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  • Sarah McCabe

North America Circle

Sunnyvale -> Seattle -> Vancouver, BC -> Toronto -> Chicago -> Sunnyvale Read more
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  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Morning in Ontario

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 34 °F

    I woke as we were passing a picturesque lake. Ironically, I am (mostly) caught up on the blogging, but we have very little cell service, so I can't upload all the entries yet.

    I slept very well. I hope that means I have figured out train sleeping and will rest well on the next trip.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Last meal on board

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 37 °F

    Since we are scheduled to arrive at Toronto at 2:30, pm (or, as they say in Canada 14:30) and that is normally when they are still serving lunch, the only meal they serve this morning is brunch.

    I finally branched out of my eggs and ham rut and had waffles with baconRead more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Approaching Toronto

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 41 °F

    As we got closer to Toronto, it was time to repack all my belongings and to take my last photos from the train. Before long, we were passing through commuter rail stations, which means Toronto is not far away. I switched from my train shoes to my outdoor boots in preparation for a quick exit.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    Sleeper car from outside
    Dining carCoach seatsDoorway between carsHistorical memorabilia displayed in coach carHistorical menu (date?)Door to exit carDoor to enter car

    About the train (1): overall

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    I figured I should put all the info I have about the train into a group of posts so most of you can easily just skip it all.

    This train has two engines pulling 13 cars. The first engine does the pulling and the second one provides the electrical power to all the cars.

    The cars themselves were built in 1954 and have been refurbished multiple times over the years. The cars themselves are still in very good shape.

    There are four sleeper cars (plus one that is exclusively for crew). There is only one car for coach passengers. I'm guessing very few people are willing to sit in a coach seat for 4 days, so those passengers are mostly only on board for a portion of the trip. In addition, there is one Prestige (Prestige passengers pay 2 to 4 times more than the most expensive sleeper passengers) class sleeper car.

    There are three dome cars. (See other entry for more info).

    The other three cars are the baggage car, the dining car, and a deadhead car (car that is not in use - just being repositioned).

    The dining car has two seatings for lunch and dinner (three if the train is very full - one if the train is very empty). You request/are assigned your seating the night before.

    The order of the cars is: engine (traction) - engine (electrical) - deadhead - baggage - coach seats - dome (coach) - sleeper (crew) - sleeper (me!) - sleeper - sleeper - sleeper - dome (activity) - dining - Prestige bedrooms - dome (Park). So no wonder it took me more than a day to discover the Park car.

    I've added captions to most of these photos explaining what they are. I don't know how obvious those captions are. You may have to click on something to see them.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    Park Car from outside (rear of train)
    Sleeper portion of Park Car leading to bar and loungePark Car barLounge of Park car with rear wondowName plaque for Park CatLounge of dome (activity) carDome of activity carActivity areaLounge of Coach dome car

    About the train (2): dome cars

    Mar 15–19, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    There are three dome cars on the train: one for coach passengers and two for sleeper car passengers. The first of the sleeper dome cars is the "activity" car and the second, which is much fancier, is the last car on the train. The fancy dome car is called the Park car, since all cars of that class are named after National parks. I don't think that the standard dome cars get names.

    The activity car is where all the informational/fun activities are held, e.g., beer & wine tastings. bingo, and informational talks about the train or about the landscape we are traveling through.

    The coach dome and the activity dome look very similar, but the activity car has free snacks (cookies, muffins, fruit) and drinks (coffee, tea, juice) laid out all day.

    The Park car is very obviously the most recently remodeled of all the cars. It has a few Prestige sleeper compartments, as well as a bar area, lounge area, and the dome. The lounge area has the rear view window for the train.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    Berth seats (daytime)
    Sleeper berths converted to beds for nightShower room changing areaShower room showering areaShower room emergency call buttonHallway of double rooms in sleeper carHallway with 4 single rooms (2 on each side)Sink and toilet in single roomSeat in single roomName plaque for my sleeper car

    About the train (3): sleeper cars

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    The sleeper cars are all named after people. The regular sleepers are "Manor [Name]," while the Prestige cars are named "Chateau [Name]," just to sound fancier.

    The regular sleeper cars have 3 classes of beds: berths, single rooms, and double rooms. The berths have two seats facing each other that convert to an upper and lower bunk at night that just have curtains for privacy from the corridor. The single rooms have a toilet and sink in the room and one bed that lowers down onto the toilet at night. The double rooms have two bunks that are lowered at night, but I only ever used the lower bunk. The doubles also have a toilet in a little closet with a door.

    There are 6 berths (3 pairs), 6 doubles and 4 singles in each car. So a maximum of 22 passengers, but some of those beds are reserved for crew. When we left Vancouver, I think the train was mostly full, but a large number of people got off at Jasper.

    The sleeper cars also have a toilet room (for the berths passengers) and a shower room for everyone. All of the rooms have multiple buttons you can use to call an attendant. The shower room even has one positioned near the floor, in case you fall.

    Fun fact: the toilets are similar to airplane toilets which use vacuum to suck all the waste into a holding tank. The sinks and showers, however drain directly onto the tracks. Which means there is a direct conduit from the tracks to the sink in each room. Which also conducts a lot of rail noise. So if you plug the sink in your compartment, it gets much quieter.

    The Prestige sleepers have a double bed (no bunks) and a ton of other fancy things, like a concierge who will bring you drinks and snacks. The Park car also has 3 Prestige rooms (I think, I never actually saw inside those cabins).    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    Two seats in my compartment
    One seat folded flat to use as a table.The bed made up (both seats are folded flat under the bed)Sink with shelf removedSink being used as a table

    About the train (4): my sleeper room

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    I'm in a double room. When I booked the double wasn't much more expensive than the single and it is way easier to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and I am of an age where that is a necessity often

    The sleeper car hallways all look identical, so after Jasper I used my souvenir beer coaster to mark my room.

    There are two seats in the room that can be moved around so that two people can face each other or both look out the window or whatever. You can also fold one seat down and use it as a low table if you are in the room alone.

    The sink has a little shelf that can be used to convert it to a little table, but it is kind of annoying to remove everything from the table to wash your hands.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Arriving in Toronto

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    The train arrived almost two hours early. That's what happens when you build a lot of slack into the schedule that you don't always need.

    The Toronto train station in very impressive and I had to take a picture of the Via Rail map, so I can plan my next Canadian adventure.

    The apartment I rented was just a short walk away and the weather was not that cold. It took a while to get checked in, mostly because I hadn't resarched the procedure in advance. So there was a fair amount of calling, texting and trying to log into the booking website before I got all the info I needed.

    Once I got in, I did a bit of unpacking and started a load of laundry before heading out to explore the tourist areas.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Toronto street scenes

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    I first headed over to the CN tower to scope out the Edge Walk. This is where you get strapped into a harness and you walk around the outside of the CN tower. It's the one thing I most wanted to do on this trip, but I didn't want to book in advance so I could make sure the weather was not cold or rainy.

    There were no more openings today, but there were 6 single-person openings for tomorrow, so I decided to wait to book, just to figure out what my schedule would be.

    While I was at the CN tower I took a picture of my condo building. See those two tall kind of curved towers? I'm in the left one in a unit about 2/3 of the way up (44th floor out of 67). I'm a few floors below the top of the square building on the left. The unit is on the left edge of the building.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Toronto Train Museum

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    Very close to the CN tower is the Railroad History Museum, which is housed in the old Roundhouse where they would repair and refuel steam engines between their journeys.

    They have a bunch of cars outside you can see and one very old car inside the museum that you can walk into. They have a bunch of other stuff, mostly designed to appeal to kids.

    They even have a simulator where you can control the throttle and brakes and see in a video screen what the engineer would view. I'm proud to say I managed to start and drive the train and bring it safely to a stop at the platform.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Dominoes and Zoom

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 48 °F

    After the railway museum, I headed down towards the water to check out the ferry to the islands. I wanted to take a walking tour of the islands, but evidently the ferry has limited service in winter, so that's not really an option.

    So I went back to the condo. I stopped off at a really cool market across the street and got some pizza and beer to sustain me during the zoom call with my family.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Sunset over Toronto

    March 15, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 46 °F

    My apartment has great views of the city, the CN tower, and the lake. I got part of the sunset, but I was distracted playing dominoes for some of it.

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Toronto Street scenes (day 2)

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 43 °F

    When I went to bed last night, there were still 5 openings for the CN tower walk. The earliest was 11:30 and I had a notion I might try to get up early and snag that slot and then go have lunch.

    However, I found it strangely disorienting to be the one in charge of my own schedule. After 5 days of having someone else determine when I eat and when I got on or off the train, I was having trouble self-motivating. So before I knew it, it was 12:00. When I checked online, I discovered there was only one slot left for the walk, so I quickly snagged it. So my day was now set. I needed to be at the CN tower by 3:30. Except I had seen yesterday that the security line to get in could be long, so my goal was 3 pm.

    I decided that walking down to the St. Lawrence market and get some famous pea meal bacon.

    I walked by the historic Fairmont Hotel (one of these visits I AM going to stay there!) and Union Station on my way to the market.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    St. Lawrence Market

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    It is Saturday and most schools are on Spring Break, so the market was packed. I did realize that this is what I should have done as soon as I got in yesterday: head to the he market and pick up something for dinner before heading back to zoom. It was kind of torture wandering around today knowing I only had time and stomach for one meal. There were too many tasty options.

    I explored a bit, got a coffee and then headed for lunch. I got a very Canadian lunch: pea meal bacon sandwich with poutine and beer.

    After lunch I wandered about a bit and once again my shopping super power kicked in. I found these great gloves (half price!) and had to get multiple pairs both for myself and for gifts.

    Of course this meant I had to call Mom to find out her glove size. It wasn't ungodly early there, but it did panic her a bit when I called all of their phone numbers in rapid succession when I'm supposed to be on vacation. Fortunately, when she heard it was a glove emergency, she understood completely. For future reference, she is size 7. I think I'm size 6.5, but the smallest they had was 7, so I hope they work for me too.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Heading back to the CN tower

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    Glove shopping delayed me a bit, so soon it was past time to head over to the CN tower. As I was hurrying back I had to detour because of a protest for Palestine. I didn't have to detour much, because it wasn't a very big protest. The police presence was extensive including an observation vehicle.

    I had to circle around the Convention Center which is when I realized that Toronto Comicon is going on now. That explains why I saw so many people in random costumes yesterday and even a few furries.

    Despite my worry about being late I made it there in plenty of time to get checked in and sign the waiver. I wasn't really worried until I read the waiver. Then I started to get a bit nervous. (Foreshadowing? I guess you will have to keep reading.)    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Views from outside the CN tower

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    First step was to remove anything that could possibly fall off: all jewelry (including wedding rings!), shoes that don't have laces, scarves, gloves, etc. Then they put us in a jump suit and gave us approved gloves, hats, shoes, lanyards for our glasses, etc. Then we got into the harness. It made me feel really good that they had four separate people check our harness, most of whom checked it at least twice. They were not leaving anything to chance.

    One of the last things they told us before we headed out was to not spit over the edge. I couldn't help myself from asking if grown adults really needed to be told that, and the look on the guide's face said, yeah, they kind of do.

    Another thing I noticed was that some of the safety procedures they had in place were not just to keep us safe from accidents or stupidity, but to foil anyone's attempt to do themselves harm. For example, the harnesses were secured with a carabiner that was screwed down to lock, but then they added a plastic zip-tie, so that we couldn't unscrew it if we wanted to.

    Finally once we we all strapped in to the overhead system, we all headed out to the ledge that is roughly 1000 meters above the ground. It felt extremely windy, but it wasn't like we were being buffeted off our feet. It just kind of felt like it. Fortunately, we could go around to the lee side of the tower, where it was just mildly breezy.

    Then our guide (Betty) got us to progressively lean more and more out over the edge and finally, we posed for pictures. It was funny how we went from being really freaked out when we first stepped out, to being (almost) comfortable hanging in mid-air.

    All in all it was a most fun event and I would totally do I it again if I had the chance!    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    CN Tower views from the inside

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    The one thing that was kind of a bummer about the Edge Walk was that we weren't allowed to bring cameras or phones (nothing we could accidentally drop) so we couldn't record all the amazing things we saw. Fortunately, our ticket let us access the viewing platform which was just a few stories below where we walked outside.

    The Edge Walk was above the roof of the rotating restaurant, which is one story above the observation platforms, which take up two stories.

    So after I got lost in the gift shop a few times (I think they design it that way) I headed up to the observation platforms. While these platforms are much higher than the Space Needle (1140 ft vs 600ft) I feel like the Space Needle experience had more value. But the CN tower observation deck is undergoing renovation, so I'll have to come back in a year or so to check it out.

    I took plenty of photos: the Railway Museum, the condo I was staying in, the train station, the hotel I want to stay in ... all sorts of random sights, It was just really really high and I don't think you can get the true sense from the pictures.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    The grey semicircle at the bottom is the grate where we did the Edge Walk.

    Even higher views from the CN tower

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    There is a second, much smaller, observation platform, called the Sky Pod, about 350 feet (34 stories) above the main platforms. Access to this was also included with our Edge Walk ticket. If you look straight down from this upper platform you can see the grating that we were walking on just a short time ago. We were one of the last walks of the day, so there were no people doing the Edge Walk below me when I got out onto this upper platform.

    We were about 1500 feet, or 150 stories high. As this is the highest viewing platform in North America, I'm sure this is the highest I've ever been when not in a plane, or on a mountain.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Last night in Toronto

    March 16, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    As I walked back to my condo, I passed some interesting sites including a topiary turtle and a giant TV on the outside of the hockey arena showing the game live. So I guess rather than paying for tickets, you could stand outside in the chilly air and watch the game for free.

    I was trying to pick a restaurant to get a carry out dinner, when I realized I kept looking at all the salads on the different menus, so I just decided to go to the grocery store I went to last night and get an interesting salad from their salad bar. I still had two beers from the night before that I needed to finish up because I did not want to have to pack them.

    When I got back to the condo, the wind had picked up and it was whistling and shaking to the point where it was kind of disconcerting. And then the rain started. It made it clear to me that while I do like heights, I would not like to live permanently in a apartment on the 44th floor. But it's soon calmed down and the rain stopped and then it was clear and I got some nice last pictures of the view.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Last morning in Toronto

    March 17, 2024 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 37 °F

    I woke up kind of early and decided to try to go to St. Lawrence market before I had to get on the train to go to the airport. However,, when I got to the train station, I realized that the market did not open for another hour or so. So I just decided to get to the airport very early and I could have a calm airport experience.

    I stocked up at duty-free and got one last Canadian bacon sandwich and before you know it, I was in Chicago. Since there was a fair bit of walking in Chicago to get to the hotel, I did have to do one last repack at the airport to get all the heavy stuff (duty-free liquor) Into the rollie bag.

    Before long I was at the Chicago hotel and Lauren and Joel were joining me. They had been up since zero dark 30 this morning to drive to Sacramento and then fly to Chicago.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Chicago Cultural Center

    March 17, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 37 °F

    We headed out walking to see some Chicago sights. Our first stop was the Chicago Cultural Center. Well, actually, our first stop was the Chicago River that had been dyed green for St. Patrick's Day, but that was only because I took a wrong turn when we left the hotel.

    Before long we made it to the Cultural Center, which was the original Chicago Public Library. It has some amazing architectural elements, including two Tiffany dome ceilings. Unfortunately, we arrived shortly before they closed, so we only had time to see about half of it. I guess that makes a reason to return!    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Chicago street scenes

    March 17, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 36 °F

    We next headed over to Millennium Park so I could show them The Bean sculpture (aka Cloud Gate) but it was all fenced off for renovations, so we couldn't get close.

    It was pretty chilly, so we stopped for a coffee and thenvwe headed north toward the John Hancock building.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Chicago from high

    March 17, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 34 °F

    The theme of this trip for me seems to be "seeing cities from high buildings" and so we had to continue this with a trip to the Hancock building. We entered at the ground floor and soon we were whisked up to the 94th floor.

    Unfortunately, when planning this trip, I hadn't realized how crowded Chicago would get on St. Patrick's day. The big parade was yesterday (Saturday) but that didn't stop hordes of people from converging on all the tourist spots on the actual holiday.

    I visited this 360 deg observation deck a couple of years ago, but that was in the middle of the day on a weekday, so it was relatively deserted. It was still kind of interesting to see, and I'm guessing it was no more crowded that any other tourist spot we could have picked, but it was a bit of a let down.

    After we saw the sights and did the Tilt experience, where they stand you in a glass box that tilts over the city at about a 30 deg angle, we headed off for a delicious dinner at The Purple Pig.

    We were all exhausted since we had been up at 5:30 am Chicago time and had had a busy day so we headed back to the hotel to just crash.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe

    Crossing the Mississippi

    March 18, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °F

    The first afternoon took us through rural Illinois and across the Mississippi. We explored the train a bit and checked out the view from the rear and soon it was time for dinner.

    After the sun set in Iowa, we all went to bed fairly early. It has been a long 2 days. Unfortunately, the train was trying to make up for lost time, so the night was quite rough and it was hard for any of us to sleep well.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeNorth America CircleSarah McCabe
    You can see where the river's original color meets the dye

    Chicago Architecture Tour by boat

    March 18, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 28 °F

    The next morning, it was actually snowing. So we ended up bundling in all the extra warm clothes we had brought. It turns out that the gloves I bought Russell in Toronto came in very handy for Joel.

    We boarded the boat to take a tour of the Chicago architecture that can be seen by boat. The guide was a docent at the Chicago Architecture Center and was really informative and interesting. It turns out they also do walking tours and so maybe I will check out one of those the next time I'm in town.    Read more

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