Author: Craig Mashburn

Day 2 – Hawaii Trip

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

Our train arrived into Los Angeles Union Station only about 45 minutes late. It allowed us to run inside and spend a few minutes in the lounge. After only about 30 minutes, our next train was arriving and we were boarding the Surfliner train to San Diego. No sleepers on this train, but we were in business class.

20160705_164857266_iOSThis train ran right on time and we arrived into San Diego at 12:40.

20160705_195433701_iOSAfter gathering our checked bags, we called our hotel for a shuttle to pick us up.

20160705_200817226_iOSStephen’s ear was hurting him pretty bad, so we decided to go get it looked at. Stephen and I took an Uber over to an Urgent Care place. Turns out he has an inner ear infection. We got a prescription from the pharmacy and Ubered back to the hotel. (Uber was awesome!)

Then we all walked down to the pier and ate dinner at Anthony’s. Then back to hotel to chill for a bit.

20160706_012822437_iOSVicky and I had been keeping a secret from the boys as to an activity we had planned for tonight. We finally let them in. We were going to an escape room that was right around the corner from our hotel. It was VERY cool. It was called Enigma HQ. We had a blast. We also made it out with 6:04 on the clock (with a few helpful hints along the way).

20160706_030646738_iOSWe will begin early tomorrow morning, but tomorrow we will be in Hawaii. Keep in mind that Hawaii is 5 hours behind Central Time Zone so most posts will probably not come till late.

Until tomorrow.

Day 1 – Hawaii Trip

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We started the morning by dropping our little Baxter off at the Moore’s house. We have been telling him he was going to summer camp, so if you see him, make sure you don’t say anything else.

We then headed out for Lamy, New Mexico. Took us about four hours to get there. We arrived about two hours before departure.

For once, our train was practically on time arriving only about 20 minutes late. We boarded into our bedrooms. We always get the smallest rooms called roomettes, but for this trip because of some technicalities with our reward points, we got two of the large bedrooms instead. They are much larger and have restrooms in the rooms.

Soon after boarding, the train makes an extended stop in Albuquerque. So we were able to get off and walk around a bit. This is how Albuquerque says “Do not sit on the wall.”

After dinner of steak for all of us, we made a stop in Gallop where we stepped off for a few minutes.

We turned in pretty soon after since we were still operating on central time. Also, since breakfast would be served at 5am.

We were able to drag ourselves to the dining car at 5 for breakfast.

Now we are back in our rooms laying down. We are running a couple hours late but may still be able to be on our scheduled connecting train to San Diego. We shall see.

(I am going to try and post this using Word, we shall see how it goes!)

2016 Hawaii Schedule

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

Our yearly family vacation is upon us again. This year, it is a little bigger (i.e. more expensive) than normal since this is Stephen’s last trip ever with us! Okay, maybe not his last trip, but he did just graduate high school so this is his senior trip. So we are Hawaii bound!

As is normal for us, we will be taking the train. Yes, we are taking the train to Hawaii. At least for part of the trip, anyway. An airplane will also be somewhat involved in the trip as well. Here is our schedule…

  • Monday, July 4th – Drive from Amarillo to Lamy, New Mexico and board Amtrak’s train #3, the Southwest Chief
  • Tuesday, July 5th – Arrive at Los Angeles Union Station and change trains to Amtrak’s Surfliner train. Arrive by train into San Diego where we will spend the night
  • Wednesday, July 6th – Board our Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Diego to Honolulu and arrive in Hawaii
  • Thursday, July 7th through Sunday, July 10th – Explore the island of Oahu
  • Monday, July 11th – Fly back to San Diego and spend the night
  • Tuesday, July 12th – Board Amtrak’s Surfliner back to Los Angeles where we will change trains to the #4 Southwest Chief
  • Wednesday, July 13th – Arrive back into Lamy and drive back to Amarillo

This could be our “once-in-a-lifetime” trip to Hawaii. Who knows if we will ever get to go back so we plan on really taking it in. Would like to thank our friend James for once again house sitting for us, the Moore family for caring for sweet Baxter and all those checking in on and serving Vicky’s dad.

We hope you enjoy following along with us. If you want to receive e-mail alerts when there is a new post, signup for them below.


 

Days 9 & 10

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We boarded our train around 9:30 Wednesday night…

As far as the train trip, everything went pretty much as scheduled and planned. We did decide to see if we could raise the upper bunk with Stephen still in it. Answer: Yes.

At a couple of stops along the route…

And at our last train breakfast for this trip…

We arrived back in to Fort Worth just about 25 minutes late. Our good friend Caroline was there to pick us up and take us back to her house to get our car.

Then we hit the road for home…

It has been another fun trip for us and as usual (and is one of the main purposes) I feel we have had good family time and feel closer to one another.

Until next time…

 

 

 

Day 8

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We finally got to start a day a little later after a couple of very tiring days. We packed up the rental car and checked out of our hotel. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for breakfast.

Then we got to experiance something we had so far been able to avoid. Los Angeles traffic. Having lived most of my life in Houston, I am not really nervous driving in it. Fun fun.

We then arrived at the LA Zoo…

And of course, Stephen’s picture with the flamingos.

 

 Then we had some time to kill so we stopped by a rail place called Travel Town…

Then we drove up to the Griffith Park Observatory…  (notice the Hollywood sign in the background)

We went back to Union Station to return the rental car. Problem was the car place closes at 5 and our train does not leave until 10. So after checking into the lounge, we walked over to Philippe’s and had a french dip sandwich for dinner.

Then back to Union Station to wait…

We will board our train and go straight to bed so that is all for tonight.

 

Day 6

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

Pretty simple day to today. Disneyland…

We found Nemo…

Monorail…

It’s churro time…

Stephen and I do not care for rollar coasters. However, we LOVED Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We rode it 5 times. Here is Vicky and Michael on it…

At the Fantasmic show…

On our way out…

Day 5

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We checked out of hotel #2 and headed over to the Aquarium…

To take a look at some sea life…

And pet some sea life…

Including touching jellyfish…

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Queen Mary to check it out.

We then headed out for hotel #3 in Anaheim. It is right next door to some amusement park, cannot remember the name. We will be spending two long days there so not sure about posts the next two days. We shall see.

Day 4

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We drove around a bit this morning in Hollywood. We all got a glimpse of the Hollywood sign. Then we headed over to the Lebrea Tar Pits.

Just FYI, Michael pulled out the selfie stick today so you will see some results of that in today’s post.

We then made the 30 minute drive down to Long Beach where we grabbed some lunch at Acapulco restaurant.

Then we headed over and toured the Battleship Iowa…

They had this really short basketball goal on the deck…

Isn’t she adorable!

 

Or am I the adorable one?

The USS Iowa took President Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference to meet with Churchill and Stalin. This was the bedroom he stayed in. They made several modifications for the President including cutting out a door, adding a large bathtub and building two temporary elevators.

We got done earlier than expected to we ran down to Cabrillo and stopped in the the aquarium.

Vicky and the boys saw a beach so they ran over there to dip their feet in the water.

So now we are in hotel #2 down in the Long Beach area. Need a good nights sleep so we can have another full day tomorrow!

Oh, and how about one more cute picture…

Day 3

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

The day started early with our train arriving into Los Angeles EARLY. That’s right, I said our Amtrak train was early. 4:45am.

We headed into the station and checked into the sleeper lounge where we had to wait until 7:00 for the rental car place to open.

Once we got our car, we stopped by Philippes for breakfast.

Then off to the Natural History Museum…

After a quick lunch, we walked next door to the California Science Center…

We then went to check into hotel #1.

We then went to dinner and drove down to Rodeo Drive…

We are now settled down in the hotel to get some good rest. Tomorrow should be another full day!

Day 2

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

The day started early for me. As most know, I am a train nerd. So I decided to stay up a good portion of the night to watch all the train switching going on. You might think that switching three cars from our train to another would be simple. However, you have to take into account that the two trains were facing opposite directions, the cars had to be in the same order and there is no where to turn the cars around. They had to be switched around without turning them around. It was interesting to watch and it kept me up until around 2:00AM.

Our first train on the left and our second on the right.

It was weird because when we got going again, our car was headed in the opposite direction.

Today has been a not so normal train day for us. Because we are in the same car and rooms for the whole trip, we really felt moved in. In fact, we have had the beds down for most of the day and just been relaxing (and catching up on sleep!)

We did get off a few times today. Here we were in Alpine, Tx.

And in El Paso…

And of course we went to the dining car three times…

And spent time hanging out together…

Michael got to meet Wyatt Earpe and Doc Holiday when we stopped in Tucson, AZ.

So now we are settling in for the night. We will arrive Los Angeles pretty early in the morning and then our LA Adventure begins.

Until tomorrow.

Day 1

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

Tuesday afternoon we drove to Fort Worth from Amarillo. The 5 or so hours went by quickly. We met up with our good friends Caroline and Ben and had dinner together and then they hosted us at their house for the night.

We had a leisurely morning waiting to go to the station until we knew how late the train would be. We finally headed out around 12:15, grabbed some lunch at Freebirds, then Caroline dropped us at the Fort Worth station.

 We still had a while to wait so we tried to occupy ourselves.

 

Our train finally arrived a couple of hours late. We climbed aboard and settled in.

After a couple of hours, dinner time. Steaks all around!

We got to step off the train in Austin.

Our sleeper is the last car on the train so we get to enjoy the view out the back window.

Now everyone is settled in for sleep (except me). We are about to pull into San Antonio where they will disconnect our car and hook it onto another during the night. So when we get up, we will be on a different train.

Until tomorrow.

Los Angeles 2015 Schedule

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

It is that time again for the Mashburns to head out on an adventure. We have been through Los Angeles many times over the years and even stayed there one night. This year it is time ffor us to really stay and explore.

Here is the itinerary…

  • Tuesday, June 23rd – Drive from Amarillo to Fort Worth. We will get to stay with a good friend who lives there.
  • Wednesday, June 24th – Board Amtrak’s Texas Eagle #21 to San Antonio.
  • Thursday, June 25th – During the early morning, Amtrak will switch our sleeper car from the Texas Eagle to the Sunset Limited #1. So go to sleep on one train and wake up on another!
  • Friday, June 26th – Arrive at Los Angeles Union Station
  • Friday, June 26th through Wednesday, July 1st – Explore the Los Angeles area
  • Wednesday, July 1st – Board Amtrak’s Sunset Limited #2 back to San Antonio
  • Friday, July 3rd – Amtrak switches our car from the Sunset Limited to the Texas Eagle #22, we are scheduled to arive back into Fort Worth in the afternoon where we will drive back to Amarillo.
This is a Amtrak route that none of us has ever been on so we are looking forward to it.
As usual, I will attempt to make at least daily posts on this blog during our trip. If you would like to receive an email when there is a new post, use the subscribe form in the right hand column of this page.
As has become the tradition, I would like to thank our friend James for house sitting for us and the Moore family for watching little Baxter.
I hope you enjoy sharing this trip with us.

Day 10 Washington DC

Posted on by Craig Mashburn

We got up again and went to breakfast at 6:30. It was scrumptious.

After breakfast, everyone else once again crashed some more and I enjoyed the scenery.

We went for a lunch at 12:00, hamburgers for everyone and cheesecake for dessert. Our last train meal for this trip.

Our train was already about an hour late, when about 30 minutes from our stop in Lamy, the second locomotive decided to die. So the train was moving pretty slowly cause it was uphill.

Us waiting for our stop…

 

We got off at Lamy about two hours late.

We got our checked bags and got in the truck and headed back to Amarillo. We did anything and everything to entertain ourselves.

Once again, we had a great trip. It was tiring, painful and HOT, but it was still awesome. I know I said it last time, but I am going to say it again. I do not think I will ever return to Washington DC as a vacation. We have seen everything we wanted (and some twice!). Time to continue to find new places to explore.

Thanks for sharing. Until next time.