Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

I’ve uploaded some photos of our abbreviated trip to Seattle last month. Overall, we had a good time despite the news that my father’s health was deteriorating over the weekend and would pass away on Monday (Memorial Day), forcing us to return to St. Louis a week early.

We stayed with friends in Ballard (a northern neighborhood of Seattle that overlooks Puget Sound) and got to visit some interesting places like the Ballard Locks, Golden Gardens Beach (in Ballard), the Seattle Farmers Market, the Seattle Aquarium (by far Milo’s favorite attraction of the trip!) and, of course, the Space Needle (see pic above). We also had some of the BEST hamburgers we’ve ever eaten at a place called the Lunchbox Laboratory (unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of that… was too enthralled in just how delicious the burger was!). We had some really tasty (and cheap) fish & chips at a couple of different places, too, although we did not get a chance to have a really good seafood dinner like we had hoped we would.

The weather was a bit cooler (and wetter) than we were hoping for… the first two days especially, which were very cool, damp, and cloudy. The weekend was really nice, though, and the sun was out for both Saturday and Sunday as well as part of Monday (Memorial Day). We had to fight huge, Fair St. Louis-style crowds when we went to the Space Needle, though, as the Northwest Folklife Festival was going on.

Seattle wasn’t all that much bigger than St. Louis, although it’s definitely different. Different food, culture, climate, and scenery. I’d like to go back again soon, especially to finish out our original vacation plans by going to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula and making it down to Oregon… Seaside and Portland as well as Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. Unfortunately that will have to wait until we can reschedule. Maybe in the Fall…

I know, I know… I haven’t been bloggin’ in a while. So sue me. I just haven’t really been in the mood. Plus, it’s so much easier to just use Twitter lately to convey quick thoughts than spend the extra time to think of everything I’d want to put into an entire BLOG POST. Cuz, ya know… Lord knows BLOG POSTS have to be literary masterpieces (haha). OK, so what’s bringing me back to the world of blogging? Well, I got a wild hair today (or is that an itchy foot?) and decided to check some rates and schedules for taking a train to Memphis, just because it’s been so long since we’ve been there and it would be good to back, check in at Goner Records, Shangri-La, Sun, grab some delicious barbecue, maybe even catch a Redbirds game, and hit whatever other interesting places we can that we can glean from the latest issue of the Kreature Komforts Lowlife Guide to Memphis (a must-have if you’re going there, trust me). Make an extended weekend of it, even, ya know, Saturday thru Monday or even Tuesday kinda thing… so I checked Amtrak’s website to see how much it would run, and I was surprised (shocked is actually more like it) to see that they no longer offer any direct routes from St. Louis to Memphis! What the hell? This just seems very WRONG to me. How long has it been this way? Anyone know?

Anyway, feeling pretty aggravated and wanting to make my feelings known, I sent the fine folks at Amtrak a little piece of my mind. It went something like this:

I find it VERY hard to believe that Amtrak does not offer a direct train route from St. Louis to Memphis. You actually make people go via CHICAGO, which makes absolutely no sense at all. If Amtrak wants to increase ridership, they should reinstate service between these two great Midwestern river cities. They’re so similar culturally not to mention they’re now linked with baseball (Memphis is the Cards’ AAA affiliate), yet Amtrak chooses to not serve people wanting to travel between these two great American cities. Unbelievable!

So I dunno… does that get my point across? I hope so. I would also hope that more people would contact them and say the same thing. Hell, this makes me feel so irate that I may even attempt an Internet petition to get them to reinstate this route, especially since gas is so fucking expensive now. So, please, if you, too, like the idea of taking a train to Memphis and back, contact Amtrak and let them know. Who knows, maybe they’ll actually add the route back to their schedule someday.

But DAMN there was a lot of rain… muddy, too. But I got to go 4-wheelin’ on Sunday with Chris. That was great!

And our tent fucking ROCKS. Best tent I’ve ever owned… in fact, it’s probably the best tent I’ve ever SEEN.

A bunch of friends of ours get together once a year and go camping for a weekend out in the woods. It’s called “B.U.T.T.” (an acronym for “Bored Urban Transient Tour”), and this is our 17th annual campout. This year we’re headed to a private spot owned by one of our friends’ family along the Meramec River near Robertsville, Missouri (about an hour outside of town). It’s always a lot of fun and a great way to spend time with people we don’t get to spend time with much anymore (hectic schedules, distance, careers, kids, etc.). Plus, we’ve got a new two-room tent (Cougar Flats by Columbia - sleeps EIGHT!) that we’ll be setting up for the first time. It’s a really nice one that we got on sale at Uncle Sam’s military outlet store last fall. Anyway, we’re really looking forward to getting away from the hustle & bustle of the city for a couple of days.