In July we took our first trip during the COVID-19 pandemic. At this point we had both been fully vaccinated for a while. It was a little weird to travel.
We went to Seattle, WA then through Spokane, WA and finally home to Boston, MA with a brief stop in Chicago, IL.
This post is a list of links to the photos themselves.
Below are links to the images broken up by date:
July 4th, 2021:
JetBlue 197 - Airbus A321 Mint
The stop at Rensselaer Rail Station is a relatively long stopover. The Lake Shore Limited train is split between part going to New York, NY and Boston, MA here.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 21 mm and f/4.5 and ISO 100 with 1/400 second exposure.
From Chicago, IL we took the Lake Shore Limited to Boston, MA. The William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center was one of the stations where one can get out and walk, though not for a particularly long time.
We arrived at Chicago Union Station in Chicago, IL. I took a few photos there.
We used the layover in Chicago to go out for deep dish pizza and meet up with my friend, my sister, and sister's significant other. I love Chicago style deep dish pizza.
Metra engine 124 is a still in service EMD F40PH.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/4 second exposure.
Last of the photos from the Empire Builder. We think we would like to do so again in reverse, out to the west. Hopefully we would get to see the mountains and forests in the daylight (I would need to look at the schedule).
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/200 second exposure.
Saint Paul Union Depot is another one of the get off and take a walk stations.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/1000 second exposure.
More photos from our journey across the US Midwest. Unfortunately I did not have the camera out for some of the more interesting forests and mountains we passed. Also, I was either asleep or it was dark for much of that.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 22 mm and f/4.5 and ISO 100 with 1/400 second exposure.
Havre Station in Havre, MT was one of first extended stops with time to get off the train and stretch our legs.
From Spokane, WA we departed on Amtrak train 28, Empire Builder, from Spokane, WA to a stop over and train change in Chicago, IL.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/2 second exposure.
We had a Superliner Bedroom again. You can read more of my review of the Superliner Bedroom here. As ours was not refurbished nothing had changed.
We took a walk in the Riverfront Park which allows for a lot of nice river, waterfall, and bridge photos.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 14 mm and f/4.0 and ISO 100 with 1/1000 second exposure.
We stopped briefly in the Rive Park Square mall. It had an interesting vertical interior and crisscrossing escalators.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/160 second exposure.
Our next stop was Manito Park. Most of were mainly relaxing. Holly decided to take a lot of pictures of flowers.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM @ 50 mm and f/2.8 and ISO 100 with 1/800 second exposure.
We visited The Bowl and Pitcher and did some light hiking. It was pretty hot though and we did not hike for too long.
Our train got into Spokane, WA after midnight. We walked to our hotel and went to bed. In the morning we met up with Holly's uncle and I took some photos from his patio.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10 mm and f/3.5 and ISO 100 with 1/1000 second exposure.
Gorgeous views of a valley and the road and train bridges that cross it.
On our way to Spokane, WA we passed Columbia Station and had a break where we could walk around. I took a few photos.
We took Amtrak 28 Empire Builder from Seattle to Spokane, Washington. The train left in the afternoon but does not arrive in Spokane until around 12:30 AM.
The initial part of the trip is along Puget Sound heading out of Seattle, WA.
While we flew from Boston, MA to Seattle, WA we took a train back. We had a stop in Spokane, WA. Our train left from King Street Station.
It was decently pretty inside the waiting area.
After the hike at Little Si and trip to Bainbridge Island I needed a nap. Holly grabbed the camera and took some pictures from the hotel.
She mainly experimented with different camera and lens settings.
We took the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.
We hiked up Little Si in King County.
Holly did not really start taking photos until we got to the top.
End of the night on our first day and the morning of our second I took some photos from our hotel room.
True to form I took pictures of a train station.
Once we got out of the airport we grabbed a train (light rail) ride into Seattle. From the station we had a nice view of the airport and some hills with trees.
Also pretty interesting light.
For our flight to Seattle, WA we booked through American Airlines. For domestic flights they had paired up with JetBlue. So we took a JetBlue flight in their Mint product as a non-stop from Boston to Seattle.
The Mint product includes fully lie flat seats which are wonderful for a transcontinental flight.
