Continuing on the Empire Builder - Day 3

I really hate to call this Day 3 because it wasn't much of a day.  I woke up at some time around 5 or 6 in morning at arrived in Seattle at around 10:00 or so.  But it was my third day of travel, so I guess it will count.

 So I woke up somewhere in Washington.  If I had been awake at around 3 in the morning, I could have seen our train get cut down in half.  In Spokane, the Empire Builder is split into two trains.  The one I wasn't on continues on to Portland and ours went on to Seattle.  One of these days, I  may have to take the Empire Builder into Portland to see what that part of the route is like.  As it is, we pass through some pretty nice looking stuff.

 For the most part, I think we follow along the Columbia River, which meant that I had a bunch of Woody Guthrie songs going through my head.  I will have to say that it is beautiful though.  Especially as the sun is coming up.

 I never can pass up a chance to get a picture of the train itself.  Sadly, there wasn't enough light, so this may be a little on the blurry side.

 One of the things I like about scenery in the mountains is that it almost looks like someone's train set.  Although I've never seen a train set with the sun peeking out from behind it.

 We also pass by some really neat bridges.

 I'm not sure what part of the mountains we are in but it is pretty beautiful.

 I would be half tempted to move to this part of the country.

 This was a spot that I wish we could have stopped at.  I would have loved a better picture of the river.

 I almost got my wish in this picture.

 I really like the way the clouds are hanging over the mountains.

 Another idyllic mountain scene.

 It's amazing just how much land in the United States is dedicated to agriculture.

 And a BNSF train passes by.

 Another shot of the mountains.

 We also pass by the Naval Base in Everett.  Last time I passed through, there was an aircraft carrier.

 Instead, I just see a frigate.  In this case it was the USS Ford which is named after Gunners Mate Patrick O. Ford who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross in Vietnam.  He was a gunner on a River Patrol Boat and he rescued a few of his mates after his boat was damaged by a Viet Cong RPG.

We also spent a fair amount of time along Puget Sound. 

 This is one of the Washington State Ferries.  The company itself is the largest ferry company in the United States and the third largest in the world.  This is one of 22 ferries that operate in the Puget Sound.  All of their ferries are green and white.

 I'm not sure where Puget Sound ranks in terms of shipping traffic, but I have to imagine it's up there.

 One more shot of Puget Sound before we started to peel away.

For this shot, I was messing around a bit.  I wanted a rails in motion type shot.  What do you think?

And with this, we conclude our trip on the Empire Builder.  I hope that you enjoyed this posts.