I realize that my tone while writing this is aimed at children even though my niece and nephew are now adults.
Toronto
Continuing his love for train travel, Brownie-Orange booked a trip aboard The Canadian. Since he hasn't taken a trip in awhile, he opted to do it in Prestige Class, which is the best experience offered. This will be a couple days in Toronto, four nights on the train, and then a couple nights in Vancouver.
Aunt Jeannette likes to get things moving on travel days so we all had to get up at 4am to make our first flight.
After arriving in Toronto and getting some lunch we had dessert in the gold lounge at the Fairmont Royal York hotel, right across the street from the train station.
Interestingly, the Toronto Union Station looks a lot like Chicago's Union Station from the outside.
Our trip included tickets to go up in Toronto's CN Tower. From here we took a photo of Roger's Stadium down below to get a sense of how high up it was. This was an extremely similar layout to the Hancock Building in Chicago.
The next day, we skipped a scheduled driving tour of the city to go straight to the Toronto Rail Museum. we saw several old engines and cars, drove a train simulator, got an explanation of a steam engine from one of its former engineers, and finally took a ride on a little train. That night we just went to bed early and got ready to board the train in the morning.
Looks at how big these wheels are!
Train Day 1
The station was right across the street from the hotel so it was super easy. Uncle Mike wanted to get photos of the train itself, but we had to wait in our room until they could give us some brief instructions, we'll get photos along the way.
The room is similar in size to an Amtrak Sleeper room, slightly larger and with a much smarter layout.
Here Brownie checks out some of the local commuter engines before we head out.
The train had just left the station when we get our general instructions and are invited to the Park Car for hors d'oeuvres and a drink to celebrate departure. The upper part of the car is called, "The Dome," because of the curved windows that give the best views.
Graffiti of Dop, just outside Toronto.
I don't recall an emergency saw on the Amtrak trains.
Beautiful views out of our huge window in the room.
Views from the top of the Park Car looking forward.
A couple old engines at a 'museum' along the way.
We had some really nice room attendants the first couple days. They arranged Brownie on the bed while we ate dinner.
Train Day 2
Most of the second day was spent wandering through tons of lakes, birch, and evergreens. This is an area regrowing after a forest fire.
This is a photo out of the back of the Park Car.
They announced when our sister train (Train 2) was passing by the other way. We are Train 1.
There are a lot fewer stops on Canada Rail than with Amtrak, but they tend to be a little bit longer as the train is serviced, which includes getting fuel. Since many of the places are remote they have to truck it in.
This is our room from the outside.
One of our friendly attendants got a photo of me from the back of the Park Car. See if you can zoom in and see Jeannette.
Back at the Toronto Rail Museum we picked up a pin and decided to pierce Brownie's ear for the remainder of this trip.
This was just before crossing the bridge into Winnipeg.
So cute!
Train Day 3
After a night of traveling we are well into the plains of Canada. This looks a lot like central Illinois, so the views aren't quite that exciting.
It wasn't all quite this flat, but not far off. So far we've seen a few bison farms, a coyote, and either a deer or young elk.
These two photos are special. Generally speaking, the Canadian Rail staff never let you get in front of the train. However, on the first day I was talking to one of our awesome attendants who introduced me to someone who's in management and let him know we were in Prestige Class. He said if I find him in Saskatoon, where he was getting off, he would take me to the front to get a photo. Two days later, we are being served lunch as we arrive at the Saskatoon station so I hurry up and eat before going outside. The first trip up and back I didn't see him, but on the second trip I saw him walk into the station and went to get him. He kept his promise and I was escorted to the front of the train. We waited for the fuel truck to finish before I was able to get a picture of our lead engine as well as a side picture of the second engine. This was a goal of mine since we boarded so I feel pretty lucky to have gotten it.
Train Day 4
Last Day!
Just after sunrise I tried to get a picture of the whole train from the Park Car.
On the fourth day we spent a lot of time crossing through the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately it was overcast with some low hanging clouds so we couldn't see many of the peaks.
Through the rain drops on the window you can see Pyramid Creek Falls. The train slows down for the brief moment you can get a glimpse.
We had a short, hour long stop in Jasper. If the train had be running on time we would have gotten 2-3 hours, but it was still a nice, quick visit.
Dop was able to get a few more shots of other train engines.
Interestingly, the Jasper train station had this neat little table showing the layout of our train, I wish I could've gotten a more straight-on photo.
A lot of people got off in Jasper to continue different types of vacations. As a result, the back of the Park Car was basically deserted for several hours.
Got this photo of an old CN Command Center caboose while we were stopped in Kamloops.
Vancouver
The train arrived in Vancouver, BC the next morning. We dropped our bags at the hotel and wandered around for a bit to kill time.
Dop was drawn, as if by some mysterious force, to visit the Gastown Steam Clock. Such a cool idea! Unfortunately it wasn't completely operational and was under repair.
We took the Seabus ferry to North Vancouver and back. This is a photo of Vancouver as we returned.
One last photo of train engines! These were operating in the rail yard by the ferry.
It's been awhile since Brownie had an adventure, so it was time to get out and take a trip! We wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest again to see friends so we booked an Airbnb near Port Townsend for a few days and also planned to visit Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier for a couple nights.
The first night we stayed in Tacoma, WA just south of Seattle. Since we had to get up at 4:00am(!!!) for our flight, we had some time in the evening after we arrived so we went to see a movie. They had recliners in the theater!!!
Another reason to stop in Tacoma was to visit the Museum of Glass. We've watched both seasons of the competition show "Blown Away," so we're basically experts in blown glass now. On the way to the museum, Brownie was almost eaten by a bird!
Also, to get to the museum we had to cross the Bridge of Glass which crosses the highway. On top is displayed a bunch of amazing glass pieces. This is the kind of stuff we expected to see IN the museum, but being displayed in the outdoor lighting was really cool.
Inside they have a fully equipped glass studio and in-house glass artists that you can watch make stuff. We didn't stay long because it was super hot in there.
You're basically inside a giant chimney:
There was way too much awesome stuff to show, but here were a couple highlights for us. First is a glass marble maze that actually had 2-3 different paths the marbles could take. Next is fragrance sample case which is interesting for it's history (ask Jeannette), but also in how small all of the identical bottles are. Finally, they also had some neon signs, the one of two snakes fits us because of our love of reptiles.
Our Airbnb (rental cabin/house) was about 30min outside of Port Townsend, located on a private beach. It was gorgeous!
In addition to the deer, there was a bald eagle in the area that would perch on the tree out back and a coyote we saw just on the other side of the fence.
Dop on the beach:
Giant slugs at the rental... it turns out, the soil is too acidic for snails to make shells, but slugs are just fine:
Panoramic view from the beach.
We stopped for a beer at the Port Townsend Brewery and they were both delicious. The main shipyard in Port Townsend is home to Samson Boat Company which is run be Leo, a guy we've been following on Youtube for the past couple years. He's been restoring/rebuilding a wooden sailing yacht. Unfortunately, they're popular enough and busy enough that they don't give tours of the shop.
After three nights it was time to head to Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier. It's not really that far away, but the curvy mountain roads make the drive take awhile.
Whoops... we misjudged the season. While it's already the middle of June, the snow hasn't melted enough at the elevation we were staying at. This is the view outside our window:
In fact, it was actually snowing when we arrived with another inch of accumulation over night. It was cloudy the first two days so we couldn't see the mountain at all. The last time Dop was here he was able to take some trails, but this was what the trail entrance looked like. If you zoom in you can see the sign.
Paradise Inn was opened in 1917. It's a really cool structure (which I think is shown in a previous post). Here's us sitting across from each other at a big table with massive chairs.
Finally, on the morning of the last day the sun came out! These birds visited us while we ate breakfast, the blue one is a Stellar Jay (thanks Mom!) It was over 100 degrees back home, but we were enjoying the cool mountain air.
Mount Rainier:
Narada Falls was super clear since it's all basically just snow melt water.
I'm pretty sure this river/stream came from Narada Falls as well. You can see all the rocks deposited from when the glaciers melted.
The moss!!!
Just a little further down stream, looking for interesting rocks.
Finally, as we were leaving we saw some pencil lead art in the airport:
Overall it was a pretty good trip with good food and good friends. Brownie had a good time, but he said next time he'd prefer to just stay in one general location rather than travel again mid-vacation. I think I agree.
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