Fun With Granddaughters

The past three days have been nothing but fun with our sweet granddaughters who remained here in Washington with us after their parents left last Saturday. We enjoyed having the whole family here, including mom and dad (son Gregg and daughter-in-law Elaine), for much of last week.
















That's Hayley and Talli above left at Seattle's famous waterfront Aquarium on Monday, and at right just above is Aubrey "the Octopus" at another part of the aquatic exhibit.

A little later in the day we took in the Space Needle and enjoyed lots of rides in the Seattle Center amusement park. The girls especially enjoyed a visit from their uncle Doug and aunt Jamie who stopped by the Center for a time in the afternoon.

Unfortunately for us, the fun times came to an end yesterday as Grandma and Grandpa accompanied the girls on an Amtrak train trip home to Oregon, a first for all three of the young uns. It was a great experience for all, although the grandparents were ready for the sack last night after eight hours on the train.

To Amtrak’s credit, they have made travel by train quite acceptable (we had opposing seats with a table between for eating and games), but they certainly are not as customer-friendly as are airlines.

As an example, you can make and pay for Amtrak reservations online, but instead of issuing an actual ticket with a seat assignment, you can only print out a voucher. Then you have to wait in line at the station to convert the voucher to a ticket and then stand in line again to get a seat assignment. Kinda redundant.

Unfortunately, Amtrak is still an ego-centric corporate monolith rather than a customer-friendly company like Southwest Airlines or Jet Blue. Too bad for Amtrak, as they could be attracting a lot of travelers right now, but alas.