Victoria Visit

I also had the opportunity to head back out west to Victoria, BC for work. We got back from our San Fran vacation on Sunday morning and then Monday morning I was back on a plane bound for the west coast again. I was there to visit CFB Esquimalt and provide assistance for the planning efforts. It is great doing work for the Navy with sites on either coast and Quebec City, as there are plenty of other bases across the hinterlands of Canada.

It was sooooo beautiful there! Everything was in bloom, there were beautifully planted gardens everywhere, and many flowering trees I don't think I have seen before. At the waterfront, across the Straight of Juan de Fuca, you could see the Olympic mountains in Washington state, it was lovely. Given the opportunity to move out there, I think I'd say yes!

A future home perhaps?

Me with Olympic Mountains in the distance, their peaks in the clouds.

A heron in Beacon Hill Park, close to downtown! I think I was the only one amazed to be so close to the wildlife. 

The inner harbour, "Welcome to Victoria" spelled out in flowers!, and the Parliament Building in the background. My hotel was just to the right, a perfect location.

San Francisco - Fabric Purchase!

While in San Fran, I got to go to Britex Fabrics! Matt was tuckered out after walking one morning so I took the opportunity to do a little shopping on my own. This store was pretty impressive with four floors of different kinds of fabrics and notions. I ended up buying a remnant of Amy Butler's Midwest Modern 2 Olive Optic Blossom (left below) and a half yard of Heather Ross' Westhill Forest Green Pond (right below). I think they were both a bit pricier than I might have been able to find them on other internet sites, but they're both so pretty, I think it was a good impulse buy :)

San Francisco - Food

coming soon!

San Francisco - Sights

coming soon!

Before/After

Voila! One of my first sewing projects is finally complete. (Well, half complete if you include the other window in our bedroom). I need to buy the curtain rod first for that window and hang it up as motivation to make the curtains. The reverse appliqué turned out well, done both by machine and by hand for a little variety (detail in an earlier post). 

Upcoming projects / Summer outfits!

Fabricville was having a great sale on some Simplicity New Look patterns, 5 for $5! So, I've decided to try and update my summer wardrobe with a few handmade items. Above are my initial thoughts for fabrics to go with the patterns (Click for a larger image). It's been a gorgeous weekend in Halifax, so it's almost time to break out the summery clothes! 

Fabric purchases

Some recent fabric purchases to update the blog with... The lovely bright pink fabric with hand-drawn buildings from NYC on it would make a great skirt. The yellow fabric with vegetables could make some fun boxer shorts. The green and blue ferns in the middle is from the Wild Bunch line which has beautiful hand-drawn botanicals. True Up also did an interview with the designers which is pretty interesting, apparently they worked from a collection at a botanical garden in Chicago. I think I might have to request that my Mum go back to Marden's and pick up some more fabric in this line to make a quilt or duvet cover. They had a lot of it, in many of the different patterns, and for so cheap! And lastly, the polka dots I thought would make a nice summer shirt - at $5/metre, it was the most expensive fabric I've bought! 

For my next trick...

I haven't even finished my first sewing project, and I am on to (and almost finished) the next! This project used new and old fabric, and a couple of old towels to make a bath mat. I followed the general pattern from Sew Liberated, in that it's squares and has a towel backing, but I also incorporated some towel squares on the front for extra moisture absorption. Though, it might not be as absorbent (or as cool) as this moss bath mat. I've just got to finish it off with some quilting or ties to keep the two layers together. But in the mean time, it is useful and useable - in fact, it's already been tested this morning. 

Plant experiments

We got two avocados last week to make these "Chicken Burgers," which didn't actually happen cause we didn't get the chicken. So, as the old saying goes, when life gives you avocados you make guacamole. Which we did. Afterwards though, I decided to embark on the age-old experiment of trying to grow avocado plants from their pits. Here goes!

Progress!

The past few days have seen a fair bit of progress made on my first sewing project. I have sewn up two curtains (enough for one window), and done one reverse appliqué pattern on said curtains. I was a bit excessive when pinning the back fabric on to the front (image 1). I sewed around the pattern either by machine or hand (2). Then cut out the pattern very very carefully to reveal the fabric underneath (3). Success! In fact, the most difficult part of this project so far has been trying to secure the curtain rod holder into place!

Starting a Stash

I took the number 2 bus for my first expedition to Fabricville, to purchase fabric for some bedroom curtains which will employ the reverse appliqué technique from the  Alabama Stitch Book.  The selection was a bit overwhelming (quantity) and underwhelming (quality/stylish-ness) at the same time. After 10 trips up and down all the aisles and around the store and attempting to figure out all of their sales schemes (buy 1 get 2, 20-50% off, club discounts, etc) I ended up with the above fabrics (click on the image to enlarge). I'm planning on making the curtains out of the solid brown on the bottom left with the blue forest as the appliqué bits. 

Blog note: This is not travel related at all! But I thought this would be the perfect place to communicate with more family and friends on what's going on here in Halifax or when we're out and about. I'll probably do some "blasts from the pasts" on travel undertaken since the previous post here. On the right hand side you'll notice in addition to planned/completed travel I've added started projects around the house...unfortunately none of those projects have yet been completed! I'm great at starting a crafty project but tend to get bored and stop. Here's to trying to complete those projects and and having a place to show them off!

Thanks for stopping by & welcome back :)

Coming Soon!

Well, I have done a little bit of travelling without updating my blog, tsk tsk. Coming soon I should have a few wonderful posts about my time overseas in London. There will be a hostile hostel, academic references, lots of walking and tube riding, museums galore, gray days with my classmates, sunny days with Matt's Aunt Carol, tea at my bedside to wake up, more walking and tube riding, more museums, some shopping with decreased spending power, a trip on the London Eye, and getting out of Heathrow just in time. What fun! To whet your whistle, here are some pics of what's to come, this one is in Greenwich, where I stood in both hemispheres at once:

and then the classic Christmas image, the Holly and the Ivy in Hampstead Garden Suburb:

More to come soon! And by the way, Matt and I did make it back to Bangor, and onwards to Halifax back in August. From NYC we went on to one night in Boston, where we stayed with Jim and Charlene and they fed us a nice feast of burgers and a delicious brownie dessert. I think that was Matt's first meeting with Danny and Roxy and Claire, and i think he enjoyed it. heehee. Then we moved on to Portland, on the Downeaster. We had some Buddhist Monks with us on the train, one of whom was chanting near Matt for the ride. Mary Lou greeted us in Portland, and we got to walk around the Old Port with her and Carole, checking quite possibly every old map in the antique map store. Here is us walking around on the docks:

Carole and Mary Lou took us out to dinner at the floating restaurant, and i had a wonderful Lobster Ravioli. We then got to visit some more at their home with their cats, and then Pa came to give us a ride to Bangor for the final leg of our trip. A big thanks to all who took us in on our journey! August now seems like it is so far away, but we've got plenty of pictures and memories to remind us of a wonderful month and trip.

Last week recap

Finally, the update which you have all been waiting for, which brings you up to date on about a week's worth of traveling! Woo hoo! The internet access has been somewhat limited for the past week, and I tend not to write posts whilst they are happening (ie writing on the train and uploading later). Perhaps my lateness in updating will keep my recount a little briefer than normal (a good thing!) So, here we go... back to Chicago...

Mon, Aug 21-- We did in fact go to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. We got sausage and spinach, and it was good and filling, unfortunately we're not bringing any home as I don't think it would keep. After we walked down to the river, and came back up the Magnificent Mile past the Wrigley and Tribune buildings, many fancy shops, a water tower built like a castle, and finally made our way back to the hotel.

Tues, Aug 22-- We went on an architecture boat cruise in the Chicago River put on by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It was a 90minute tour that took us up the main branch of the river and on the two smaller branches as well. Along with seeing lots of buildings (many designed by Mies Van der Rohe), we went under more than 20 bridges, some of which were double decker. Our guide told us all about the architects, uses, materials and construction of the buildings along with many jokes. I would highly recommend the tour, it was quite enjoyable.

After we ventured to Millennium Park, with an amphitheater designed by Frank Gehry, the same man who made EMP in Seattle. There are also other interesting sculptures there, and we had our lunch in a cafe there. We decided to try to go to the Field Museum, so we walked through Grant Park as well, past Buckingham fountains, but we were sort of late in getting there, so after ruling out Shedd Aquarium too, hopped on a Metra commuter train and out to Hyde Park. I lived there for 4 years, and we found my old apartment building (couldn't tell if it was the same one though), and walked around the University of Chicago. Back on the Metra to downtown, we went to Marshall Fields, a large department store. We wandered around a bit there, didn't buy any Frangos though :( Finally, we had dinner at a Cajun restaurant called Redfish, where i had Jumbalaya.

Wed, Aug 23--We checked out of the hotel, but kept our luggage there, and headed north to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We spent a few hours there, going about the whole park. Highlights included the large monkey house, where we got to see a gorilla baby, and chimpanzees, though it didn't smell as much as I remember as a kid. There was also a small monkey house, with a gibbon mama and child. We saw sleeping lions up close, and those polar bears which we had missed in Churchill. It was a hot day in Chicago, and we cooled off with milkshakes on the way back to the hotel.

We got to the train station rather early, and waited in a big group for our train, the Capitol Limited, to board and leave. We were 15-30minutes behind schedule leaving Chicago, where it started to rain hard. Just over the Indiana border we stopped for tornados which apparently crossed the tracks 10 miles down and knocked over cars on a freight train. We were waiting there for at least 6 hours, putting us behind schedule.

Thurs, Aug 24-- Continuing on the Capitol Limited, we awoke to hear that we were 9 hours behind schedule somewhere in Ohio. I took advantage of this longer train to do lots of reading. They gave us complimentary lunch of Dinty Moore-like beef stew, and as the ride wore on, gave us complimentary dinner of a "snack pack" as well, and by word of mouth we learned that in the snack car everything was free. Nothing much to report on the scenery, as I was absorbed in my book. We went through the Alleghenies and Appalachians, and there are narrow tall houses in Pennsylvania. Finally arriving in DC at 10pm (supposed to be there at noon), we were greeted by the Washington Monument out the window, and by Sean at Union Station. We got a mini tour of DC's lights, and called it a night.

Fri, Aug 25--Sean took us to breakfast at a diner, and then we tried to get internet at Starbucks, but instead had to pull over on the street to try to connect to someone's wireless. (that was 2 posts ago). We went to the Air + Space Museum and saw early flying machines, including the Wright Flyer, milestones like the Paul Allen private plane that got into space, a plane that went around the world in 9 days without refueling, the evolution of spacesuits, satellites that gather data that i used for my honours research, or at least learned about in some of my geography classes, and walked on an air craft carrier model and Skylab. You could spend days in just 1 Smithsonian museum! There is a lot to read there, though Matt and I noted that some of the computer related displays are a bit dated.

We grabbed a hot dog for lunch, and went to the National Building Museum. We just noticed it on Sean's map and decided to give it a go, it deals with architecture and urban planning! We got there rather late, so couldn't stay long til it closed. It is in a big beautiful building with huge columns inside, and nice decoration on the outside. We saw exhibits on Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Oklahoma, and on green (sustainable) buildings, and a cool model of DC used to help plan it and locate metro stops. I wish we had more time there, but it'll have to go on my list for next time!

We then did a grand monument & memorial tour. We walked past the Washington Monument, to the World War II memorial, which I believe opened in 2004. It has large fountains and is sort of split between the Pacific and Atlantic with panels depicting the war, with appropriate quotations throughout. Then we took the long walk around the Tidal basin to the Jefferson Monument, and continued around the opposite side. We walked through the Franklin Roosevelt memorial, which Sean hadn't been in and is new as well. It is large with lots of fountains, a few sculptures and quotes from his 4 terms, and seemed to have far less people than any of the other locations, which was nice. We crossed over to the Korean War memorial of soldiers in the field and faces on a wall. Then we made our way to the Vietnam War memorial and a monument to the nurses. Finally we climbed the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, which was by far the most popular, and got to see Honest Abe and the Washington monument and it's reflection looking out where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his I Have a Dream speech. We ended the night in Georgetown, a lovely old city, with lots of brick buildings, very busy and full of shops and restaurants.

Sat, Aug 26--We ate breakfast in Old Town Alexandria, at a quaint French restaurant where I had strawberry crepes romanoff. We walked down to the Potomac and saw catfish feeding at the surface. Then it was off to Union Station to head to New York City. DC's station is a gorgeous building. We left a hot and dry Washington DC, and en route to NYC the weather started to change, got cloudy and rainy. We went through the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia, Newark, and finally arrived in NYC right on time at 5:45pm. Ned was there to pick us up, and we grabbed a taxi to head to the upper east side and drop our stuff off. It was chilly in the city, a frigid 60something, cooler than we were expecting. We ended up grabbing a pint that night and watched some of the Mets game near where he lives, and then headed down around the 20s to meet up with some of Ned's friends and have supper.

Sun, Aug 27-- It was grey and rainy whence we got up, so we took our time getting ready to do anything. Ned's Mum had picked us up some NY bagels for breakfast which were nice and as chewy as ever. We walked down to the Mac store, a glass cube with an apple in it on street level and the store is underground, which was packed with people (where I made my last post). We went to FAO Schwarz as well, it was smaller than I remembered it from years past, but apparently it's having bankruptcy issues. In any case, the Legos were impressive and we saw a $50,000 toy car. Matt thinks this guy is from Harry Potter. We jumped on the metro down to Union Square where we went to a dive bar with great burgers called Corner Bistro. Matt and Ned thought the rainy day called for a cozy bar and a game on tv, so we proceeded onward, and when they found one I took a walk around the area, browsing the local shops. I met back up with them and we went back uptown to take a break at Ned's place. We then met up with a couple of Ned's friends for supper at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, how appropriate since Boston and Uncle Jim's will be our next stop. Matt and Ned shared a dish with an interested flame in the middle of it, and I had a decent brisket sandwich.

Mon, Aug 28--This morning we got up, readied ourselves, packed, and hailed a cab to Penn Station. Since we had our cumbersome baggage, although our train didn't leave til 1pm, we weren't able to do very much in the mean time. Our train was right on time, and still is, and we are en route for Boston, our 2nd to last stop on our North American tour.

NYC

Just to let everyone know, we are now in the Mac Store in New York City. It is packed with people, lots of them taking advantage of the free internet and nice computers like me. Our trip up to NYC was uneventful, we sat in the quiet car on the train, which was nice. It was just a 4 hour trip and we got in on time. We are now visiting with Ned and are about to go to FAO Schwartz. There is not time to write much more... on to Boston tomorrow.

A brief update

Hey there, we're in Washington DC now. We spent a nice couple of days in Chicago (my home town), and did get to Giordano's for some deep dish pizza. We also walked on the Magnificent mile a few times, took an architectural boat tour on the Chicago River, walked through Millenium and Grant Parks, hopped on the metra to Hyde Park (my old stomping grounds) and got up to Lincoln Park Zoo. The Capitol Limited to DC was delayed just out of Chicago because of tornados on the track, that apparently knocked over part of a freight train about 10 miles ahead of us! In all, we were delayed further by freight traffic, and got into DC about 10 hours late! Anyways, we're here now, staying with Sean and about to go to the Air and Space Museum... more on all of the above and our DC adventures later...

The Empire Builder

Sat, Aug 19--Ed dropped us off at the train station, and we proceeded to inquire about our reservations to upgrade to sleeping class at the counter. There was some difficulty with them, and we stood at the counter for literally 45 minutes. Finally it was all sorted out, we checked our baggage and boarded. We reserved a roomette which was pretty cozy, and we got complimentary champagne, let the perks of sleeper class begin! We got views of Puget Sound and Mt Baker a little while after departing Seattle. We also went through the Cascade mountain range, and a 7.79 mile tunnel. On this segment of the train a couple of Rails and Trails people boarded and talked about sights that we were going by. Their commentary was interesting, but monotonic and thus somewhat annoying. We both had bland steaks for supper, but at least it was included with our sleeping car accomodation. Our attendant made up our beds and I took to the 2 foot wide upper berth for the night. The ride was a little rocky, but luckily there were safety straps should i roll out.

Sun, Aug 20--We woke up in Montana, near Glacier National Park, still in mountains. We had breakfast and as the train continued on the scenery changed from mountainous to rolling hills sometimes with mountains in the distance. This truly is big sky country, and it seems to go on forever. We had lunch in the dinning car again, and in the afternoon participated in a complimentary wine and cheese event with Washington wines and Minnesota cheeses. We sat with some people who had been travelling as long as us through Texas and the southwest, then up through California to Seattle, and then the Empire Builder. They said the Sunset Limited was 9 hours behind schedule because the freight trains take major precedence over Amtrak. On the Empire Builder, which is on Burlington North Santa Fe tracks they are a bit kinder, and typically our train stays on schedule. I watched Walk the Line in the afternoon as we rolled by more hill, fields, cows, and vast openness. We ate supper (seems like all we did on this train was eat!) with some New Yorkers who had come on this train to Seattle then took a cruise to Alaska and were returning home. We crossed the border into North Dakota, which looked pretty similar to Montana. We strectched our legs in Minot, ND, and back on the train watched another movie before bed. We traded berths this time, so Matt got to experience the small, wobbly top bunk, whilst I got the extra 4 inches and extra stability the bottom bunk provided.

Mon, Aug 21--I slept very well, and ended up missing Minnesota entirely, not getting up til 10:30am! We had slept through breakfast as well, which was fine with all the food we'd been having lately. We did catch a breif glimpse of the Mississippi River, which makes up part of the border. We were ready in time for lunch, and dined whilst riding through Wisconsin. Now the scenery has changed, it looks a lot more lush, more trees, more civilization than most of the Empire Builder's path. It was only a little while longer til we reached Chicago, signalled by the Sears Tower's appearance, and Union Station. We are now staying on the Gold Coast, can see the Sears Tower from our window, and are contemplating Giordano's deep dish pizza for supper. It feels good to be home :) heehee...

I'm having a little trouble uploading pictures, so they'll be added later.

Seattle

Thurs, Aug 17-- We arrived in Seattle pretty much on time, and Ed was there to greet us with flowers, what a treat! We then made our way around downtown a little, and then headed out of the city towards Renton. Lilly (the dog) was at Ed's house to meet us, and after a grand tour of the mansion we got a good night's sleep.

Fri, Aug 18-- We went into the city around lunch time to Red Robin's on the waterfront for burgers. We were right next to the docks and got to see a couple of ferries come in. What a lovely view of the Olympic mountains across Puget Sound as well. Then we walked through the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and saw a two headed calf and a frightening mermaid and child (big scary teeth). We proceeded to the Pike Place Public Market, and didn't get to see them tossing the fish, but saw the vast selection of seafood available, and some gigantic lobster tails. Then we took in a pint at Kells, an Irish pub nearby. Finally, we drove over towards the space needle, and went to the Experience Music Project. This is a cool museum, designed by Frank Gehry. We saw exhibits on music posters, Jimi Hendrix (who is from Seattle), Hip-Hop, bands and movements from the Northwest, and stage costumes. We also got to jam in the interactive part of the museum. There are a bunch of areas where you can play guitar, keyboard, drums, etc, or try out mixing boards and pedals as well. There are studio-type rooms where there are a number of instruments to play, and I rocked out on drums whilst Matt played guitar or keys... Not sure how well our beats went together though. There is a monstrous sculpture inside which looks like a tornado of guitars, apparently made up of over 700 instruments! Then we walked around the Space Needle and gift shop, seeing every possible souvenir of Seattle. We got to see glimpses of Mount Rainier on the way home, and all had a nice ice cream to end the day.

Sat, Aug 19--We got up early this morning, as Ed had a surprise planned for us. He wouldn't tell us what it was but hinted yesterday that it might involve heights. We ended up driving to the Museum of Flight at the Boeing Airport, and saw that biplane rides were available! This was what Ed had in mind for us. We got to put on cool bomber jackets, life jackets, hats with goggles and headphones, and fly around West Seattle and Alki. It was very cool. We took off and headed towards downtown and the Space Needle, and could see the Cascades to the east, and the Olympics to the west. We could see trains and the station where we will be heading out of later today. I could see the pier where we ate lunch yesterday. We made some quick turns, without advanced warning, and were looking down into the water. We flew over Puget Sound and around Alki Point where there is a nice light house. A few more quick and angled turns and we were headed back to the airport. Landing was fine, no need to use the life jackets, and what a fun ride! We are now just chilling back in Renton, waiting to head back to get on the train to Chicago. We think we've upgraded to sleeper class for this 2-night journey, so it should be fun and relaxing!

Thanks for all the comments, good to know people are reading the blog!

The past few days

I apologize for the delay in this post.... those coffee shops in Vancouver with wireless internet are few and far between. That or we were out sightseeing (and our hotel did not have internet)!

Sun, Aug 13-- As hinted at in the previous post, Shamil and Nash took us out to the Rockies! We drove to Banff national park, and boy is it gorgeous. Once in the mountains, everywhere you look you want to take another picture. The Bow River that flows through the area is bright green/blue and glacially fed with mineral deposits. We went to Johnston's Canyon where we were greeted by a Parks Canada guide who said that a bear was sighted in the past hour, so we should travel in groups and be careful around blind corners. We walked in along stone boardwalks to see a nice waterfall, and did run into a few chipmunks, but no bears again. We got back on the Trans Canada to head back to the town of Banff. There they have the huge Fairmont Banff Springs resort, starting at ~$450/nt. The whole town was full of people, and lots of touristy shops and restaurants. We only stayed there a little while, and headed back to Canmore to have supper. Shamil and I both had bison lasagna, so I had bison three different ways in 2 days! We left the beauty of the mountains and headed back to Calgary, and then Matt and I proceeded onwards to Edmonton.

Mon, Aug 14 -- We had to get up bright and early to return our car, and get to the VIA station. The train was already running late. so we had to wait for the Canadian to arrive. There is not much for exciting scenery outside of Edmonton until the Rockies are reached again. This time we entered Jasper National Park, and the train made a stop in Jasper for about 45 minutes. Jasper seems slightly less resort-town than Banff, but it is still full of gift shops and has the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (which we couldn't see) as well. Back on the train we went past Moose Lake, 8km of blue/green waters, of course surrounded by tall mountains. We had some rain, so along the way we also got to see some pretty rainbows. After exiting the National Park, we passed Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian rockies, but it had some clouds at its peak. Later in the evening we passed Pyramid Falls, where the train slows down so people can snap pictures. That night we dined on Mr Noodles and watched some of Brokeback Mountain, since it was filmed here in Alberta.

Tues, Aug 15 --We arrived in Vancouver a couple hours late, as is usual. At the train station the line for cabs was enormous so we decided to walk over to our hotel, which was nice after sitting for a long time. We were able to check in early again, and rested to make up for some lost sleep on the train. Then we strolled down Robson St, supposedly Vancouver's Rodeo Drive, but it was more reminiscent of St Catherine in Montreal than what I would imagine Rodeo Dr to be like. We had lunch at Bojangles Cafe, a chain, but decent nonetheless. We then rented bikes and biked around Stanley Park, a 1000-acre peninsula just west of downtown. We got to look back at the city, go under Lion's Gate Bridge, look out towards Vancouver Island and see lots of container ships, go past beaches on English Bay, and head back. It was a nice way to get some exercise and a lovely ride. Continuing our way along the waterfront we walked past the marinas looking to North Van, and past Canada Place convention center. We had a pint each at the Steamworks Brewery, then made our way towards Gastown, where the city began. We walked around just down the Water St, then didn't go any further than Carral (?) as it is supposed to get pretty sketchy pretty fast. Even then we went through a park that I would not have liked at night. After a bit more walking around, we headed towards Yaletown, where we dined at Lucy Mae Browns. We had a seafood platter to start, with lobster turnovers, risotto and prawns, and salmon and halibut tartares. The halibut tartare was actually quite nice! And the platter turned out to be on the house since it was a little slow in getting to us! Sweet! Matt had a salmon entree and I had lamb shank with a cinnamon-y flavour, quite good. After a supper like that, what better way to end the night by watching some Food Network and head to bed.

Weds, Aug 16 -- The morning commenced with coffee and banana bread, then we headed back to Gastown to go to Storyeum, an underground live history museum. The BC live part was okay, it had actors in 6 different rooms acting out native customs, the Hudsons Bay Company coming, gold and getting people to move to BC, and the transcontinental railway coming. This program seemed more geared towards families with kids, so we were kind of disappointed. We also got to see Dinosaurs in Gastown, which redeemed the visit. There were a number of fossils, and dinosaur skeletons constructed from 80% real fossils, including a Crightonasaurus, named after Michael Crighton! I also pretended to be a dinosaur. We got to see an life size animatronic T-Rex too, which was pretty cool. We lunched in Gastown, at an Irish pub, and walked back past the steam whistle clock once again on our way out. We walked around the Historic district a bit, and headed all the way down Granville St, contemplating going to Granville Island and market, which would have been closed by then, so decided against it. Instead we made our way to Yaletown again, and over to the southeast waterfront, and back up to Robson to get Sushi for supper. I was only adventurous enough to have California rolls, but it was pretty good.

Thurs, Aug 17-- We made haste to get back to the waterfront and catch a ferry to Granville Island, and had coffee and a scone for breakfast at the public market there. We wandered about the whole island, past the Emily Carr art school, a houseboat community, through numerous artsy shops, some book stores, the Granville Island Brewery, etc. We had lunch at a seafood place where Matt had salmon fish & chips, and I had a cajun salmon burger. It was great, and a very popular place. We headed back to the market where we began and grabbed ice cream before catching the ferry back to Yaletown. We taxied it over to the station, arriving at 4:15 to find people already lined up for a 6pm train! We had to go through security for Amtrak, something we've never had to do for VIA, and boarded the Cascades 45minutes before the train was to depart. The cars on this train are smaller than normal cars, and it has two fins. Supposedly this train can go 80mph now, but if tracks were improved could go 110mph! Leaving Vancouver, the mountains look like a paper cutout behind the city, and approaching the border the tracks are right along the splashing rocky waterfront. USA here we come!

The Canadian -- segment 2 & Calgary

Fri, Aug 11 --We continued to wander around Winnipeg for a little while, not really finding that much to our liking. I think we came into the city thinking about it sterotypically as a boring city, and left with somewhat the same impression. Had we more time there, we might have visited the Man and Nature museum, or the Art museum and left with a different impresssion. Perhaps next time. We headed back to Union station to get the train, which ended up departing an hour behind due to locomotive troubles. Then we were off through the prairies once more. Whence we reached Saskatchewan that evening the skies turned dark and it started to rain, and then the sky lit up with sheet lightning. Sometimes we'd see a large bolt off in the distance, but most of the time the sky would just turn white. We slept off and on in our seats, ahead of some people who Matt, as an anthropologist, determined to be Menonnite. This was there first time riding a train, and they were filming everything, and throughout the night proceded to talk pretty loudly in english/dutch?/german?. I guess it was interesting to listen too, but hard to fall asleep to.

Sat, Aug 12-- We woke up in Alberta, and found out we made up some time, and arrived into Edmonton around 8:30am. We made our way over to the car rental place, and got our car without extra underage driver fees or extra driver fees. Yay! Then we headed out to Calgary, down Wayne Gretzky Dr, past Rexall Place, and onto Hwy 2. We stopped in Nisku for some breakfast at McDonalds, then continued on to Red Deer, where Ron McClean of CBC's Hockey night in Canada is from. Finally in the early afternoon we made it into Calgary. We found Shamil's house and ended up going into the city, down 17 Ave, or "the Red Mile" to meet up with him and his brother Nash. We checked out the Fringe Festival with street performers. We saw the supposed Canadian National Juggling Champion, but he seemed to drop things a lot... He did balance a ladder on his chin, which was impressive, but then when he was supposed to juggle in said position, he failed miserably. We left before the grand finale, so don't know if it got any better. Then we headed down 17th Ave to Ming, where we sampled Calgarian beer. Then it was over to the Eau Claire market for the Taste of Calgary. We got to sample chicken potstickers, bison ribs, bison burger, spolumbo's sausage, misir wot (ethiopian chick peas and lentils), fried raspberry gelato, and green tea ice cream. Wow! I wish there were Taste of's in every city we were going to. Then we headed over to the Drum & Monkey and eventually ended up at Bob the Fish and met up with some of Shamil and Nash's friends, which was fun.

Sun, Aug 13-- We have now broken fast at Shamil's house, eating french bread and fresh fruit. The weather has changed dramatically, it's nice and hot, where as last night was frigid! It was literally like late fall. It is bright and sunny and we are thinking of going towards the rockies, to Johnson's Canyon. Then it will be back to Edmonton for us tonight and catching the train tomorrow morning.

By the way! We went to this second hand store on 17 Ave, where supposedly they got all the costumery for Brokeback Mountain. Though I didn't get any cowboy shirts, I did pick up a conductor's hat, perfect for the rest of our trip. And Shamil got a neoprene jacket.

The Hudson Bay -- there, back, and in between

First off, let me wish a belated Happy Anniversary to my parents, on this day of this post! :) Here's a pic to make you happy:
Sun, Aug 6 --Back in Winnipeg we headed to the Forks Market, which unfortunately was soon closing. We were able to get our food for the way up to Churchill, and even a bottle of wine! Too bad the hot dog stand was closing, we wanted to get supper there! Instead we ate at Earl's right next to the station. We then returned to the station, called our respective parents, and waited for the train.

We boarded at 8:30pm and departed at 8:45pm in a fairly empty car. We rolled into Portage La Prairie on the same tracks we'll be taking on the Canadian on Friday, through more large crop fields. At 10:30, it was time to sleep, but unfortunately we had no pillow or blanket, so i asked for them, but none were to be had on this train! egad! Luckily it wasn't that cold like on the Ocean, but still! We made due with our sweaters, and though i woke up a few times, had my best trainsleep (so far).

Mon, Aug 7-- We woke up to sun and foggy crop fields. In one field I saw about 25 deer, our first major animal sighting. Turns out we were still in Saskatchewan when we woke up, soon to go through Hudson Bay, SK. We reached The Pas, MB, pronounced "the paw", at 10:45am, where we added a coach car, another locamotive, and some passengers. Still the train wasn't that full, and Matt and I had 2 four-seaters to ourselves. The scenery turns marshy, called muskeg, a bit further up the tracks. There appears to be lots of alder, birch, aspen, some sort of purple wispy flower, black spruce, and cattails. We ate lunch of rotis bought at the market in the dining car whilst watching When We Were Kings. Later in the day we passed a beautiful Cormorant Lake, though I am not sure where the name came from, since none of those birds should be around. At night we ate sandwiches for supper, and took a detour up to Thompson, where we would pick up lots of people to fill up our car. We were running pretty behind schedule by now, and it seemed that the whole way from The Pas we were just creeping along at a snail's pace.

Tues, Aug 8-- We woke up earlyish, and were supposed to arrive in Churchill at 8am, to no avail. We were now about 4 hours behind schedule as we creeped along sometimes stopping at remote locations. Having not prepared for a breakfast, we ate on the train, blueberry pancakes and bacon, pretty good. We finally arrive in Churchill at about 12:15pm. We arranged our luggage and then asked about where to go to swim and see whales, and what the risk of polar bear sighting was. The Parks Canada guy was, surprisingly, very wishy washy, and not very assuring about places we could and couldn't go to keep out of polar bear harm. Alas. We set off towards the town complex, as there is supposed to be a beach behind it, whilst walking around, we ran into this: We continued on, going towards the beach, and spotted lots of white things out in Hudson Bay, they were beluga whales! Tons of them! Despite Matt's hemming and hawing and concern that I would get hypothermia, I did go swimming in Hudson Bay. I got out to my waist and splashed around a bit, then promptly got out. The water was really nice on our feet, didn't seem as cold as the Atlantic, but once your whole body was in it was pretty cold. You might just barely be able to see a white speck to the right of my head, that's a whale. We stood in the water watching them for awhile, some eventually came probably 150m away and would stick their heads out! Then we headed over to the Eskimo museum, where there were lots of carvings done by native peoples, mostly from further north in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. There were also some stuffed polar bears and walruses, so I guess we did get to see some bears in Churchill. Our train back to Winnipeg turned out to leave late, scheduled for 10pm instead of 8ish, so we hung out at the Parks Canada building (which coupled as the train station) and watched a couple of films on Churchill and the wildlife.

On the train back we had upgraded to sleeping class, getting a double berth, and how luxurious compared to coach! We got to board first and get settled in, then once the train got moving, we could take showers! and boy was that nice, having not showered since Saturday in Toronto. It's interesting trying to shower on the train, luckily there is a hand rail in case the ride gets wobbly. It was so nice having a flat bed to lie on too! Unfortunately our meals weren't provided like i had thought, so we had bought food in Churchill (talk about expensive!).

Wed, Aug 9 -- Again the train was running very slowly, apparently it is because of the tracks up in the muskeg. In the summer months, they are worried about them heating up and settling, and the train has a high risk of derailing, so they have to take it very slow during the day, they can go a little faster at night. We got into Thompson in the early afternoon, probably running at least 5 hours late at this point. We go on the same tracks that we went up on, so it's the same scenery, just backwards, and sometimes we saw different sections of the trail that we were passing through at night going up. We passed the time by reading, watching movies, crosswording, eating, etc. At one point we stopped in the middle of nowhere due to some traffic communication, allowing us to get even further behind schedule.

Thurs, Aug 10-- So we woke up this morning, and were somewhere around Saskatchewan, meaning we were about 8 hours behind... eek! We ate our breakfast, showered, and got told by the attendant that since we were so late, we were going to be getting a complementary lunch at noon! how great! And what a large lunch it was. We sat with two older women from Winnipeg and Calgary. Did I mention we were the youngest in sleeping class by about 25 yrs atleast? Anyways, we finally ended up rolling into Winnipeg at about 5pm, 9 hours behind schedule. Apparently this qualifies us for some sort of discount. We shall see. We walked over to our hotel across the Assiniboine and Red rivers. We had to set out to find a laundromat after going for 11 days, which was no problem, and had a gourmet dinner of Little Caesars and Catfish beer.

Fri, Aug 11 -- We have spent the morning here changing our rental car for Edmonton... that was fun. And we've dropped our stuff off at the station, and are just walking about Winnipeg. It's a nice little city, a bit empty til you get downtown. Matt's bugging me to wrap up here at Second Cup, so that is all! We're off to Edmonton tonight.