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. 

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

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.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

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.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

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.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

 

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.

Follow us on Instragram

Link to Our Online Store

 

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. 

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

 

 

Traveling with Shadowfax - Car Safety

We spend a lot of time in the car with Shadowfax, both on local trips around town and longer road trips. We're on the overprotective end of the dog guardian spectrum and want to make sure that everyone is safe in the event of any sort of accident. We try to harness our over-protective feelings to mitigate any possible issues before they happen, so we can have silly Shadowfax in the car pictures like this and still be safe.

 

There is no intention of shaming anyone who doesn't keep their dog restrained when they are in a vehicle, whatever works for your lifestyle, budget, or personal preference. My sibling and their spouse are first responders though and have numerous awful stories of what happens to pets in vehicles during accidents. Crates, harnesses, and seat belts are no guarantee of a safe outcome from a crash, but like people wearing their seat belts, safety measures can decrease the odds of serious injury or worse in a crash.

When we go on longer road trips or vacations, we take our slightly larger vehicle that fits Shadowfax's large wire crate. The crate is roomy enough that she has room to stand up, stretch out, and move around enough to make herself comfortable. On longer road trips we stop every few hours and take her out, let her walk and sniff and do some business, and just be out of the crate for a little bit.

 

On shorter trips into town we take our smaller vehicle. The back seat has a washable seat cover and we keep Shadowfax in her harness and attach a lead from the harness to the seat belt. She has freedom to move around the back seat, look out the window, and lay down, but is fully restrained.

Again, this isn't meant to shame anyone or make them feel like they are inadequate pet parents. This is what we do, it works for us. Nobody wants to be in an accident or think about what might happen to their pets, but life can happen at unexpected moments.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

 

 

Time Travel Back to 2014 - A Shaak Ti Video

Let's hop in our trusty time machine and travel back to 2014. This is probably the first video we ever made of Shaak Ti using our iPad. Our camera work is shaky, unrefined, and needs significant improvement. Our technology and camera skills have improved dramatically since then.

We used to feel a little self conscious about taking a ton of pictures and videos of our dogs, especially out in public. But as time passes and dogs leave us, the photos, videos and memories are all that we have. We no longer care or feel self conscious and take every effort to document our daily lives. There will come a time when photos and videos will be cherished.

Shaak Ti loved a vigorous tummy rub and butt scratch session, you can hear her grunts of approval. While this may seem a bit rough, she loved being squished and manhandled. Loved it. We greatly miss Shaak Ti and think of her often. We were so glad that to have gobs of photos and videos to remind us of what an awesome little pup she was.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

Activities Change with An Older Dog

We discussed in a previous blog post, Minor Modifications at Home to Help an Old Dog, which mostly consisted of adding more area rugs, elevated dog beds, and helping her down the stairs. We've made some changes to our activities with Shadowfax as well.

Due to her reactivity we generally only go places where there aren't many other people or dogs. We try to visit local parks in early morning before they get crowded. Shadwofax reacts badly to other dogs getting near her, so when we're out we keep our head on a swivel and won't hesitate to turn around, or get back in the car. And as she's gotten older, there are fewer long walks and more slow sniffing strolls around a parking lot or through a small park.

We also spend more time taking her on errands with us, to the post office or grocery store. One of us will go inside and the other sit in the car with Shadowfax and just let her be out of the house for a little bit. It gives her a chance to get out and watch the outside world and smell some new things without the physical demands of a long walk or hike.

Shadowfax demonstrates her zoomies. She's not a puppy anymore, but she can still bring it. We try to limit these sessions to a few minutes at a time. If she runs around too much or for too long she'll get sore or stiff the next day and we may need to augment her medication regimen with some additional pain relief (she is already on Gabapentin and Carprofen for pain management). There is a fair degree of needing to protect her from herself.

Along with managing her aches and pains, we try our best to give her all the help that we can to keep her healthy. Her Cushings Disease is well managed by the prescription medication Vetoryl, she's been on Cosequin for joint health for years now, and her diet is partially vet prescribed kibble augmented with fresh fruits and veggies. For some reason she goes seriously bonkers for zucchini.

 

In our eyes she's still an energetic puppy but she needs a little more attention now that she's older. A few changes to our routine and activities enable her to share more of each day with us.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

Captain Lowry and Lennie - Search and Rescue Dog Team

We were incredibly proud when our big sister, Captain Lowry of the San Diego Fire Department, and her search dog partner Lennie recently passed their certification with FEMA to be an official search dog.

Lennie was rescued from a shelter and was thought to be a suitable candidate to become a search dog. Numerous handlers from the Search Dog Foundation assessed and trained him daily for many months until he was "matched" with his handler. The end of the first stage of the process is an official matching ceremony between handler and dog.

After several months of intensive training the handler and dog team take the next step toward certification, a Foundational Skills Assessment, finding people pretending to be victims in various simulated (but very realistic) disaster areas. From there it's on to Virginia where they perform a full rescue of an unknown to them number of victims from a realistic disaster scene. Only after successfully completing this final test are they certified by FEMA as a search dog.

Lennie is a German Short-haired Pointer (GSP) and they are pretty common in the search and rescue world. What makes him a good search and rescue (SAR) dog? High energy, endurance, easy to train, athletic, and above all else a single minded focus on the greatest thing in the world - in Lennie's case, his favorite dog toy or a tennis ball. 

His favorite toy or a tennis ball is his reward for scampering around a huge pile of rubble and finding victims. Lennie (like all SAR dogs) has a borderline neurotic obsession with his favorite toy or tennis ball. All he wants to do is play with it, day and night, and that obsession is what is harnessed to train him to become an SAR dog. To him it's just a big game, wander through a disaster site and find the people, because if I do, I get to play with my toy.

We are incredibly proud of our big sister and the months of training she and Lennie went through to become a SAR team. It's hard work, training happens daily, and recertification happens on a regular basis.

You can follow them on Instagram - searchdoglennie or check out The Search Dog Foundation on Instagram.

A Winter Day at the Beach

We've had several weeks of mostly rainy weather here at the Oregon Coast. It happens and is expected in Winter. So when the rain clears and there are a few sunny days, we seize the opportunity to get out, explore, and get some Vitamin D.

It was a lovely day to eat at my desk and then spend my lunch hour strolling the beach. As usual after the Summer tourist season, I only saw two people in an hour walk.

The big rains that we've had turned every possible drainage into a stream. In the Summer this particular spot is usually little more than a small trickle. I didn't have my rain boots (this is cool new term for galoshes apparently) on and didn't want to get my feet all wet, so I turned around here and made my way back home.

The day ended with a lovely sunset. The Oregon Coast never fails to disappoint, even if there are some days where the rain changes our plans, it always makes up for it.

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store