43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I <i>loved</i> it. It&#x27;s hard to convey how different it is from flying.<p>Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts <i>after</i> I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same &quot;chore&quot; bucket as packing, finding a pet sitter, etc.<p>With a train, the second we reached the train station, it felt like the trip had started. Many train stations are beautiful historical buildings right in the heart of downtown, so you&#x27;re already experiencing a city and cool architecture. The staff and the whole process is <i>very</i> laid back without all of the security theatre nonsense of the TSA. It&#x27;s about as formal as going to a play.<p>Then you get on the train and you get to <i>completely</i> relax. I brought a book to read and some stuff like that, but I spent more than half the time literally just looking out the windows. Train tracks don&#x27;t need much surrounding infrastructure, unlike freeways, so their routes often go right through little towns, along the coast, etc. You&#x27;ll be seeing into people&#x27;s backyards, storage area for businesses, farmland, everything. It&#x27;s like a perfect cross-section of the entire US experience.<p>And it&#x27;s <i>quiet</i>. No constant roar of engines like a jet. You can talk at quiet volumes. The observation car feels like a chill coffee shop with an amazing always-refreshing-itself view.<p>Time slows down. You watch the sun set and then watch the light leak out of the sky. You go to bed and get rocked to sleep.<p>Taking a sleeper car train ride isn&#x27;t cheap in terms of time or money, but I would highly recommend it. I can&#x27;t wait to do it again.