Victoria Vacation

It is now almost the end of our trip, and I suddenly realized that I would like to do a blog of this trip, since it has been so eventful and full. So I am currently sitting in the coach of The Canadian, Train #2, just east of Biggar, Saskatchewan, where it is probably ten below and blowing snow, and we are ensconced in a stainless steel tube-on-wheels, warm and over-fed. I just showered "in" Biggar, having figured out how the train showers work (well), and am now feeling like a renewed person.

So our trip began nine days ago, with our friend Ruth driving us to the airport at an ungawdly hour of the morning, to catch the WestJet flight to Calgary and Victoria (we were on our way to Victoria to see Patrick, who has a new job and a new apartment in Victoria, and couldn't come home for Christmas). The flight was pretty empty, all the way. Calgary was a three-hour stopover in the airport, then back on the plane for the ride over the mountains. Cold in Dundas, cold in Calgary, cloudy over the mountains. Then the sun broke through as we got over the Strait on our way to Victoria, so we landed in warm sunshine. We were met by our friends the Finnies, who drove us around the town, seeing Mount Doug and Island View Beach, before heading back into town to be dropped at the best Western, on Johnson Street.

We knew that the downtown area was small enough that we would not be too far from Pat. But we found that in fact we were about half a block from his place on Broad Street. He came to meet us after work, and we went over to see his place: a small but adequate bachelor walk-up, over a comic book store and across from a used video-game store. We thought this was well-placed for Pat.

It was, however, bare, with no furniture to speak of. So we had our mission: to get a bed and a dresser for him while there. However, we were not up to it that night,so instead went to his work (two blocks in the direction away from our hotel), met his boss and some of his co-workers, then went for supper. After some looking around, we settled on going to a steakhouse (Ric's) on Government Street. It was very good, but very expensive as well. So we got a taste of Victoria, in more ways than one.

The next morning, we were of course up before Patrick, and went out for a walk in the down town area. The weather was pretty good: warmish and moderately sunny. So we walked and found a place for breakfast, then walked some more. We discovered the Salvation Army Thrift Store, where there was a lot of used things which seemed okay for Pat. We resolved to return with him later that day. So we walked some more, saw the wonderful harbour, then went and woke Pat up.

Our furniture adventure was quite something. We had thought we would rent a car to transport the bed and whatever other furniture we bought for him, but weren't sure of that. We took Pat down to see the Sally Ann, and he remarked that Value Village was even better. We (from our Southern Ontario prejudice) said that we didn't know about that, but would go and see them. We were then introduced to a wonderful, large, well-stocked store, and saw some furniture there that we wanted. Also some books, and a slow cooker, which we bought for Pat.

Then the question was raised about how to get our purchases back to Pat's apartment. He had the brilliant idea of going back to his workplace and borrowing the dolly from them, since all the stores were pretty close to where he lived. Sounded good to me, so he and I set off to do this. The people of Victoria were treated to the sight of a young man and his white-haired father pushing a double bed and box spring on a dolly for the five or six blocks required to get it to his place. Then again, we rattled our way back down to the other sotre and brought a dresser on the same dolly to the same place. It was quite a thrill to work with him like that, and get it done. And getting the dolly back, through the back halls of the mall where he works, and so on. A good father-son day.

That night, we went to the U Vic Film Society showing of "Where the Wild Things Are". We took the bus out, and the driver told us there were lots of bunnies on the campus. He meant the animal variety, and we thought he must be kidding. But in fact, when we got there, there were bunnies everywhere, mostly the pet variety, apparently let off by their owners when they got too big or something; they are becoming quite a nuisance. The film was interesting (I liked it, Darlene less so), and we went back to our hotel afterwards feeling quite glad to have seen it. After getting back to town, we went looking for some food, finally meeting up with Pat's friend Elissa, and going to a wonderful little oyster bar called "Ferris", where I got some succulent oysters, and Darlene some clams.

The following day was Sunday, and we went shopping with Pat, to get him food to cook in the slow cooker (patly to make sure it worked before we left town). We did that in the late morning/early afternoon, then were back at his place to do the prep (when I say "we", I am not being honest: Darlene did most of it, with Pat's help). Since the meal was going to take about five hours to cook, we went back out for another walk along by the beach at the end of Beacon Hill Park, and then through the part of town called Cook Street Village, where Pat had first been when he came to Victoria. After a late day coffee and stop, we were back home for the meal. It was a treat to have your son present a meal for us. He had actually gone out and bought more plates so that he could feed us. After that, bed seemed quite pleasant.

On Monday, we were to meet the Finnies for breakfast downtown, but discovered that the chosen restaurant was not available, so went to their lovely house instead, after picking up some pastries and some coffee. We ate well, then went to our appointed Tea at the Empress, only to eat again. And drink. And wonder at the magnificent hotel and its role in the Victoria society. Obviously, we were not hungry after that, and ate only lightly that night. After we walked off the meal for a while, we met up with Pat again, and a final time was spent with him with some take-out food and a hotel movie (Michael Moore's latest), and early to bed for us. The next day was our trip to up-Island to Nanoose Bay.

The trip to Nanoose was eventful as well. There is a daily commuter train, leaving Victoria at 0800 and taking about six hours to get to Courtenay. We were not going that far, but it had three possible stops in Nanoose, and Barry would pick us up there. So we trundled our bags the three or so blocks down to the little station, and got onto a largely deserted car for the trip out of town. And the trip was quite nice, particularly the part up to Malahat, then down to Duncan. However, we got the first rain we had seen to date. Nonetheless, we were met warmly and carried to Nanoose Bay to see our friends Barry and Nancy. Nancy had had surgery just the previous day, and was recuperating well at home. But Barry made us a supper anyways, after getting out to buy some local halibut at French Cove.

The following day, we went for a walk along a part of the Bay, photographed a bit, visited a large aquarium at one of the local time-share resorts, then went back home to prepare for a supper with not only the Price-Munns, but also Carl and Brian (friends from the East who have also moved West. And what a night we had: lots of fine food, lots of fine conversation, and lots of fine wine. We were duly impressed, and duly stuffed.

So the next day was our trip to Vancouver, leaving by ferry from Nanaimo. Barry was able to drive us down there, and the passage was calm and very pretty, with the requisite views of mountains, and water, and craggy points, etc. And the transfer from Horseshoe Bay to the city was uneventful and smooth, getting us to the Sylvia Hotel in good time. There was a note from Jane waiting for us. Darlene went out to her place, which turned out to not be too far, but she wasn't there, so she came back to find that Jane was in the hotel lobby. She took us for an introductory walk around the neighbourhood, stopping for some sushi, in the late afternoon. Supper had been arranged with my friend and college roommate Art Moses and his wife Suzanne Fournier, at a restaurant appropriately named "Zeb" (as is their son). The catching up was good to do, and the meal was fine.

Our last day in Vancouver was spent in the morning with Jane, getting reminded of the Izatt family history (Darlene's side), and walking through Stanley Park, before leaving her and gong to see Bonnie (Darlene's niece as well). We had planned to have a supper with Bonnie, so we met her at her apartment, talked some time, then I walked and they drove to the restaurant, ate very well, and got on the train at 2030 (Bonnie drove us there in her Camaro convertible, playing 60's music loudly on her car stereo.)

We settled into the cabin (always smaller than you think it will be), then watched out the window as we left Vancouver and headed inland. We were able to get into the dome car in spite of all the tour people who were only going to Jasper. And to bed pretty early, since I wanted to get an early breakfast and stake out a spot in the dome car while we went through the Rockies.

Kamloops was at about 0600, and then we were into daylight in the Rockies. As I remembered, it was pretty spectacular, and we had a car to see it from. We met a lovely couple named Cynthia and Andrew Whitaker, and ended up spending a fair bit of time with them. She had grown up in Ancaster, and they now lived in Vancouver and were going as far as Winnipeg. We shared a lot of time and talk, while the spectacular scenery went by. It was helped by the clearing of the sky partway through the mountains, so we had clear blue sky to see what we wanted to see. Not much snow, interestingly. But lovely nonetheless. The daylight ended about Jasper, where we got off for about an hour to stretch our legs and use the land-based toilets. And thankfully, most of the tour people got off there as well. In fact, we had only about fifteen passengers on the train after that.

This morning (January 24) we woke to hear that we were about three hours behind, and would not be in Saskatoon as we had thought for 0800. through the morning, we got even further behind, due to the number of freight trains. I actually got to shower "in" Biggar, Saskatchewan (actually in the train while it was stopped). We got to Saskatoon about five hours late, across some quite interesting prairie land, gently rolling mostly, but very flat in places. And snow blowing like crazy through much of the day. We had the train largely to ourselves, felt quite spoiled. Also quite overfed: the food is delicious, but there is no exercise to speak of here, and there are large quantities.

Tomorrow we will be in Northern Ontario.

Woke up, and found that we had been frozen (that is, the switches for the tracks had been frozen) twice overnight. When that happens, the engineer has to get out with a chipper and free them up, so he can take the train into a siding to allow for a freight to pass. So we woke up already about three hours late. Spent the whole day going through Northern Ontario, with so many trees and rocks and lakes. It was pretty for a while, even with the blowing snow. But there was so much of it: you forget how big this province, much less this country, is. When we went to bed, we were not even as far south as Sudbury (Capreol actually). We had supper with Shawn and Rita. Rita, an Italian woman who was travelling alone to Seattle and back; Shawn who kept saying how he had cheated death twice already, and was not going to take any chances. I slept in the morning for a few hours, and in the afternoon again for a shorter time. Didn't get as much done on my book as I had wanted. Also went to hear some musicians who had traded their music for a ride out East to Halifax.