Train Yourself To Be Pampered

The real Orient Express may be steeped in decades of exotic tradition, but the U.S. version of the famous train ride has the Rockies.

The American Orient Express boasts three new routes this year: up the Columbia Gorge and on to Glacier National Park, Vancouver, B.C., to Montreal over the Canadian Rockies, and Denver to Portland via Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

In its third year of operation, the private train carries travelers on scenic journeys in North America. Other tours include the Southwest’s famous parks - Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion - and a transcontinental ride, Los Angeles to Washington D.C.

The trains consists of 11 cars from the 1940s. Travelers are served gourmet meals on china and crystal in two vintage dining cars. In addition there are two club cars, one with a baby grand piano.

For information on American Orient Express train travel, call TCS Expeditions, (800) 727-7477.

Armchair travel

Visitors to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle can now take a hop on a couple of virtual flights. They just climb into a two-seat flight simulator cockpit and choose from Jet Intercept, P-51 Mustang or a space program, Survival 2006. Each ride is about four minutes, cost is $6.50 to $7.50 per person (in addition to the admission fee to the museum).

For recorded information about the Museum of Flight, call (206) 764-5720. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Thursdays when it’s open until 9 p.m.

Looking to the Gobi

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland is offering a nod to the past this spring when it brings in the “Giants of the Gobi,” an exhibit of rare and important dinosaur and mammal fossils from the Gobi desert of Inner Mongolia.

The collection contains 75 fossil specimens, including 16 complete dinosaurs and mammals. The centerpiece of the exhibit, a giant sauropod, measures 25 feet tall and 85 feet long.

Admission is $9.50, $8 for seniors and children. The exhibit opens March 1 and runs through the spring. For tickets, call (800) 992-8499. For information about the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, call (503) 797-4000.

Jazz even if it’s wet

The annual Dixieland Jazz Festival in Aberdeen, Wash., will go on - as usual - rain or shine, Feb. 14-16.

The 14th version of this jazz fest includes performances by nine Dixieland bands. For information, call the Rain or Shine Jazz Festival, (360) 533-2910.

Planning ahead to head north

It’s a long drive to Mount Robson Provincial Park, but the rewards are an uncrowded backcountry and mountains as stunningly beautiful as any in Jasper National Park just to the east.

The provincial park sits on the western slopes of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, north of the famed Columbia Icefields and Lake Louise. Because of its relative remoteness, the park draws only a fraction of the crowds that flock to Banff and Jasper.

Few tour companies operate in Mount Robson, but one of the primary companies, Mt. Robson Adventure Holidays, offers an array of guided activities in the park. Tourists can sign up for a three-day experience which includes a canoe trip, a rafting float trip and a guided hike. There’s also a three-day Berg Lake backpacking trip, which has a helicopter-in and hike-out option.

For a schedule of summer tours: Mt. Robson Adventure Holidays, Box 687P, Valemount, B.C., Canada, V0E 2Z0; (604) 566-4386 or fax (604) 566-4351.

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