19 hours on The Train

Thompson river from the train.

This was the experience that drew us to this tour.  We have always wanted to travel across Canada on the train.  Now that we have done a small portion of our "dream trip", I'm not so sure I want to spend 6-7 days on the train without getting off.

Back to our 19 hours.  I've mentioned before that it seems that the sun never goes down, so when we got settled in our compartment, we headed to the observation car to get a good view---- and all we saw was the city as we were leaving.  There were free snacks (fruit, cookies, juice) with champagne.  We tired of that after awhile--- we've been told that the good views aren't going to be seen until morning-- and went back to check out our "room".

Picture a 6 ft X8 to10ft cubicle with two upright padded chairs bolted to the floor.  We can see out the window and we face a tiny sink and camp style bathroom.  This is the day set-up.  We have a lady named Mona whose job on our car is to set up the beds at a certain time.  We were told to bring our carry-ons cuz our large checked luggage was staying on our bus and it was driving to meet us.   Most carry-ons are small, but there was nowhere to put them in our compartment.

No room to walk

We were constantly tripping over them or putting them in front of the bathroom door.  We finally figured this out, we left for awhile and "as if by magic" when we returned there were beds instead of chairs.  An upper bed with a ladder and a lower.  Now there really was almost no walking space.

We had to get ready for bed one at a time. (brush teeth, etc)  I was on the top bunk and kept asking N-- hand me this and hand me that.  I thought the rocking of the train might be soothing and I was right-- I slept soundly.  N on the other hand woke every time the train slowed or stopped on a siding for another train to pass.  And this happens frequently because a train loaded with coal or equipment is heavier and takes much longer to slow, so they have the "right of way".  Needless to say, N's night wasn't as restful as mine.

The meals on the train for our compartment are of two schedules.  Breakfast was "first come -first served"  Just go sit and order and eat.  Rather fancy, but as I was listening to the maitre 'd not nearly as elegant as it used to be (budget cuts).   There were 5 choices for breakfast meals and the food was brought quickly.  My food was very good and satisfying.  (I am kinda trying to keep track of Weight Watcher points, so I'll know, but it's not very accurate---- not expecting to lose, but hoping not to gain too much)

Lunch was another matter.  When we first got our tickets for the train we also received a lunch ticket for "2nd seating".  The first group ate at 11, we ate at 12:30.  The was the same set up with a meat choice, a chicken choice, a seafood choice and a vegan choice.  We had a dessert choice of brownie or cherry ice cream.     Good food, interesting experience.  The rest of the afternoon we watched in the observation car or other places on the train.

--- Oh I forgot to mention, we put a card on our outside door when we went to breakfast and voila our beds were gone.  If we hadn't put the card out, the lady would have left the beds for afternoon naps.  Again, some folks were going to be on the train for days.

That pretty much finishes the train story.  I'm glad we did it, I'm glad we didn't stay on the train for days.  But I think our tour company misrepresented the train ride in the title of the tour.  "Western Canada Via Rail" doesn't sound like 19 hours out of 9 days does it?  Enjoyable, but I'm glad to get onto the next part of the tour.  We're in Jasper, and it is a smallish town for skiers and mountain climbers.

We walked down to the tourist area and thought we might find something we "need" We had a hot dog and some ice cream and walked back maybe 10-12 blocks each way.  N bought a shirt, I found a gift for someone.

Vancouver City tour and Smart Cars

Tuesday

Our day began with a really nice buffet breakfast of eggs benedict, fruit, potatoes, toast, etc.    Then we began our Vancouver tour in which we rode around the city with our tour guide pointing out things of interest.  We had 3 bathroom/ photography breaks and ended up at the city market, where any possible kind of fruit and vegetable was available along with various meats, crafts, and a food court.  

This happened just after noon on a Tuesday and the market area (not small) was wall-to-wall people.  Almost impossible to navigate the aisles without pushing and shoving and being pushed and shoved.   Interesting, but way too crowded for my comfort.

 One of the points of interest we saw was Stanley Park (named for the Stanley Cup man)  It covers 1000 acres and has dense forest portions which were used to film parts of the X Files t.v.show.  Some of the heavily forested areas are inhabited by homeless people.  In this city, the homeless are tolerated- rather than harassed.  The park police check on them frequently (supposedly) to be sure they aren’t doing anything dangerous (fires during drought/ drug use, etc)  

One place we 
stopped in the park had numerous Totem poles set up with a “gift” shop offering “Indian” curios.  I found a shirt I loved.  Black with a large red embroidered Thunderbird—what was the catch?  The only size was XXL.   Now every shirt I see doesn’t measure up to that one. 

 I mentioned   the    Smart    Car     rental    business in a previous post, well, I began counting the white and blue Smarites with "Car 2 Go" on them and in a few hours we had seen 34.   Saw 17 other Smarts in the same time frame.  I’ll have to do some Google research about this business.

One unusual sight was a high rise in downtown Vancouver with trees in pots covering the roof.

We got to the train station just in time to board and get our “sleeper room”.

And the train is another story for another day.

 

 This is the Inuit symbol for mankind (people) available in paperweights, necklaces, etc.  This example was in front of a commercial building in Vancouver.

Vancouver Island and Victoria

Monday- July 6, '15
I'm not sure the sun ever went down.  It was bright when we went bed about 11 (1am Texas time) or so and was up when my eyes popped open at 4 Vancouver time.  It'll take some getting used to, but we'll have more opportunity to see things as we ride on the train tomorrow night.

There are lots of serious forest fires in Canada right now with 150 individual fires in British Columbia alone-- this makes the air thick where we are-- although we aren't threatened by the fires.  We didn't see the sun all day and spent the majority of the day with a haze on the horizon.

We learned lots about why there is such a large Chinatown here and why this is one of the most expensive cities in North America.

Seeing lots of blue and white Smart Cars on the streets, we asked our tour guide about them.  There is a company that has a "share a car" business using the Smarts.  If a person wants to rent one for an hour or so to get to work or run errands, they may (if they are a member) check an "app" on their phone to find out where the nearest one is parked on the street.
 They are charged by the minute and when they are finished with the car, they "clock out" and are no longer charged.  Sounds intriguing for city use.

We saw lots of land being used for various crops-- blueberries, melons, grapes, and heard about the cranberry bogs.  We passed a vineyard with the name "Church and State Vineyard"-- there's gotta be a story behind that.

We had an hour ferry trip to Vancouver Island.  Even tho' the sun was covered with smoke, the smell wasn't obvious.  With the boat moving and the wind blowing, it was rather chilly out on the observation deck.  The ferry had a large cafe and a snack bar for coffee, ice cream, etc.

The highlight of the day for me was the 2+ hours spent in the Butchart Gardens which cover 55 acres of a 130 acre estate.  The Garden was created from an idea Jennie Butchart had when she decided to beautify a worked out limestone quarry on their property which had supplied her husband's nearby Portland cement plant.  In 2004 the garden, in bloom for 100 years, was designated a "National Historic Site of Canada"
I will post pictures here, but the most amazing aspect to us was the juxtaposition of rare and common flowers and the amazing blend of color.  There is a Sunken Garden (the original quarry- which blooms because of tons of dirt brought in to create this garden), a Rose garden and a Japanese garden.  Many of our pictures do not do justice to what our eyes experienced.  And the aroma, of course, isn't captured by pictures.  It was sweet and heady, but not at all overpowering. What more can I say, it was breathtaking!

We left the garden and traveled to Victoria for a ride  around on the bus and time to explore the town and have lunch.  Nick had an avocado and shrimp sandwich and a cup of clam chowder (my comment- ugh), which he pronounced GOOD!  My tuna sandwich was very good, filling and just what I needed since it was now 2:30pm and we'd had breakfast between 6:30 and 7 am.  Ambled around, found ice cream (not as good as Blue Bell), and went to wait for the bus.

We repeated the process with the ferry ride and the drive back to Vancouver and were back in our rooms by 8:45 pm.  A really long tiring day, but we're getting our travelers' legs back-- it's been over 2 years since we've been on a tour like this.
Tomorrow is a bus tour of Vancouver, some free time and after supper we begin our train ride (just 19 hours).
We are packing an overnight bag to take on the train, while the large bags will be stored away- unreachable.   This laptop will be in the large bag, so I won't be posting til we get to our hotel in Jasper.  Should be a unique experience.

Travel Day-- continued- part 2

USA Women's soccer supporters

As we came back from eating lunch, we saw a large undulating group of people  in a park-like area across the street from our hotel.  We went over to see what was going on.  We had noticed lots of people in the streets walking with red white and blue clothing and face paint.  This gathering was the send-off for the women's soccer team which is in the World Cup finals against Japan.  There was chanting and jumping up and down and yelling.  Then the young athletes quietly walked through the throng to their waiting bus and drove away to the arena.
By the way, they won the world's championship on July 5th, and we watched.

We looked for a "Canada" cap for Nick- after asking the bell man for a store that might carry one.  We went into Winners a department/clothing store and he didn't find what he was looking for--- there were lots of Levi caps, and some with athletic symbols that didn't mean anything to us.




While he was looking at caps I found these unusual shoes in the men's athletic department.   The price tag said $80

Our hotel is next to a very old church and this sign was outside.  Sounds like a good idea to me---"Where Jazz meets the spirit"

 Supper and meeting our U of Illinois tour group was interesting.  These folks are members of the alumni group.  We met a retired navy captain and his lovely wife.  So many interesting people, can't wait to chat with them all.  The meal was nice with a choice of chicken, pasta or salmon.  When we finally got to our room, it was almost midnight Texas time.  We have an early morning, so off to bed.

Travel Day

Some of these pictures are small to fit in the space allotted.  If you want to enlarge them, click on the picture.  To get back to where you were reading, use the back arrow.   Now our adventure begins-------------

This day has gone very smoothly.  Super Shuttle texted me a map to show me where the van was and got here exactly on time.  We picked up another couple and got to the airport quickly.  Checking luggage went smoothly and security was a breeze.  No shoe taking off, no "take out your liquids", and no checking electronics.  We put our carry ons on the conveyer belt and away we went.  Slick as pie.   We had time to wait, so N got coffee and a breakfast sandwich and we walked around til time to board.  The flight was full, but uneventful.  When the crew was handing out paperwork for us to get into Canada, they ran out, so we had to do that after arriving.  The paper we finally filled out was fed into an electronic reader and we received a receipt thingy that we eventually gave an official.

Our tour guide Tom met us after we got our bags, we got in a taxi and checked into the hotel.  We ate at a Greek restaurant and came back for a nap.  We'll meet the rest of our traveling group  (from Illinois) at supper tonite.

We leave the hotel at 7:20 tomorrow morning and return at 8:30 pm-- long day on a bus, ferry and seeing Victoria island , Buchart Gardens and the city of Victoria.

July 4

We're leaving tomorrow for our Canadian adventure.  Hope  y'all will enjoy the trip with us.  Tomorrow-- Vancouver.

Saturday

Right after breakfast (yea! Oatmeal) we posed for a picture in our Living Water for the World tee shirts, all 70+ of us. 

We had our last “teaching group” meeting with answering questions that had come up during our time here and some “magic tricks” which include water.

Let’s talk about some of the people—one of my roommates is legally blind.  She gets around pretty well in the daytime, but at night she has to get a ride back to our room.  She has a phone app that asks her what she wants, cuz she can’t read the screen.  Each morning she asks it to give her the temperature and it tells her the temp in the room—it will if asked give her the outside temp.  It tells her the time, and reads her e-mails to her, etc.  A really great assistance for her.  We have a non-English speaker in one of the classes who has a translator speaking to him constantly, which is rather confusing and disconcerting until you get used to the additional “noise” while people are talking.  We have students from Chicago, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri and all the southern states especially Florida.   Seven Texans are here, our five and 2 more from Houston.  We have folks with a wealth of Living Water experience and others with experience with other projects.  We really can learn a lot from the “war stories” of others.

We are being encouraged by several staff folks to choose “their” special pet project country for our mission.  As yet, we are undecided—we have 8-10 hours on the drive back to hash this out. 

This afternoon the water guys gave us their report of what they learned and then my group presented a “water celebration” which is something that will be done when the system is producing purified water.

Supper was catfish and cole slaw, hush  puppies and baked potato.  I ate most of it. 

We discussed the attitudes that need to be changed when going in country and why we Americans seem to behave like elephants (taking over and asserting our way) 

We received our graduation certificates this evening and were commissioned to go on a mission trip. 

We’re packing up early in the morning, having breakfast at 8, Q and A at 9 and worship at 10 and hit the road at 11.  Our drive home will be 8-10 hours depending on traffic and our stops.