Shameless plug for Amtrak

Lets start with last Thursday.
I was supposed to take two days off but went into work on Thursday. I had work to do that I did not finish. Why did this happen you may ask ? Well lets just say you can not plan to have everything done before vaca when 9 projects come down on Tuesday.
So, I had a "thing" on Thursday morning I could not reschedule and went in at 1030 and left at 4. I did not get everything done but I could not give up two days.

So, Thursday night I walked/bussed to Union Station Chicago to catch an Amtrak.
No, I did not have a hobo stick with me looking to skip town.
I was amazed at the amount of amish people at the train station, made sense though given transportation without much technology.

So, I boarded the train for St. Joe, MI. I travelled two hours to the lovely SW Michigan shores to visit a cousin's family and house. I enjoyed the lake, the sand, the paddle boats, and a visit to a countryside winery. It was nice to take a weekend trip outside of the city and see someplace new. I stopped at a roadside stand and bought apples, bell peppers and snap beans to bring back. Yummy home cooking from the farm.

Here's where the shameless plug comes in:

Travel on Amtrak is not bad. It made me feel very european and old school like Murder on the Orient Express. Without the Murder. Well, we did ride through Gary,IN. The seats were plush. There were no seatbelts and middle arm rest for the two seaters but that wasn't so bad, you still had enough space and leg room. The restroom accomodations were more spacious than a plane. There was an electrical outlet by the window so I could have brought my laptop, or charged my cell phone.

I highly suggest you hope on a train for travel in the future, its easy and for the time spend in airports before and after ... maybe the same amount.
The only bad thing is no one asked to see my ID once.

I did not bring my new digi camera to the lake so I have no pics but I saw frogs, fish, swams, catfish and a quaint house for sale on the lake. Ohhh, maybe one day.