Last Stop - Vancouver

   I spent the day walking the downtown area of Vancouver; it's an interesting and very good looking city, even in the rain. I did some souvineer shopping in the Gastown section where one of the sidewalk attractions is a steam powered clock. I also wandered down to the harbor where high rise buildings are taking over the landscape. Most of the recent Winter Olympic events took place away from downtown but there are a couple of reminders around. There's also an active seaplane base with a busy schedules of takeoffs and landings right downtown.

   This is the last stop on my trip, Canada was interesting and fun but I'm tired and ready to head home. Eastbound flights from the west coast tend to leave early so it'll be a quiet night for me and a very early ride on the Skytrain (Vancouver's new light rail system) to the airport. I'll be signing off the travel blog for a while to catch up on a growing list of house projects. As always, thanks for reading and your comments. Have a good fall season.

Greyhound from Banff to Vancouver

   It was a long trip from Banff to Vancouver, nearly 500 miles and there wasn't an easy way so I found myself on a Greyhound bus for 13 hours. The trip turned out better than I thought; I had a fairly comfortable seat and a big picture window. I did see some different wildlife out the window, big horn sheep, a couple of bald eagles, salmon jumping in a nearby river and a bear roaming the shoreline probably looking for a meal.

   I got into Vancouver late, it was 10:30 by the time I found my hotel. I was here a few years ago on a business trip so I know the basic layout of the city, I'll walk around town today maybe in Stanley Park and hope the rain lets up. But that's the reason I've been lugging around my umbrella all trip.

Banff, Alberta

   I woke up in Banff this morning with 4" of snow on the ground. Most trees still had summer leaves on them and the extra weight caused some limbs to break and fall into the streets. During the day the snow melted and the clouds thinned out enough to see some of the mountain tops that surround the town. Banff is a pretty resort town when clouds hide the mountains, but on a clear day, it's spectacular.

   Tomorrow I head to Vancouver and the last couple of days on my trip. I was glad to spend an extra night in Banff to rest up. I'm starting to feel it after being away from home for 4 of the last 5 weeks.

Icefields Parkway, Jasper to Banff

   The day started in Jasper and my two goals were sightseeing in the mountains and making my way about 100 miles south to Banff. I found a tour company that picked me up at my hotel in Jasper and dropped me off in Banff after a whole day of sightseeing. What a country !

   The tour drove the Icefields Parkway, a mountain road that's advertised as one of the most scenic drives in the world. Jasper and Banff are around 4,000 ft elevation and the parkway in between rises up to over 7,000 ft at the Columbia Glacier and the coral blue Lake Louise.

   As we started the drive, it was snowing and the clouds were just above the tree tops so we couldn't see the mountains.  But the snow covered trees were a pretty site in themselves. We stopped at the Athabasca Falls just hours after the glacier ice melt starts it's journey north covering 6,000 miles where the river empties into the Arctic Ocean.

   Next stop was the nature center at the Columbia Icefields Glacier where tours are available on giant buggies that take you up for a walk on the glacier ice.

   We continued south to Lake Louise with the 5 star Fairmont Hotel overlooking the blue water. From there it was an hour drive to Banff and on the way we saw blue sky and the sun break through as the clouds hung in the valleys below the mountain tops.

   Tomorrow I have another day in Banff while I figure out my last leg of the trip to Vancouver.  

  

Winnipeg to Jasper

 



   On Saturday after two nights in Winnipeg, I boarded the train again at noon to continue my trip west. In just about 24 hours we went from farmland to prairie grasslands to the Rocky Mountains, and sunset over the prairie was beautiful. On the way up into the Rockies we got a little surprise from the weather, snow!

   When I was first planning the trip I wondered if I should get off the train a couple more times and visit the cities of Saskatoon and Edmonton. But between you and me, after looking at them both as we passed through in the night, I'm glad I didn't.

   Jasper isn't a big town but it's in the middle of a huge national park that straddles the continental divide for hundreds of miles south to the Montana border. In addition to winter skiing, there are glaciers, waterfalls, mountain lakes and major wildlife to be seen. But the forecast is for snow overnight, so I'll be peeking out my window early in the morning.

   I'm finished with my train riding for now. Tomorrow I take a sightseeing tour from Jasper down the Icefields Parkway 100 miles south to Banff, another ski resort. I'll spend a night or two there hoping to get a clear night sky to look at before I leave for Vancouver, my last stop.

   Have a good week all ............

Winnipeg

    I spent two days in Winnipeg exploring the city waiting for the next train west. It rained my first day and I was tired too, so I didn't get around to see as much as I wanted to. It's a nice city, not too big, with about 600 thousand living there, and that's most of people in the whole Manitoba Province.

   It's friendly, as they tell everyone on their licence plates and the electric cords hanging out of the front of cars here tell you something else too. I stayed near the university and part of my walk was down to where the Red River meets the Assiniboine (The Forks); there's a cool new bridge there. I was surprised to hear from a friendly local named Ken that the Red River flows north and empties into the Hudson Bay.

   Local TV includes the US stations from North Dakota; the hot news tonight is the frost warnings and tips for suburban homes on how to keep their yards bear-free.

   Tomorrow at noon I'll be back on the train. I expect I've seen the last of the boreal forests that help the world breathe and I'll start seeing the prairie farmlands that help the world eat.

Toronto to Winnipeg

  
   The cross country train is really popular. Tourists love the sleeper cars, panoramic rooftop views, and the good food in the dining car. The train also has a couple of economy class cars where passangers can come along for the ride if they sleep in their seats overnight. Since I am making this trip alone and on a budget, I bought the cheap ticket of course.

   After the high tech train from Montreal, I was a little surprised the cross country train had no internet connection. In fact, with the route going through thick forest with only a few small towns, there wasn't even a cell phone signal after we got outside of Toronto. It felt strange to be so out of touch from everyone for two nights in a row.

   Not being an experienced train rider, I don’t know how well I’d do with 4 consectutive nights sleeping in one seat, so I decided to break up the trip by getting off a couple of times on the way to Vancouver. But since the train doesn't make the trip every day (3 trips a week only), when I get off I have to wait a couple of days until I can continue on. Since I'm hoping to keep the trip to around 2 weeks, I have to be careful where to get off for breaks.

   I decided to make my next stop (after two nights aboard) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It's about halfway across the country and on a map, it's directly north of North Dakota. I found a room for 2 nights at a downtown hotel and I can explore the city before catching the next train on Saturday. I'll bypass the next cities of Saskatoon and Edmonton to get off next in the Rockies at Jasper National Park. From Jasper, I hope to travel by bus or car down the Columbia Icelands Parkway to Banff (above Glacier Park in Montana) and from there hop back aboard a train to Vancouver.

   During the daylight on Wednesday, Ontario seemed like thick endless forest, broken up every couple of miles by small and medium sized lakes. The route was a couple of hundred miles north of the Great Lakes and is heavily populated by black bears. Despite tips on where to look from the train folks, I didn't manage to see any, mostly just birds around the lake areas. Maybe I'll have better luck spotting wildlife later on the trip.

Canada Sept 2010 - Montreal

  

   Ever since first coming to Montreal when the kids were in high school, I loved the city. When Becky was in college there in the 90’s it gave us opportunities to come back but it’s been a long time since then. With Mary going to Ireland this month to visit family, I decided it would be a good time to see parts of Canada I have never been to, and Montreal would be a fun place to start.

   With a little poking around on travel web sites I found out that seeing Canada by train wasn’t expensive. I’ve been to most of coastal Canada (east and west) but I’ve never seen the provinces in the middle. Northern Ontario and the praries of Manitoba and Saskatchewan would be tough to drive because of the long distances, but the train would make it easier. Nothing bad would happen if I dozed off on a train, except maybe more cookie crumbs on my shirt. There was even a cheap ticket from Wilmington, Delaware to Montreal if I started out at 5:00 am on Sunday; one way $78 all the way to Montreal (senior fare).

   I got a ride to the Wilmington Station but it was so early (4:00 am) that the doors were locked, so I sat on the steps with bag at my feet until it opened and the train arrived (on time). I had quick but unhealthy breakfast at Penn Station in NYC and waited for the 8:30 am train to Montreal. The route was pretty, going up the Hudson River passing Albany and the west shore of Lake Champlain.

   In Montreal, I had a good rate at a decent hotel in town close to the train station and I scheduled a day and a half to poke around the city to see how much it’s changed in 15 years. I walked around the McGill area and saw new construction on campus, otherwise it looked as good as always. The Old City down by the port has kept it’s charm while a few new hotels and a convention center were built between the old city and the downtown section; it all looks so well done it’s even prettier than before. I visited the Notre Dame Basilica and still think it’s the one of the most beautful churches I’ve ever seen, even after being in Rome and Florence earlier this year. The cross atop Mount Royal was lit at night as usual, but it wasn’t clearly visible because of rain and fog, so I had to settle for a daytime picture only. On Tuesday I was back at the Montreal train station for my next hop to Toronto.

   Montreal's station was very nice and busy. It's located right downtown and connected underground to a business and shopping area. The station has about 30 shops and restaurants next door so it was a comfortable place to sit with a coffee and free wi-fi to wait for the 3:30 train to Toronto, a high speed five hour run to the southwest. The seats were great with big clean windows; there was even a computer plug and internet wi-fi on the train.

   I had to go through Toronto to connect with The Canadian, the popular cross country ride to Vancouver. Toronto's station wasn't nearly as nice as Montreal, but it was easy to make my connections and get settled into my seat for the 10:00 pm departure with two overnights to my next stop in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Carolinas - August 2010

   My travel blog picks up again from the last week in August 2010 … I was making the annual trip to Hilton Head for golf and beach time with my good friends, but decided not to do the 12 hour drive in one shot down I-95. I’ve been wanting to see the Outer Banks and take the ferries across since the last time I went to Hatteras with my father on a fishing trip in the early 1970’s. Thirty seven years later seemed long enough to wait.

   Along the way I was thinking about places I've always wanted to stop and explore, one of them is the Wright Brothers Memorial near Kitty Hawk, where man’s first powered flight was made. There’s an old but still impressive monument and a small museum documenting how the Ohio bicycle makers started tinkering in their shop during winters and managed to become the first men ever to build and fly an airplane.

   I continued south toward Buxton where the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands. Not long ago it was moved inland a few hundred yards to protect it from beach erosion. From there I arrived at the ferry dock and waited in line for about 90 minutes to catch the free ferry to Okracoke Island. The 45 minute ride was smooth and landed me on the north side of the island where it was a 20 minute drive to the main town. There I got stuck in a small traffic jam behind golf carts on the main street. It was dinnertime and people were all headed out to eat.

   Since the hotels on the island didn't look all that appealing, I decided to go and see the terminal for the Cedar Island Ferry to the North Carolina mainland. I had a reservation for next morning, but they could get me onboard for the 6 pm departure, so I decided to skip dinner and go. This ride was a beautiful two and a half hours but wasn't quite as smooth as the first. I got out of the car for pictures and locked the door out of habit and the rocking motion of the ferry set off my car alarm. I had to run back embarrased to turn it off . Once ashore it turned out to be a very rainy night so I stopped along the road for bad fast food and a cheap motel to catch up on sleep.

   Next morning I needed to find a good breakfast and afterward turned south toward Charleston where I had a great dinner and a fun evening walking around the old part of town before bedtime. Next day I had a tee time reserved at Kiawah Island and played a round at Osprey Point before finishing my trip through Beaufort and finally into Hilton Head later that afternoon.

   Next day I met Joe & Fran when they arrived after all night driving. Next came Steve & Marianne with Ted & Theresa in the back seat, and not much later Steve & Sandy with Janet & Al arrived. Since Mary had to work the first part of the week, she flew down to Savannah on Wednesday to spend a couple of days relaxing. We figured out it’s been twelve years in a row that we’ve all been making this trip to Carolina for golf and sun and we look forward to it every year still (smile).