Boston Bound

How ya all doing?
Nothing to report from last night's stop over in Albany other than we continue to have battles with cabbies. This time it was Lisa's turn to get annoyed as she was having difficulty booking a taxi last night from our motel for this morning to get back to the train station. They don't seem to understand the concept of booking a car and one big enough for us. Anyway 2 cars turned up at 5:45am this morning thank goodness or we would have had to hoof it quickly ourselves to catch the train.
Arrived back at Penn Station NY on time and to transfer to another service heading south to Boston. It is "raffetys rules" with the station servicing patrons for 3 rail systems (New Jersey, Long Island and Amtrak). Unlike Canadian rail you don't get assigned seats and limited luggage space fills quickly, but we know the system now and I tracked down the "red caps" to arrange early boarding. If you are ever over here traveling on the trains with 2 or more people in your group and luggage then it is worth paying the extra to ensure you get seats together and room to store your larger bags  near you. It's not advertised and it took some working out but it works perfectly for us and we tip them about $20 for the service given that they load 6 bags for us.
You won't believe this but the real reason for this blog is that the "red cap" we tracked down to help us board early was the same bloke who had to deal with that woman who was complaining that he "was not listening to me - I cannot walk that far!" i.e. the one who had the little dog in the bag when we arrived in NY from Philly prior to xmas.  The kids thought that was pretty funny. I should have said something to him but then he probably deals with those sort of people everyday and wouldn't remember anyway.
Weather is much warmer than Canada which is minus 18 deg in Toronto and minus 30 in Quebec today. Its only -3 in NYC and -7 in Boston. Problem is that it started snowing again last night with more predicted over the next day and Chicago airport is experiencing extensive delays. We are flying to Chicago from Boston on the 4th to link with the train through to San Francisco and we don't want to miss that. We have "roomettes" booked for the 2 nights we are on the train which are curtained off rooms with double bunks - just like in the Marilyn Munroe, Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis movie "Some Like it Hot" and the train travels through some nice country including the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Sierra Nevada ranges in Utah/Nevada/California. But we only have a 3-4 hour window after arriving at O'Hare airport in Chicago to get to Union Station to board the train. So hope the backlog clears and the weather improves or we will be stuck. Can't do anything about it unless we cut short our stay in Boston and pay extra to catch a train or bus to Chicago tomorrow assuming an earlier flight is out of the question. Will have to call the airport and airline when we arrive in Boston and see what the status is and decide from there. Our train is on time so we should arrive in Boston mid afternoon and hop on the subway a few stops to Beacon Hill where we are staying. It would be a bit of a pity as our plans were to do some sight seeing tomorrow. It seems that we can cover most places by just walking around the district where our accommodation is situated.
Anyway just sitting back and enjoying the scenery from the train today. Its the best way to travel. Comfy seats that recline and plenty of leg room. Most trains have a cafe car so you can get tea, coffee, snacks, sandwiches and even liquor if you want. Just passing through Connecticut at the moment which looks pretty good.
Should have some fun when we get to the apartment this afternoon as its a 5 story walk up - that will keep the kids happy!
Talk soon.
Mike