Our next notable outing was a trip to Whitefish, Montana, home of the Big Mountain ski resort – and a first class excuse to catch the Amtrak Empire Builder sleeper through snow, mountains, er, more snow and more mountains. We left Seattle at 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon – with a glass of Amtrak ‘champagne’ and 14 hours of rattling rails ahead of us.
Forget First Capital Connect, the Empire Builder is seriously comfortable (and, to be honest, seriously slow). A three-course dinner was served in the dining car and it was actually pretty tasty – a couple of glasses of Oregon plonk certainly helped.
After a night of nearly sleeping, we arrived in Whitefish at dawn. Trika had organised a fantastic lodge (more of a ski McMansion) just outside the resort. The others took to the slopes while I headed into town for the Whitefish Winter Carnival. First stop, a charity Penguin Plunge into the town’s frozen lake! Chilly but fun.
Then checked out the quaint small town parade.
In the evening, I rustled up a roast for the weary skiiers – Trika, Stephen and Stephen, Tom and Melissa and Karen of course. And yes, those are elk antlers over the table.
The next couple of days were a repeat – with the added attraction of a Superbowl party, a snowboarding lesson (hurt my ribs again!) and some excellent snow-shoeing at the summit.
Then another sleeper back to Seattle – complete with a five-hour delay in the mountains as we got stuck behind a broken-down freight train. There are worse places to get stranded!
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