Oh, 4:15 comes so early, but this is our last early morning. We’ve done all our packing and organizing, so we’re ready for the cab way early. But the lovely desk clerk calls and gets the cab to come now so we don’t have to hang around for long. So kind.
We are at the train station in plenty of time. We’re taking the Amtrak Cascades to Seattle, then picking up our car and heading South. The train leaves at 6:30, but there are firm instructions that say to get there at least 1 hour early. And for good reason! There is already a line to get checked in when we arrive. Luckily it isn’t that large, and when they start checking everyone in, we score a seat on the right side of the train (literally the right side, where all the scenery will be). The line for customs is slow, but we’ve got our seats, and nowhere to go. Our new Border Cards are proving a little difficult because for some reason the computer wants our passports. The customs officer can’t figure it out, says we were right to use the cards, but still needs to see our passports. Oh well, I’ve got those too, not a biggie.
We finally pass through customs, check our luggage and find our car and seats. Since we’re the first on, we head to the café car (which is miles away – we’re in the last car, and its near the front), grab 2 coffees then settle in to wait and watch.
The train leaves pretty much on time, and it is a very pleasant 4 1/2 scenic ride down the coast.
In Seattle, it is easy to catch a cab to the Sixt car rental office in town. Wow, the city is teeming with people. A gorgeous Saturday morning and everyone is out, especially around Pike Place where the car rental office is located. We arrived about 20 minutes early, we had reserved the car for noon, and it wasn’t ready for us yet. The lovely (and I mean lovely in all ways, pretty, young and sweet) agent let us stow our bags in the back room while we headed out for a bite to eat while we waited. We didn’t want to get involved in the craziness of Pike Place, so we just split a sandwich at Subway – figuring all we really need is something in our stomachs for the drive down to Astoria.
Back to the office, 12:15, still not ready. Have some coffee, have some bottled water. Ok. 12:30. No car. 12:45. No car. 1:00. No car, we’re starting to get a little irritated since we have a 4 hour drive ahead of us and we really wanted to get an earlier start. The agent is apologetic, we ask her if she can do anything for us (we wanted to put me on as an extra driver but it was $10 a day, and not worth it), she says they’ve given us a 4 category upgrade. Well, thank you. Very nice. She can’t get the extra driver handled though because the system won’t let her do it for free or even reduced cost, but she tried, so we give her kudos there. Finally the darn car arrives, and it’s a Volvo V60. Yeah, that’s an upgrade – we had a Chevy Spark reserved – so we are ridin’ in style now. Oh, and it’s brand spanking new – 30 miles on the odometer. Oh, and it’s a wagon. At least its not red, so we’re not having total flash backs to the parking deck incident with the car from Villefranche…but still…..
The drive was uneventful, fortunately, and we stopped along the way for provisions at the Fred Meyer and the Dollar Store. The hotel is located right on the Columbia River, overlooking the port and Young’s Bay. It’s a great location, and we have a water front facing room on the 3rd floor, which is great. The only issue is we can’t access the elevator. It is behind a locked door, which is terribly odd. It’s the only elevator, so we’re a little confused. We carry our bags up (now a high floor is not such a great thing), only to discover the elevator is right there on our floor. And the door is open. Bizarre. The only thing we can figure is it is some state law that there is a door to the elevator (we’ll see it in every hotel we stay), and some one (child) slammed the door shut on the first floor and didn’t bother (or purposefully) to tell anyone. Oh well.
The room is great, and so is the sunset.
There’s a nice little walking path, but we’re getting ready for dinner at….Drina Daisy, a Bosnian restaurant. Get out! Really – a Bosnian restaurant in Astoria, Oregon. Cool.
A 3 minute drive into the main downtown area of Astoria, we park right on the street across from the restaurant. It’s a cute little place, with a little bar (that doesn’t look like it is used for anything but take out) and eclectic decorations that make you feel like you are in someone’s living room.
The food is traditional Bosnian (sort of Polish and Eastern European) with lots of meat and sausage items. It’s “comfort food”, as the menu states. We decide to share a starter of sausage and cheese. OMG – it is huge! But it goes nicely with Ed’s Sarajevo beer…
We know we’ve order too much food, so we decide to go light on the sausage plate and save it for lunch tomorrow. Good plan, as you will see from the meals we were served below. Ed had the roasted lamb for one person (they roast a whole lamb every day, cut it up into different parts and serve it for one or two people), which is tender and juicy with the perfect seasonings. I have the meat stuffed cabbage – which turns out to be sort of like Halupki, but without the sauce, and with the most moist, best tasting meat filling we’ve ever had. Think of the best meatloaf, and then go a step further. It was fantastic.
But again – way too much. So we focused on the cabbage roll, because we know we can’t take that with us, and leave the lamb and sausages for lunch. Look how much is left. It’s amazing – and will be so good tomorrow on our picnic.
We head back to the hotel and hang out, organizing, and planning for our drive down the coast in the morning.
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