All Aboard!

Okay, so we've gotten on the train. I reserved us the largest single room available on the train, the Family Bedroom. This room takes up the entire width of the train car, and is at one end of the lower level of the car we're on. When you board the train, you enter on the lower level of the car, and there are hallways (NARROW hallways) going both left and right. If you bear left, there are three restrooms, one shower, and the handicapped bedroom. If you bear right, there are three small rooms, the stairs to the upper level, the luggage rack, and the family bedroom. While the hubby sorts out the carry on baggage, I stuff our kids down the hallway (did I mention it was narrow?) to the family bedroom. Needless to say, it's 10 p.m. CST, and all is quiet -- except us. The kids are very excited to be on a train for the first time ever, and they're literally bouncing off the walls. As we're trying to cram like sardines through the doorway of our room, one of our fellow passengers slams open her room door, gives me the stink eye, and slams it closed again. Sorry lady, but if you wanted a quiet trip, you shouldn't have booked the room next door to the family bedroom. I do, in fact, feel pretty bad about the noise we are making, but I think it is better to get them all contained than to try to quiet them at this point. So, we get everyone crammed into the room. Actually, the room is quite spacious by railroad standards. There are two upper single bunks (one long and one shorter), and two bottom bunks. One of the bottom bunks is a double bed, and one is a single. We hoist the oldest two girls into the upper bunks, and secure them in their bunks with the luggage webbing provided. No kidding, you literally put up the luggage webbing to keep them from falling out. Then the plan was to get the younger two to go to sleep and put them both in the small bed. Riiiiiiight. Number 3 (Houdini) decides at this point that sleep is highly overrated. She's had ample time to get her second wind from the car ride and has absolutely no intention of sleeping in a weird bed on a moving train. Great. So much baby wrestling and threatening later, I end up in the double bed with Houdini, and my poor hubby ends up hanging onto six square inches of bunk edging. Poor guy. Number 4 peacefully drifts off in her car seat. We make several stop throughout the night, not all of which I actually wake up for.
Early the next morning, we decide to take breakfast in shifts. Hubby takes One and Two up to the dining car for breakfast, while I wait in the room with Three and Four. When he returns, I take Three up to the dining car for breakfast. The dining car is quite an experience. If you've never been on a train and/or had a meal on one, I highly recommend it. When you purchase a first class ticket on Amtrak, your meals are included in your ticket price (let me hear it for all-inclusive). Breakfast was fresh juice and coffee with an omelet for me and two scrambled eggs with bacon for Houdini. Houdini took all of two seconds to wolf down her breakfast and then spent the rest of the time trying to make sure I spilled mine. Seating in the dining car is first-come-first-serve, and you will end up sitting with people you don't know. This is a great way to get to know your fellow passengers, provided you don't have a screaming toddler wallowing all over your lap. The lady we sat with was fortunately very patient with us, and we finished breakfast without too much difficulty. To get to and from the dining car, we had to go up the stairs (again, NARROW) and through the upper levels of two other cars. The girls loved this, especially when it was time to transition between cars. The doors between cars on the upper levels are controlled by flat, rectangular hand switches. You basically slap the black rectangle to open the door. I might also mention that the switch just happens to be right at the eye level of a four-year-old. The girls were instantly in a rush to see who could slap the switch first. Joy.
Having eaten, and returned to our room, we settled in for the rest of our trip. For those who are attached to your electronics, you might as well forget it. There are no wi-fi, internet, TV, phone service, or even power outlets in the room. So we're stuck in a room the size of a walk-in closet with no electronic babysitter. Ha.
I do have to admit, the scenery is just plain awesome. We hit a big dust storm shortly after breakfast, and it was something to see from the train. There was lots of wildlife to see (caribou, elk, deer, and even a bear). And several of the towns that the train stops in are straight out of history. Very cool.
About the time we hit Santa Fe, I realize we are out of formula and diapers for Four. Being that we can't just do without these items, the hubby valiantly volunteers to scout for supplies. He leaves the girls and I at the station, returning less than an hour later with the necessities. He said that the cab driver took pity on him and waited for him outside the pharmacy while he ran in and got the goods. So, thanks to the cabby in Santa Fe!
We passed the rest of the trip in relative peace, with the exception of a complaint from the Stink Eye Lady next door. Apparently, the kids were disturbing her. Puh-lease. Apparently, she even got so loud about it, that the other passengers heard her fussing. I sat with several of them at dinner on our final day, and they were more upset that she had complained than they were about our kids. It's nice to have people on your side.
Once we got to L.A., things got kinda nuts. We had a LOT of luggage, and had to haul it from one end of Union Station to the other. Now, Union Station in L.A. is huge. So by the time we got to the baggage claim, we were all breathing hard. Then we had to get all of the checked bags, and find transportation to the hotel. Now, this was a detail that escaped me when I booked our accommodation in L.A. I neglected to consider the fact that the Hilton LAX would not have a shuttle bus from the train station. Duh. So, thirty minutes, a bunch of cussing, and a bunch of luggage hauling later, we managed to find a cab that was a mini van. Now, this mini van was not big enough to hold everything and us at the same time. But the cab driver (who just happened to be Russian) was patient and helped us cram (and I do mean CRAM) all of our belongings into the cab. We had had to travel with the car seats for three of the kids, so we installed two of those in the back bench seat, then had One squeeze in between them. Good thing she's skinny. We packed luggage in the floor underneath their feet, and in the walkway between the captains seats in the second row. We also filled the front passenger seat with luggage, and put Four in her car seat in one of the second row seats. That left one seat open....for two people. By now, I look at my poor, beaten up husband, and decide that I will let him have the seat. I then proceed to cram my 5'10" frame on top of the luggage in the center aisle. My husband then takes the remaining seat. Several lectures about auto safety later, we take off for the hotel. Our cabby does an awesome job of hauling us halfway across L.A. to the Hilton LAX, and drops us at the door. The bellhop manages to load all of our luggage on one cart (I had no idea they could hold that much) and totes it to the desk, where we finally get checked in. We haul everyone up to the fifth floor to our room, which is cool, quiet, and seemingly far away from any other human being. Maybe we won't get a noise complaint tonight.