Pittsburgh to Portland on a train!

Hello all! =) We just got arrived in Portland Oregon after 3 days on Amtrak (a train). It was exciting to ride the train, but at the same time hard to leave Grandpa (so we played cards in the train station :-).

Our trip was very fun and filled with relaxation and beautiful sights. It was so very amazing to see part of the snowy Rocky Mountains on our last night on the train, and then another spectacular sight was in the morning of our arrival– traveling along the Columbia Gorge.

We all had an awesome time! =) Elk, dear, cows, horses, birds, antelope, dogs, and a swimming otter, were spotted by at least one of us – which was fun. There was an Amish family in the observation car with us and that was very cool that we were all looking for animals together – though we didn’t chat to each other much.

The food was nice =) and mom was glad that she didn’t have to cook.

It’s a very sunny day here in Oregon, filled with lots of bushy trees and bushes and blossoms and flowers. And it’s nice to see some familiar faces again. (Though, familiar faces seem to be everywhere) ;)

During our train trip, we had a 5 hour layover in Chicago, Illinois – which turned out to be, what I though, one of the most fun, exploratory adventures of the train trip. I’ll tell you what we did =)

We got a taxi and rode to Millennium Park. There, there was a reflective, 3-D, big sculpture thing (in picture). I liked to go in the middle of it – under it – and spin in circles while looking upwards at the sculpture. =P it was exciting! I got dizzy really fast. It was great. And, there was a cool fountain there which I liked to touch…

Anyway… =) It was a REALLY hot day filled with blue sky and the spectacular sight of Lake Michigan sparkling in the sun. There was a chance of rain and thunderstorms in the weather report, so we all had jeans on, and I (Laurie) had a scarf and a jumper (sweater) with me… which wasn’t a very good idea because it was SO hot… (Though it may have been extra hot because of our apparel…)

Anyways =) we then rented bikes and rode all around some bike paths which were around the area – that was totally awesome because it was very close to Lake Michigan and a beautiful park with brightly colored flowers and green, fuzzy, soft grass. Oh! It was the most beautiful day!!! Emily and Dad rode a tandem bike, and Mom and I rode single/normal bikes. It took a while to get used to the bikes, but we all got the hang of it and had an awesome time. It was so much fun to ride a bike again!! =) And the gentle breeze against us as we rode was so refreshing. It was great fun. Our bikes even had little bells on them =)

So, after we returned our bikes, we walked around Navy Pier. Now, at Navy Pier there was lots of interesting things to do. There were souvenir shops, food & drink places, and a hallway with lots of very pretty stain glass windows – which we all attended/took part in. There were also a few rides (Carrousel, Ferris wheel, and a spinney mechanism), and there was other activities like a mirror maze and boat/cruise rides. – But we didn’t do any of those. So then we took a taxi back to the train station and continued our journey on the train. (written by Laurie, edited by Dan)