UMTravels

When you discover friends are in town (well, not your town), you hit the rails!

Dear friends of mine from the Midwest are in Portland – one having moved there from DC, the other who helped with the road trip. What a lovely way to spend a day – up early (OK, that part wasn’t so good), UBER to the train station early to see if you can use an “upgrade” coupon from Coach to Business (yes, but after much of the agent calling their help number, all was fine with a $3.50 extra fee because it couldn’t be used with my AAA discount).

After all that was said and done, went to check in for the Coach trip south, and the Amtrak agent said, “Thanks for knowing the drill and having your ID out – here, have two seats to yourself.” The day is getting better:

It was early, so it’s breakfast on the track, which wasn’t as bad as I was expecting….

I was texting my buddy Roxy on the way down – and sent him this photo of me in Olympia (where he lives):

Yes, that is a Bloody Mary with my breakfast bagel sandwich. Lunch was MUCH better at Olympia Provisions in the Produce District of Portland….

Yes, that is a Manhattan – cheers, Mom. That’s “The Morty”, mostly mortadella. The girls had “The Randy”….

And the three of us, with Retta “looking like a deer in the headlights.”

It was a quick visit, but a fun one. Got dropped off early to see if I could get a stamp for a Priority Mail envelope and maybe a passport photo. Turns out my old post office – the main branch for Portland – was swamped with people, so I just explored the station and took some great shots:

Gorgeous day, gorgeous station.

    

Yeah, this station is a class act – complete with incredibly stocked News/Cigar/Grill/T-Shirts/Postcards/TrainPins shop. Seattle needs something like that as there is at least as much traffic – guessing the rent would be crazy (but they did leave space for it in the station).

Saw a couple of private rail cars in the yard in Portland…

They belong to American Railway Explorer which owns three cars that they rent out. In the yard was the Kansas (pictured above) and the California.

It’s a lovely run up and down the coast – for now. Soon they will shave off a very beautiful piece and save 15 minutes and have less train traffic to contend with – but you will miss these views:

Can’t match those views – the new route is inland…

Those scenic shots were taken at about where Highway 16 (the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) crosses the water. New route will be faster, but I’ll miss the view.

Home in time for a late dinner, for tomorrow it’s off to Berkeley.

[? ? ?]

Falling in the category of “no justice in this world” would be a recent fortune cookie fortune:

Guess it’s time to go to Kansas City to pick up some BBQ for the store, hang with some friends, listen to jazz.

With me running late (for me) and my flight leaving from the North Satellite at Sea-Tac, I got to check out the new Alaska Airlines Board Room location:

Small – but it will do until 2017 when the whole terminal is renovated and they add gates and move the club to the roof.

It was great to be leaving this:

But it’s pretty above the clouds:

And in seat 1A, free entertainment:

No photo of lunch, but it was the turkey ensalade capresse warm sandwich of other trips. And more funny bits of reading material:

Lots of that arranged for Kansas City!

Dinner with Paul and Gail the first night around the part of town the old Subs Pub was located at Café Trio. Interesting drink menu:

I started with the Fig Manhattan before moving onto the Rosemary and Maple Whiskey Sour – Gail went with the White Icicle:

And for my dessert, something with a little Foie Gras:

It was pretty, but the little roll things needed to be room temperature, not chilled.

Gail headed back to Greenwood (their “summer residence”) where they have taken the cat to make my visit easier and Paul and I headed to The Green Lady, a 7-day-a-week jazz bar – and it was amazing. Not often to you see a trio composed of vibes, Hammond B-3, drums:

And here is a little of the music:

And, of course, a couple of more Manhattans:

The nice thing about staying with Paul is that we BOTH sleep in super late – so that breakfast was actually LUNCH at Arthur Bryant’s. Paul had the pulled pork/beef combo sandwich:

I went for the “Pig On A Bun”:

After lunch, bought two cases of Arthur Bryant’s Original BBQ Sauce for the shop, then we swung by Gates to pick up a case of their original sauce – and the trunk shows it:

Tonight’s gathering is at Harry’s Country Club where the gang plans to meet.

Oddly enough I didn’t get ANY pictures of all eight of us gathered in a little mini-reunion. Paul and Gail from Kansas City, Phil, Diane, Byron, Vicki, and Retta from Lawrence – I was amazed that the Lawrence folks would drive over for a mid-week dinner.

I DID get pictures of my lunch the next day back at Harrys – the pastrami sandwich lunch special with potato salad:

No cocktails for me at lunch, just iced tea – but if I wanted whiskey – man do they have a selection!

Before you know it, it’s time to load up for the airport, and my return trip – just A LITTLE luggage:

Yep – it was easier to use a cart to get it all down stairs.

No upgrade for the way home – I was number 11 on a list of 27 – on a THURSDAY! At least I got one of the 4 empty seats between me and a MVP Gold 75K flier in the window:

And with the complimentary cocktail when I don’t get upgraded:

Whippet picked me up at the airport (handy with all that luggage!) so I took him to an old-school Seattle institution, The Thirteen Coins. Must be a theme…. Pastrami for lunch, Ruben for dinner. Actually, we both had the Rueben, mine with a Manhattan side:

A quick,but fun, trip back home.

[215.4]

The trip is winding down – time for Pigletté and Uncle Markie to head back to Seattle. The flight to Dubai is scheduled for a little before midnight – and when the check-in counter opened, I was the third person in the business line…this is what the economy line looked like:

And there is a shared lounge for Emirates business class passengers…not bad, but no open bar, just unlimited wine. Sigh. But there is a big open buffet:

My office for a couple of hours:

Wine, seltzer, beef noodle soup…a little post dinner, pre-flight food.

Another 777-300ER on the Saigon to Dubai flight. Pigletté gets settled in:

But he has to share his seat with Uncle Markie. Thanks to the lady in the window seat for this shot:

Soon it was movie time (Specter – a 007 movie):

We watched the movie while the flight attendant worked on my Manhattan:

Which came with some hot nuts – Uncle Markie LOVES hot nuts:

Even Bond, James Bond, enjoys a drink with us:

Before long, it was dinner time – and NO, that is NOT a potato, that’s a dinner roll. The starters:

The main:

Time for some more movies:

And the controller that also runs the system (in addition to buttons on the phone) – WAY too many options:

Here is a partial list of the movies I watched on the return flight:

• Spectre (007)
• Martians

And then there was a little sleep before arriving in Dubai at 4am in the morning – 4-hour layover, but the lounge is comfy and has “quiet areas”:

Don’t I look comfortable?

After a nap it’s time for a little breakfast before the breakfast on the Dubai to Houston flight:

Got to love Emirates Business Class Lounges in Dubai (they have three, each of which are the length of the terminal) – and how is this for boarding. The Business Class lounge is on 5 (in this terminal), First Class on 4, 3 is god-knows-what:

I love the “Upper Deck Boarding”, “Lower Deck Boarding” buttons, which correspond this this:

Yes, that is THREE jet skyways to the jet…Emirates A380-800 from Dubai to Houston is configured with

• 14 First Class closed suites
• 76 Business Class lay-flat seats
• 399 Economy seats

With almost 500 seats you got to board these things from every orifice.

Wonder what economy looks like?

That would be a wild-body seating configuration of 3-4-3 (10-across). Upstairs, well, these are the back stairs – the front stairs go to First Class:

And the Business Class section which is a 1-2-1 configuration:

And my pod…

This was before I moved across the aisle so that I didn’t have to squeeze past the end table (which the feet of the person behind me slides into. Fresh flowers even:

Which was right above my 22″ tough-screen display…more reasons for changing seats.

Lots of charging opportunities…(and noise-cancelling headphone jack):

Add reading material (and Champagne) ….

And leg room …

And seat controls ….

Bye-bye Dubai …

A shot from above …

Time to settle in:

And then the food begins….

And yummy it is… another breakfast!

I opted for the Middle Eastern version of the main breakfast course… when in Rome (or Dubai) ….and more drinks:

Rob Roys with 18-year-old Chivas:

And since it’s a 15-hour flight, mid-flight mini-sandwiches:

And mid-flight work….

The flights movie list:

• Life with father – William Powell

5 hours of sleep (Ambien washed down with Rob Roys)

• The Man Who Knew Too Much – Kimmy Stewart, Doris Day
• Philadelphia Story – jimmy steward, Cary grant, Hepburn
• Desk Set – Hepburn/Tracy

Along with some hot appetizers:

At the back bar:

I think there was lunch in there someplace —

And the cheese course with a 2000 Warre’s Tawny Port:

I love some of the FaceBook comments on the cheese course photo:

Catherine: A GLASS glass?! METAL silverware!? An actual ceramic PLATE?!

Alexis: it looks to me like you are having too much carbs, only one cracker please ! x

Carlotta: Your cheese COURSE? There’ a vegetable, meat and dessert course? Soup too?

Retta: I could live off that.

Mark: I opted for the cheese and port over the chocolate lava cake, espresso and Cointreau. And yes, three courses before that. Redeeming 75000 miles gets you good airline food.

Kathy: I need to charge more on our mileage credit card, clearly!!

Mark: Happy to be anyone’s mileage consultant!

Carlotta: Well dear, you Are The Expert!

Mark: Catherine, that was a real piece of wood under that cheese.

Sean: It is so painful to see a man suffer

Jonathan: Not used to seeing you consuming grapes that haven’t been squashed and left to ferment for several years…

David: I approve!

Mikal: Pigletté loves cheese …

And then the party ended. Arrived in Houston with a two-hour layover which included customs/immigration, a terminal change, another round of security. Thank you Alaska for digital boarding passes that kept me from having to produce TWO quart bags since I’d collected all these toiletries from Janet to put in her church’s homeless packets. The downside of the Alaska gate in Houston is that there is no lounge access. Luckily I was exhausted because this was my seat for the four-hour Houston to Seattle run, in coach. At least it was bulkhead aisle:

One free drink, one bought drink, 3 hours of sleep which I dearly needed.

Cab home from the airport (about $30) about 9 in the evening – and here what was in the mailbox:

And what remained when I pitched all the junk:

International trip number one of four planned this year (next is Greece [June], then Mexico [September], then France [November]).

Next up is Victoria, British Columbia (which because it’s so close I don’t consider to be international).

[? ? ?]