OH CANADA!

Canada. Our neighbor to the north has been in the news a lot lately, and not always for good reasons.

This vast expanse, bigger in size than Australia, the United States and even Africa has been sitting there quietly for centuries. It’s always being the quiet neighbor, the kind neighbor, and the polite neighbor, the kind of neighbor you could easily borrow a cup of sugar from or the kind who would always let their kids play with your kids without worry.

Sure, there have been some disputes in the past with regards to dairy products and lumber, but for the most part, we have always relied on each other for our imports and exports with little turmoil. Never once did our Lincoln Logs factory run out of raw materials.

Our current U.S government administration wants Canada to become our 51st state. They don’t want that! So now there is a tariff war going on. But you didn’t come here to get a lesson in sociopolitical warfare, so let me get on with the reason for this blog entry.

Jim and I started planning a vacation to Japan about 9 months ago. After many weeks of picking and choosing the different locations, tours, excursions, and pinning down all the logistics involved with the trip, we had to cancel it due to two reasons. The cost to fly first class skyrocketed (pun intended), and according to our travel agent, the “quiet” less touristy times to visit the country disappeared, and the “throngs” of mostly local inhabitants descended on the tiny country, and suddenly everything we wanted to do or see in Japan was overbooked and became overpriced. Since we didn’t want to re-mortgage the house, it was just logical to say Sayonara!

So we opted for Canada.

During a hasty excursion one summer in 1969, our family drove across the Rainbow Bridge and saw both the American Falls, Horseshoe Falls, and we found our way into Canada to experience the entire Niagara Falls area from the far north. We left home for that vacation with 6 kids in tow ,and we somehow managed to keep everyone from getting decapitated on those huge nasty boulders below the railings. That was my Canadian experience on the eastern side of the country.

Jim and I toured Vancouver, British Columbia about 20 years ago, and that was the extent of our visit to Western Canada. We did Stanley Park, Granville Island and enjoyed some really fresh rainbow trout caught that morning by the crew of the fishing trawler “Intooit”.

So, this time we flew into Vancouver and did a sunset whale watching cruise that evening. We got to see a lot of humpback whales, a few otters, seals and bald eagles, and we had a fantastic time. The vessel held about 40 people, no one got sloshed, no one threw up on board, and we had damp but mild weather out on the Strait of Georgia.

The following day, we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train and started our two-day trip across British Columbia and Alberta, stopping for an overnight stay in Kamloops and then continuing to Jasper National Park. To sum up this trip is to say it was first class the entire way. The scenery was breathtaking, the unlimited food and drink included local wines, five-star gourmet meals, and we had the most amazing, intelligent, knowledgeable and congenial hosts you could ever hope for. All this made the trip one for our cherished memory books. The crew did everything but a load of laundry for us, but I’m sure if we asked them to press a pair of slacks, they wouldn’t hesitate.

Most of the other patrons on board were from the states. We sat across from a group of people from North Carolina, some folks in front of us were from New York, two behind us were from New Jersey, and some Brits and Aussies also helped filled the car. As people got up to go outside to the viewing stations to get better photographs, I couldn’t help notice how incredibly friendly everyone was. No one hogged the view. They struck up conversations, making small talk, sharing memorable anecdotes from previous trips and just plain interacting. Okay, most of the riders were up there in age, but it was such a treat to spend a couple of days with fun, lively, energetic and courteous people, who made the trip so much more enjoyable.

Once the train stopped in the town of Kamloops, we checked in to our overnight accommodations. The hotel staff was equally as pleasant as the train crew. They offered us a fan for the room (for white noise), some complimentary bottles of water, and lots of other amenities. I would have preferred a tall stack of $100’s instead of a disposable razor, but hey, you can’t have everything.

The following day we continued on the train in the same car with the same crew and the day went by without incident. We hated to say goodbye in Jasper, but we made a lot of great memories.

Our vacation trip continued with Brewster Sightseeing buses. They picked us up each day at our hotels, and we did 4 days of sightseeing, spending at least 6 hours each day. We made a lot of stops at waterfalls, mountain lakes, scenic overlooks, got to see a lot of wildlife, like grizzly bears, black bears, deer, elk, and mountain goats. The drivers insisted that any rider who spotted wildlife should “yell” it out even if they didn’t know what kind of animal it was. The bus driver promptly slammed on the brakes, and backed up so everyone could get a look and a photo whenever it was safe to do so. It was pretty hilarious at times, when the tour director was in the middle of a story and someone yelled out something stupid like “Squirrel!” or “Alley cat!”

We spent 3 days exploring both Jasper National Park and Banff National Park. We were amazed at the beauty of the Canadian Rockies. Both parks straddle the Continental Divide which is the highest point in the Rocky Mountains. Talk about majestic mountains majesty.

We also got to take a short excursion to the top of a glacier on Sulphur Mountain. There we explored the Columbia Ice Fields first hand. The ride onto the glacier was in a gigantic all wheel terrain monster truck. That was incredible.

Our trip ended in Calgary. We had two days left and unfortunately it rained both days. We had planned to spend one of them at the Calgary Zoo, but we canceled that and went to a Science museum instead. The public transit system in the city is top notch. For $3 Canadian or $2.20 American you can go quite a long distance. On our way back from the museum while on the tram we were talking about getting a pizza for dinner. One idea we had was to make a stop in the downtown area of the city, as the chances of finding a decent pizzeria there were greater than in the area where our hotel was. A young man who was standing right next to us interjected and mentioned that he knew a really good place, and it wasn’t too far from where our stop was. The guy was a bit short, in his mid- to late-twenties, thin, and wearing a grey hoodie. He had blondish hair and a light mustache. As he started giving us directions, he suddenly said that he would just “take us there himself”, and told us to follow him. We were a little suspicious at first. We exchanged some small talk and he said he was off from work and that it was no big deal to go out of his way to help us. So we got off and followed him. Again while making small talk, he told us his name was Jake, and that he worked at a marijuana growing facility. Jim and I looked at each other with a slight sense of trepidation. We both kept thinking that this was some sort of setup, and he could easily rob us or something worse. We both thought about our first trip to Italy, when we got ourselves into trouble with what we thought was a “very helpful English-speaking Italian” at a train station, who kindly offered to help us take our luggage to the proper train platform… and then demanded a substantial sum of MONEY!

Suddenly Jake stopped in mid-step and pulled out his phone and asked it for directions to the pizza place he was thinking of. When it gave him the information he once again said that he would be happy to escort us there. We just thanked him, took the directions and went off on our own. By the way, it was the best pizza we ever had and well worth the walk.

At dinner Jim and I discussed our encounter with Jake. We had heard that the Canadians were a “friendly bunch”. But being from the states, where it is less likely for people to go out of their way to help you, we didn’t expect that much kindness from a complete stranger in Calgary. When I look back at our whole trip, a lot of people we met in Canada were extremely friendly and perfectly willing to go out of their way to be helpful. A lot of people we spoke with also said that they were glad that we Americans were spending our money in the Canadian provinces instead of other foreign places. Most Canadians didn’t blame us (the common folk) for the political discourse going on. They were just happy to have us filling their hotels and dining rooms.

Our trip was amazing and we had a fantastic time enjoying our neighbor to the north. And one of the best things was that the exchange rate for our dollar was over 30 percent higher there. Thanks, O Canada!

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Thanks, Lenny