Morning in Ontario
15 mars 2024, 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. IEn savoir plus
Last meal on board
15 mars 2024, 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.
IEn savoir plus
Approaching Toronto
15 mars 2024, 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 notEn savoir plus
About the train (1): overall
15 mars 2024, 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 theEn savoir plus
About the train (2): dome cars
15–19 mars 2024, 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, isEn savoir plus
About the train (3): sleeper cars
15 mars 2024, 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 3En savoir plus
About the train (4): my sleeper room
15 mars 2024, 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 aEn savoir plus
Arriving in Toronto
15 mars 2024, 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 toEn savoir plus
Toronto street scenes
15 mars 2024, 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 onEn savoir plus
Toronto Train Museum
15 mars 2024, 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 carsEn savoir plus
Dominoes and Zoom
15 mars 2024, 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,En savoir plus
Sunset over Toronto
15 mars 2024, 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.
Toronto Street scenes (day 2)
16 mars 2024, 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.En savoir plus
St. Lawrence Market
16 mars 2024, 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 upEn savoir plus
Heading back to the CN tower
16 mars 2024, 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, becauseEn savoir plus
Views from outside the CN tower
16 mars 2024, 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 usEn savoir plus
CN Tower views from the inside
16 mars 2024, 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 weEn savoir plus
Even higher views from the CN tower
16 mars 2024, 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 lookEn savoir plus
Last night in Toronto
16 mars 2024, 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 forEn savoir plus
Last morning in Toronto
17 mars 2024, 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 didEn savoir plus
Chicago Cultural Center
17 mars 2024, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 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,En savoir plus
Chicago street scenes
17 mars 2024, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 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 weEn savoir plus
Chicago from high
17 mars 2024, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 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 wereEn savoir plus
Crossing the Mississippi
18 mars 2024, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 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 setEn savoir plus
Chicago Architecture Tour by boat
18 mars 2024, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 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.En savoir plus



















































































































































Very picturesque [v]