Air travel? No thanks. We'll take the train.

2008 has been a huge travel year for our family. First there was the family reunion in Orlando, Florida to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday in July. This trip was planned way in advance, so thankfully we bought our airplane tickets before prices went through the roof. Next up? My in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this November. Originally, we'd planned to hop on a plane (part of our justification in moving to Portland from the Bay Area was that it'd always be cheap and easy to fly down for a visit -- ha!). Granted, it's a short trip from Portland to San Jose. But holy cow -- what was once an extremely affordable air jaunt is now ridiculous! Yet, there's no way we can skip it. We toyed with the idea of driving down but only had to remind ourselves of the one trip a few summers back when we drove. Here's how that went down: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? ARE WE THERE YET?" And that was just my husband. Don't ask what the kids were like. Suffice to say it sucks to be strapped in a car seat for 12 hours at a pop.

So here's our new family theme song:

Train is a comin', oh yeah!
Train is a comin', oh yeah!
Train is a comin', train is a comin', train is a comin' -- oh yeah!

This lovely ditty was sung my my daughter's kindergarten class for their spring concert last year. If you can imagine about 80 five- to six-year olds singing fairly off tune and off beat, chugging their arms like choo-choo trains into the gymnasium and around the risers -- you'll get the whole stereophonic effect.

Time wise, it'd be much quicker to fly. In dollars, much more expensive to fly. Frustration level? Huge with flying now. By car? Just doesn't really work for our family. We don't have the collective temperament to drive straight through. Last time we drove, we had to stop and overnight at a cheap hotel -- so if you consider that time-frame, we're looking at about the same amount of time on the train. The bonus? Kids are super excited about going on a train. They've been enamored with train travel since an aunt of mine visited last year and she went home to Seattle on Amtrak Cascades.

Any power user train travel tips to share? Amtrak Coast Starlight -- here we come!