I'm Leavin' On a Big Train....

So tomorrow night we board the Amtrak Coast Starlight (which goes nowhere near the coast on the route we'll be taking) up to Portland, OR. The whole trip is supposed to take 18 hours, and will probably take longer given Amtrak's record.

I was panicking a few days ago because the only reviews and tips I could find for families traveling overnight by train reported having rented a sleeper car, which is about the price of a very, very nice hotel room. We're not renting a sleeper car. We'll be sleeping in our seats. Hopefully we'll be sleeping, I mean.

So we won't be in anything like this:


And this is the Parlour Car, which we won't be seeing either, as it's only for those reserving sleeper cars:


That's a little elitist, don't you think? I plan to press my nose up against the door and breathe on it like the Little Matchstick Girl.

We'll be in something like this:



And we're hoping this won't happen: