After taking a plane ride from Chicago Midway to Minneapolis/St.Paul and ubering (apparenting "ubering” is now a verb) to the Union Depot, I met up with the rest of my group at the train station this past Friday.

Bundled head to toe in order to combat the -6 degree weather, I entered the station quite unprepared for the giant party being thrown at the station (evidently, it was the inaugural ball for the new mayor of the St. Paul, and the Union Depot was packed with well-dressed people, lots of food, and a live band). Standing in the station, I felt out of place in my winter boots and New England Patriots hat (I was in Vikings territory after all), but that discomfort quickly faded once I found the rest of the group.

With the music from the band to send us off, we boarded the Amtrak train around 10 pm Friday.

1500 miles and 2 sleepless nights later, we disembarked from the Amtrak train in Wenatchee, Washington and then took a taxi bus up to Chelan, where we spent today.

After being cooped up on a train for 34 hours straight, the beautiful snow-covered mountains of Chelan were exactly what I needed to recharge! I went to mass at the little Catholic Church in town, went on a run with a group from my class, ate some lunch at this cute little diner called the Apple Cup, and explored the little town.

Tonight, we are staying at a beautiful resort right on Lake Chelan, and I am beyond excited to sleap in a real bed! Tomorrow morning, we will board a ferry that will take us across the lake and then we have a 12 mile bus ride up to the village.

Say goodbye to cell service and hello to 4 feet of fluffy snow!