Day 3: WEDNESDAY

Today came a bit earlier than expected, due to another time change. I slept poorly last night, so I skipped breakfast on the train (though my parents brought me something to eat from the dining car). It was easy to sleep late, because the train was going through an 8-mile-long tunnel at the time, and I absolutely can't wake up without daylight.

More beautiful scenery this morning as we traveled through the aptly-named Cascades. These mist-shrouded mountains, all the color of bare stone and pine trees, are bounded by unbelievably blue streams that periodically burst into white rapids. (Last night, we also had a lot of lovely scenery as we went through Glacier National Park. During dinner, we saw the flat, treeless plains of eastern Montana suddenly explode into the park's snow-covered mountains and deep gullys. The storm that had shrouded the southern plains stretched just into the edge of the mountain range, so there were several brilliant moments where lightning would strike the top of a hill, directly beneath the double rainbow cast by the setting sun... Some of these vistas just can't be described, even with the photographs that we were jostling at the windows to take.)

We arrived in Seattle a few minutes early, despite several delays (the shipping lines own the tracks and have right-of-way, so if the freight trains are running late, passenger trains must wait, sometimes for hours, for the freight trains to catch up and pass ahead of them). We straightened out a slight mess with my ticket for the return trip, then Mom and Dad took the luggage to the hotel in a taxi while Laura, Jon and I walked the half-mile through a steady drizzle. We needed the exercise after the two and a half sedentary days on the train.

Seattle is really a lovely city, as long as you don't mind the omnipresent rain. The city is dotted with small parks and sculpture gardens, and there is a coffee shop or café on nearly every corner (what do you expect from the city that gave us Starbucks?). Art galleries and antique shops abound. There is a sprawling Chinatown, plus an ample International District, and just around the corner from our hotel is perhaps the largest bookstore I've ever seen (we spent much of the afternoon there). I think it would be a wonderful place to live... if only there were more sunshine and less rain!

In a rare and uncharacteristic burst of fashion lust, Laura and I are going shopping this evening. Both of us hate shopping, especially for clothing, with a passion. However, we spotted a fascinating little shop in the International District that sells Chinese silk outfits; there's a little shirt in the window that I want, and Laura's eyeing their jackets. It's only a couple of blocks from the hotel, so we're planning on heading out a little early to try things on before we meet the rest of the family for dinner.

Laura just came back into the room, so I'm going to attempt to get online and post this before we leave. (The hotel's complimentary wireless signal is so weak in here that half the time, my computer can't even locate it...)