Episode #908
June 27, 2026
Amtrak Vacation – part 3 of 5
Portland
An Amtrak bedroom berth is a study in close tolerances.
The door slides open, sink and cabinet on the left, tiny closet on the right, then one step into the room is a bench seat on the right, a shower-toilet room on the left, then one more step to the window with its fold-out table and chair.
On the train to Portland, we played cards and Farkle, read books, ate breakfast and lunch, and had interesting conversations and a wonderful view in the observation car.
Our conductor turned down the beds, pulling out the bench seat and letting down the upper bunk, the room accessible by sidling into it.
The train rocked me to sleep, head to toe.
Stops in Martinez, Davis, Sacramento, Chico, Redding, Dunsmuir, Klamath Falls, Chemult, Eugene, Albany, Salem, and Portland.
In Portland, we hauled our two suitcases and backpacks down 6th Avenue, sidestepping the homeless, to the Benson Portland Curio Hotel.
This venerable old hotel did not serve dinner, so we walked among the skyscrapers for an hour or so looking for food.
Finding nothing at this late hour, we gave the bar in the basement of the Benson a try, finding delicious fusion tacos, salad greens, and 14 dollar cocktails.
The next day, the hotel breakfast cafe was closed, so we set out to find coffee.
A walk around downtown Portland and Chinatown was abysmally shabby, so we crashed a hotel continental breakfast for some free coffee.
Portland is known as the city of roses, so we Ubered to the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park.
This is the best rose garden I have ever seen. Most modern rose gardens that I have seen have beautiful, large roses, but the fragrance seems to have been bred out of them. These Portland rose varieties were aromatic as well as beautiful so we stopped frequently “to smell the roses.”
Washington Park is also the home of a planted and preserved forest arboretum. We walked the 189 acres of trails for 2 hours among the stands of redwood, pine, oak, and fir.
A rose festival was ongoing at the riverside, so we Ubered there, finding a disappointing carnival.
Instead of the carnival, we went to an Irish bar that couldn’t be beat, where Paula had a salad, and I had a Reuben sandwich.
Arriving at the Willamette River walk early allowed Paula and me to catch our breath on the park benches of Salmon Street Springs, watching the children run through the fountain, and the clowns ride their bikes.
We boarded the Portland Spirit dinner cruise ship and were treated to cocktails and a delicious dinner while watching mansions, houseboats, and bridges drift by. Houseboats are not boats that you live on. They are houses that are built on floating docks.
The boat cruised under the Hawthorne Bridge, Morrison Bridge, Burnside Bridge, Steel Bridge, Marquam Bridge, Tilikum Crossing, and Ross Island Bridge.
The next morning, we went down to the hotel cafe, met our waiter Bobbie, who, noticing Paula’s and my tie-dye, said, “Do you want to know what Jerry Garcia liked for breakfast?”
Bobbie started at the Bensen 45 years ago at the age of 17 and had served many Portland celebrities, including Jerry Garcia. “I’ll have what Jerry ordered,” I said.
The orange juice tasted fresh-squeezed, so I complimented Bobbie, who proudly brought me a grapefruit juice on the house – “This is even better,” he said. It was.
Searching for a bathroom before checking out of the Bensen, I wound downstairs to the basement, and there in the corner under the stairs was a Tardis, but the Doctor was not in.
An Uber to the train station set us on our way to the Seattle King train station.
Vancouver, Kelso-Longview, Olympia-Lacey, Tacoma, and Seattle.
In Seattle, the red bumper-block stop at the end of the rails showed we had traveled the entire length of the Los Angeles to Seattle Coast Starlight track.
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