Walking into the quaint, antiques store/cafe in the teensy town of Snoqualmie, I was immediately confused as to if they actually served food. All I could see was coffee and coffee cake. When I posed the question to the three ladies behind the counter they handed me a menu and told me they were currently serving breakfast, but would switch to lunch at noon. (Who serves breakfast until 12? I wondered.) Charming was the most nauseous from the car ride and we quickly decided to split one overly priced plate of bacon and eggs between the five of us.We had a train to catch in about 20 minutes and were in a bit of hurry. Where did all the servers go all of a sudden?
One server remained. I asked her if we ordered at the counter and she said, we sat down first and then she came to get it. So we found a seat– three small tables in a row– the only place in the vacant "cafe" for a family of five to sit. And then we waited while she farted around behind the counter. Apparently my communication about when I would like to order was not made clear. Finally with enough stare down, she sauntered over. Charming indicated our rush and with rolled eyes she told us that eggs was fairly quick and so we ordered that, and then watched the clock get closer to our departure time while we waited for the elusive eggs and bacon. And while we waited, Engineer discovered an entire wall of "art" behind us, where we sat.
Naked people. A wall full of someone’s "artistic" renderings. For sale nonetheless. Fortunately, none were p*rn*graphic or se*ual, just poorly drawn people in the buff. But they were very large and very predominant. Engineer has lately developed a fascination with human anatomy and was quite the chatterbox about this wall of wonders. Finally we all moved to the other side of the table so we could enjoy a scene of antique books instead of amateur figure drawing and get the boy’s mind on something else.
Now I haven’t said anything about our server– but let me just say, she was one of the worser servers I have had. Either she woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, or she never woke up at all. Maybe it was a bad day for her, really, but regardless, she was unwelcoming, unfriendly, unhappy and she made me uncomfortable. But to her credit the eggs arrived about three minutes before our train was to arrive, we scarfed them down (I would have been embarassed if I gave two hoots about what our server thought of us) and we caught our train just in time.
It was Mother’s ride free day you see, at the Northwest Railway Museum. A 65 minute ride to North Bend, then up to Snoqualmie Falls and back to Snoqualmie. You could get off the train in North Bend, and then catch the train in an hour when it came back, but I opted out. Yeah.
There are of course no bathrooms, on the train. And though Sugar and I had a lovely conversation about our weddings (mine past, her future) in the bathroom before we left, I got the urge twenty minutes into the ride. (No, Mom, I am not pregnant). It’s like my body decides that though I drank very little to justify the need, that as soon as I am in a position where I am not allowed to use the restroom, then that is the very time that everything needs to move on out. Not fair. I crossed my legs and relaxed tried to enjoy the view. It was lovely, because it is of course gorgeous in this area. The best part though was when we reached the top of Snoqualmie Falls.
I cannot even express how breathtaking and terrifying it was at the same time. And since I forgot my camera that day, I am going to have to try. We were up so high looking down over the top of the falls and then looking down over a deep chasm. Waterfalls, and beautful, lush green trees. Such a view! Engineer is like a mini me– he took one look and then went and sat on the other side of the train refusing to look again. Poor boy. I stayed put, but silently wondered if there was a possibility that the train could tumble down the ravine now that everyone on board was on the one side looking down over the falls.
Now I borrowed this image from the internet but this gives you somewhat of an idea of what the view was like:
Of course, there was no creme brulee (there weren’t even teddy grahams, as Sugar made mention of– since we weren’t allowed to pee or eat on the train), and the view was from the other side of the falls and not the lodge side. And really it was way better than even this image depicts, but apparently no one has ever taken a picture from the train and then published it on the internet. The lodge view seen here is lovely, but not near as scary as when you are in a rickety old train with all the people gathered on one side.
Anyway, the last bit, the view was fantastic. Charming said it made what we paid truly worth it ($24 for our whole family). And I agreed. A good day. Naked people and all.
Time for some unpaid product endorsement! We bought some g diapers for Spider just after the whole earth day thing. I want to save the earth, but I also want to save my trash pail from stinky pees so I decided to give it a whirl. I really like them. I don’t like dealing with the flushing poop, but we’ve had no toilet clogs so far, and they are super easy to use. 
