Side Quest to Seattle
Taking Amtrak from Albany, OR to Seattle, WA and Back | A Day in Seattle | November 2025
When planning this trip, we knew that we had plenty of time on our hands, and the most limiting factor to our travels was winter weather. Up until this point, we had been pretty lucky, but we could tell that things were about to change, at least in the higher mountains and the valley. Because of this, we didn’t really intend on going much further North than Corvallis, OR. We were fine with that — there was still plenty to do, and we hope that someday we’ll have the chance to come out here again in the van in warmer weather and enjoy places we had to miss this time.
However, in the back of my mind I knew that I would feel guilty if we came all this way out here and I didn’t get to see my brother, who lives in Seattle. Sure, I’ve visited him once before, but that was in 2021 when he was only interning in Tacoma and just getting to know the area himself, and a lot has changed since then, besides the places where he lives and works. When he and I were talking earlier, he mentioned how he had always wanted to take Amtrak further South and that maybe he would try to meet us somewhere, but I knew that would be difficult with timing — we were a week and a half away from Thanksgiving and his trip back to Iowa, and we never know exactly where we’ll be at any given time, which makes planning ahead difficult for others.
When we were entering Oregon, I mentioned all of this out loud to Curtis, how I wanted to see my brother, but we didn’t want to drive all the way to Seattle (or drive in Seattle for that matter), but how I thought that I’d regret it if I didn’t see him when we were just a state away. When I mentioned the Amtrak thing, Curtis said, “Why don’t we take that up to Seattle for a couple days?” And suddenly that just made so much sense. We’ve always wanted to try Amtrak, even though we had heard before how the price and time it takes to get places isn’t exactly efficient. In this case, it actually wasn’t too bad — we were able to get tickets for $40 per person, per ride, parking at the Amtrak station was free, we could get a hotel for two nights using points, and we would just take public transportation around Seattle. And the ride from Albany to Seattle would only be about 6 hours, only slightly longer than driving the van straight there. I checked with my brother to make sure he’d be available, and then we went ahead and booked tickets the evening after visiting Crater Lake!
The day before our trip to Seattle, we drove to Albany, OR, and slept in the parking lot of the train station. It wasn’t a restful night at all with the sound of traffic and trains, but at least when our alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning, all we had to do was roll out of bed, get dressed, grab the stuff we were taking, and walk right to the waiting platform. In order to get cheaper fares, we opted for a split service headed to Seattle, where we took a bus also operated by Amtrak to Portland, then the train from Portland to Seattle. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this if you have to be where you need to go by a specific time, because the bus ended up being late, and after several other stops and dealing with Portland rush hour traffic, we ended up arriving just in time to watch our train to Seattle leave the station. Thankfully we were able to get rescheduled to the next train without hassle, which left two hours later. So all in all, our journey from Albany to Seattle took 8 hours. At least my brother was busy until the evening, so we didn’t miss out on seeing him with our delay.
When we arrived in Seattle, we walked from the train station to a bus stop, and took the bus to our hotel. We stayed at the Fairfield near the Space Needle, and had a view of the needle from our window. After enjoying showers and the cozy room, my brother gave us the go ahead to come on over, so we hopped on another bus which took us to near where he lived. We really enjoyed getting around this way, we just downloaded the transit app and bought day passes for our first two days, and a one way trip for our last day going from the hotel to the train station. It cost $30 altogether, which was less than one day of parking at our hotel would have been.
For our first evening, we got to see my brother’s house, meet his roommates and their cats, had pizza, played games, and got caught up. As soon as I saw him, I knew that this whole ‘side trip’ was absolutely worth it — we’ve seen each other at least once a year every year since I left home in 2013, but honestly this visit was so valuable to me and to our relationship. While all our big family gatherings are great, I don’t know if we’ve ever had as good of conversation as we did during this trip. We’re seven years apart in age, and have very different personalities — which is why I think it’s so great that we’re siblings, because otherwise I don’t think we’d ever run into each other and I wouldn’t get to know the amazing, caring, thoughtful person that he is!
The next day, he was working in the morning, so Curtis and I took our time getting up, and eventually walked about a mile over to the cafe where he works. I was excited to see it just because I knew how much the place and the community meant to him — but we were also blown away by how delicious their Danish pastries are! If you’re ever in Seattle and need a cafe/bakery recommendation, let us know! We spent a while here, eating, playing games that they have, and visiting with my brother during his break.
When he had to get back to work for a couple more hours, we set out on a long walk so we could enjoy some parks and scenery, and for Curtis to get a letterbox and a ‘peak’. We ended up going as far North as Kerry Park, which had excellent views of downtown, the bay, and Kitsap Peninsula, and then walked all the way down to the waterfront, where we watched ferries go by and wandered through the sculpture park. The only thing that was missing was Mt. Rainier, which spent our entire time here hiding behind clouds.
When my brother was ready, we met up with him and then took a bus all the way out to Discovery Park, where we went for a long meandering walk throughout the entire area. Our only objective for this visit was to see as many of his favorite places as we could, and this was definitely a beautiful spot not far from the city, perfect to get away from the noise and enjoy the nature. From here, we walked over to the Ballard Locks, and found a place to grab dinner. The afternoon and evening slipped away quickly as we were caught up in conversation, and all too soon it was time to say our goodbyes.
Curtis and I returned to our hotel, and rested before our train ride which left early the next morning. Thankfully everything went smoothly, and we made it back to our van in Albany just after noon. This trip was so special to me, and I’m so glad we were spontaneous enough to just do it. I loved all of our conversations, and I love that now when I think of him in Seattle, I can picture his house, his work, and places he loves.
