Alaska Railroad

Recently, Chris and Isaac read about the Orient Express and Chris promised to take me on an Orient Express date. Then we saw it costs like $12,000. 

Luckily, Alaska Railroad was a better, wilder, frontier-ier option. So everyone was delighted with our railroad prospects. 

Chris and I breakfasted on coffee, stuffed French toast, and reindeer sausage in the dining car as the sun rose over the mountains. Isaac had his usual orange juice and chaos. 

The train glided by glaciers, gorges, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, swans, moose, mountains, the billion dollar bridge to nowhere, and aspens shimmering into yellow. 

The conductor’s name was Animal. Isaac was afraid of him. We sat in a glass-dome car for awhile, on the back of the caboose, the dining car—almost everywhere but our seats. 

For dinner on the trip back I had smoked salmon chowder and a Denali beer. Chris had the same beer and a burger. The sun set over the Kenai Mountains and lake. And the kids fell asleep on the way.