On Thursday, 21 December 2006, my Aunt Sallie passed through Seattle on Amtrak on her way to spend the holidays with my cousin/her daughter Margaret in British Columbia. When I’d spoken with Aunt Sallie over the Thanksgiving break, she mentioned that she be taking the train to Bellingham, about 80 miles north of Seattle, with a train switch in Seattle. When I found out her layover would be two full hours and in late afternoon, I told her I would be coming down and perhaps so would Dan and Kim as well. It turned out to be more complicated than expected, but we all did finally meet up for a nice visit.  Above, left to right:  Dan, Aunt Sallie, Ben.

I rode the bus downtown at noon to lunch with Dan and then wandered off for a bit of shopping and sightseeing until Dan and I rendezvoused in the midst of a huge rainstorm at King’s Street Station about 15 minutes before Aunt Sallie’s train was supposed to arrive. However, we discovered her train was running 45 minutes late. So, we popped out to a nearby coffee shop for reinforcements. Kim, who expected to be down before 4 p.m. instead was still shuttling her friend to and from a medical appointment, and then further delayed by in freeway gridlock caused by the shower.

By the time Dan and I returned to the train station, about 4:40, Kim was still working her way downtown and the train was still AWOL. At this train station at least, there is no easy way to get information about the train status. But we found a worker who said that train was now expected 5:15. It finally arrived about 5:30, just five minutes after Kim made made it to the station.

As Aunt Sallie stepped into the station, we rushed up to give her a welcome and hugs. She was delighted and surprised to see us because of all the delays, and we all spent a too-fast 45-minutes chatting away and getting caught up on family stuff. We think it had been five or perhaps six years since we’d seen each other, and we made plans to perhaps get together on another one of her trips to Seattle in 2007.

It was well worth putting up with the cloudburst and traffic snarls and Amtrak delays to take advantage of the rare opportunity to see our dear Aunt Sallie!

Dan, Aunt Sallie, Kim