After hanging out in the lounge for a few hours…

We finally got called to board our train around 5:00. Took several pics while walking up to the train…

We got settled in our two rooms…

It turned out we were going to have a late start because they were waiting for a late arrival of the Texas Eagle. They had connecting passengers. We made dinner reservations in the dining car for 6:45. I wanted to make sure we were actually moving while we had dinner. I did not want to be sitting in the station (I wanted the full experience of train dining). Our departure kept getting later and later. Finally, at 6:35, we pulled out of Chicago’s Union Station. Right after, we went to the dinner to have dinner. Dinner is included in the price of the sleeper rooms so we did not have to pay anything. I had Braised Beef with rice. Vicky had a Roasted chicken with mashed potatoes. Stephen had mac & cheese and Michael had a hot dog. It also came with salads and dinner rolls. It was all pretty good. We also got dessert. I had cheesecake and everyone else had chocolate cake.

We went for a very short trip to the sightseer lounge. This is a public car with large viewing windows. We staid long enough to take this pic…

We returned to our rooms and our car attendant Jon made the beds in our rooms. Everyone is down now except me (it is only 8:30) but we started this day very early, so I am going down now too.

More tomorrow.

We left home in the van this morning at 4:20 to get to the airport. After getting through security, we had about 40 minutes to wait for our departure to DFW at 5:40. We left right on time and arrived at DFW. We had about a 2.5 hour layover. At DFW.

We also rode the shuttle train around DFW to kill some time…

Our flight to Chicago Midway was about 2 hours long. After that, we went to the Orange line el train (that is Elevated Train for you non-train people) and rode it to downtown (with all our luggage). Here is a pic at the downtown station.

We had to huff it about three blocks with all of our luggage to arrive at Union Station.

We checked in our luggage and grabbed a bite for lunch here in Union Station. After that, we took some pics in the main waiting room.

Now we are waiting in the Metropolitan Lounge here in Union Station where I sorta have internet connection. Enough to do this anyway. The lounge is for Amtrak 1st Class customers (which means you have a room in the sleeper car and your not in coach). Our train, the Capitol Limited, is scheduled to leave at 5:35 pm. It is now 3:00.

Tomorrow is the big day. Here is our itinerary for travel to DC…

Fly out of Amarillo at 5:40 am
Arrive DFW at 6:49 am
Fly out of DFW at 9:20 am
Arrive Chicago Midway at 11:33 am
Leave Chicago Union Station on Amtrak’s Capitol Limited at 5:35 pm
Arrive Washington DC Union Station at 11:59 am on Sunday (7/9/06)

The soonest I foresee being able to post will be in Chicago’s Union Station. I have heard they have free wireless connection. We shall see. Otherwise the first post will not appear until Sunday evening when we arrive at our hotel in DC.

Hello friends and family. Our trip to Washington DC via Chicago will begin on July 8th, 2006. I hope to blog every day about our trip and also post pictures. Remember the newest post will be on the top so if you want to read in order, start from the bottom article and read up.

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