Manhattan to Waterbury on Amtrak

While my thumb continues to heal (which is going well), I've been working on the seemingly never-ending process of setting up my new computer and sorting through all the photos and videos from our trip.  

Each day, I install more software that I use regularly on the new computer.  Just updating Windows 11 required a couple of days then I needed to set up the operating system the way I want it... which I'm still doing.  I have some new licenses to purchase for some of my software too so I still have a few more days of software setup to do.  I'm also waiting on another large hard drive to arrive too.  Since I have the room in the new hard drive enclosure, I decided to add a 22tb hard drive to store all my older archived photos so I will have easy access to all my photos.  Anyway, I've been busy with the new computer.

In between installing software packages, I've been working on sorting photos from our long trip to Ohio with Lukey and Kenzie.  I have thousands of photos and plenty of video clips too so sorting through them has been time consuming.  Not only are there plenty of photos that I shot, but I also have to sort through photos that Lukey and Kenzie shot.  

I've decided to work backwards so I'm starting with our last leg of the trip in this blog entry...  Manhattan to Waterbury.

The lead photo, above, is a panoramic photo of the new-ish Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.  The small human figure at the left edge of the frame is Lukey looking down on the train hall.  This upper level which looks down on the train hall is Amtrak's First Class Lounge which is where we spent all our time waiting on our train on this morning.

This photo, below, was the view from our room at the Midtown Hilton...

In the past, we've taken the subway to Penn Station from here.  Other times, we've walked the mile or so.  This time we grabbed one of the cars waiting out front of the Hilton which made things very easy.  

We've given up on the subway.  On our trip through Manhattan at the beginning of this trip, we found that they've changed the way to pay for the subway and it is not working for families anymore so they won't be getting our money anymore.  The cost of hailing a car instead was hardly any different than the cost of the subway for four of us but I don't think that would matter in this case anyway.  We'll be avoiding the subway like the plague now.

In the past, we would just have either Sheila or me scan our E-payment function of our phone at the turnstile four times... each time one of us goes through.  Apparently, they only allow one single scan nowadays so we can't scan for each of the kids!  This would make sense if we were using a monthly pass but we were trying to pay the full price for each fare, not a multiple ride fare.  This makes absolutely no sense.  We were giving them more money each time we swiped the E-payment so it makes no sense to not allow it.  Instead, they'll never get money from us again.  We'll continue to hail a car instead if we don't want to walk.

We left the hotel at around 8:30am.  Our train wasn't leaving until 11:30am so we had plenty of time and we planned to spend our time in the first class lounge.  Lukey and Kenzie had never experienced the first class lounge so we wanted them to experience this on this trip so we left the hotel earlier than necessary.

As you enter the Amtrak First Class Lounge, there is a model of the Amtrak Acela on a long table...

The food is free in this lounge so we had breakfast here.  Everything was fresh and delicious!  (Which is very unlike the food on the train which I'll cover in another blog entry.)

The lounge is large and takes up all the space on the upper floor of one whole side of the train hall.  Lukey is at the railing looking down on everyone getting in line at the respective escalator for their particular train...  

Most of the time, we were comfortable in nice chairs in the quiet, clean and beautiful lounge...  the rest of the time, we were at the balcony railing looking down on the train hall...

This area, below, is the area of the lounge for getting food and drinks...

It was eventually time to head down to the train hall to get on our train...

Finally...  on the train in Business Class for the last leg of our trip taking us back up to Waterbury...

We were seated on the right side of the train, however, we were able to watch Manhattan disappear from sight out the left side windows as we made our way toward Connecticut via Queens, Long Island.  

I slept almost the entire ride back to Waterbury.  I think I awoke a few times only to use the restroom and get something to eat.  I was exhausted after our long trip.  (I'm still exhausted and recovering!).  It was a nice, uneventful trip back home!  That being said, it could have been more quiet...  we had a very noisy family sitting in front of us.  They also had a toddler in tow that was constantly running around the train bothering everyone.  (Just like the bus scene from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles.)  They should not have been in Business Class so that was a bit annoying.  Fortunately, I slept through most of that.

Next up, I think I'll write about our journey from Cincinnati to Manhattan on Amtrak.  That was a far longer trip in a sleeper car.