July 3rd and 4th Chicago – Amtrak Part II

Day 4

Today we are moving on to more important matters, yes, that’s right folks, DEEP DISH PIZZA! Sad but true, that was the first thing on our minds. Forget about the World Class Architecture, Beautiful Lake Michigan, The Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, or anything else this city has to offer, WE WANTED THE WOLRD FAMOUS DEEP DISH PIZZA!!! You will be able to see from the pictures we enjoyed it too. It was a very nice way to end a day of walking around the city and enjoying Navy Pier and Lake Michigan. We also saw fireworks from out hotel room. Check out the video and pictures.

Day 5 **HAPPY 4^th of JULY**

Today we took a trolley tour of the city. This two hour tour taught us a lot about the city. We learned that Chicago is the industrial core of the Midwest, it is known for its exemplified unique architecture, and it is also the transportation gateway for the western half of the United States. We saw amazing sights such as an old water pump station, Sears Tower, the tallest building in the U.S., Navy Pier, Millennium Park, The oldest aquarium in the western hemisphere, and much much more. After a busy morning, we headed back to the hotel and made our way to Chicago’s Union Station. This is where we would join our Amtrak Train for the next leg of our journey.

After checking our bags, we were on our way! The train was beautiful and we were greeted with some champagne and cookies. Our room had a walk in toilet and shower, a beautiful fake marble countertop and cabinet, a nice sink, and plenty of leg room. We were two happy campers ready to enjoy the scenery.

A few hours into the trip, Scott realized our luggage was checked to the wrong destination. Oye Vey! The guy who checked our luggage in Chicago made a mistake and checked the luggage to East Glacier Park, not West Glacier Park! We decided to call our cabin attendant over to ask what could be done. He instructed us to follow him and we will figure this all out. Needless to say, we spent the next hour and a half looking in the baggage car of this train with over 300 passengers for our luggage! No jokes folks, Scott and Josh were in the luggage car at the front of the train trying to find our luggage. You would think that this cart would be off limits to passengers or our cabin attendant would have been helping, not a chance. After searching, we were happy to report that Scott’s luggage was found, but not Josh’s. When we spoke to the happy-go-lucky-no-good-for-anything-but-free-champagne-and-cookies cabin steward, all he could do is smile and say we will have to check again tomorrow after dropping off passengers at some of the major city stops like Milwaukee and St. Paul.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the champagne, eating a lovely dinner, and listened to some informative narration in the club car while looking for some fireworks in the black distance.

Day 6: - Still on Amtrak

After a good nights sleep, it was back to the luggage car. Josh and I spent another hour and a half doing the same thing. Needless to say, we did not find the one bag which made us jump to one conclusion; the suitcase did not make it on the train.

After realizing the bag was not on the train, we asked to speak to a conductor. After meeting the conductor, all we could think to ourselves was, “WE MUST BE IN THE TWLIGHT ZONE!” The conductor was a local from North Dakota. He spoke very slowly and had a thick accent. He had the audacity to sit and lecture to us about checking our bags to the wrong location. Honestly no matter how many times we showed him our ticket stub which said West Glacier Park and the Luggage Stub which said East Glacier Park, he just didn’t get it. We kept trying to explain Amtrak made the mistake in Chicago and we are just trying to find our lost luggage.

Getting nowhere with the staff on the train, Josh started making many phone calls from the train. He called Chicago, East Glacier Station, Amtrak’s 800 numbers, and even decided to start leaving notes with all station personnel at the remaining major stops of the trip between Harve and West Glacier National Park.

While on the train, our conductor had told us to get of the train at the East Glacier stop, to speak with the Amtrak officials there about the lost luggage. We followed his directions and got off the train. While speaking to the luggage official who was standing on the platform and the assistant conductor who was standing in the luggage car of the train, the train started to move. The assistant conductor just started staring at us while he held his radio in his hand. Scott shouted, “Are you going to stop the train or what?” Honestly, no Joke, the train started moving! We started running back towards the door for our car, but our cabin steward would not let us in…HONESLY! Scott unlocked the door from the outside and the cabin steward relocked it, looking at us through the window! I could not believe it! As we were still running to find an open door, a female cabin steward totally pulled an Indiana Jones type thing on us! She left the door open for us and we had to jump onto the moving train! What a rush!

Aside from the luggage fiasco, we did have a lot of fun on the train. They had a complimentary wine tasting seminar with the regions wines; Scott won a bottle of wine by answering a riddle correctly. “What has triple double letter’s that every business should have?”

Do you know the answer? You could win a prize from our trip….