Dining on the Sunset Limited

Eating in Amtrak's Sunset Limited's dining car allows travelers to meet and visit with fellow adventurers.  The staff will seat you, and to our pleasure, we dined with a family coming back from a trip to Big Bend.  Their mission--besides having a great time--was to work on a series of children's books starring Explorer Bear (pictured above).   The family was charming.  Here "EB" is seated in front of the herb roasted half chicken, with vegetable medley (orange and yellow carrots, red bell peppers, green beans) and rice pilaf.  We also ordered dessert, in our case, a cheesecakey, cold lemon-berry tart.  It was rich and satisfying for all four of us to share!   Visit this page to download a Sunset Limited Dining Car menu as well as the National Cafe Car menu.  (Check the right side of the page, under Downloadable Info.)

We enjoyed the full view of the scenery from our table in the dining car...notice the plates and fresh flowers on the table!    During dinner, my companions told me about taking the train from San Antonio to Alpine, renting a car and heading to Big Bend National Park, and all about their hiking adventures there.  They had a terrific time and are eager to come back to work on more adventures with Explorer Bear!

We'll continue our series on traveling to the region by train after our return trip from Houston to Alpine.  (You can also reach our region on Amtrak through the El Paso station, which has full baggage services, which means you can travel with your bike!)