And suddenly it's June 11th and we are back home. Though Amtrak advertised WiFi onboard, it had stopped working. Alas, no posting. I hope you will enjoy a few pictures from the rest of our trip even though they are late.

We had a sunny, beautiful drive south to Soldatna. The sun glistened off the water in the Cook Inlet.

 

Our day of fishing was spectacular with sunny skies and lake-smooth sea. Maybe you can make out the puff of steam from this volcano in the distance.

 

The silver salmon were not cooperative, but the halibut were. Here we are with our limit of two each. They are filleted, frozen and waiting to be shipped to us tomorrow.

 

The next day, we flew to Seattle to catch the Amtrak Coast Starlight in Seattle. The Seattle railroad station is beautifully restored.

 

 

This picture taken facing the mirror is totally deceptive. Our sleeper was tiny, especially when the beds were made up. Norman had the upper berth.

 

Portland, Oregon had a nice station too, encouraging everyone to "Go by train."

 

 

The Oregon forests are making us think that we might have to explore them more closely in the future.

 

Just before dark, we got a glimpse of Crater Lake in the distance. We didn't include it on our drive through Oregon because the roads were still closed because of lingering snow.

 

The Oakland station is modern but nice.

 

We saw the salt making (or should I say extracting) operation as we headed south near the California coast.

Finally, we were close enough to have lovely views of the Pacific Ocean.

 

We arrived in Los Angeles with about an hour to spare before we boarded the Sunset Limited at 10:00pm for the last leg of our trip back to Houston.

 

The next morning, we made a brief stop in Tucson, Arizona.

 

 

We got to see saguaro cactus.

 

 

And blooming Yucca. Looks like they've had a rainy spring; it's very green.

 

 

The scenery is stunning and beautiful to those of us who love the west.

 

 

We soon realized we were in for some desert rain.

 

 

Here is the El Paso station after the rain.

 

 

We had a restful last night complete with delays on the way to San Antonio. Additional delays in San Antonio made us almost four hours late getting home.

 

 

We had a wonderful trip. We appreciate all of you who followed along with us. We'll give you a holler next time. Until then, happy trails to you.