The Canadian Railway

I love the train..... always have.  When my husband and I lived in Thunder Bay in North Western Ontario, I would take opportunities to visit my family in Southern Ontario by boarding  the 7 PM train, travel all night in a sleeper car and arrive at Union Station in Toronto about 4 PM the following day. Traveling at night allowed me to sit in one of the dome cars and watch the Northern Lights.

This trip was no different, except that that I was traveling with my Dad and "Dee" and it took four nights. I didn't see the Northern Lights this time around but I wasn't looking either. I headed off to my berth early in the evening, read a bit, and turned in early every night. Morning always arrived early and I always slept well with the rocking motion of the train.

 We spent most of our waking time on three of the cars. There was this entertainment car where you could sit and play games or do puzzles, or read with a cup of tea or coffee or a drink from the bar. If you were hungry, you could help yourself to a piece of fruit or pastry which was always abundant. We spent a lot of time here playing cards and admiring the landscape. In the evenings, they showed movies here. There was an assortment of games, books and magazines to choose from.

There were also the dome cars or panoramic cars. There were 3 of them on this train. On the lower level of the car was another seating area that housed the bar. The third area we spent a lot of time was one of two dining cars. There were four options on the menu (one of them being vegetarian) and the chef was always accommodating. The meals were scrumptious and I did not have any problems sticking to my doctor's diet.

 All of my travel photos were taken from a moving train, and a lot of them unfortunately did not turn out. Of course they will be good enough for my scrapbook, but I chose just a few of them for this blog post. Everyone says that Ontario is just rocks, trees and lakes anyway. And here is the proof. But I love that kind of thing. We would watch through these windows for hours and hoped we would see some wildlife.

Here is an example of a burned out forest. The charred remains of the old forest still stand, with the new growth coming up to replace it.

We boarded the train in Toronto at midnight Sunday morning, traveled through  a lot of Ontario during the night and when we awoke, we were in Capreol just outside of Sudbury. It would take all of Sunday and then all through the night to get through the province. Tomorrow, we will leave the rocky Canadian Shield behind and enter the prairie provinces.