We met Cathy on a yoga retreat at Haramana in Mexico many years ago. We liked each other so much, we decided to go to India, also with the same yoga studio. Our friendship grew and we visited each other sporadically over the years. Cathy moved from Wyoming to Camano Island near Seattle, a few years ago to begin her third act in life. We have always wanted to visit her. When this Amtrak adventures came up for us, I asked her if she would enjoy a visit from us. The deal was she had to come and fetch us and return us at the station two days later. She agreed. 🤗
What a God sent that was. Our train was late, not a few minutes late but 5 hours late. We were scheduled to arrive at 7:30pm. The train actually crawled in at 1:30am. We decided to get a room for that night and meet up the next morning instead. Amtrak you cost us one whole evening together!!!
After we refreshed ourselves with a shower (for him) and bath (for me), and a good night sleep, we were picked up by Cathy the next day, and whisked into the BEAUTIFUL Camano Island.
But first we had to eat. We were famished. I longed for something green so I chose a lovely wild salmon and wild shrimp salad. Keith feasted on a delicious plate of fish and chips.
One of my favorite all time show is Survivor, where 30 people are dropped on an island to live among each other in the wild for 31 days. After experiencing starvation, social games, and physical games, one person gets voted by the group to win the million dollar prize.
I know our 26 hours on the train was nothing like what these contestants faced on the game. But that lunch of ours was FABULOUS. I felt like the contestants did whenever they were fed a meal during the game.
The rest of our 24 hour visit with Cathy was filled with love and delightful treats.
We got to meet Cathy’s Mike. He is a delightful wise man.
Being with Cathy is like being home with mom or big sis. She made us a delicious dinner of pesto pasta, wild Alaskan salmon and crab, plus an abundance of roasted asparagus and wine. This really made up for being on the train, not able to go eat in the dining car. Because they only serve food to sleeper car passengers. However they piped their announcement for dinner reservation every fifteen minutes. It was cruel.
We slept and slept and slept. This was when we realized that we were beat from our first 28 hours on the train. Who knew that we had to build up stamina for a train ride? 🤷🏻♀️
Cathy returned us to our train after filling our heart up with love, our body with rest and nourishment, and our food bag with a luscious dinner. What a blessing. Until next time Cathy.
All aboard….Chicago here we come. Thank you Cathy.