One week to go...

We head to Sarah & Steve's a week from today.  I think Sarah is having regrets that she volunteered to drive us into Boston.  Too late to back out now ;)

What I'm looking forward to:

• The scenery - especially on the Empire Builder (though Glacier National Park) and the Coast Starlight (right along the Pacific Ocean)
• The sounds and motions of the train
• Seeing lots of family
• Visiting Seattle
• Cheese and wine tastings on 2 of the trains - how sophisticated!
• Father-daughter bonding time
• Adding lots of new states to my list - I believe I will be up to 42 states visited at the conclusion of this trip (I will only be missing Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming)

What I'm not-so-much looking forward to:

• Probable lengthy delays
• The same meals over and over again on the train
• Train bathrooms
• Dad snoring
• New Orleans humidity
• Too much father-daughter bonding time
• My stress level rising due to the timing of the trip (new house, new school year, oh my!) - but I will do my very best to contain it, I promise!

What I hope we do not experience:

• Any train-related accidents - been there, done that, can still hear and smell the last crash vividly - not something I need to experience again
• Bustitutes (when there is a train issue and you are bussed to the next destination)
• Crazy weather
• Crazy train companions like last time (the General and his wife) - they were, um, interesting