//------------------------------// // March 20 [Seattle] // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// March 20 I woke up after only a few hours of sleep to a bunch of unusual motion. I wasn't really sure what was going on, so I asked Cayenne (who was in bed but awake) and she said that they didn't know, either, but we'd stopped in a station and there was a lot of activity going on around the train. I couldn't really see out the window what was happening, and it probably wasn't anything to worry about anyway, but I got out of bed and went out in the hallway and out the exit door. They were taking some of the end cars off of our train and moving them on to another one. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I saw Mister Barrow on the platform watching the action, so I went over to him and asked. He said that the train split in Spokane (which is where we were), and half of it went to Portland, while the rest went to Seattle. I thought that was pretty clever; rather than have to wake everybody up in the middle of the night and have them change trains, they just moved the railcars to a different train. So I went back inside and told Cayenne what they were doing. She said that sometimes the trains in Chicago did that, too, but usually not when there were people on them. She stuck her muzzle up to the window and jerked back as a porter carried a big yellow cart by our car, ‘cause it surprised her, and then she went back to looking out the window. I had a better view out the window by their bed than my own, so I climbed in and watched the humans bustle around the platform, getting both trains ready to go. I could see Mister Barrow out there still, keeping an eye on their progress, and then I heard the faint call of the conductor, and he turned and went back to the train. A minute or two later, our train pulled out of the station, and we were on our way again. I didn't think I'd be able to get back to sleep right away, so I went upstairs and walked to the back of the train—which was a lot closer to our car than it had been—and looked out the rear window. I could see the lights of Spokane disappearing behind us, and then we were back in the wilderness again. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could see all the stars spread above us and I just watched them for a little bit, then went back downstairs and nestled next to Aquamarine and fell back asleep. The two of us were both up before the sun. Aquamarine said that was because the farther west we went, the later the sun rose and our bodies just hadn't gotten used to it yet. I left a note for Cayenne and Gusty, and the two of us went right to the Viewliner car like Mister Barrow had said we should. There wasn't a whole lot to see at first because it was still dark, but when the sun started coming up it was spectacular. We were following a river along through the mountains (which are called the Cascades) and the snow-covered pine trees were right up next to the tracks. Aside from the electrical lines that ran alongside the tracks, there wasn't any other sign of human civilization. All of a sudden we went into a tunnel, and I thought it would be short but it wasn't at all. I was starting to get a bit panicky and so Aquamarine leaned up against me and reminded me that the train wouldn't go anywhere that wasn't safe. I was still pretty happy when we got to the other end of it, though. I hoped we wouldn't go through any more long tunnels. Mister Barrow joined us not long after the train got out of the tunnel. He said that Miss Parker was still in the shower but would be along before too long and asked us where the two unicorns were. I said that they were still sleeping, because unicorns like to sleep in. When they finally showed up, we made some room for them on our seat. There were more and more people coming into the lounge, and we didn't think it would be fair to take up more seats than we had to. After a little bit of arrangement, we wound up with Miss Parker and the two unicorns sharing a set of seats, and Mister Barrow and me and Aquamarine sharing the other. It was a little bit crowded, but not too much, and that left open a pair of seats for anyone else who wanted to watch out the windows. The train made a big turn, and pretty soon we came along a river and started following it. I knew that train tracks sometimes liked to follow rivers because even in mountains the river itself was a fairly flat course because water found the easiest way to the ocean as it could. We picked up a little bit of speed when the train got past the mountains and more into flatter land. Miss Parker went and got us some snacks—she said that we could have a proper breakfast in Seattle, and we could keep our seats this way. The river stayed our companion all the way to Everett, then the train turned south, following along a big body of water. Gusty wanted to know if it was the Pacific Ocean, but Mister Barrow said it was called Puget Sound, and it connected to the Pacific Ocean. As the train started to slow down and got into the heart of the city, we went back to our room to pack up all our stuff. Once we were off the train, we took all our baggage to a little parking area where there was a white van waiting for us. Mister Barrow opened up the door where the gas goes and the keys for the van were in there. We got all our stuff put inside, and he drove us first to a tall white tower called the Space Needle. I didn't like the elevator, and Gusty was a little nervous about how high it was, but it was totally worth it when we got our table. There were big windows that looked out over the side, and the whole dining room slowly turned so that we could see everything around us. While we waited for our food, Mister Barrow pointed out the sights. There was a distant mountaintop called Mt. Rainier that was very famous, but it was too cloudy to see it. He said we would have been able to see it beyond the skyscratchers if the weather had been clear. I liked it when the view came around to the harbor. There wasn't any snow or ice at all, and lots of big ships were tied up to docks, and smaller ones were moving around the bay. It reminded me of home, of looking down from clouds at the busy ports, even though the big ships didn't have as much character as the sailing ships back home. There were a few steamships that ran up and down the Equestrian coast, but they never got too far from land because if they carried enough fuel and water to make the trip, they'd hardly be able to carry any cargo. After lunch we walked up one floor higher to the observation deck. I wanted to fly down, but there was a fence in the way that closed in the whole area so that I couldn't. Gusty wouldn't even go to the edge; she said it was too high and that she didn't like it at all, so Miss Parker stayed with her inside the closed-in part while the rest of us took in the sights. They were the same as we'd seen from the restaurant, but felt closer to me with the fresh air. When we were done sightseeing, we went to the Pacific Science Center, which was right next to the Space Needle. There were so many things to see there it was a bit overwhelming, and we started by having everypony pick one thing they wanted most to see. Cayenne thought we could see more if we split into two groups, but Miss Parker wasn't having that. She said that we ought to stick together like a family. So we started off visiting the Science Playground, which was a whole lot of fun. Then we went on to the Saltwater Tide pool (that was Aquamarine's idea, but I would have suggested it if she hadn't) where we got to look at little fish and even touch starfish and sea enemies and hermit crabs. A lot of the stuff was pretty familiar to me (although I'd never touched any of them before), but Aquamarine had never been to the ocean before and it was all completely new. She was even confused by how salty the water was. Then we went to see the Science on a Sphere, and it blew my mind. There was a giant floating globe of the Earth and it had weather patterns and stuff on it, and after the presentation I talked to the attendant a little bit and would have liked to talk to him more, but it would have been rude to keep Gusty waiting from what she wanted to see, which was the butterfly house. I've never been in a butterfly house before. I thought that it would probably be boring because it was too early in the year for butterflies, but it was a big greenhouse so the butterflies were active all year long. Just the scents alone made me forget it wasn't quite spring yet (although it would be really soon). Gusty danced around like a filly, trying to take it all in, and I thought she might pass out from happiness when a butterfly landed right on her muzzle and she went all cross-eyed looking at it. If this is what human museums are like, I want to see more of them. Everything was amazing, and the workers were very helpful, and I was sorry that we had to leave. We had a light meal at the Science Center, and then walked to the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which was just across the street. I wasn't sure what to expect at first: it looked like another big greenhouse, but it turned out to be a greenhouse for glass sculptures that just boggled the mind. Cayenne said that there was a stained-glass museum on Navy Pier in Chicago, but that it was nothing like this. I can't even describe how alive everything felt. How amazing the colors were, and how they changed as the sun set. There were fake glass flowers dyed the most vivid reds and yellows, and even a stained-glass ceiling. We had a room for the night at the Alexis Hotel, and our room looked over the bay, which I thought was really nice. I wanted the bed closest to the window, and neither Cayenne nor Gusty cared which they got. Cayenne wanted to go out to a nightclub, which is a fancy pub. She said that that was one of the best ways to experience a city. Gusty thought that sounded like fun, too, but I didn't particularly want to. I was getting pretty tired because I'd been up all day. She finally convinced me and Aquamarine, though. We had to wait a little bit for Gusty to change clothes, and I made Cayenne promise not to bring a boy back to the hotel unless she was planning on sharing. She laughed and said that she wouldn't. Cayenne was the smart one when it came to getting around a big town. She could use her telephone to get an Uber-car, and she had it take us to the nightclub she'd chosen, which was called the White Horse Trading Company. We went right in and we'd just sat down at a table when a man came out from the back and introduced himself as Joe and said that he was the owner and that there had never been an actual white horse in his pub before, and that our first drink was on him. Then he asked us if we minded posing for a selfie with him, and of course we didn't mind. Cayenne took one with her portable telephone, too, and then we asked him what he recommended. So we all had a pint of Stingo, which was strong, dark, and very good. Cayenne said that she had been expecting someplace livelier, but when she suggested that maybe we ought to go to a different place, we all told her no. I liked it; it was quiet and there were books all around the walls. Gusty said that every inch of the place oozed character, and that it would be incredibly rude to just walk out after the man who owned the bar had introduced himself. Well, Cayenne didn't quite agree, but after her third beer she sort of came around and started having fun. We stayed there pretty late—it felt like the middle of the night to me—and then we took another Uber-car back to the hotel and crawled into bed. As I was drifting off to sleep, I remembered that today had been the first day of spring.