Date: 16 July 2001 (Sunday)
Start:
End: Capilano RV Park, North Vancouver BC (0 miles)
The temperature was 54f when we arose, and it only reached 57f in the afternoon. There were low clouds with rain, mist, drizzle, and so forth all day. This is as close as we’ve come to a rain-out the entire trip.
We ate and went to church about 10 blocks up the hill, taking the truck due to the rain. Afterward, we stopped at the mall for croissants and the paper. Then we holed up in the little house through lunch until 5:00pm.
Then we took the truck to the BC Rail depot, and boarded the Pacific Starlight Dinner Train.
We had seating at a table in the dome of an old Santa Fe dome car, named "Twilight". This car was built in 1950 by Pullman to run on the old "Super Chief" from Chicago to Los Angeles. Other cars in the train included a dome-lounge from the Western Pacific that ran in the California Zephyr, a full-length super dome from the Milwaukee Road’s Hiawatha, the Manhattan from the New York Central and the Indigo from the C&O.
The train run was an hour and a half outbound to Porteau Cove, during which cocktails and dinner were served. The train stayed there 45 minutes, during which time the Budd-car train from Prince George and Whistler passed en route to North Vancouver. Then the train ran back into North Vancouver for an hour and a half, during which dessert and after-dinner drinks were served.
The weather wasn’t good, but the visibility horizontally was all right, so we saw lots of great scenery on the way out, including a departing cruise ship, the homes along the tracks that overlook the sound, the coves, the tunnels, the little bays, and so forth. On the way back, dusk set in and we could see into the homes where they had their lights on, we could see the engine’s light probing ahead into the tunnels, and the lights of Vancouver as we approached it.
The food was surprisingly good. There was an appetizer (a small tuna cake with sauces) and a mushroom and thyme soup. Dolores had steak and I had halibut, and the dessert was a bitter chocolate soufflé. All of it was quite good and nicely presented.
We had a couple and mother-in-law across the aisle from us. They live south of Vancouver, and told us all sorts of interesting facts and gave us hints on other things to see and do in the area. We took photos of all of them using their camera and they reciprocated. They took some of us with their digital camera and promised to e-mail them to us (nice camera, by the way).
It was expensive, but not too bad given the US$ to CDN$ exchange ratio. We chalked it up to entertainment as well as dinner.
We returned to the little house from the BC Rail depot (about a mile) and settled in for the night.
The weather tomorrow should be a bit better. We’ll see what we have before we set out in the morning.