This past weekend I drove down to Portland, Oregon for the Portland Lindy Exchange. A "Lindy Exchange" is a type of big swing dancing weekend event hosted by various cities around (and outside) the country. It's basically an excuse for lots of out-of-town dancers to converge in one place to meet and dance with everyone else. There are typically no classes or workshops -- just big dance floors, great live music, and more DJ'd music late into the night. This was the first exchange I've been to, although later this year I plan to also go to at least the ones in San Francisco, Vancouver, and of course Seattle.

I'll spare you all the boring details and stick to a couple of the highlights. One neat part of the weekend was dancing in Pioneer Courthouse Square on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the middle of the city with lots of people watching. This was one of the planned events so there was a DJ and sound equipment there and plenty of others to dance with. I've never before danced outside in broad daylight, or had a large audience of non-dancers like that, and it was kind of fun to show off.

Sorry it's been a couple weeks, but I did promise you a report...

On Saturday morning I took the express bus into downtown Seattle and got off at King Street Station. It was a really nice train station... 100 years ago, but the years of neglect definitely show. They're trying to restore some of the original finishes now, but it will never return to its former glory -- especially with the new Link Light Rail line stopping at nearby Union Station instead.

Anyway, the station served its purpose well enough, and I got on the Amtrak train which left on-time at 7:40am. Overall, my impression of the train ride was... not bad. The seats are big and comfortable with plenty of legroom. The upper level of the central car (of three) of the train has floor-to-ceiling windows with unreserved seating facing outward, allowing some decent views of the coastline of northern Puget Sound. However I spent most of the time sleeping or reading. (Fortunately I don't have any problem with motion sickness from reading on a train or plane, though while riding in a bus or car I get terribly nauseous from reading nothing more than Trivial Pursuit cards every few minutes.)

Once we got out of the Seattle metro area, which admittedly takes a while, the train actually moved pretty fast: the GPS on my phone measured it at 77+ mph at multiple points along the way. I thought we were going to arrive nearly on time in Vancouver until the train stopped for about 15 minutes just before the bridge over the Fraser river into the city. We had a similar stop before that bridge on the way back, when they announced they had to pick up or file some paperwork or something before crossing the bridge... which doesn't make sense... and anyway couldn't they take care of that stuff ahead of time??

So the train finally arrived at the Vancouver station just before noon, about 20 minutes late. Fortunately the customs process was fairly quick. (It's always easy to get into Canada.) My first swing class, starting at 12:20, was a 15-minute walk away. I walked into the studio with just enough time to put on my dance shoes before the class started!

I thought the series of swing and related classes on Saturday and Sunday (8 hours total) were mostly very good. I polished up some of my basics and learned several new moves and techniques that will definitely stick with me. And I had fun dancing with a lot of new people, as well as a few that I sort of knew who were also from Seattle or had visited recently. There was a great band for the Saturday night dance at the Grandview Legion Auditorium. While that venue doesn't quite compare to Seattle's Century Ballroom in size or atmosphere, it was a fun night, and Vancouver clearly has a decent Lindy Hop scene.

After the dance Saturday night I took the nearby SkyTrain to my hotel and got a good night's sleep. After checking Sunday morning I had a few hours to kill so I took the SkyTrain into downtown Vancouver and walked around the waterfront and shopping areas. From that perspective it seemed like a nice and pedestrian friendly downtown. It's clear the city is doing a lot to prepare for hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. (While all the snow sports will be up at Whistler, I guess Vancouver is really the "host" city.) Among other things, there's a huge new convention center under construction, and a major shopping street in the middle of downtown is a big long hole where they're building a new (misnamed?) underground SkyTrain line to connect to the airport.

From downtown I took the SkyTrain back to East Vancouver where the classes were that day, then after classes I took the SkyTrain (see a pattern here?) back to the train station and caught the 6pm train back to Seattle.

I slept most of the way back. The only annoying part of that train was U.S. customs. We had to go through customs before boarding the train. Fine. But then the train stopped at the border while customs agents went through the train and questioned everyone and checked passports again. Of course for me it's never a problem since I look like an ordinary white American and I'm gainfully employed and I don't mention the fruit and livestock I'm not transporting back into the states. But it takes a little while for the two agents per car to get through everyone. Still, it looked like a much longer wait by car to get into the U.S. (The train tracks are adjacent to the Peace Arch I-5 border crossing.)

My train arrived at the Seattle station at around 10:15pm, only about 10 minutes late. But my weekend was not over yet! Sunday night is swing night at the Century Ballroom, and there was even a live band playing that night! Now well-rested, I hopped on a bus to Capitol Hill and proceeded to try out my new moves and dance the night away.

I'm taking the Amtrak Cascades train up to Vancouver, BC for a weekend of swing classes and dancing. There's a special series of Lindy Hop workshops held by some famous instructors there this Saturday and Sunday, along with a great swing band playing Saturday night. Conveniently, all venues are within walking distance from the Vancouver Amtrak station, so I can make it a car-free trip! And the Vancouver SkyTrain is right there too, which should give me a chance to explore the city a bit during a few free hours on Sunday morning.

The Amtrak tickets cost me about $20 more than I would have paid for gas to drive up there, and it will take about an hour longer (4 hrs vs 3 hrs, including stops and border-crossing). But I expect it will be worth it just for the stress-free comfort -- I can sleep, read, watch the scenery, or get up and stretch my legs any time.

I've never taken a trip by rail in North America before (beyond metro transit systems), so I'm curious to see what it's like. If I like it, I may take future trips like this to Vancouver and Portland. I'm sure it won't compare though to the speed and convenience of the trains I experienced in Japan.