Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad

DATE NIGHT:
Where: Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad and Hobo Inn
Links: MRSR (http://www.mrsr.com/) Hobo Inn (http://rrdiner.com/)
Date: July 31 – August 1st, 2015.

See the gallery and short video (all the short video clips I took) under the post below.

I have been really bad about posting our date nights (Jello and I). Well in this case it was a date overnight at the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe Washington. This would be the first time we have ever spent the night with just us, and not with a bunch of our friends at a hotel. Originally we were going to ride one of their steam trains, but sadly the week before the train broke down and we were riding a Northern Pacific train that starred in the movie Runaway with Jon Voight in 1985.

Northern Pacific #7012A, the train from “Runaway Train” starring Jon Voight.

I wasn’t sure at first, it was a small disappointment. However, that all changed when we we got off work that Friday night. We had decided to stay in the Hobo Inn which was a motel that used train cars as rooms. The disadvantage of the train car was the small bed. It was double in size, but shorter, so my legs hung off. We didn’t stay in the room long because we were both hungry.

This is the room we rented at the hotel that rents out cabooses next door to the train.

There is also a restaurant that is attached as several train cars. We sat and ate buffalo burger and an elk burger. They were fairly tasty, the lady was nice who served us and the sunset lighting was pretty cool. She explained that the drought was killing them, the lake that is right off the site was empty of water. Huge tree trunks stuck straight out of the ground, and the waitress was in awe of how dry everything was.

What we didn’t expect during our trip was no cell service, therefore no internet service. That made our night a little surreal and a throwback to the 90s. What took us back even further was the small 13 inch tv with a built in VHS player and a bunch of old videos. We ended up watching Fright Night… on VHS… Honestly it was a lot of fun.

We woke up the next morning, walked across the main road that goes up to the pass and got coffee and the small store, along with some snacks. We wandered back to our room and watched Scream on VHS while waiting for the train time (the Hobo Inn is literally across the street from the train station and sits on the rail line the train uses).

We picked up tickets later that morning, and found that they were out of collector spoons (which made Jello and I both sad). We hopped on the train car and prepared for the ride.

The ride was fun. I have never been on a train and it was definitely fun. The train takes a person up about 8 miles (45 minutes to an hour) and stops at a mining area and train depot. There they have a museum with a bunch of trains that we wandered around for an hour. Even with all the children around it was fun.

We then road back to the main station. The whole time we enjoyed the rocking of the train, the forests around us and the cool breeze in the hot summer. When we got back we climbed in the car and on our way home we noted the huge tree trunks in the water. We decided to stop and take a picture. If you look closely in some of these pictures you can see people standing behind them.