TED & SYLVIA BLISHAK'S UPDATES
ON
AMTRAK, ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, AND VIA RAIL CANADA
May 7 to May 15, 2006
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
The Canadian to Vancouver, with connections to Seattle
Day 8. May 14, 2006
We awake and head for the diner just as first call for breakfast is being made at 6:30am. Normally, only a Continental Breakfast is offered approaching Vancouver, as we are due in at 7:50am. But we are treated to a full hot breakfast as we are running so late.
For decades, on our various Canadian trips, we have arrived into Vancouver on time early in the morning. On this trip we have Hertz Car Rental reservations on arrival, for a drive to The Seattle Westin. Ted prefers driving rather than the 6pm departure and unpredictable arrival of the rocking-and-rolling Mt. Baker International.
“Look at this,” suggests our car attendant, “as a chance to see country that none of us get to see ordinarily.” We run right along the Fraser River, which is far below us, with waterfalls and tributaries rushing to join the mighty stream. The crew can be seen peering out the windows at this unusual landscape. We have seen this from our trips on the Rocky Mountaineer.
As we enjoy breakfast, we pass through Boston Bar at 7:15am. Consulting our timetable, we find that we should have passed Boston Bar at 2:43am, over four and a half hours ago. The crew is guessing an arrival at 10 or 11am, but that would assume either making up considerable time or the existence of extreme padding in the schedule. We will see, and will make our decision between car or Talgo when we arrive.
TRAVEL TIP: Don’t make same-day, non-refundable air connections from Vancouver. Plan an overnight stay so you can be relaxed about when the Canadian, or Rocky Mountaineer, arrives. Sylvia asks one of the VIA chefs if this kind of delay is unusual now.
“About half the time, we’re delayed. And here’s why: about a year and a half ago the port was flooded with goods from Asia, and then we had a strike. So containers backed up, and the freight railroads are still trying to get out from under a huge backlog. It will take a few more months to get back to normal. Meanwhile, freight trains always get priority over us now.”
Sure enough, there is a lot of padding and we arrive into Vancouver at 11:15am after a lengthy backing movement into the station. Our planned leisurely back-roads drive to Seattle, stopping along the way for walks in several parks along the route, is becoming compressed.
Sylvia waits at the baggage carousel, Ted goes to the Hertz counter at the opposite end of the waiting room to find six people ahead of him, none with confirmed reservations. Although he is expecting a Hertz #1 Gold counter, it’s only a Hertz #1 Express Counter, so instead of just picking up the keys and driving away, he stands at the end of the line listening to haggling and bargaining, waiting to show his driver’s license and credit card before picking up the keys. After 20 minutes when the first customer in line still has not been processed, he gives up. By now it is noon, and with only 4 ½ hours until check-in time for the Mt. Baker International, we decide to put our bags in storage and do some sightseeing in Vancouver – there are always plenty of options in this beautiful port city -- instead of driving to Seattle. Sylvia, not an enthusiastic passenger on lengthy auto trips, but a great fan of Vancouver, is delighted.
Ted goes to the VIA/AMTRAK baggage agent to say “We arrived on the Canadian and are connecting on the Mt. Baker International to Seattle. Is it possible to store our luggage here?”
“There is no such train as the Mt. Baker International, the only train to Seattle is called the Cascade,” he says.
“Okay, I’m on the Cascade, now may I store my luggage?”
“Sleeping-class Silver and Blue passengers coming in on VIA Rail can store their luggage without charge while awaiting their connecting train,” he says, and shows us where he is putting our luggage, gives us claim tags, and assures us that the laptops will be safe with him.
There is a currency exchange counter in the station, so Ted spends $20.00 US to purchase $21.10 worth of Canadian currency. We taxi to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to enjoy lunch at the elegant 900 West Lounge, a grand-piano bar overlooking the main lobby. Popular melodies from the 50’s through the 70’s waft our way from the piano while we enjoy gourmet salads. Some of the diners are ordering high tea, which is served every day. But there is no crowded Mother’s Day Buffet here.
Hotel Vancouver with the little church across the street
Travel Tip: Expect high prices. Vancouver, at least this part of it, is an expensive city, quite different than the neighborhood around the Pacific Palisades with its moderate hotels and inexpensive ethnic restaurants. Sylvia, who is in the market for some summer gloves (when she asks for them in Klamath Falls she is directed to the selection in the gardening department) stops in at the lobby store which sells real fur coats and other luxury clothing items. They have quite a selection of gloves, but sticker shock stops her cold when a pair she fancies costs $160.00.
Sunday is a busy Alaska cruise departure day in Vancouver, so we stroll along past sidewalk parks, fountains, and flowers in bloom to the Canada Place Cruise Terminal to see which cruise ships are in port for the beginning of the season. Holland America Lines twins, “Ryndam” and “Veendam” which we have sailed on, are here. An enormous stranger, Norwegian Caribbean Lines “Norwegian Wind”, is here too. Spectators play sidewalk superintendent as longshoreman use forklifts and cranes to load supplies aboard through side doors which are lower than dock level. It takes tricky maneuvers and a lot of hard, hazardous labor on the part of others to create a situation where cruise passengers can live in luxury for a week.
Norwegian Caribbean Lines “Norwegian Wind”
Across the way, a huge new landfill is intruding into the harbor, where thousands of ship containers are stacked. While Ted had been skeptical about the backlog of freight from Asia as just another railroad excuse, the evidence is right before our eyes.
Stopping at the Pan Pacific Hotel lounge, we find a lavish and deafening Mother’s Day Brunch, complete with loud drumming, in progress, and the bar off-limits to all but the diners participating. But across the street, two barstools at the Heron Room of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel are available. A very large and congenial Chinese family has reserved most of the tables for their Mother’s Day Brunch Buffet.
Later, Ted asks the doorman to flag down a taxi for the Pacific Central Station. Before we can explain that we are not hotel guests, he summons the hotel’s chauffeur who holds open the rear door of a sleek black 2005 Cadillac. Rather than embarrassing anyone, we accept and distribute nice gratuities. Besides, I rationalized, we had just dropped nearly $50.00 at the hotel bar for two martinis and glasses of soda with a twist, and therefore deserved this luxurious treatment.
We claim our luggage at Pacific Central Station and line up at the Amtrak Business Class check in counter, due to open in a few minutes at 4:30pm. After obtaining our boarding passes, we pass onto the US Customs counter, then to the newly installed Transportation Security Administration room which has an machine to X-ray your luggage, possibly looking for bombs, maces and chains, machine guns, grenades, and other possible weapons. But they forgot to check my cane, which I realized later could have had a sword built in.
“Do you feel up to lifting these heavy bags up onto the X-ray machine yourselves?”
We did not. Fortunately, there was a VIA Rail baggage man available to hoist them up, then back down to the floor again.
“Are you carrying computers?” asks the uniformed TSA agent.
Now we have to unpack and power up both of our laptops, and ask why.
“For security reasons.”
She glances at the screens from across the room and declares them okay. Then we can shut down and repack them. Anybody who has Microsoft Windows knows how much time it can take to open and close this operating system. (I wonder if we had driven our rental car, or flown home, would we have had to unpack our laptops and go through this routine at the border station. Any readers who have traveled into the US from Canada in the last few weeks, please let us know.)
The next stop is the checked baggage station where we check everything except one laptop and a purse. It is just too difficult to heft heavy bags onto a Talgo train and into the limited storage space on board. We are willing to endure the long wait in Seattle for our baggage to be unloaded.
This procedure has taken 30 minutes and we are still not on board yet. The two Business Class cars are positioned at the front of the train, requiring a walk of the entire length of the train. The Bistro and Dining Car are open a few minutes after 5pm, so we go for an early dinner. According to Canadian law, no alcoholic beverages can be served until the train is underway. Sylvia has the meat loaf dinner while I enjoy the prime rib. The tables are set with linen and flatware and although the meals are pre-prepared, they are served on china, and are quite delicious. The train moves out at 6pm, just as we are finishing dinner.
At 7:15pm we have just crossed the Fraser River, 35 minutes out of the station, are in the “hole” waiting for a BNSF freight to pass, and already are 40 minutes behind schedule. The conductor has warned us that due to “freight congestion” we will be subject to delays, and that our arrival into Seattle cannot be predicted with any accuracy.
Trans Canada Highway over Fraser River
At Blaine just after crossing the border, US Immigration Officers board with their holstered Glock automatic pistols to look at our passports again, and to collect our Immigration forms which were handed to us when we checked in. It is indeed hard to imagine how anyone could enter our country illegally from Canada by train with all of this checking and double checking. It would be much easier to drive across, I would think. At least is was the last couple of times we have done it.
By the time we reach Edmonds, we are over one hour behind schedule, but at least the Talgo technician, somewhat grudgingly has gotten the A/C to work in our car.
Finally we arrive in Seattle 50 minutes late, step outside where a dispatcher is organizing a taxi line, and are whisked to the Westin.
We are assigned a deluxe room on the 30th floor with a dazzling view of the illuminated Space Needle, and soon crawl into our Heavenly Bed.
View from The Westin Seattle 30th Floor
NEXT: Day 9. May 15, 2006: Seattle to Klamath Falls
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