Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Darlings, as I write this, I am in the Alaska Airline's first class lounge in San Francisco, waiting for the flight that will take me back to Seattle.

The train ride out west was gorgeous, and right on time until we got to Salt Lake City. There, in true Union Pacific fashion, we kept getting later and later until we reached Oakland about four hours down. That's what happens when you give someone from Omaha (where all the Union Pacific trains are dispatched) a position of responsibility - they just collapse under the pressure.

There's nothing quite like the ride through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas however. You get to go places where cars just aren't allowed, and the ride is just amazing. My only regret is that it is too early in the year for the rafters to be out on the Colorado River. They have a custom of mooning the passing trains that is charming, in an out-of-doors sort of way.

There was only one flaw: Congress, which can't quite manage to oversee the war, or the billions of dollars that are just plain missing from Iraq, has no problem overseeing how Amtrak should serve food. They've forced them to develop something called "simplified dining", which is a nice term for pre-packaged food served by a skeleton staff on cheap plastic plates. It's something that only a Republican could come up with: Wasteful, ineffective and insulting to taxpayers. I'd ask what they were thinking, but Republicans don't think. It makes their head hurt.

San Francisco was lovely: I did my standard inspection tour of the usual suspects (Top of the Mark, Tonga Room, Starlight Roof, etc) and everything was found to be as tasteful as always, although I do worry about the Top of the Mark: The latest renovation has significantly reduced the size of the bar, and lightened up the space considerably. I prefer the huge bar and subdued tone of the previous decorating scheme, but at least it's still open.

I did have a DREADFUL experience with the Hotel Nikko, something that they should be good and ashamed of, but I don't have the energy to relate it to you now. Suffice to say that it is NOT a place of taste and breeding, and should be avoided at all costs.

But onward and upward: Today is the Colonel's birthday, and we must look our prettiest for the homecoming. I can't wait to see the livestock and the improvements to Chez Vel-DuRay, and settle back into my groove as Christian Homemaker and international trend setter.