First Amtrak Trip

I am Mariah and I live in Iowa with my family of three children, one husband, and no animals that need daily care.

In February 2006 I decided to take my two kids on a trip to visit family in California by myself.  Jeri was 5, Zac was 3, and this was my first trip traveling with the kids without another adult.  We had traveled a bunch as a family including a driving trip to California and I do a lot of traveling for work both with and without college students.  However, my husband had to work, I really wanted to explore train travel, and I wasn't allowed to go alone.

I had researched Amtrak for some time, but had decided I didn't want to train both ways in case I really didn't like the trip.  So, I decided to drive to Omaha, train out, and fly back.  At that time, one-way flights were not common except with Southwest and this was our closest Southwest airport.  In 2006, the train left Omaha at about 10:30 PM when ontime.  The day we left the train was running on time and I packed the car, drove the 5 hours to Omaha, and parked the car at the train station (free parking).  We staggered onto the train with all our baggage and found our bedroom.

The bedroom was chosen because it sleeps a cozy 3.  That it includes a private "bathroom" didn't hurt since my son was still potty training.  Although purchasing the bedroom makes your ticket first class, and all the meals are included, frequent rail riders will remind you to tip for both the food and the train car assistant.  We have taken the train from Iowa to California and back and I think the California Zephyr has the best timing.  You sleep through the flat parts and climb the mountains during the day.

So, the next morning we woke up near Denver, CO and started climbing the Rockies.  During the day, the bedroom includes a bench couch facing one way and a chair facing the other way.  During the night, the couch is converted to a twin sized bed and a single sized bunk comes down from the top.  Since I had a napper, I would pull the bunk down for napping during the day.  We had no trouble sleeping mom/child on the bottom bunk, but I wouldn't be able to share it with another adult.

Me

Zac in Chair

Jeri in Chair

We didn't have to stay in our room, but it was nice for keeping things contained.  There is a window out one side of the room and the hallway on the other side.  You can take the train without getting a room, but I haven't done it yet and would expect I would need to pack a lot more snacks. With the room, all the meals are included and the kids enjoyed eating train food.

Mom and Zac

Zac on bench seat

Jeri on bench seat

 As it was, since I spent some time dealing with a toilet-training boy, I was glad for the sink and a private place to hang drying underwear and pants.

Toilet with shower hose on the side

You wake up near Denver, CO.  You don't want to be eating breakfast in Denver because it is a longer stop and you can get out and stretch your legs a bit here.  The morning is spent climbing the mountains and we were eating lunch when we went through the tunnel at the continental divide.  This is the longest tunnel and they ask you not to walk between cars while you are inside. We had dinner in the Western Rocky foothills and slept through the flat lands of Utah and Nevada.  The kids  and I slept soundly with the rocking train, but we woke up pretty early because each sleep means changing another time zone.  There is juice in the morning and coffee all the time in the sleeper cars.

Sleeper cars have two levels.  The upper level has bedrooms like we used and also roommettes which are two chairs facing each other that convert into bunk beds.  The lower level has more roommettes and two special bedrooms - the family bedroom and the disabled bedroom.  The disabled room can hold someone who requires a wheelchair and the attendant will bring dinner to you.  The family room has a set of bunk beds like the bedroom, but is the full width of the train car and has two short bunk beds on one end.  Amtrak prefers only to put 4 in the family bedroom.

Family Bedroom

Sleeper Car Layout

The next morning you wake up near Reno, NV.  The rest of the morning is spent climbing the next set of mountains with lunch at the summit.

Jeri loved the observation car where she could meet the most interesting people.  She spent a bunch of time talking to this nice family who were traveling out for a wedding

and met a new best friend who we never saw again.  They had a good time with my camera.

These pictures are all in Nevada as we got ready to climb the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The tracks go right over Donner Pass and if everything is working, there is a ranger who boards the train to tell you about some of the natural wonders you are seeing out the window.  I like to tell the older children about the story of the Donner Party who got trapped there by a November snow fall.

Once you get past Sacramento, the view isn't quite as spectacular, but you are nearly at the end of the journey.  All in all, the train with two children was pretty easy because they were locally contained, but had room to roam.  Our bags stayed in the same place and we had sufficient power outlets to keep things charged.

I had planned on getting off the train in Emeryville (end of the line) and transferring to another train to take me to the San Jose train station to make things easier for Grandma.  This turned out to be a major mistake.  The first problem was that the new train was more of a commuter and I had to move all our baggage (including two car seats) on and off by myself while keeping track of two excited kids.  There was no place for the bags and there were no assigned seats.  Unfortunately, once I got us all on the train they announced that due to track work, this train was only going to Oakland (1.5 miles) and then we would be bussed to San Jose.  At this point it is late, the kids are tired, the bags are even more of a hassle, and there is little information on how this will happen.  We end up on a crowded bus with no luggage space and no seats together.  My brave 5 year old had to sit by herself next to a stranger while I held the boy on my lap.  It was a long, dark walk from the bus drop off in San Jose to the waiting room.  I had to keep the boy, who wanted to be carried, walking in front of me with encouraging words.  Plus, at the San Jose train station, it was very unclear where I would be meeting my mom.  None-the-less, we met up with Grandma and made sure to visit the beach.

We spent a good couple of days with Grandma and then took Southwest from San Jose back to Omaha.  It was quite a challenge getting the bags to the check in counter, but once they were gone and I only had to manage the carry on bag and two car seats we managed pretty well.  Flight into Omaha went well.  I took a taxi to the train station and packed everyone back into the car for the 5 hour drive home.  Needless to say, I was the only one awake for most of the drive.

Lessons Learned

• Train with two kids is easy, transfers are hard.  Next time, get Grandma to drive the extra hour to pick us up.
• If your children still take naps, the bedroom, or any sleeper car room, allows you to pull the upper bunk down for naptime.
• The car seats were difficult to manage on my own.  If I had thought about it, I might have asked Grandma if she could find some loaners.
• Never underestimate the number of pairs of pants a toilet-training boy can go through.
• If you don't bring a battery charger, you will run out of batteries.  This is less of an issue now that I always travel with rechargeables, but you will want to take lots of pictures.

How to do it with Points

Amtrak travel redemption is based on Zones and the California Zephyr covers two zones.  For the bedroom, two zones one way is 40,000 points, and this would include all the people in the room.  I can't remember what I paid for the trip at the time, but I checked and a similar trip in June would cost $1832.00 which comes out to 4.58 cents per mile - a pretty good deal if you ask me.  You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Amtrak one-to-one.