My cross countries train trip

I've started to upload pictures and write up thoughts before I lose them, so coming up will be a series of thoughts/stories, hopefully organized in a somewhat coherent fashion.

I've been wanting to take some sort of trip since I got home. My benchmark was based on the trip I passed up (about 10 days sailing around the Virgin Islands). It was a lot of money for one trip and it was very last minute so I opted not to do it. As a result I've weighed subsequent trips against that (both in price and coolness factor).

I was inspired to take the train because of a New York Times article talking about traveling on Amtrak and on the Canadian Rail. Plus the train had major stops in cities where I had friends and wanted to revisit. So in the US I stopped in Denver and Chicago, and now I'm in New York. From here I'll fly up to Toronoto and then take the train from Toronto and Vancouver to hang out with my cousins for a week before heading home in time for my dad's birthday. I left on 3/18 and I'll get home on 4/14. And the entire trip will very likely cost less than the 10 day trip in the Virgin Islands (which I still hope to do some day).

So enjoy the stories and I'll try to post gradually after this rather than in a flood, but no promises. I'm putting all the pictures on picasa but will try to select a few for a best of album on Facebook.