Despite being another travel day, we managed to fit in some extremely lucky railfanning today. We got up really early and left Salmon Arm immediately after breakfast. Our first stop of the day was at Craigellachie, which is where the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven. We got the boys out and wandered towards the monument right before a tour bus arrived and flooded the area with Japanese tourists. However, the cool part was that the tracks run right beside the monument, and as Sandra was taking our picture, we heard the horn of on oncoming train, and we got to see a short freight (with 4 engines (!)) run by the last spike.
After lunch, we stopped at the spiral tunnels at Kicking Horse Pass, which is where the CP line crosses over itself twice in order to make the grade through the mountains more manageable. I wasn't expecting to see a train, as even though the line is busy, there are large gaps between the trains. Luckily for me, as I was showing Xander a model of the area, there was a horn blast from under the Trans-Canada and a train appeared, heading for the tunnel. That meant we were able to stand and watch a container train pass under itself as it headed down out of the mountains and towards Field. <Train Geek>I have run this route in Microsoft Train Simulator, so it was pretty cool to see it in real life - and to see a train going through the tunnel.</Train Geek>
Our final stop of the day was Lake Louise, where we just stopped for a short photo opportunity. The lake is a very beautiful spot, but it was kind of hard to appreciate the beauty with Xander complaining about the wind and wanting to go back to the car. Oh well. At least we were able to have a family picture taken in front of the lake. It was kind of funny, as there were two guys who obviously wanted their picture taken, but were too shy to ask, so the one guy offered to take our picture and after that was done, he then asked if we would return the favour.
After Lake Louise, we drove into Calgary, leaving the mountains behind. Upon arriving in Calgary, Sandra discovered that while Calaway Park is open, it is only open on the weekends, which means we won't be taking the boys there tomorrow. Sandra is pretty annoyed that the park is closed, since she was really looking forward to going to it. As we reserved a hotel for two nights, we have to do something tomorrow, so it sounds like we are going to go to Heritage Park and then spend the evening visiting with my cousin. I don't think she has ever met Evan. Oh, and he rode in the car fine today - 6 hours and we did not even show him a DVD. I think it was partially because we left early, partially because he woke up from his nap at the tunnels, so we could immediately take him out of the car and partially because we ate lunch on time. If I can get those three things working together on the way back to Regina, we should be able to get home without any problems.
Despite being another travel day, we managed to fit in some extremely lucky railfanning today. We got up really early and left Salmon Arm immediately after breakfast. Our first stop of the day was at Craigellachie, which is where the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven. We got the boys out and wandered towards the monument right before a tour bus arrived and flooded the area with Japanese tourists. However, the cool part was that the tracks run right beside the monument, and as Sandra was taking our picture, we heard the horn of on oncoming train, and we got to see a short freight (with 4 engines (!)) run by the last spike.
After lunch, we stopped at the spiral tunnels at Kicking Horse Pass, which is where the CP line crosses over itself twice in order to make the grade through the mountains more manageable. I wasn't expecting to see a train, as even though the line is busy, there are large gaps between the trains. Luckily for me, as I was showing Xander a model of the area, there was a horn blast from under the Trans-Canada and a train appeared, heading for the tunnel. That meant we were able to stand and watch a container train pass under itself as it headed down out of the mountains and towards Field. <Train Geek>I have run this route in Microsoft Train Simulator, so it was pretty cool to see it in real life - and to see a train going through the tunnel.</Train Geek>
Our final stop of the day was Lake Louise, where we just stopped for a short photo opportunity. The lake is a very beautiful spot, but it was kind of hard to appreciate the beauty with Xander complaining about the wind and wanting to go back to the car. Oh well. At least we were able to have a family picture taken in front of the lake. It was kind of funny, as there were two guys who obviously wanted their picture taken, but were too shy to ask, so the one guy offered to take our picture and after that was done, he then asked if we would return the favour.
After Lake Louise, we drove into Calgary, leaving the mountains behind. Upon arriving in Calgary, Sandra discovered that while Calaway Park is open, it is only open on the weekends, which means we won't be taking the boys there tomorrow. Sandra is pretty annoyed that the park is closed, since she was really looking forward to going to it. As we reserved a hotel for two nights, we have to do something tomorrow, so it sounds like we are going to go to Heritage Park and then spend the evening visiting with my cousin. I don't think she has ever met Evan. Oh, and he rode in the car fine today - 6 hours and we did not even show him a DVD. I think it was partially because we left early, partially because he woke up from his nap at the tunnels, so we could immediately take him out of the car and partially because we ate lunch on time. If I can get those three things working together on the way back to Regina, we should be able to get home without any problems.
2 comments:
Yeah - sounds like a good day!! Excited to see you! Love ya
I still find it hard to reconcile your train geekiness with the rest of your personality. Next time you bug me about watching darts I'm just going to scream "Craigelacheeeeeeee" at the top of my lungs.
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