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June 8, 2018
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Whew, what an adventure!
As I said two weeks ago, I suspected I was going to have to skip last week's journal because of our Canadian journey. And that's what happened. So, to catch up:
Our train trip started out with Lara dropping us off at the Union Station in Portland where we took the train to Vancouver, B.C. We didn't arrive there until 11:30 p.m. so we caught a cab and made our way to the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. It was a beautiful room and such a view of the harbor. It is too bad we were there for only 5 hours, as we had to get up by 5:30 a.m. and make our way to the train station to catch the Rocky Mountaineer to the Canadian Rockies. After boarding the train with a lot of fanfare, we had a nice breakfast in the dining car. Dave had Eggs Benedict and I enjoyed Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs while riding through the picturesque Frasier River valley, including Hell's Gate on the Frasier River (wild white water). I think we were on the train for 13 hours the first day as we had to stop and wait for freight trains to go by as they seemed to have priority.
We finally made it to our first stop in Kamloops. The bus took us to the Ramada Inn this time. After staying at the Fairmont the night before, we were really disappointed in the accommodations. The place was dingey and dirty. We had to get up and leave for the train at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. While we were in Kamloops we were contacted by the travel agency that booked this trip - telling us that the train from Jasper to Toronto had been cancelled. We of course were disappointed as this was meant to be a "train trip". They were working on making other accommodations as we continued to make our way to Banff following the Thompson River. We sat back and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, traveling along six different rivers, including the Columbia. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular and Dave got a lot of nice pictures. We saw interesting things like the twin spiral tunnels that enable the trains to gain altitude in a short space. Oh, yeah - and a black bear in sitting in a discarded tire along the rail tracks! We crossed into Alberta at the Continental Divide and it was all downhill from there.
We arrived at the Lake Louise station and waited quite a while before they informed us that a freight train ahead of us had derailed and so they bused us to Banff. Well, because of the delay, it was late again when we arrived and our itinerary said we needed to board our tour bus at 8:10 the next morning. We said good bye to our Rocky Mountaineer train crew.
Our accommodation at Banff was at the Fairmont Banff Springs which was like a castle. The place has 750 rooms and we got lost and couldn't find the lobby! We ate breakfast at the hotel. It was okay, but none-the-less, it was still a buffet and with tip, came to $85.68 Canadian! We resolved to NOT eat there the next day! There was mass confusion at the bus gate at the hotel. Tours were all leaving at the same time and none of the buses were marked. The only thing we had to go on was our packet with the bus company's name on it. Well, it turned out that about half the buses were from the same company! We eventually found the right bus and were pleasantly surprised to meet some of our Rocky Mountaineer passengers on board.
From the attraction voucher provided by our tour agency: "Take a guided bus tour through the towering mountains of Rundle, Tunnel, Cascade and Norquey while learning about the natural attractions of the wind-shaped hoodoos. Surprise Corner, along Tunnel Mountain Drive delivers a breathtaking view of the valley without comparison. Experience an 8 minute gentle ride to the summit of Sulphur Mountain in a four-person, fully enclosed gondola. A spectacular view and picture taking opportunity await you at the top of this 360 degree panoramic vantage of Bow Valley." "Breathtaking" is a word we have overused that day. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular!
After yesterday's experience with the spendy breakfast, we decided to go quick today with an egg sandwich on a hamburger roll, fruit and coffee. Still, $25.05 Canadian. While we were eating, the cell rang from the travel agency. Not much to report yet, except we would be transported from Jasper to Edmonton to fly to Toronto. We caught our tour bus where we went on a hike in Johnston Canyon, stopped for lunch at Emerald Lake and then they dropped us off at Lake Louise at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Again, a very nice place (and equally expensive).
The next day, we took another tour seeing more of the sites and got to take a snow-cat to the edge of the Athabasca Glacier, where we took a short "ice-walk". After that, we stopped at a lookout that had a glass-bottom walkway that extended out over an extremely steep canyon. I got to the edge and looked down and decided that I would just look at the photos that Dave took. I don't do heights very well.
Then it was off to Jasper, Alberta - population 4500. We stayed at the Jasper Park Lodge which is about 10 minutes out of town. That remote location put a crimp in our dining options, so we splurged for dinner and had steaks at the lodge. $115.28 Canadian. The rooms at the Lodge were in cabins spread out across the property overlooking a lake. I was told that the Queen stays here when she comes to Canada and the Rockies. We spent a couple of nights at the Lodge before we were taken to Edmonton to catch our flight to Toronto. Another bus, but we at least knew how we were were going to get there. On the way, a half dozen Bighorn sheep were grazing alongside the road and the driver stopped for a photo op. It is hard to admit that we were getting blase about this incredible scenery, but we sorta were. It's all beautiful, but after a week in the Canadian Rockies, we didn't jump and grab the camera at every scenic view anymore. First, the scenic view is EVERYWHERE, and second, we have a ton of photos of pretty much everything. Also, we had a low overcast day, so the upper half of everything was in the clouds. Most of the time during our trip, the weather was beautiful.
So, we spent the night in Edmonton at a Fairmont and went to the airport the next day for our flight. We arrived in Toronto and checked into yet another Fairmont which was very nice. This hotel is downtown and was the biggest room we had on our trip. It was a suite with King size bed and lots of room to spread out with chairs and desks, two tv's and two bathrooms. We decided to take the Hop-on, Hop-off tour bus the next day to get the lay of the land. Toronto is a huge city and I loved all the tall buildings and architecture of some of the newer buildings. We learned a lot about the history of Toronto and also found out that the natives don't pronounce the second "t" in Toronto but say tor-ON-oh. It's said they skip the second "t" because it stands for "tourist"!! We turned in early because we were off to Niagara Falls the next morning.
We caught the two-hour tour bus to Niagara Falls. When we arrived, we went straight to the Niagara Falls sightseeing boat - the "Hornblower" - and got a pretty good place at the forward end of the upper deck. We were handed plastic ponchos and they really came in handy. The falls is everything we thought it would be and more. The scope of the falls, the sounds and most of all, the spray as we went right into the horseshoe of the Canadian Falls was - to say the least - impressive. The spray when going under the falls is more intense that the hardest rainstorm you could be in. The trip lasted less than a half hour then we were taken to the "View of the Falls" restaurant at the top of the Sheridan Hotel for lunch. After lunch, we boarded the bus again to see the rest of the area. We stopped for a photo op at the top of the Canadian falls and that was interesting, watching the water as it plunged over the precipice. We stopped in the village of Niagara on the Lake and looked around at some of the quaint shops and indulged in gelato.
Monday was the last day of our trip. We met with a friend that we worked with at the Blazers a long, long time ago. John Lashway is now living near Toronto (Burlington) and had made arrangements to take us to the CN Tower. We walked to the Tower and got on the elevators. It was pretty much like a rocket launch. The CN Tower is three times higher than the Space Needle in Seattle and the view is amazing and well worthwhile. John pointed out the sights of Toronto and the surrounding countryside from the top. On a clearer day you can see New York!
After leaving the CN tower, we walked to the John Astor's restaurant where we had tea and lemonade while we waited for another friend, Paul Gatt who joined us later. Paul is the radio engineer we hire when the Blazers play in Toronto. Then we headed back to the hotel where we met our driver to take us to the airport.
We had plenty of time at the airport but had to go through security and customs before heading to our gate. We had a 5-hour flight home and we were glad to get the three-hours back that we lost. We were so tired of flying and Ibuprofen was calling our names. Lara picked us up at the airport and we spent the night with her. Dave had a doctor's appointment in the morning and a CT scan in the afternoon before we drove home.
When we got home, Luis and his crew were working on finishing up the siding on the church. They got the church painted but ran out of paint to finish up the house where we had put in new windows. They were also cleaning up the area along the boat barn, removing some old bricks that had been there and smoothing out the area with the our Kubota tractor. They LOVE to run that tractor! They will come back Saturday to finish up. Before I could unpack our bags, I had to fix dinner for everyone. Vacation is over!
It is great to be back home and I would recommend this train trip to everyone. The beautiful Canadian Rockies are special and I will always remember them.
