrong. That said glad the maroon coach driver number has been retired.

[tikay]

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[tikay]

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[tikay]

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[Karabiner]

One of my golfing pals has been given a trip on a steam engine/train in Derbyshire as a 70th birthday present from his elder son.

He will get to be the fireman, shovelling coal for the first third of the journey before picking up the family and jaunting off for lunch. hopefully having washed and changed.

[atdc21]

Looks like you are having a great time Tikay.
Could you get a brighter/louder shirt/trouser/jacket combo, will be just like Michael Portillo then on a train journey

[Kev B]

Happy birthday Gill. What a cracking photo of you both.

[engy]

Happy birthday to Gill, and enjoy your trip both

[Marky147]

Happy birthday Gill.

I hope you're both having a great trip!

[tikay]

Morning all.

Before I bore you all to tears with the minutiae of our West Coast Adventure - only Tom enjoys minutiae - a word about Gill's Birthday, as it was not actually her Birthday whilst in Vegas, & I see several of you have been kind enough to send her birthday wishes.

And before I tie those loose ends up, I should also add that Gill reads this Diary. Not to stalk, or be nosy, she just likes to see what I get up to, & if we are both here in Vegas, she can follow my Updates & know when to expect me back at the room. So I'm very glad, & grateful, that nobody has ever been even remotely unkind or rude about her. A forum where folks are rude or ill-mannered by default is not at all something she would enjoy.

Gill had a "big" birthday this year, but it was in early May. As it happens, she takes her brother away on holiday every year, (Cape Verde this year) & her birthday coincided with that, so I never saw her on her Birthday, in fact until she arrived in Vegas, I'd not seen her since before her big day.

We are total opposites when it comes to celebrating birthdays, Xmas etc. I never send anyone cards or give pressies, even to Gill. She, however, sends cards, wraps presents, even her Hamster gets a Christmas card & a present. And yes, she wraps the present. Then unwraps it, as Hamsters are not so good at unwrapping stuff. Go figure.

She was so revved up by her big birthday, that she even purchased a birthday cake & packed it in her luggage to take to Cape Verde. I can't even begin to imagine taking a birthday cake on holiday.

So, with all that in mind, I thought I'd sort a few little belated birthday surprises for her when she arrived in Vegas.

Took a whole bunch of sorting all that lot before she arrived, & cost a few bob, but was worth every minute & every dollar - she was thrilled to bits. So all worthwhile.

[tikay]

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[tikay]

The railways are a great way to see the USA. They are slow, unpunctual, and very retro, but it's just perfect, as they trundle slowly through the countryside, with frequent unscheduled stops. Perfect in every way.

Managed to cross 3 more Sports Stadia off my tick list from the comfort of our seats - the Moda Centre in Portland, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, (NBA), and in Seattle, Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners, MLB) & of course Century Link Field (Seattle Seahawks, NFL).  

With so many NFL fans on blonde I guess most of them know this, but I was surprised to see the 2 Seattle Stadia sit smack next door to each other.

That's the Baseball ground at the bottom, with the NFL one above. The Railway, which runs tight against both just before terminating at Seattle King St, can be seen to the right of the stadiums. The Port of Seattle  - a very busy container port - & Puget Sound sits the other side of the stadiums.

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[tikay]

More on the trip to Boeing's factory later, but here's a wonderful piece of trivia for you.

At SEATAC (Seattle/Tacoma) airport, we spotted one of Amazon's Cargo fleet, they operate some 40 freighter aircraft, & we also saw one awaiting delivery at Everett Field, the Boeing base.

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And here's the punch-line, their first aircraft - Amazon Prime One - had this registration number. Tom's love of minutiae won't help him with this, but Tal will spot the significance instantly.

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A+, surely?

[tikay]

We flew out of Vegas at 6am, so were at McCarron at the ridic hour of 4am for the 2 hour hop.

We like Portland very much, but only had a few hours before our train departed for Seattle at midday. First up, the ride from the airport to City Centre via MAX, their light rail system. The journey took 40 minutes, was effectively a "tour train" as it meandered across Portland, & the journey cost just $8.

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So it was Powell's bookshop first - surely the biggest B & M bookshop in the world? It sprawls over an entire block & 4 floors.

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Half the fun in these things is planning everything, & Gill had found us a lonely artisan bakery for breakfast. Latte and a giant Danish please. (Should Danish have a capital "D" there?). Note the abundance of trees in Portland, which makes such a huge difference to the ambience.

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On a less pleasant note, I've never been to a city which seems to have so many homeless folk, they have whole refugee camp style tented villages, literally thousands of folk living rough. Most of them are along the river banks, under Interstate flyovers or alongside the railway tracks. All a bit of a reality check as we continued on our hedonistic adventure, & certainly something that sets the conscience tingling.

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[tikay]

Next, it was Union Station, Portland, for the 3 hour (took 4) journey up to Seattle.

Railway termini in the USA are cathedrals. I doubt 20 trains a day stop at Portland, but it's magnificent, all marble, high ceilings & sculpted columns, beautiful lighting, with analogue clocks ticking away. A pleasure to spend a little time at.

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