Stephanie, I am so glad to hear how you spent your vacation! When my chidren were small I took both of them separately from Chicago to Seattle in those bedrooms on....there were two trains from Chicago to Seattle, one was called the Empire Builder and one was called something else. (I thought it also had the word Empire but I can't find it now on the Amtrak site).
One went down thru Iowa and across Nebraska, barely skirting Kansas which is the one we did so the kids could see the changing great country we have, they were mesmerized, to this day my oldest talks about seeing Nebraska and "Kansas" as if it were Europe. You had to look fast tho, for the Kansas part, and you barely got into it as we entered it late in the day. And the black black soil of Illinois! Every little thing was amazing. TOO LATE we found they had included a wonderful little set of pamphlets, maps, which told exactly where we were, but we had fun guessing.
Then we were late, very very late getting in because of the great heat as we crossed Utah and labored to climb the various mountains. We went thru Denver too. It was kind of exciting. The scenery alone was worth it. We disliked having to share the dinner table with others as my boys were not of an age where causal dinner conversation came easily, that was a minus. Food was good.
It WAS a great way to see the country and I'm glad to hear it still is. Those trains must be dated by now.
The other train, can't remember its name, perhaps IT was the Empire Builder, went across the upper US back to Chicago, thru Montana, etc., I have heard it's very scenic about wildlife. I am glad they are still doing these trains because here the Amtrak comes thru at something like 4 am. And they wonder why people don't take the train?
So glad to hear an update!
The "new" Newsweek is out: I love it. I even wrote the editor which is new for me. Long, long literate articles. When have we seen that in recent years? Glossy pages. Love it. Of course they lost Anna Quindlen, which is a big loss, but the new format is fabulous. Have you seen it?