Today R. and I came home from our vacation feeling entirely different from when we left. We were laughing and relaxed, feeling close and looking forward to the week. The trip up was rather different.
On Thursday, it was one of the hardest day I have ever had at work. I wasn't sleeping because I was very excited about the trip. And it was a busy day--hours at the Writing Lab, conferences with students, and two classes in a row. By the time I got out, my legs felt wobbly, and I was buried under homework that required my immediate attention and comments by email, since I couldn't manage to conference the majority of the students before I left.
All day Friday on the train, while Richard read his golf magazine and looked out the window in the observation car and ate snacks, I graded papers, wishing I had a laptop so I could send comments to my students. But I finally finished, planned my classes for this week, and soon I too was looking out the windows and listening to the forest service volunteers' commentary on the natural and human history of the places we were passing.
The peoplewatching was good too. There were tons of characters, including singles bar type behavior in the observation lounge, busy body seat watchers, who tried to keep us from sitting down in the chairs unoccupied by people who were in the dining car, for hours at a time, and extremely friendly people who jabbered away to anyone who would listen.
I didn't take any pictures in the train; I was too busy on the way up, and by the time we came home, the train was full. Most of the pictures are sideways, and cannot be turned around, I'm told, without seriously compromising their quality, so I guess I can't post them, but I'll post a couple, and I'll tell more about what we did once we got there tomorrow.
3 comments:
An observation car? Forest service volunteers? Wow, we have to talk about the train you took! You might have gotten off to a rocky start, but your line about returning rested and happy says it all. I look forward to the next installment.
Here's a tip on your header. Go back and reinstall it, but this time, check the box that says "shrink to fit."
Thanks Lou. I did reinstall the header, and perhaps that will work for some of the sideways pictures.
RE: the train, it was pretty special. It's called the Coast Starlight, or something of the sort, and goes up to Vancouver, I think, or Seattle. One day I want to ride it all the way up there. I rode it once before when Jeremy was a toddler. It was a little different then because I was chasing his little tail up and down those scary spiral stairs. He wasn't too good about sitting for 10 hours when we went up to Petaluma once. But I do remember we watched Cool Runnings in the sleeping lounge, even though we didn't have a sleeper seat. The conductors tried to help me keep Jeremy busy. He was too young to watch movies though. Now that is one of his favorite movies!
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