Is It The Weekend Yet?

Shadowfax with her patented “Is it the weekend yet?” Bonus for completing the look with a disheveled ear. Well done Shadowfax.

Sorry kiddo. Sadly it’s only Monday, we’ve got a long ways to go until the weekend.

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Overnight Train Trip on the Amtrak Coast Starlight

Several weeks ago I took a trip down to Southern California to visit the family. I'd always wanted to try a long distance overnight train trip and studied up on the logistics. These are a few photos from the Coast Starlight Amtrak from Eugene, Oregon to Union Station in Los Angeles.

This is the interior of the train station in Eugene, Oregon. Small, quiet, safe, and a delightfully old-fashioned place to wait to board the train.

I booked a "Roomette" for the trip, a private space with two seats that folded down into a bed at night. There were lights, temperature control, an electrical outlet and just enough space to store one larger backpack or a small suitcase. I was traveling light an only had a backpack, so it worked perfectly.

There was additional luggage storage right outside my space if I had more bags. The restrooms and showers were also shared with other passengers and were both functional and tidy, and I didn't have to wait for either to open up, they were always available.

The train briefly meandered across bridges and along rivers in the Willamette Valley and then we were quickly in the forest. There was still plenty of snow and the winter scenery was lovely. 

Other Amtrak trains have Wifi, but the Coast Starlight doesn't. There is cell reception for most of the journey, but no Wifi. If I was a committed worker I could have tried my phone hot-spot to see if I could get Internet and get some work done, but I chose instead to lounge around, read a book, and watch the scenery roll by.

I did take the round trip on the train and combined the photos in this post. The trip down started in the evening and so I missed much of the mountains going South, but headed North we were treated to numerous views of Mt. Shasta.

After passing through the Central Valley and the Bay Area there were lovely hills and pastoral scenes as we made our way to the California Coast.

Booking a roomette includes meals (including a drink with lunch and dinner) in the dining car. The food was OK, better than airline fare and considering the logistics of the moving train, served up quickly. The dining car has limited seating so you are joined with other folks at the four person table. I had pleasant conversations with people at each meal and really only struck out once with some odd dinner companions.

North of Santa Barbara the train tracks start following the coast for a few hours and there are great ocean views until the Ventura area.

The Coast Starlight ends at Union Station in Los Angeles. I still had to take another train to reach my final destination, but the layover was only an hour. Union Station is a great old Art Deco train station and there was lots to look at. It also happened to be the night of the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener, so it was a very lively place. But there were a lot of security all around the station, so it never felt unsafe.

The first overnight train trip was a great experience. The views were fantastic and it was nice to slow down and spend hours reading a book on a gently rocking train. We'll be taking the train again in the future and have already discussed a car-free vacation trip to Paso Robles or Santa Barbara for a long weekend. 

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Indoor Playtime with Shadowfax

Shadowfax at 14 years old is a different version of her younger self. But many similarities remain, like enjoying the “chase around the couch” game. Where we used to race around the couch at full speed and wrestle, now it's slower speed game and involves mostly her barking at me, and me trying to reach over the couch to touch her nose.

We've made posts before about how we made some modifications to our activities with Shadowfax and made some minor changes around the house. We still play with her but are more gentle with tug-of-war, slower with chase around the couch, try to keep her on the carpet so she doesn't slip on the tile, and make sure she doesn't over exert herself.

Oh what a silly pup. Shadowfax definitely enjoys letting the world revel in her glorious singing voice.

Shadowfax enjoys chasing us around and barking up a storm. It's all part of a happy home for this deaf pup.

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Grandpa Comes to Visit and Shadowfax Gets Treats

Shadowfax got a whole lot of quality time with her Grandpa when he came to visit for a couple of weeks. She loves her Grandpa and he dotes on her with lots of attention and pets. And treats. So many treats. 

Every meal was an opportunity for Shadowfax to demonstrate all the manners she had now completely forgotten. Every trip to the kitchen an opportunity to “help”. 

It took Shadowfax about a day to forget EVERYTHING she learned over the years and become a shameless begging dog. In her defense why pine for a dog cookie or liver treat when there’s meatloaf, glazed donut bits, and cheese galore.

It was hard to be mad since she was exhausted, full and happy at the end of every day. Now to relearn some basic manners.

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Search Dog Lennie Being a Dog

We posted previously about search dog Lennie and his handler. Lennie may have a very important job as a search and rescue dog, but he still gets to be a dog.

Lennie has three human siblings and four canine siblings and loves all of them. He gets plenty of attention, exercise and mental stimulation.

He also spends a lot of time hanging out in the neighborhood, visiting with the dogs and people alike. Getting to show off all his tricks, like “hug” and his very steady “sit”.

All that thinking can leave a fella pretty tuckered out, so there’s some crashing on the couch time built in to every day too.

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Shadowfax Has a Pup Cup

We took a morning road trip and stopped by our local coffee shop for some coffee and a pup cup. Shadowfax enjoys her pup cups and looks forward to them. If we stop for a coffee she will whine and get impatient until she gets her pup cup.

We posted videos of Shadowfax slurping her way through a pup cup a few different times before since having her first one last year. We just never get tired of watching her enjoy herself.

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A Trip to the Doctor

We had a recent health care visit about our awesome high cholesterol, and our post-visit notes from the health care provider stated:

"(Blog Author) is a delightful (age redacted) - year-old who has, I suspect a familial mixed hyperlipidemia."

This make me chuckle and smile. I haven't been called "delightful" in quite some time, maybe ever. Though admittedly I am indeed a delight, it was nice to hear this assessment from an unbiased medical professional.

One of the tough parts of living in a small town is health care. We knew this when we moved to this lovely slice of heaven on the Oregon Coast. Our small town has a clinic and is a great point of contact for primary care, but anything more complicated than a few stitches or a course of antibiotics we need to drive a half hour to the next larger town up the coast. 

 

 

The larger town has a hospital with almost all the amenities, imaging, and care necessary for a more serious health issue - heart attack, fall from a ladder. If we need to see a specialist though, it's an hour and a half drive into Corvalis in the Willamette Valley, or a three plus hour drive into Portland, the big city. 

We put up with minor inconveniences like this to enjoy the incredible surroundings seen in these photos. As we get older, our health needs may increase and we may rethink this trade off. But for now the price seems well worth the benefits.

Couples Furniture Assembly

One of the few things we miss about our old house in Idaho was the gas fireplace insert that we had installed in the living room. Our new house doesn't have natural gas and we were missing the warmth and ambiance of the fireplace. I'd seen some entertainment centers with built in heaters that look like a fireplace, so we started looking and found one. 

Plus our current entertainment center stand was a 20+ years old IKEA item and has taken a beating. It was actually a dog bed stand at our house back in North Dakota and provided a perfect perch for the dogs to look out over the neighborhood.

We haven't participated in the stereotypical "couple assembles IKEA furniture together and hi-jinks ensue" sitcom story line before. It actually went well and we were on speaking terms before, during, and after assembly.

Shadowfax helped. What she lacks in opposable thumbs she more than makes up for in her abilities to sigh disapprovingly and look bored. 

Our project turned out quite well. The entertainment center and heater provides some ambiance on a cold evening and the heater helps keep the room nice and toasty. It's not quite the same as the gas fireplace insert, and doesn't put out as much heat, but it is much safer and looks quite nice. After all her hard work, Shadowfax took a nice nap in front of the new entertainment center. 

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