The Goat Pen

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If you're driving from Seattle, you'll go thru some pretty good wine country in western Washington. Spokane is also a pretty cool town, as is Coeur d'Alene (which is in the Idaho panhandle, i.e., home to many of your peeps). There are lots of natural as well as commercial hot springs in Idaho and Montana, clothing optional at most of the natural hot springs. Glacier is awesome...

because Seattle is about a 7 hour drive, I think we're going to forget about it.

Right now here is what we are thinking

Drive to Chicago, fly out of Chicago to Kalispell, MT
Get a rental car and spend 3 days hiking Glacier
then drive up to Banff, spend 3 days in Banff, spend the last night there in the Fairmont,
then drive back to East Glacier Park , drop off the rental car and take Amtrak back to Chicago.
Take a cab from Union Station to O' Hare to pick up our car.

I may change my mind. Right now its alot of hassle just to get a sleeper car on Amtrak, but its something I've always wanted to do.

It would be much easierand about $700 cheaper to just fly to Kalispell round trip.

I'm going to start looking at hiking trails, hotels/cabins and places to eat. Pretty much August of 2017 is already booked. So September of this year I'll start locking it in.

I actually like the idea of seeing Idaho, but I just don't have the time.

Bicycled and hiked all thru there. Everything is spectacularly beautiful. Hiking to tea houses is very cool. Biking across the continental divide unique. Delish food and also bears. We flew into and out of Calgary I think then spent time in Banff and different lodges. We stayed at Banff Fairmont springs, Post hotel and a few others in August 2012. We were with two other families and all the kids. Good vacation.

SnoodGator wrote:Bicycled and hiked all thru there. Everything is spectacularly beautiful. Hiking to tea houses is very cool. Biking across the continental divide unique. Delish food and also bears. We flew into and out of Calgary I think then spent time in Banff and different lodges. We stayed at Banff Fairmont springs, Post hotel and a few others in August 2012. We were with two other families and all the kids. Good vacation.

how far in advance did you have to make reservations?

You ain't missing much by bypassing Spokane and Coer d'alene. They were nice, but not great.

I, too, want to try the Amtrak sleeper car, but I think I'll try it on a short distance conference trip rather than a personal trip with someone who will complain about how boring the train ride is.

I'm thinking we had everything all set 9-12 months in advance.

Drive to Chicago, fly out of Chicago to Kalispell, MT
Get a rental car and spend 3 days hiking Glacier
then drive up to Banff, spend 3 days in Banff, spend the last night there in the Fairmont,
then drive back to East Glacier Park , drop off the rental car and take Amtrak back to Chicago.


Substitute Jasper Nat'l Park/Lake Louise for Glacier.

Toemeesleather wrote:Drive to Chicago, fly out of Chicago to Kalispell, MT
Get a rental car and spend 3 days hiking Glacier
then drive up to Banff, spend 3 days in Banff, spend the last night there in the Fairmont,
then drive back to East Glacier Park , drop off the rental car and take Amtrak back to Chicago.


Substitute Jasper Nat'l Park/Lake Louise for Glacier.

as someone who hasn't been to either one, why Jasper over Glacier?

Jasper is more rivers, glaciers, lakes, grizzlies and moose....it's Glacier x 10. Don't get me wrong, I like Glacier, but if I had to choose....well, it's not close. Plus, you're in proximity of Lake Louise.

Fly into Calgary and make a giant loop.

ok I will look into it

This man documented his experience on Amtrak - although he doesn' t mention the sleeper car.

He provides a very vivid picture of what modern train transportation is like

http://cardhouse.com/travel/train.htm

that little cookie monster card should read: 'If you see or smell something suspicious...'

there are some things you do, but Carlos Green lets you know there is one thing you don't do

[youtube]M5mwkncyZ7o[/youtube]

Ugly wearing hat mother fucker!!! LMAO

I also like that it appears she is smoking in a waiting room telling him he don't give a fuck about his health

Trying Amtrak for the first time. Have a meeting downtown Raleigh tomorrow and tonight it's a 3.5 hour train ride from Charlotte. It's an extra hour than driving, but it's only $62 roundtrip and I don't have to worry about parking downtown. They have plugins, wifi, and no one sitting next to you in an already bigger than airline seat.

Will Chicago become the next Detroit?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Chicago is a fabulous city, but their political leaders have run it into the ditch. They lose residents, so they raise taxes to pay for lavish public service pensions, which just drives even more residents away, repeat ad infinitum. The South and West Sides resemble Aleppo, which hurts too. Corruption of public officials is so rampant and so ingrained that city government operates like a banana republic; nothing happens unless you bribe somebody.

Other than that, and the brutal winters, I love that place.

well they didn't move - they were all just shot