Thursday - National Plan a Vacation Day

My wife's cousin is getting married in Colorado this summer. Money is a little tight for us lately. My wife's aunt offered us her Amtrak rewards points, which should basically cover a train ride to Denver. We've got $400 in credits from Southwest from a delayed flight home from my brother's wedding to defray the cost of plane tickets back. Two days in a train is probably not ideal, but the kids will probably find it fun for about an hour or two.


Two days of "Are we there yet?" sounds fascinating.

Also, "Dad, there's a man sleeping on the floor in the bathroom and I can't use the toilet. Can you wake him and move him?"
 
Planning a fishing trip to Fla Keys in April. Most places are booked solid even now.
 
Two days of "Are we there yet?" sounds fascinating.

Also, "Dad, there's a man sleeping on the floor in the bathroom and I can't use the toilet. Can you wake him and move him?"
This isn't a cross-country trip by subway, you dolt.
 
Almost 2 full days. It's like a day or so to Chicago, and then another 20-ish hours to Denver. There's a couple different options to Chicago. I personally might take the less time one on my own, but I don't want to keep track of my kids for 4 hours in Pittsburgh and/or DC. Would just be easier to keep everyone relatively contained in the train.

I've taken Amtrak once, from Philly to Greensboro when I was in college. Slow as hell, but it was nice in a way. You could get up and move around at least. Would absolutely have taken the train again over taking Greyhound, which I also did once.

Yeah that's a long ass trip and then add in children and hell no
 
Home Alone Kevin GIF
Sort of depends on our route. If we leave from Trenton, we go down to DC and through DC, then the more southerly route to Chicago. Could also leave from NYC and travel up the Hudson and Erie Canal to the lakes. Probably will do the former because it's easier for us to park at a family member's house and get to Trenton either by them driving us or taking a train there. NYC would involve getting to a NJ Transit stop and then another hour on an NJT train.
 
Yeah that's a long ass trip and then add in children and hell no
I'm most concerned about my son, because while he'll probably enjoy the train ride for a bit, he also is extremely physical and gets super antsy when he can't run around and stuff. My daughter should be mostly fine with just reading and watching movies.

You're not stuck to your seat in Amtrak, so we can at least wander around the train a bit when my son gets the zoomies. We'd probably collectively go insane if we had to do four days of it, though. Two days seems like the maximum amount of punishment I'm willing to inflict on myself.
 
I'm most concerned about my son, because while he'll probably enjoy the train ride for a bit, he also is extremely physical and gets super antsy when he can't run around and stuff. My daughter should be mostly fine with just reading and watching movies.

You're not stuck to your seat in Amtrak, so we can at least wander around the train a bit when my son gets the zoomies. We'd probably collectively go insane if we had to do four days of it, though. Two days seems like the maximum amount of punishment I'm willing to inflict on myself.

Yeah you can get up and "run around" but you also have to worry (or at least have it in the back of your head) that you might piss off everyone else. I mean screw them but still
 
Yeah you can get up and "run around" but you also have to worry (or at least have it in the back of your head) that you might piss off everyone else. I mean screw them but still
My limited experience with train travel was if you wanted to be left alone, you put on headphones and/or buried your face in a book. There's a bit of an expectation that you're going to be interacting with other passengers, given how long you're going to be on the train. Still, we'd be doing sleeper cars instead of coach, which gives us a measure of privacy at night and gives us a chance to bottle the kids up somewhere. It's just going to be a bit of a challenge along the way. We'll probably do our best to get out and run around the platforms when there's a chance at some of the stops (there's a couple stops in WV where there's 10 minutes or so between arrival and departure), and there's apparently a nice lounge area in Chicago where we've got a four-hour break. Might get out of the station and see if we can get mugged or not.
 
My limited experience with train travel was if you wanted to be left alone, you put on headphones and/or buried your face in a book. There's a bit of an expectation that you're going to be interacting with other passengers, given how long you're going to be on the train. Still, we'd be doing sleeper cars instead of coach, which gives us a measure of privacy at night and gives us a chance to bottle the kids up somewhere. It's just going to be a bit of a challenge along the way. We'll probably do our best to get out and run around the platforms when there's a chance at some of the stops (there's a couple stops in WV where there's 10 minutes or so between arrival and departure), and there's apparently a nice lounge area in Chicago where we've got a four-hour break. Might get out of the station and see if we can get mugged or not.

Yeah but you know how people are.. Especially in confined spaces like a train or an airplane. Best of luck!
 
My limited experience with train travel was if you wanted to be left alone, you put on headphones and/or buried your face in a book. There's a bit of an expectation that you're going to be interacting with other passengers, given how long you're going to be on the train. Still, we'd be doing sleeper cars instead of coach, which gives us a measure of privacy at night and gives us a chance to bottle the kids up somewhere. It's just going to be a bit of a challenge along the way. We'll probably do our best to get out and run around the platforms when there's a chance at some of the stops (there's a couple stops in WV where there's 10 minutes or so between arrival and departure), and there's apparently a nice lounge area in Chicago where we've got a four-hour break. Might get out of the station and see if we can get mugged or not.
I think I'd wear a mask on any public transportation right now. This norovirus going around is not appealing.
 
Yeah you can get up and "run around" but you also have to worry (or at least have it in the back of your head) that you might piss off everyone else. I mean screw them but still

I go to HS football games with friends who let their kids run wild up and down the bleachers all game long. Constant trips to and from the bathroom, getting snacks, getting drinks, looking for friends, up and down the bleachers nonstop making people stand up and move and they don’t give a shit.

I sit there with my skin crawling, absorbing all the vile hatred from the crowd they are oblivious to.

But nobody ever says anything. They just move and stream all game.
 
I go to HS football games with friends who let their kids run wild up and down the bleachers all game long. Constant trips to and from the bathroom, getting snacks, getting drinks, looking for friends, up and down the bleachers nonstop making people stand up and move and they don’t give a shit.

I sit there with my skin crawling, absorbing all the vile hatred from the crowd they are oblivious to.

But nobody ever says anything. They just move and stream all game.
Yeah most people do that but sit silently pissed off wanting to say something
 
so my aunt died, just fun news every day this week.

apparently it was a few days ago. only found out today because my cousin was at the casino for a few days, I don't even want to ask further on that, i don't know where in the valley they currently are but nothing would be more than a 20 minute drive away from it. yet you were there for days?
 
Back
Top