June 1 part two: Pining for the fjord

Blogger's Note: I'm having to do this piecemeal, because Picasa will blog only four photos at a time, and I figure doing it this way is still faster than individually sizing each photo in Picasa (the version of Photoshop on this laptop is essentially useless) and adding it as a page element in Blogger. I could be wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do this that isn't time-consuming and frustrating.

Also, I used my new Flip video camera to shoot some video, but I don't have time at the moment to try to figure out how to get it onto YouTube. I'm hoping there will be a couple of hours soon when I'm not (a) looking at astounding scenery, (b) packing or changing clothes, and (c) fully conscious. I've been running on four to four and a half hours' sleep since before I left, and when I fade at night after dinner, I tend to do it very suddenly. Sometimes in the middle of a sentence.

Which is why I was up at 5:30 this morning to do some remedial posting before breakfast.


But hey, are you looking at these pictures on the right? They're not optimal, because they're shot through train windows and the train is moving, but they should give you a taste of what the trip on the Whistler Mountaineer is like.

One of the things I'm noticing about rural British Columbia is the wonderful smell of the air. It always seems to have this faint, elusive perfume of pininess and fresh, damp vegetation, a very clean and natural scent.

That big hunk of gray rock is the Stawamus Chief, an enormous granite monolith that some people are apparently crazy enough to climb.


Other highlights of the train trip are Cheakamus Canyon, which is a craggy ravine where the train crosses a couple of trestles over a roaring, raging, surging river. I shot video of that, though some tipsy Australian guy talked over it.

I'm hearing lots of Australian accents, a fair number of British ones and more than a few I simply can't begin to identify. It's definitely very multicultural out here.

There's also a lot of consciousness -- going way beyond lip service -- of environmental issues, carbon emissions and sustainability. I saw evidence of logging on the trip to Whistler (stripped logs lined up along the water's edge), but the paper mills have mostly closed down and moved farther north, according to Onboard Attendant Lisa.

Despite all the talk of bears and bald eagles, I didn't spot any wildlife, but I can't imagine too many wild critters want to hang around noisy train tracks when they have acres and acres of nearly silent old-growth forest to enjoy.

I couldn't believe the couple sitting in front of me actually reclined their seats and fell asleep in the midst of all the waterfalls (Brandywine Falls is taller than Niagara, though much skinnier) and cozy mountain villages. I didn't even like to blink. This must truly be one of the most relentlessly scenic train routes on the planet.

June 1 part one: All aboard!

This morning, I checked out of Opus in Vancouver, bound for the Whistler Mountaineer train station. When you book a trip on the Whistler Mountaineer, they literally roll out the red carpet for you. Everyone is incredibly friendly. Then it gets better: The train is beautiful -- not just clean but luxurious. The "onboard attendants" can't do enough for you. You get a mimosa followed by a full breakfast followed by coffee, tea, booze and coaching about which side of the car to look out to get the best views and pictures. You know they have thought of everything when you look in your seat-back pocket and find a train-sickness bag. I am not kidding.

That lavish attention to detail would be fantastic if you were on Amtrak getting hauled from Washington to Newark. But the amazing part is that you get all that pampering AND scenery so idyllic and glorious it's hard to believe it wasn't painted on glass for a "Lord of the Rings" movie background.

Once the exits have been enumerated and the sparkling wine is on its way, you find yourself rolling through the wealthiest community in Canada, West Vancouver. The houses are large but tasteful and in keeping with the climate and culture.

As the train rolls through a park, people stand and point and wave. Lots of waving all along the route, actually, and lots of smiling. I saw one oldish lady hanging out of her window to wave at us. I did my best to wave back, but I think the Mountaineer's tinted windows prevented people from seeing us.

But after we passed the park, the scenery remained so charming that even the wildflowers along the track seemed exquisitely landscaped. There wasn't that wretched trash-grafitti-and-abandoned-rusty-things ambience you get along rail lines near so many American cities.

The water the tracks follow for about the first half of the trip is Howe Sound, the southernmost fjord in North America. Joseph pointed out a campground at Porteau Cove that, for about $15 per person per night, is only about 30 minutes from Vancouver and offers access to some of the best scuba diving on the coast. (What's down there? A sunken ship and a man-made reef.)

The train slows down for the best views, and many of us braved the chill and went back to the Henry Pickering Heritage Observation Car, built in 1914 and opened to the elements in 1955, to get pictures without risk of glass reflections.

The train left North Vancouver a little after 8 a.m., and by 10 I'd had a mimosa, a fruit plate, coffee, an omelet with potatoes and back bacon (it was inevitable) and was washing it all down with a Kokanee light beer. All that and a stunning temperate rainforest and fjord. Kind of puts a day at the office in perspective, no?

May 31: Vancouver

Well, I've been up for almost 24 straight hours, came down to the hotel business center, logged on, wrote a long post, uploaded some photos, tried to load Picasa so I could size them for the blog, and the computer froze up and I lost everything. I'm so tired now I can hardly see, and I have to be up painfully early again for early departure for Whistler. So a lot of the things I was going to write tonight will have to keep.

And no pictures. That will have to wait until I can get the technology to cooperate.

THIS JUST IN: Was able to recover some of what I lost, so I'm revising this post!
The word you most commonly hear to describe Vancouver is "beautiful." Guess what: It's not hype.This is an undeniably, unequivocally, unapologetically beautiful city. Everywhere you look, at least on a sunny day like today, it's graceful, dynamic, surrounded by natural majesty and built with flair. No wonder it's growing so fast. The cab ride from the airport was more breathtaking than many cities' most postcard-ready vistas.

Anyway: When last we left our heroine, she was frantically packing on the eve of departure. Since then, she has gotten about four hours' sleep, had her departure delayed by thunderstomrs, gotten on a twin-engine prop plane to fly to Toronto, gotten lost in Lester B. Pearson Airport (the busiest airport in Canada), had her flight delayed and flown into Vancouver, meaning, when you tally it up, I have been through the two busiest airports in Canada in the same day without properly resting up first.

But when we started our descent into Vancouver and we broke out of the clouds to see those craggy, snow-topped mountains, all was forgiven. I was sitting in the middle block of seats, so the only window I could see out of was some distance away across an elderly couple. When we landed, I expected to see a patch of sky, a boxy terminal building, maybe some grass. Instead, I saw a perfect, jewel-like little miniature painting framed in the porthole. In the background were the jagged mountains, softened with fog and tipped with white under a cloudless blue sky. In the middle distance, a green meadow sprinkled with a few yellow flowers. And what was that moving in the foreground? A tiny bright speck. A car?

No. A cyclist. Of course. Perfect!

I'm staying at the Opus, a boutique hotel in the Yaletown section of the city. It's stylish and luxurious, all neutrals and smooth, shiny surfaces and glowing glass. Yaletown is populated almost entirely, it seems, by people who look -- incongruously -- both very young and very prosperous.

Vancouver has a tourist trolley that follows a convoluted route and endeavors to stop at most of the downtown hotels and noteworthy attractions. I spent a lot of time waiting for it today, and I've concluded it's best suited to tourists who have unlimited time and/or cannot walk long distances. Still, the hop-on, hop-off convenience is useful over short distances if you time it right. I ended up walking through the elaborate Millennium Gate into Chinatown, which enjoys a huge reputation but is actually a bit seedy. The best part, I think, is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Chinese garden. The park is tiny but public, while the garden comes with an admission fee. I wandered the park happily for a while, enjoying the peace and quirkiness of it. Just outside in the courtyard of the Chinese Cultural Center, the 28th Vancouver Scouts Group was drilling and holding ceremonies, mostly in uniform. Adorable Chinese-Canadian children, mostly in the "Cub" age bracket. Meanwhile, in the shade of some bamboo in the park, a couple lay on a blanket, looking like any other couple relaxing on a sunny afternoon in a park, except that the woman was lying on her back and holding in her hands a very large quartz crystal. She pointed it skyward as she welcomed interdimensional beings.


How cool is that?

I also took the elevator to the top of the Harbour Centre Tower, which offers stunning views of the Fraser River, False Creek, the UBC campus on its distant point and much of the city. On the way back to the hotel, I walked bustling Robson Street, packed with boutiques, sunglassed women with shopping bags and restaurants. It was busy and vibrant.

Dinner was completely over the top, in the best possible way. The Blue Water Cafe is all about fresh, local, beautifully prepared fish and shellfish, and it did not disappoint. The waitstaff is attentive, knowledgeable and even passionate, and the food is complex and brilliant without being fussy or precious. I had some Arctic char and sablefish that would have brought weaker people to tears, it was so melt-in-your-mouth good. (I also slurped some oysters, which people who know me will find surprising. But they were just so darned fresh!) Even the desserts were creative and delicious, full of simple, natural flavors rather than articficial goo and syrupy sweetness.

Tomorrow, it's up with the larks to board the train for Whistler! I don't really want to check out of Opus, but I'll be back. In the meantime, adventures await in Whistler as it prepares for the Olympic Games. Even the train ride should be spectacular!

May 30: So much for packing light

It's the eve of my departure, and I'm going to be spending it at an airport hotel because I am so not a morning person and I have to be at the airport at 5 a.m.!

I've spent the day doing laundry, running errands (why can't you get hair mousse in travel sizes anymore? THREE different drug stores, no joy) and trying to cram 100 pounds of stuff into three 20-pound bags. To be fair, it's not all clothes and shoes. A lot of it is electronic equipment that I hope to God I will be able to use effectively. Including a Flip video camera! I can't wait to shoot megabytes and megabytes of my shoes until I get the hang of it.

I know I won't sleep tonight, suffering a recurring nightmare that I'm up a tree in Banff and don't have a vital USB cable, but I am also really excited. I've got a detailed itinerary now, and I don't want to spoil the surprises but there are a LOT of cool excursions and activities in my future. If you're worried about revisiting this blog because you think you'll find me spending six days in a tent in the rain musing about my childhood, I can promise you that will not come to pass. Three days tops before I call for extraction.

(Kidding. I avoid tents.)

So: I'm finally packed (miracle), my flight leaves Pittsburgh at 6:45 a.m., I've got my passport (I know you're wondering) and I'm ready to begin the adventures! Hell ... where did I put the housekeys? ...

Saturday, May 24: One week from launch!

This time next week I'll be on Air Canada on my way to Vancouver via Toronto. I haven't started packing yet, but I did start a list with the goal of packing as light as possible. I have experience: I went to Russia as a teenager, Scandinavia in college, the Far East after graduation and Britain and France since. I learned not to pack anything I can't carry by myself through a train station, up a big flight of stairs and halfway across a city in a downpour. (So, yes to raincoat, no to three pairs of heels.)

The idea is to start in Vancouver and work my way across the western provinces to Ontario and finish with a few days knocking around Toronto and the Niagara region. Full disclosure: I'm doing it for the Canadian Tourism Commission and on their dime, but I've been promised total editorial freedom, so if the weather sucks or the train is late, I'll say so. I've vacationed in Eastern Canada since I was a child, and I am very fond of Canada and eager to see more of it, but I'm also a journalist, so I'm not interested in spin or puffery. What I tell you would be useless if it weren't honest.

So I hope you'll join me here as I depart on May 31 for my adventure. I hope you'll find helpful information that might help you plan a trip of your own. Let's face it: Despite everything that's happened in the past few years, Canada is still friendlier, closer and easier to get in and out of than a lot of other countries you could visit, and while the dollar is down a bit against the loonie, it's still not Monopoly money. Plus, they have very good beer.