30 Hours Of Travel To Get 30 Minutes Away From Canada

And we’re off again! At long last Jess and I have organized some international travel for ourselves, though we’re staying a little closer to home this time as our plans for this trip revolve less around where we’re going and more around how we’re getting there. For no reason at all really (but also kinda because of the movie The American Rabbit) we selected Niagara Falls for our long neglected Spring Trip! Which became our Summer Trip! Which is now our Fall Trip! We decided to visit from the Canadian side for the International Travel of it all, and also because there’s a restaurant there I really wanted to visit, and we decided this time we were traveling by train! Oh! Ah!

Yes, we’ve elected to skip the airports and flying for many reasons and discover the joys of travel by train! Our plan has us taking the train for two days up to Niagara Falls, New York where we’ll cross the border and spend two days in Canada before we re-cross the border and take the two-day train trip home! This trip is really just about the train ride with Canada and Niagara Falls as more of a delightful stop-over! This is about having a new experience with travel! As our trip is divided into two-day segments and so shall my updates be divided! This is a short trip with much of the time being spent aboard the train and those days rather blur together so I’ll keep things together that go together for this trip!

Jess and I had everything packed up on Saturday so we were, more or less, ready to go on Tuesday, September 2nd. We’d hand picked every outfit and and planned every outfit change, as this trip was about traveling in style and we wanted to look our best the whole time! I selected a blue and black pant suit for my first outfit while Jess had gone for a black and white polka dot dress, both classically stylish we thought! Our Amtrak train was scheduled to depart from the DeLand Station at 2:40pm so we had a friend, Ky, drive us to the station around 2:00pm. Actually we’d asked her to drive us at 1:50pm but we only got in the car at

2:00pm because of course I panicked as soon as we were set to leave and had to run around doing all sorts of whatsit and nonsense and I still felt like I was rushing out the door at 10 minutes behind. Still, the station was only 10 minutes away and we arrived with a little under a half hour to go. Of course, as Amtrak trains are want to be, ours was about 30 minutes late so we ended up boarding at 3:10pm.

We booked a Private Roomette for our trip, at least the first part where that option was available. At Penn Station in New York we would have to switch to a Coach Class seat as that was all that was available for the 8 hour remainder of the trip to Niagara Falls. When the train pulled up we waited for Coach Class to board then the train had to inch up some more so the Private Roomette guests, which was just Jess and I, could board. As soon as we walked towards the steps our attendant, Rodney, was right there to greet us and help carry our small but mighty suitcases up with us. He was so friendly right off the bat, a truly delightful man, so

delightful we never corrected him about getting our names wrong. He’d called us by our names when he’d first seen us, having studied the names of the guests in his section, and he asked who was who and we’d said but it was loud and we talked over each other and he ended up thinking I was Jessica and Jessica was Jennifer. He had said when we’d walked over to him “I was told Jessica is in charge!” and we laughed because it was a funny little thing to say but also because I had made all the arrangements from the train. But, because he had our names mixed up, he was actually right! Jessica (his Jessica) was indeed in charge! I chalk it up to the pantsuit I was wearing. Pantsuits just look like business!

Once we were on the train, delightful Rodney showed us to our roomette and explained how everything worked. He let us know what room he was in and where he could usually be found and told us to get him for absolutely any reason at all but he said he would be back around 8:30pm anyways to get our room ready for bed, as the bunk bed needed to be pulled down. He also let us know that we were not, under any circumstances, to pay for any soft or hot drinks and he offered to bring some to us right away if we wanted. We asked for a ginger ale, just to try and keep our stomach settled as we weren't sure how we would fare on the train,

and he brought us that AND a slice of brownie each, which he said he "took the liberty" of warming and covering in chocolate drizzle. What a guy! We elected to go to dinner at 6pm, just because it felt like the right time, and filled our time until then just sitting in our roomette, chit chatting, snacking, and enjoying the ride! Jess and I are notorious blabbers who like to have the same conversations over and over so we had no trouble entertaining ourselves in that way until 5:40pm when we retouched our makeup and freshened up for dinner. 

The dining cart was one up from ours so it was a quick little jaunt up the wobbling train to dinner. Once there we were directed to take any seat we wanted, with salad and rolls being brought out while we decided on our order. All soft drinks and hot drinks were included with our ticket while we were allowed one complimentary alcoholic beverage at dinner if we wanted. I got a coffee and water while Jess ordered a Chardonnay. I then ordered the pasta dish on the menu while Jess, despite some reservations about sounding silly, elected to order the fancy macaroni and cheese that was on the children’s menu. We’re pasta people,

what can we say! And neither of us wanted to risk any meat, which our stomach doesn’t always agree with, while we had one toilet to share in our roomette. The pastas were both delicious, served each with a somewhat surprising side of green beans and steamed carrots, but everything was excellent and we cleaned our plates! There were two desert options, a chocolate cake and a blueberry cheesecake, so we each got one to share and try and both were also excellent, though I think I liked the cheesecake better.

With dinner done and our phenomenal server tipped, we headed back to our roomette where we, once again, continued to chit chat until 8:30pm when Rodney came around to set up the sleeping arrangements. He warned us that the suitcase we’d put under the seat would be trapped under the bed once it was set up but we assured him we had already grabbed everything we needed from it. Because Jess and I are... Well, Ourselves, this was absolutely Not True, but because we’re Us we did manage to finagle a way to get the items we’d forgotten, such as headphones and the bag to put away our jewelry, and we made it work! 

We’d decided to watch a movie before bed on my tablet, since we had it, and we decided on “Blood and Black Lace”, an old giallo horror movie Jess had enjoyed seeing a few days ago. Nothing like a good, graphic horror film while in the dark on a strange, moving contraption! It was a delight! We had some issues with the headphones, as my Bluetooth ones didn’t want to behave, so we had to grab the ones Jess had brought that plug in (once again delving beneath the bed) and we made it work! When the movie ended it was around 10:50pm and we decided to get to sleep as breakfast was only served until 8:30am the next day and I at least wanted to be up in time to get some.

I didn’t technically get much sleep, but I also wasn’t tired as a result, as I tend to get enough rest in me just from lying down in a dark, quiet place whether I fall asleep for the whole time or not. It was very relaxing being rocked to bed by the train, but it was one of those nights where every time I started to drift off I woke myself up by remembering the the half-awake half-asleep dreams I was starting to have didn’t make any sense. I fell asleep officially probably around 4am and woke up of my own accord at exactly 7:36am on Wednesday, September 3rd. I felt as well-rested as Jess seemed to be and she said she fell asleep almost immediately.

I had to fumble under the bed once again to find the deodorant we’d forgotten to pull out and it was really wedged in the back of the suitcase so that took forever, but once I’d climbed that mountain I was dressed well enough to head out to breakfast a little before 8:00am. I went alone at first, taking my book with me in case Jess didn’t decide to join me, as she sometimes doesn’t, but she came only about 5 minutes later and we both ordered the French Toast, mine with coffee, Jess’s with tea. Mine had been ordered first and therefore arrived before hers and I ate all 4 slices with just the whipped cream provided. Jess’s came after I’d already finished and

they were out of whipped cream but she was happy to eat hers with the syrup provided and we both thought the meal was just the right amount of food for the morning! You could order it with a side of meat, which I imagine would fill out the meal for people who like something heartier, but Jess and I don’t like anything too heavy in the morning so this was perfect!

Jess realized while at breakfast that she’d accidentally thrown on the wrong outfit for the day, having forgotten the order she’d selected for her ensemble’s for the trip, and when we got back to the roomette, she got changed into the “correct” garb. So now I was in a sleek black dress which I would eventually pair with some gold jewelry while she was in her black and white pinstriped jumper. From there we decided to lay down again until 10:30am, wanting to enjoy the chance to lie down while we still could as we would spend the rest of the trip in coach once this part of the journey was done. When we’d both gotten a good nap in we

found Rodney and asked if he could change the room back to the regular roomette. He had us sit in an unoccupied roomette while he changed things over, but while he was doing that someone was coming around collecting the trash and even though we explained that we weren’t actually in roomette 11 he still took the unused bottled of shampoo and conditioner from the room to throw away. I don’t think he understood what we were saying, but that’s fine! A shame about the bottles that didn’t get used, but it is what it is.

With the room changed back Rodney called us over and asked if we needed help with bags or anything as we were nearly at our destination. We said no, as we had only our two suitcases, a purse, and a small bag full of snacks because we’re fiends for snacks and refuse to be caught without any. While we waited we reorganized the suitcase that had gotten somewhat out of order as a result of us blindly fumbling for objects from it in the night and morning, and then got officially ready for the day with makeup and jewelry. We were officially ready by 11:10am when Rodney started announcing that we were coming to our final destination and to find him at the end of the carriage to exit. Jess and I did stand up to be ready but then it turned out we were still 10 minutes away at least so we sat back down and, as always, chit chatted away until it was /actually/ time to go.

Handing Rodney a nice tip on the way out for such exceptional service, we entered Penn Station, New York. We were a little lost for a second, but we followed our instincts (and some signs) and found the Amtrak Lounge, which we were entitled to enjoy as people who booked a Private Roomette for part of our trip. There I set up to do some writing while Jess got us drinks and food at the cafe, all of which was free to enjoy! She got three turkey subs, a hot tea for herself, and made a cho-coffee (hot chocolate packet mixed into coffee) for me! There was a large screen displaying information on the incoming and outgoing Amtrak trains so we kept our eye on that while we ate and drank and enjoyed ourselves for a few hours.

Despite keeping and eye on the time and making a plan somehow we ended up rushing to track 7 to catch our train, but I think I was just overthinking and panicking for no reason! There were no assigned seats as far as we could tell so we found what looked like the last two empty seats together and started settling in. We, as always, thought we had everything from our suitcases so we put them up in the bins and promptly remembered stuff we wanted to grab so it was kind of a merry-go-round of our luggage for a little bit! But, inevitably, we had our tunes and our books and our earplugs and our snacks and we were ready to settle in for the 9

hours in coach. It wasn’t so bad. We chatted for the first 2-3 hours, then moved onto listening to music. Around the halfway mark Jess decided it was time for some snacks so we pulled out the chocolate wafer cookies we’d brought with us and one of our Apple Ciders and both were excellent! Jess felt that wasn’t enough though, wanting something hot to eat and drink, so she popped over to the Cafe Cart and checked the menu, reporting back to me to hear my thoughts before purchasing a coffee and a macaroni and cheese, both of which were satisfactory and filled us up!

Then it was back to listening to music for the rest of the ride. Jess pulled out her book for an hour at the end, but it was pretty much just chilling for the rest of the way. It was just us and four other passengers by the end of the line so the cart, lacking the prior body heat, had gotten increasingly cold, at least to Floridians like Jess and I. We arrived about a half-hour early to our destination, Niagara Falls, New York, and were off the train and waiting for our Lyft ride by 10:30pm. It took a while for anyone to accept our ride and we did consider whether we shouldn’t have just gone with the taxi that was waiting outside, but it was only $10 for the Lyft so we just waited it out and in about 15 minutes we were on our way to our Hampton Inn! 

We arrived close to 11:00pm and were checked in and up in our room in no time! We immediately found a Murder, She Wrote channel to throw on because of who we are as people, and I went through both suitcases, repackaging them to my satisfaction and setting aside our outfits for the next day. Then it was just eating snacks, drinking some fun drinks, and slowly falling asleep to prepare for our upcoming day in Canada, which, despite over 30 hours of travel, still remained a 30 minute walk away across the Rainbow Bride.