bobnjulie
Lead Service Attendant
Warning! It's going to be long.... I'm still working on it!
[SIZE=12pt]Canada Via Rail Trip Report[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]So it was supposed to be a bucket list trip…. and it was more challenging and more wonderful than I could have imagined.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I always overbook and realized that when traveling with seniors that perhaps less is more. I learned to modify near the end and still ended up with a wonderful, priceless trip.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We woke up at 2:50 am in order to reach the airport for our 6 am flight out of SFO so we immediately started our trip off on the wrong foot – physically. The United flight was actually quite nice – Directv at our individual seats worked well but ear buds do not work well with our seniors so I finally got smart and let them use our headphones so that they could listen to a movie. Lots of issues with channel and volume controls but with me standing on the seat and leaning over to help, finally got the “kids” settled down. One funny mishap… my mother accidentally changed the channel during a crucial scene – and completely forgetting about wearing headphones – caused a VERY loud fuss. More standing on a seat got the channel corrected… whew![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I had asked and they agreed to the earlier morning flight so that we could have a longer stopover in Newark so that I could have a quick visit with my friend and her wonderful children. It worked out wonderfully and was a highlight of our trip. Newark has a great air train network and has food outside of security so that we were able to sit down and have an extended meal…. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]The second leg was shorter but seemed longer since we were all running on fumes. We finally arrived at Halifax around 11:30. The walk is VERY long to the terminal and I finally gave in and settled in a wheelchair. They wheeled my group straight to the front – no line standing- and we were out of customs in a very quick time. I was confused about when to return the wheelchair and they said “Return it when you’re done.” I was wheeled over to the Alt Hotel – which is attached to the airport and was able to keep it until the next morning. How wonderful and thoughtful! It truly is a great airport! We loved our stay at the Alt Hotel. Beautiful but too short of a stay. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We got to keep our luggage cart and used it to wheel our luggage to the MetroX stop. They need exact change for the bus so we may have overpaid for four but can’t even imagine how much it would have cost us for a cab. Again, well worth the money and the stop is very convenient. The bus ride was quick and smooth. Now for a bump in the road: the one bus we needed only ran on the hour and I wanted to stop at Tim Horton’s for breakfast. The Tim Horton’s I thought we were going to go to was in a mall that was closed on Sunday! Eek…. So began a trek through a very chilly and blustery Halifax in search of a Tim Horton’s – much harder than could be imagined. I was fearful that my little ducks would organize a mutiny…. Luckily we found one and filled our tummies with warm food and some hot joe [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]J[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] We ended up just finishing the walk to the Halifax Railroad station. We checked our bags and had our other bags held. The seniors opted out of any more touring and snuggled in to the business lounge for a cat nap. We walked out to the boardwalk and enjoyed reading some of the history of Halifax. It’s a beautiful city and we were sad that we couldn’t explore more but due to lack of sleep/jet lag, we headed back and crashed in the business lounge. I was looking at my little troop , cat napping and thought “It’s only the first day and I’ve already killed my family!” and started giggling. That sent me scurrying to enjoy the harpist and flautist who were the performers for the train. Lovely atmosphere and set us up perfectly for an exciting departure. My husband finally queued up and got us the 1:30 for lunch. My advice? Utilize the golf cart if you are in doubt of your mobility. It’s a hike out to the train. We were very pleased with our bedroom with shower but I immediately ran back to the Park Car to video our departure from Halifax. After an on-time departure, we dropped the top bunks down and settled two of our party in for naps and the other two hiked back to the Park Car to enjoy the scenery as well as riding in a dome car! My mother disobeyed direct orders to not try to get down off the top bunk and had a bit of a tumble. Safety warning for newbies: Always come down facing the ladder. It’s the only safe and secure way to come down. She was well enough to walk down to lunch – which was yummy! After lunch, I got to have my share of naptime while my husband bonded with other passengers in the dome car. We let the “kids” continue sleeping while I walked the train after I woke up. Dinner was another enjoyable meal and then we all went to the dome car to try and spot moose. No wildlife but spectacular scenery and a lovely crowd. Bed and sleep were just wonderful. A side note about dinner: I had the soup and roll for dinner since I’d heard great things about it and was told to enjoy it since they were changing suppliers! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I woke up early and showered and headed for the wifi lounge to finalize our plans for Montreal when I realized that we were backing up! I started taking pictures and then realized I should be in the dome car so off I boogied about 8 cars to the dome car and dang if I didn’t get the engineer working with the other in backing up. Really a cool moment – even as the video will testify to how breathless I was! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]A bit of a giggle! The dreaded omelet was on the menu and I forgot to warn my little ducks! I, of course, ordered the French toast which was yummy! My mother –ever so blunt – was very loud about wondering what the heck she was being served. Our delightful server responded that it was an omelet – but one that had been run over by a steam roller! I giggled over that line for a while! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We arrived on time in to Montreal and first checked in with the business lounge. They told us that we could use the lounge but that we would have to pay the $6 for checking our luggage for the day. We shed our load and off we went. We walked down just a few blocks and caught the Hop On Hop Off Tour of Montreal. I’d wanted to see Notre Dame and so we hopped off at that stop. It was a real hike up the hill and ended any more walking since our seniors were struggling. The church is so beautiful. I would have liked to have lingered some more but since the walking was taking much longer than anticipated, I moved us back to the bus stop in a timely manner. Since it started raining, we ended up in a closed coach but still managed to take plenty of pictures. Lots of beautiful sights and pretty extensive for a two hour tour. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We walked back to the lounge, grabbed McDonald’s, reclaimed our luggage and set our seniors in the lounge while we explored the station. Really interesting all the different shops – especially the food areas! Back together in the lounge, we again had a bit of a rest before our departure to Toronto. We decided to pay extra for business class and would highly recommend it! Wonderful service, great food. They couldn’t do enough for us. We got in to Toronto and were shocked to find out that there was no place to store our luggage! We had two redcaps: one pushed me in a wheelchair and one went to claim our luggage. We all met at the cab stand and had a delightful driver. Could he take us to our hotel so we could drop our luggage and then take us to Rogers Center so we could watch the Blue Jays game? No problems… no worries. A real gem! He took us to our hotel, waited for us to get the luggage in our hotel and then dropped us very close to our gate. I asked him about safety walking around Toronto and again no worries – no problems. We ran inside with our tickets in hand only to find that 2 hours in to the game, they were in the bottom of the 8th! We just stood and watched the final 3 outs and found out that the Toronto pitcher had a complete game shut out! Looks like SF Giants fans bring luck to the home teams! We were at least able to walk around the inside while trying to find the correct gate to exit and enjoy talking to the very friendly folks who work there. It’s a shame since it was a perfect night for baseball with the dome wide open! We ended up walking to our hotel – Hotel Victoria. It was a hike but since we’d been sitting all day and it was such a lovely night, I thought it was a nice night cap![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We’d planned on a late morning start which everyone enjoyed – except for yours truly – whose sleep was rudely interrupted by a 6 am alarm – which went off again 6 minutes later! After finally unplugging the stupid thing, dreamland was a thing of the past. Late breakfast at Tony Horton’s…[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Canada Via Rail Trip Report[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]So it was supposed to be a bucket list trip…. and it was more challenging and more wonderful than I could have imagined.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I always overbook and realized that when traveling with seniors that perhaps less is more. I learned to modify near the end and still ended up with a wonderful, priceless trip.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We woke up at 2:50 am in order to reach the airport for our 6 am flight out of SFO so we immediately started our trip off on the wrong foot – physically. The United flight was actually quite nice – Directv at our individual seats worked well but ear buds do not work well with our seniors so I finally got smart and let them use our headphones so that they could listen to a movie. Lots of issues with channel and volume controls but with me standing on the seat and leaning over to help, finally got the “kids” settled down. One funny mishap… my mother accidentally changed the channel during a crucial scene – and completely forgetting about wearing headphones – caused a VERY loud fuss. More standing on a seat got the channel corrected… whew![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I had asked and they agreed to the earlier morning flight so that we could have a longer stopover in Newark so that I could have a quick visit with my friend and her wonderful children. It worked out wonderfully and was a highlight of our trip. Newark has a great air train network and has food outside of security so that we were able to sit down and have an extended meal…. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]The second leg was shorter but seemed longer since we were all running on fumes. We finally arrived at Halifax around 11:30. The walk is VERY long to the terminal and I finally gave in and settled in a wheelchair. They wheeled my group straight to the front – no line standing- and we were out of customs in a very quick time. I was confused about when to return the wheelchair and they said “Return it when you’re done.” I was wheeled over to the Alt Hotel – which is attached to the airport and was able to keep it until the next morning. How wonderful and thoughtful! It truly is a great airport! We loved our stay at the Alt Hotel. Beautiful but too short of a stay. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We got to keep our luggage cart and used it to wheel our luggage to the MetroX stop. They need exact change for the bus so we may have overpaid for four but can’t even imagine how much it would have cost us for a cab. Again, well worth the money and the stop is very convenient. The bus ride was quick and smooth. Now for a bump in the road: the one bus we needed only ran on the hour and I wanted to stop at Tim Horton’s for breakfast. The Tim Horton’s I thought we were going to go to was in a mall that was closed on Sunday! Eek…. So began a trek through a very chilly and blustery Halifax in search of a Tim Horton’s – much harder than could be imagined. I was fearful that my little ducks would organize a mutiny…. Luckily we found one and filled our tummies with warm food and some hot joe [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]J[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] We ended up just finishing the walk to the Halifax Railroad station. We checked our bags and had our other bags held. The seniors opted out of any more touring and snuggled in to the business lounge for a cat nap. We walked out to the boardwalk and enjoyed reading some of the history of Halifax. It’s a beautiful city and we were sad that we couldn’t explore more but due to lack of sleep/jet lag, we headed back and crashed in the business lounge. I was looking at my little troop , cat napping and thought “It’s only the first day and I’ve already killed my family!” and started giggling. That sent me scurrying to enjoy the harpist and flautist who were the performers for the train. Lovely atmosphere and set us up perfectly for an exciting departure. My husband finally queued up and got us the 1:30 for lunch. My advice? Utilize the golf cart if you are in doubt of your mobility. It’s a hike out to the train. We were very pleased with our bedroom with shower but I immediately ran back to the Park Car to video our departure from Halifax. After an on-time departure, we dropped the top bunks down and settled two of our party in for naps and the other two hiked back to the Park Car to enjoy the scenery as well as riding in a dome car! My mother disobeyed direct orders to not try to get down off the top bunk and had a bit of a tumble. Safety warning for newbies: Always come down facing the ladder. It’s the only safe and secure way to come down. She was well enough to walk down to lunch – which was yummy! After lunch, I got to have my share of naptime while my husband bonded with other passengers in the dome car. We let the “kids” continue sleeping while I walked the train after I woke up. Dinner was another enjoyable meal and then we all went to the dome car to try and spot moose. No wildlife but spectacular scenery and a lovely crowd. Bed and sleep were just wonderful. A side note about dinner: I had the soup and roll for dinner since I’d heard great things about it and was told to enjoy it since they were changing suppliers! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I woke up early and showered and headed for the wifi lounge to finalize our plans for Montreal when I realized that we were backing up! I started taking pictures and then realized I should be in the dome car so off I boogied about 8 cars to the dome car and dang if I didn’t get the engineer working with the other in backing up. Really a cool moment – even as the video will testify to how breathless I was! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]A bit of a giggle! The dreaded omelet was on the menu and I forgot to warn my little ducks! I, of course, ordered the French toast which was yummy! My mother –ever so blunt – was very loud about wondering what the heck she was being served. Our delightful server responded that it was an omelet – but one that had been run over by a steam roller! I giggled over that line for a while! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We arrived on time in to Montreal and first checked in with the business lounge. They told us that we could use the lounge but that we would have to pay the $6 for checking our luggage for the day. We shed our load and off we went. We walked down just a few blocks and caught the Hop On Hop Off Tour of Montreal. I’d wanted to see Notre Dame and so we hopped off at that stop. It was a real hike up the hill and ended any more walking since our seniors were struggling. The church is so beautiful. I would have liked to have lingered some more but since the walking was taking much longer than anticipated, I moved us back to the bus stop in a timely manner. Since it started raining, we ended up in a closed coach but still managed to take plenty of pictures. Lots of beautiful sights and pretty extensive for a two hour tour. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We walked back to the lounge, grabbed McDonald’s, reclaimed our luggage and set our seniors in the lounge while we explored the station. Really interesting all the different shops – especially the food areas! Back together in the lounge, we again had a bit of a rest before our departure to Toronto. We decided to pay extra for business class and would highly recommend it! Wonderful service, great food. They couldn’t do enough for us. We got in to Toronto and were shocked to find out that there was no place to store our luggage! We had two redcaps: one pushed me in a wheelchair and one went to claim our luggage. We all met at the cab stand and had a delightful driver. Could he take us to our hotel so we could drop our luggage and then take us to Rogers Center so we could watch the Blue Jays game? No problems… no worries. A real gem! He took us to our hotel, waited for us to get the luggage in our hotel and then dropped us very close to our gate. I asked him about safety walking around Toronto and again no worries – no problems. We ran inside with our tickets in hand only to find that 2 hours in to the game, they were in the bottom of the 8th! We just stood and watched the final 3 outs and found out that the Toronto pitcher had a complete game shut out! Looks like SF Giants fans bring luck to the home teams! We were at least able to walk around the inside while trying to find the correct gate to exit and enjoy talking to the very friendly folks who work there. It’s a shame since it was a perfect night for baseball with the dome wide open! We ended up walking to our hotel – Hotel Victoria. It was a hike but since we’d been sitting all day and it was such a lovely night, I thought it was a nice night cap![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We’d planned on a late morning start which everyone enjoyed – except for yours truly – whose sleep was rudely interrupted by a 6 am alarm – which went off again 6 minutes later! After finally unplugging the stupid thing, dreamland was a thing of the past. Late breakfast at Tim Horton’s…[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]More later..... [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Canada Via Rail Trip Report[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]So it was supposed to be a bucket list trip…. and it was more challenging and more wonderful than I could have imagined.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I always overbook and realized that when traveling with seniors that perhaps less is more. I learned to modify near the end and still ended up with a wonderful, priceless trip.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We woke up at 2:50 am in order to reach the airport for our 6 am flight out of SFO so we immediately started our trip off on the wrong foot – physically. The United flight was actually quite nice – Directv at our individual seats worked well but ear buds do not work well with our seniors so I finally got smart and let them use our headphones so that they could listen to a movie. Lots of issues with channel and volume controls but with me standing on the seat and leaning over to help, finally got the “kids” settled down. One funny mishap… my mother accidentally changed the channel during a crucial scene – and completely forgetting about wearing headphones – caused a VERY loud fuss. More standing on a seat got the channel corrected… whew![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I had asked and they agreed to the earlier morning flight so that we could have a longer stopover in Newark so that I could have a quick visit with my friend and her wonderful children. It worked out wonderfully and was a highlight of our trip. Newark has a great air train network and has food outside of security so that we were able to sit down and have an extended meal…. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]The second leg was shorter but seemed longer since we were all running on fumes. We finally arrived at Halifax around 11:30. The walk is VERY long to the terminal and I finally gave in and settled in a wheelchair. They wheeled my group straight to the front – no line standing- and we were out of customs in a very quick time. I was confused about when to return the wheelchair and they said “Return it when you’re done.” I was wheeled over to the Alt Hotel – which is attached to the airport and was able to keep it until the next morning. How wonderful and thoughtful! It truly is a great airport! We loved our stay at the Alt Hotel. Beautiful but too short of a stay. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We got to keep our luggage cart and used it to wheel our luggage to the MetroX stop. They need exact change for the bus so we may have overpaid for four but can’t even imagine how much it would have cost us for a cab. Again, well worth the money and the stop is very convenient. The bus ride was quick and smooth. Now for a bump in the road: the one bus we needed only ran on the hour and I wanted to stop at Tim Horton’s for breakfast. The Tim Horton’s I thought we were going to go to was in a mall that was closed on Sunday! Eek…. So began a trek through a very chilly and blustery Halifax in search of a Tim Horton’s – much harder than could be imagined. I was fearful that my little ducks would organize a mutiny…. Luckily we found one and filled our tummies with warm food and some hot joe [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]J[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] We ended up just finishing the walk to the Halifax Railroad station. We checked our bags and had our other bags held. The seniors opted out of any more touring and snuggled in to the business lounge for a cat nap. We walked out to the boardwalk and enjoyed reading some of the history of Halifax. It’s a beautiful city and we were sad that we couldn’t explore more but due to lack of sleep/jet lag, we headed back and crashed in the business lounge. I was looking at my little troop , cat napping and thought “It’s only the first day and I’ve already killed my family!” and started giggling. That sent me scurrying to enjoy the harpist and flautist who were the performers for the train. Lovely atmosphere and set us up perfectly for an exciting departure. My husband finally queued up and got us the 1:30 for lunch. My advice? Utilize the golf cart if you are in doubt of your mobility. It’s a hike out to the train. We were very pleased with our bedroom with shower but I immediately ran back to the Park Car to video our departure from Halifax. After an on-time departure, we dropped the top bunks down and settled two of our party in for naps and the other two hiked back to the Park Car to enjoy the scenery as well as riding in a dome car! My mother disobeyed direct orders to not try to get down off the top bunk and had a bit of a tumble. Safety warning for newbies: Always come down facing the ladder. It’s the only safe and secure way to come down. She was well enough to walk down to lunch – which was yummy! After lunch, I got to have my share of naptime while my husband bonded with other passengers in the dome car. We let the “kids” continue sleeping while I walked the train after I woke up. Dinner was another enjoyable meal and then we all went to the dome car to try and spot moose. No wildlife but spectacular scenery and a lovely crowd. Bed and sleep were just wonderful. A side note about dinner: I had the soup and roll for dinner since I’d heard great things about it and was told to enjoy it since they were changing suppliers! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I woke up early and showered and headed for the wifi lounge to finalize our plans for Montreal when I realized that we were backing up! I started taking pictures and then realized I should be in the dome car so off I boogied about 8 cars to the dome car and dang if I didn’t get the engineer working with the other in backing up. Really a cool moment – even as the video will testify to how breathless I was! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]A bit of a giggle! The dreaded omelet was on the menu and I forgot to warn my little ducks! I, of course, ordered the French toast which was yummy! My mother –ever so blunt – was very loud about wondering what the heck she was being served. Our delightful server responded that it was an omelet – but one that had been run over by a steam roller! I giggled over that line for a while! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We arrived on time in to Montreal and first checked in with the business lounge. They told us that we could use the lounge but that we would have to pay the $6 for checking our luggage for the day. We shed our load and off we went. We walked down just a few blocks and caught the Hop On Hop Off Tour of Montreal. I’d wanted to see Notre Dame and so we hopped off at that stop. It was a real hike up the hill and ended any more walking since our seniors were struggling. The church is so beautiful. I would have liked to have lingered some more but since the walking was taking much longer than anticipated, I moved us back to the bus stop in a timely manner. Since it started raining, we ended up in a closed coach but still managed to take plenty of pictures. Lots of beautiful sights and pretty extensive for a two hour tour. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We walked back to the lounge, grabbed McDonald’s, reclaimed our luggage and set our seniors in the lounge while we explored the station. Really interesting all the different shops – especially the food areas! Back together in the lounge, we again had a bit of a rest before our departure to Toronto. We decided to pay extra for business class and would highly recommend it! Wonderful service, great food. They couldn’t do enough for us. We got in to Toronto and were shocked to find out that there was no place to store our luggage! We had two redcaps: one pushed me in a wheelchair and one went to claim our luggage. We all met at the cab stand and had a delightful driver. Could he take us to our hotel so we could drop our luggage and then take us to Rogers Center so we could watch the Blue Jays game? No problems… no worries. A real gem! He took us to our hotel, waited for us to get the luggage in our hotel and then dropped us very close to our gate. I asked him about safety walking around Toronto and again no worries – no problems. We ran inside with our tickets in hand only to find that 2 hours in to the game, they were in the bottom of the 8th! We just stood and watched the final 3 outs and found out that the Toronto pitcher had a complete game shut out! Looks like SF Giants fans bring luck to the home teams! We were at least able to walk around the inside while trying to find the correct gate to exit and enjoy talking to the very friendly folks who work there. It’s a shame since it was a perfect night for baseball with the dome wide open! We ended up walking to our hotel – Hotel Victoria. It was a hike but since we’d been sitting all day and it was such a lovely night, I thought it was a nice night cap![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We’d planned on a late morning start which everyone enjoyed – except for yours truly – whose sleep was rudely interrupted by a 6 am alarm – which went off again 6 minutes later! After finally unplugging the stupid thing, dreamland was a thing of the past. Late breakfast at Tony Horton’s…[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Canada Via Rail Trip Report[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]So it was supposed to be a bucket list trip…. and it was more challenging and more wonderful than I could have imagined.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I always overbook and realized that when traveling with seniors that perhaps less is more. I learned to modify near the end and still ended up with a wonderful, priceless trip.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We woke up at 2:50 am in order to reach the airport for our 6 am flight out of SFO so we immediately started our trip off on the wrong foot – physically. The United flight was actually quite nice – Directv at our individual seats worked well but ear buds do not work well with our seniors so I finally got smart and let them use our headphones so that they could listen to a movie. Lots of issues with channel and volume controls but with me standing on the seat and leaning over to help, finally got the “kids” settled down. One funny mishap… my mother accidentally changed the channel during a crucial scene – and completely forgetting about wearing headphones – caused a VERY loud fuss. More standing on a seat got the channel corrected… whew![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I had asked and they agreed to the earlier morning flight so that we could have a longer stopover in Newark so that I could have a quick visit with my friend and her wonderful children. It worked out wonderfully and was a highlight of our trip. Newark has a great air train network and has food outside of security so that we were able to sit down and have an extended meal…. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]The second leg was shorter but seemed longer since we were all running on fumes. We finally arrived at Halifax around 11:30. The walk is VERY long to the terminal and I finally gave in and settled in a wheelchair. They wheeled my group straight to the front – no line standing- and we were out of customs in a very quick time. I was confused about when to return the wheelchair and they said “Return it when you’re done.” I was wheeled over to the Alt Hotel – which is attached to the airport and was able to keep it until the next morning. How wonderful and thoughtful! It truly is a great airport! We loved our stay at the Alt Hotel. Beautiful but too short of a stay. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We got to keep our luggage cart and used it to wheel our luggage to the MetroX stop. They need exact change for the bus so we may have overpaid for four but can’t even imagine how much it would have cost us for a cab. Again, well worth the money and the stop is very convenient. The bus ride was quick and smooth. Now for a bump in the road: the one bus we needed only ran on the hour and I wanted to stop at Tim Horton’s for breakfast. The Tim Horton’s I thought we were going to go to was in a mall that was closed on Sunday! Eek…. So began a trek through a very chilly and blustery Halifax in search of a Tim Horton’s – much harder than could be imagined. I was fearful that my little ducks would organize a mutiny…. Luckily we found one and filled our tummies with warm food and some hot joe [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]J[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] We ended up just finishing the walk to the Halifax Railroad station. We checked our bags and had our other bags held. The seniors opted out of any more touring and snuggled in to the business lounge for a cat nap. We walked out to the boardwalk and enjoyed reading some of the history of Halifax. It’s a beautiful city and we were sad that we couldn’t explore more but due to lack of sleep/jet lag, we headed back and crashed in the business lounge. I was looking at my little troop , cat napping and thought “It’s only the first day and I’ve already killed my family!” and started giggling. That sent me scurrying to enjoy the harpist and flautist who were the performers for the train. Lovely atmosphere and set us up perfectly for an exciting departure. My husband finally queued up and got us the 1:30 for lunch. My advice? Utilize the golf cart if you are in doubt of your mobility. It’s a hike out to the train. We were very pleased with our bedroom with shower but I immediately ran back to the Park Car to video our departure from Halifax. After an on-time departure, we dropped the top bunks down and settled two of our party in for naps and the other two hiked back to the Park Car to enjoy the scenery as well as riding in a dome car! My mother disobeyed direct orders to not try to get down off the top bunk and had a bit of a tumble. Safety warning for newbies: Always come down facing the ladder. It’s the only safe and secure way to come down. She was well enough to walk down to lunch – which was yummy! After lunch, I got to have my share of naptime while my husband bonded with other passengers in the dome car. We let the “kids” continue sleeping while I walked the train after I woke up. Dinner was another enjoyable meal and then we all went to the dome car to try and spot moose. No wildlife but spectacular scenery and a lovely crowd. Bed and sleep were just wonderful. A side note about dinner: I had the soup and roll for dinner since I’d heard great things about it and was told to enjoy it since they were changing suppliers! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I woke up early and showered and headed for the wifi lounge to finalize our plans for Montreal when I realized that we were backing up! I started taking pictures and then realized I should be in the dome car so off I boogied about 8 cars to the dome car and dang if I didn’t get the engineer working with the other in backing up. Really a cool moment – even as the video will testify to how breathless I was! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]A bit of a giggle! The dreaded omelet was on the menu and I forgot to warn my little ducks! I, of course, ordered the French toast which was yummy! My mother –ever so blunt – was very loud about wondering what the heck she was being served. Our delightful server responded that it was an omelet – but one that had been run over by a steam roller! I giggled over that line for a while! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We arrived on time in to Montreal and first checked in with the business lounge. They told us that we could use the lounge but that we would have to pay the $6 for checking our luggage for the day. We shed our load and off we went. We walked down just a few blocks and caught the Hop On Hop Off Tour of Montreal. I’d wanted to see Notre Dame and so we hopped off at that stop. It was a real hike up the hill and ended any more walking since our seniors were struggling. The church is so beautiful. I would have liked to have lingered some more but since the walking was taking much longer than anticipated, I moved us back to the bus stop in a timely manner. Since it started raining, we ended up in a closed coach but still managed to take plenty of pictures. Lots of beautiful sights and pretty extensive for a two hour tour. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We walked back to the lounge, grabbed McDonald’s, reclaimed our luggage and set our seniors in the lounge while we explored the station. Really interesting all the different shops – especially the food areas! Back together in the lounge, we again had a bit of a rest before our departure to Toronto. We decided to pay extra for business class and would highly recommend it! Wonderful service, great food. They couldn’t do enough for us. We got in to Toronto and were shocked to find out that there was no place to store our luggage! We had two redcaps: one pushed me in a wheelchair and one went to claim our luggage. We all met at the cab stand and had a delightful driver. Could he take us to our hotel so we could drop our luggage and then take us to Rogers Center so we could watch the Blue Jays game? No problems… no worries. A real gem! He took us to our hotel, waited for us to get the luggage in our hotel and then dropped us very close to our gate. I asked him about safety walking around Toronto and again no worries – no problems. We ran inside with our tickets in hand only to find that 2 hours in to the game, they were in the bottom of the 8th! We just stood and watched the final 3 outs and found out that the Toronto pitcher had a complete game shut out! Looks like SF Giants fans bring luck to the home teams! We were at least able to walk around the inside while trying to find the correct gate to exit and enjoy talking to the very friendly folks who work there. It’s a shame since it was a perfect night for baseball with the dome wide open! We ended up walking to our hotel – Hotel Victoria. It was a hike but since we’d been sitting all day and it was such a lovely night, I thought it was a nice night cap![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]We’d planned on a late morning start which everyone enjoyed – except for yours truly – whose sleep was rudely interrupted by a 6 am alarm – which went off again 6 minutes later! After finally unplugging the stupid thing, dreamland was a thing of the past. Late breakfast at Tim Horton’s…[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]More later..... [/SIZE]
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