Barbara Thompson

Saturday, January 24th 2026 I saw a magical moment first thing this morning. There were two teenage girls getting out of our train on Big Thunder Mountain as we were getting in. I noticed them because one of the girls had on super cute blue and white striped pants. As I settled into my seat,

Friday, January 23, 2026 It was a beautiful day – sunny and warm. Benjamin went to California Adventure to play his game and the rest of us started at Disneyland. You have to make a park reservation in advance and can’t park hop until 11am. Keith and I rode Big Thunder 3 times before Daniel

Thursday, January 22, 2026 No sense in burying the lede – Keith fell down. He read us the weather before we left this morning. 17% chance of drizzle at noon. What they meant was the rain would start about 10am and last until 6pm. It would sometimes be drizzly, but mostly be rainy. Benjamin spent

Wednesday, January 21, 2026 We overslept. Keith woke up at 7:09, roughly an hour later than the planned time to get up. We thought we had four alarms set. Apparently, we did not. We scurried and were out the door in 15 minutes, on the shuttle bus in ten more, and standing in California Adventure

Tuesday, January 20, 2026 When the train has been delayed it’s hard to know when you will get to your stop. We planned to get off in Fullerton, originally scheduled for 7:10am-ish. The Amtrak website continued to say we were on time – yet at midnight we were a solid three hours behind. A third-party

Monday, January 19, 2026 I lost Keith in the night. I woke up and he was gone. I peeked over the side of my bunk and he was not in his bed. I waited for him to come back to and from the bathroom. I waited a long time. I finally decided he was kidnapped

Sunday, January 18, 2026 We took the Amtrak Hiawatha train from Milwaukee to Chicago. We hung out in the Metropolitan lounge (Lounge!). We got on the Southwest Chief going to Los Angeles. Yay! The train mostly follows the same path as Route 66. We decided to go when there was a BOGO sale on roomettes.

Saturday, January 17, 2026 Nancy made a lovely dinner of baked ziti, meatballs, salad, and garlic bread. Jayne brought mincemeat cookies and Nancy baked cut out cookies yesterday. Everything was delicious. Keith and I taught the people to play Escape, which we learned from Tom and Louise on Monday. It was so much fun. Nancy

Friday, January 16, 2026 We took the Borealis train to Columbus, Wisconsin. The Borealis is the “new” train from St. Paul to Chicago (and back). It is pretty much on time every day – from noonish to 5ish (to Milwaukee). The Empire builder – coming from Seattle – is often many hours late. So, it

Thursday, January 15, 2026 We went to the Stillwater World Snow Celebration today. The sculptors just started yesterday for the big celebration this weekend. It was pretty neat to see them working. The teams are literally from all over the world. It was 40 degrees two days ago and only in the teens (and windy!)