Strom Travel Diaries

Day 2 – Saturday, December 18, 2021

Day two started earlier than anticipated as a previous guest in the room had set the alarm for 4 a.m. and left it on for us to discover. We ended up getting up for good around 7 and, after some brief research, decided to do a 90-minute Old Town Trolley tour at 10. We got a yummy breakfast just down the block from the hotel at the Corner Bakery and walked the 9 blocks or so to the welcome center from where the bus would be leaving. Even that walk was packed with all kinds of things to comment on: more museums, schools, headquarters of this and that, appellate courts, and the FBI building.

We got to the welcome center with about 10 minutes to spare and got checked in. We got great seats towards the rear of the trolley and our driver/guide, Joe (not Biden), kept up an entertaining and informative commentary about pretty much everything we saw: monuments, museums, the Capitol, the White House, government buildings, and the general area and history. The pandemic had caused Old Town Trolley to abandon its usual hop-on/hop-off routine, so there was only one 30-minute stop at the Lincoln Memorial. Mom and I were very pleased with that as we hadn’t gotten to walk quite that far the night before. We took some time to walk along the Vietnam Memorial and I was able to go up to the top of the Lincoln Memorial to take a few pictures and find the “Easter egg” in the carved speech to the right of Lincoln (the “F” in “future” had originally and accidentally been carved as an “E” and only fixed later with some spackle).

Back on the trolley, our tour finished with just a quick jog past more buildings and finally past Ford’s Theater, which was on the same block as the welcome center where we had started. Since Mom’s poor toe was objecting to walking much further, we got a Lyft back to the hotel so we could finish packing up and check out. We made our way back to Union Station, dropped our carry-ons at the storage area in the lounge (seriously, being able to wait in the lounge was a huge perk), and got our suitcase so we could re-check it to Chicago. At that point we still had a few hours before our train would be boarding, so we went and got some Band-Aids for Mom’s toe, walked around the station, and then made our way back to the lounge.

We got caught up on some New York Times crosswords and Spelling Bees while we waited, with some people-watching in between. Once the train was ready to start boarding, at about 3:30 or 3:45, the lounge agent made an announcement and we all gathered at the door in the lounge that led to the correct gate (we didn’t even have to go back out and mix with the commoners!). We were led to the train and checked in.

For this leg of the journey, on a Superliner train, Mom and I had been put in the only sleeper room left—the accessible bedroom. It was basically like a roomette with two facing seats and a bunk that folded down, except that it also had what looked like an airplane bathroom attached to it that could be separated with a curtain. Carla, our attendant was very nice and came around to make sure we had everything we needed and answer any questions.

We decided to have dinner in the dining car: beef short ribs for Mom, pasta and meatballs for me, and wine for both of us. When we were just about done, I got up to ask the dining car attendant for some hot tea for the both of us, which took a little while as the system was internet-based and she sometimes had to re-enter orders when the train went through a dead spot. Fortunately, two teas for sleeper travelers did not have to be keyed in!

Back in our room, we just kind of relaxed for a bit, read, watched people going by on the platforms when the train would stop, and watched the lights of different towns go by until Carla came to turn down the beds. It was kind of fun watching her transform the seats into a bed and flip down the top bunk. Turns out there’s a safety strap that you’re supposed to hook up beside the bunk to catch you if you start to fall out when the top bunk is down. When I did it myself on the first train, I thought it was just a seatbelt and didn’t bother with it. Mom made friends with Carla, so she stayed and talked to us for a few minutes after she got the bunks ready.

We weren’t quite ready to go to bed yet, so we both sat on the bottom bunk for a bit longer, just watching lights going by and reading some more. We were both getting pretty tired by 9:30 or so, and we got ready for bed. Once I was up in the top bunk, I got tired fast, so it was lights out for me by about 10:30.