June 8 Spokane WA

We've had some laughs at the Crowne Plaza.  First the elevator requires that you swipe your room key before it will operate.  We didn't really hear the check in guy say that so we get in the elevator and Norm pushes 4 but the floor doesn't stay lit and we start going up to the 10th floor where a worker gets on and swipes her card and then presses 2.

When we reach 4 I get off but Norm was fumbling with the luggage cart and the doors closed.  The worker gets off at 2 and Norm is now in the elevator with no way to operate it as I have both room keys.  So I'm standing at the door not knowing where he is but after a couple of minutes I press the elevator to come thinking I'll go look for him.  He steps off the elevator and we cracked up laughing!

The elevator also has a female voice announcer who has a sexy and throaty Marilyn Monroe voice who tells us when we're going up or down and announces the floor number (Going...down).  The pauses between words were hilarious. Had us in stitches every time we got in.

We spent the morning walking around Portland.  What a fabulous city.  Multiple bridges, lots of sculptures and paintings and interesting architecture.  Norm is bummed that we missed the nude bike ride yesterday as well as the rose parade.  It's warm here, upper 70`s with a light breeze which makes it feel a perfect temperature.

Got onto the Empire Builder and we have a plan.  If weather delays the train getting into Chicago, Amtrak has booked us in a sleeper to Washington DC and then onto New York.  Otherwise we go direct to New York and we've only lost one day.  We will have to cancel our tickets to the 9·11 memorial but maybe we can go on the way home.

We don't have a dining car until we get to Spokane so dinner is a packed box lunch.  It was pretty good.  We listened to A Prairie Home Companion off my iPod over dinner and then listened to a old time radio comedy show.

It's been spectacular going beside the Columbia River.   We drove this a few years ago when we went to visit my brother John in Alberta.  I've taken tons of pictures and hope most turn out as they were taken through the window as we were going at a pretty good clip.  We'll see when I download.

Sending love R/P