Monday June 6, 2022

Vancouver to Kamloops

Up at 5:30 and down to the lobby by 6:45. Checked in our baggage and loaded onto a tour bus for the ride to the train station.

Got settled in our heated seats in the dome car and found out we are in the first breakfast seating in the dining room below.  Thank goodness, because the second seating turned out to be at 10:00 – unfortunately tomorrow we will be in the second seating – but that’s ok, we will get a pastry appetizer while we wait.  We left Vancouver at about 8:00 and went down for breakfast at about 9:00.  After a fresh baked croissant I had delicious avocado toast and Brad had the eggs Benedict.  We sat with a very nice couple who are with an AAA tour group from Pennsylvania.

The staff are amazing, they bring whatever we want and are full of information.  We can go outside and stand on the viewing platform to take photos; it’s quite protected from the elements.

It is so interesting to see sights that we have seen many times before, but from a different angle or perspective – for example traveling under the Port Mann Bridge as opposed to over it, or passing a place like Hope in a totally different location than any highway or road you might drive on when passing through.  That has kept it very interesting for us.

A quiet section of the Fraser.

A passing freight train.

Back to the food - snacks came around a couple of hours after breakfast (pretzels, chocolate, dried fruit, or any combination of the above), then lunch, and what a lunch!  It was like a dinner with wine and an appetizer of greens and candied salmon.  Brad had salmon with rice and vegetables, and I had chicken in a mushroom sauce with potato wedges and vegetables.  Then cheesecake for dessert.  So. Stuffed!  We sat with Donald the AAA tour guide and a nice man named John, who is from the US and traveling alone.  He loves trains and was told by a friend that he had to do this trip.  The snacks come around again a couple of hours later, then a fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookie before we arrived in Kamloops.  And drinks all day long.

Just before Hell's Gate.

So many old telegraph poles left to rot by the tracks.

Near Lytton.  You can see the devastation from the train that you don't see from the highway.  Everything really is gone.  We were asked not to take photos out of respect for the residents who lost everything.

Some more scenes from today.

Kamloops Lake.

Bighorn sheep.

Beautiful colours to end the day.

We rolled (literally) off the train around 8 pm.  We were given our hotel room key while we were still on the train, and when we got there our luggage was already in the room.  We immediately went to dinner with Brad’s sister Diane and her partner Gord and had a nice visit.  We had a fairly early night and had a great sleep.