Choose your Side

In Chicago, folks are passionate about their teams and their choices of food…Cub vs White Sox’s, Bulls, Bears, wet vs. dunked (Italian Beef sandwich), best deep dish pizza cheese, sausage on top, no pepperoni, Vienna Beef hot dogs-mustard and toppings vs. ketchup (never), puffer jacket vs fleece vs leather…you name it— people have strong opinions about their choices and which one is better.  So it is with transportation.  Yes, you can take the “L”-Chicago’s elevated train service…Chicago is part fill and part swamp…kinda like Houston.  You can’t go underground, but you can go up…as is the case of Houston’s Choo of Death to almost no where…only this one goes everywhere…but without Eddie…not a fan.    Cabs vs Lyft vs Uber.  To hear the cabbie, it is a miscarriage of justice to allow Lyft and Uber to operate.  The Chicago Cabbies (along with 4 or 5 other cities cab systems) require the purchase of previously expensive medallions (read previously $500,000 and up-now only $15K) to operate, plus monthly inspections, camera, metered fares with a set rate…the list goes on and on.  Enter free market with Uber and Lyft,  loosely regulated, with supply and demand in play and app driven.    Certain hours, places and weather condition can make your fare go up and down.  Lyft seems to be the preferred brand…one of our taxi drivers explained the reasoning but it was only half in English, because he was so excited/mad/passionate (you pick) to share his knowledge that he would slip back into his native language. We used  some of both for our trips.  We wanted to compare and contrast the two.  There were always taxis lined up in front of the hotel.  So, departing the hotel, we normally took a taxi…medallion carrying, metered fare and a side order of heavily accented condemnation of the politics that allowed Lyft and Uber to side swipe their monopoly.  Returning we normally used Lyft…George was in charge of the app for that.  Eddie was in charge of asking every other minute, “How much longer?”  We all have our assignments.

On the evening of the Pro Palestinian Protest…we had reservations at a Michelin guide mentioned, but not starred (there is about $250 a head difference per star) restaurant at 5:00.  As there were a  number of post protest participants driving up and down Michigan Avenue hanging out of windows and roofs with horns honking and flags flying making traffic a little congested, Ed said let’s take a cab…Well, next up in the hotel queue was a subcompact.  We said “fine”, Eddie went to climb in the front..nope, nope, nope.  The driver had a pile of stuff, to include a prayer rug, on the front seat…gave Eddie a look that said he did not share.  So, the three of us squeezed, and I do mean squeezed, into the backseat.  Old Eddie, would have passed on this taxi and gone to the next, but this Eddie just climbed in.  Then we were told to fasten our seat belts in a pretty passive aggressive way….and we were on a dash camera…look for that video on You Tube….it was pretty comical.  Once fastened in, our taxi driver slipped on his blue lens racing sunglasses.  Did I mention it was overcast and sprinkling rain?  Racing sunglasses,  Call to Prayer music, and heavy muttering…yay!  The buildings and lights flashed before us…kinda like our lives…sometimes on two wheels.  George said it reminded him of a Six Flags ride when he shared a cart with Ed as a child.  He had permanent PTSD from that…so 35 years later, we used a Cab to do the same.  After that, we used Lyft exclusively.  

Sunday was Museum and Aquarium day.  The wonderful buildings that dot the parks and shoreline that were built for the 1933 World Fair.  They have been used for the last 90 years as the home to some of the best museums and exhibits in the country.  The buildings themselves are works of art.  90 years later I marvel at them… I have been able to travel a great number of places…I can only imagine what people thought in 1933 when their world was very small.  George is my resident museum and aquarium geek…when growing up, we would decided in early spring what our vaca would be for the summer.  Lauren would start the convo with “No Museums”…so there was lots of negotiations…she should have been a lawyer as she has the debate gene from her Dad.  It is actually why we started cruising, divide and conquer so both where happy.  Okay, Sunday represents Day 4…and those who read my blog all know what Day Four means…all together, “Eddie needs a Me Day”..day at sea, sick day, day to rest…call it what you will, he is good for three days of intensive walking, touring, shows, but come Day four, he will stay where he is..until cocktail hour and dinner time, then he is good to go.  So, George and I did the Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry…The Shedd is this country’s 3rd largest…with the beluga whales the star attraction..yes, they are so cute. The various areas have some familiar aspects…after all there are only so many ways to showcase fish…our personal favorite is the center aquarium tank at the downtown Aquarium restaurant in Houston, or the shark tunnel at Atlantis in the Bahamas …there are some similar styled exhibits here.  Utilizing the property to its best use (read controlled access)  has taken the main entrance and the beautiful brass doors and entry foyer out of the mix.  I know progress is progress, but these century old details are what help makes the Shedd so different.  

The MSI (Museum of Science and Industry) is gig-normeous facility…again from the World’s Fair and 7 miles from the center of town…hello Lyft.  It was a STEM facility early on…and has been recreating itself every since.  The crown jewel is the WWII U boat and the story behind both the U-boat campaign and the Chicagoan Rear Admiral that captured the U Boat and brought it home as a prize.  There are only 4 intact U-boats in the world.  The Brits have one, MSI has one and the others are in Germany….so, it was on our must see list.  George has proved to be quite the WWII buff…funny how that kinda runs in the fam.  

I am putting the finishing touches on this from the comfort of my recliner.  While I love to travel, the comforts of home are sure nice.  Even better when I brought home the cool weather to share with my friends…Happy Halloween!  

Rollin’ on the River

Between trips to Stan’s Donuts for cheaper than Starbuck’s coffee and various local haunts (read 5 star restaurants) we have taken in the water of the Chicago River….Gosh no, not literally but figuratively speaking.  The tour guides would have you believe that we could drink the stuff.  Chicago River is blue green because of a particular algae….and they have been on a century long campaign to clean up the water….yeah, right.  Lake Houston is brown because it is mixed with chocolate milk, too.    Then why do they tell you so much about the efforts to change the direct that the river flowed so it would not flow into Lake Michigan.  Drinkable…or even swimable…questionable.  But it is one of the best ways to see the architecture of the city and see how early engineering marvels have made Chicago (named by the Native Americans for a stinky onion garlic that grew wild along the marsh lands of the river) have really made this a wonderful place to visit.  

After our early lunch at the Walnut Room on the 7th floor of  Macy’s (previously Marshall Field’s) flagship building.  Food was nothing special, the miles of Walnut panel is…along with the open atrium that has aTiffany Glass ceiling which is the largest Tiffany product in the world.  The open atrium was being prepared for the 45 foot Christmas tree that will soon take center stage.  This was the magic of Eddie’s childhood.  It is sad, we know this store is destined to become condos or a hotel…there were so few customers in Macy’s that we feel its days are numbered.  We browsed the Christmas Tree store….hoping for some of the magic to come alive, but the displays of Shiny Brite ornaments and Radko ornaments are far outnumbered by the plastic ones covered in Glitter.  As we all know, glitter is forever….that stuff sticks and has a half life more than all the radioactive material you can imagine.  While plastic doesn’t break….Made in China just does not have the same magic as the Shiny Brite of both of our childhoods.  

Post lunch, under threading skies, we boarded the First Lady of Chicago…one of five different companies that run Chicago River Boat tours.  We selected this one because it is run by the Chicago Architectural Foundation…and the docents are volunteers, that accept no tips,p (so refreshing in today’s tip happy world) but are passionate about both Chicago and her architectural history.  For 90 minutes we went under the bridges and learned the history.  Chicago is home to some of the tallest buildings in the world.  Tallest is in Malaysia.  New York, heck, Houston, has big tall boring buildings…but Chicago has worked hard to make their skyline distinctive as well as light friendly..they must have setbacks.  They have quickly pivoted over the years converting unused space to housing…housing is so plentiful that even our Thursday night guide rode a bike to his home close by..so it must be affordable.  Both our Thursday and Friday tours talked about the 50+ bridges that criss cross the Chicago River…and that Saturday morning the various bridges would open starting with the bridge across Michigan avenue to allow the sailboats that have summered in Lake Michigan to motor in and be placed in dry dock for the winter.  There are 4 Saturdays in the Fall, four in the Spring.  People gather along the riverwalk to watch the migration.  George and I were among the spectators…Eddie was slept through the event…surprise.

Post boat parade, George and I took a lap of the old Chicago Tribune building.  It is right there on Michigan Avenue amidst the Wrigley (like the chewing gum) building and NBC’s Rockefeller Center in Chicago building.    I could not imagine why that was on George’s list.  As we walked around the building there embedded into the lower portions of the building are some 149 pieces of buildings from around the world with great historical value…brought back in the early years of the Tribune by it correspondents.  I thought I had missed something on the tour.  George said “no”, he remember the random fact for a CSI:New York (years ago) that solution hinged on stone fragments from various locations, but could be found in one spot.  This is my son who may or many not recognize your face but he will remember this cultural randomness.  It was actually one of those interesting moments that is probably not in a guide book.  

We crossed back over the bridge (with Crack O’Noon Eddie)  for brunch overlooking Millennium Park.  Complete with a huge police presence, bomb sniffing dogs.  We were searched on Thursday night prior to entering the park…and the Bean is under construction, so we scratched our head.  Low to no homeless ..

 I have seen more at the WalMart inAtascocita than on the streets of Chicago. What gives.  

Our afternoon was Hamilton at the Nederlander Theatre…once again, architectural magic..and a solid show.  A $10 bill may never look the same…hi, Alexander…you don’t look like Lin Miranda at all.  We exited the matinee as dusk was falling on the city.  The streets were full of lots of people…theatre attendees, adults in costumes for Halloween, leftover Drag Queens from the Drag Brunch at Macys (Eddie said pass when I mentioned going), and more than just a few hundred people in traditional Palestine Keffiyeh and Palestinian flags….hummm, police presence, bombs sniffing dogs…got it…just a regular Saturday Protest Rally.  So glad we got to see all the action on both sides of the river. 

We concluded our day with dinner at one of Eddie’s favorite Steakhouse-Gene and Georgette’s.  It is out of the downtown area by a mile or so.  It has been in business since 1941 and is frozen in time..with all the furniture and fixtures very pre-mid century..,so right on trend.  You know what they say, if you keep something long enough it will come back into style.  Dean Martin, Sentra and Glenn Miller played in the background .  Had a Godfather vibe for sure…totally expected a mobster to be holding court in the back corner.  The tables were full, the staff where all Italian men that probably grew up from bus boys here.  The steaks are the best, portions of everything else were huge.  

Sunday we are all about the Museums and Aquariums….I give you a run down on that and our experiment with cab vs Lyft.  

 

Bucket List items

You know me, a list is a list..items have to be marked through and tasks accomplished…so it is with my bucket list.  So, what destination is being crossed off my list, you ask?  Since World events have taken a big black marker to Jerusalem, Egypt and the Nile, we are in Chicago.  

Yes, Chi-town…bad, bad Elroy Brown, the South side of Chicago…the whole thing.  Eddie grew up coming to Chicago multiple times a year on the trains with his Mother. When remembering his childhood, Marshall Field’s windows at Christmas, eating Lunch in the Walnut Room and going to the Field Museum are always the head of his list.  As an adult, 3-4 times a year he would be in Chicago for business—-so there were tales of fine dining (it is Eddie, after all), field trips to golf courses, baseball games, theatre performance-not sure how this constituted business trips, but we all know, that was how Lawyer Eddie rolled.  Fast forward, Chicago has long been on my list, but when I brought it up for a possible long weekend trip-it was too hot, too cold, too windy…pick your weather challenge.  So, Chicago remained on my list….more of an Excel spreadsheet, with proposed dates, but it was on my list.  

At this point, if I want or need something, Amazon delivers.  The one thing Amazon can’t deliver is experiences….for that you need Master Card (we are all about the travel points).

With the Amazon page opened, Eddie asked in September (several weeks out) what I wanted for my birthday…he learned that the cost of forgetting was huge.  I said…I want to go to Chicago.  Believe it or not, he granted my wish.  Not that he did any of the logistics, he did make restaurant suggestions (no reservations, just suggestions)-so on point for Eddie.  Along the way, George caught wind of our travel plans…while he would never ask to be a plus one, his body language screamed “Me too!” .  So, the three of us left the humid environment of Houston and traded it for the humidity of Chicago…and a long weekend of adventure and food, of course.

When we traveled to Canada last month, we thought we would see leaves changing colors.  Nope, check your forestry maps, mostly evergreens.  While there was a little orange, red and yellow, it was mostly green.  I am not complaining mind you, just commenting.  Fall  in Houston is a season marked by leaves just turning brown and dying.  With the heat of the summer, the brown leaf death was early…and may have extended to the entire tree…check your water bills for further information…good grief…$300-400 monthly bills.  So, we got our Fall fix on the way from O’Hare to the city.  Bright reds, oranges, yellow along with well landscaped entrances to areas.  It was wonderful.

A word about the two United hubbed airports….IAH and ORD (O’Hare).  Both are under major construction projects…for whatever reason our travels have not taken us through the newly renovated C terminal (GaTes 1-15).   Good grief, there should be a public hanging of the architect that said let’s have high ceilings, bling, lots of hard surfaces…floors and windows, with shared gate areas and give lots of people microphones and minimal bathrooms.  I miss the low ceiling affairs of old C.  You knew where your gate was, and the announcements did not bounce all around the terminal and give you a headache.  It made the calf scramble of Iceland look good.  Fast forward to Terminal 1 at O’Hare-one of 5 United Terminals…good grief.  Pretty new operation, quick and efficient.  We were off the plane, through baggage claim and on the street looking for Taxi in 15 minutes, with a stop at one of the multiple bathrooms.  Points to O’Hare.  Eddie had painted a word picture of O’Hare…something worse than Newark.  Hmmm, Eddie has been out of the travel game for a while.  

We are staying at the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue…an Eddie choice as it is centrally located, has that eau d’ powder puff that Eddie enjoys so much…and the cabbies know where it is.  Despite Eddie’s dirty taxi, 2.5 hours to the city from O’Hare doom and gloom, we were at the hotel in less than 40 minutes, checked in and ready to roll by 1:45.  Our first stop was a couple of blocks away for a quick nibble for lunch.   We did not want heavy because we were going on a food tour at 5:30.  So, we walked to Eataly…a two floor extravaganza of all things Italian.  One part grocery, one part wine bar, one part restaurant and one part creative factory….you could watch sausage being made, cheese, pasta, bread, pizza, sweet treats, and gelato.  You could purchase it already prepared, or buy the ingredients and dyi and get a couple bottles of Italian wine to go with it.  So glad this is here not at home, between George and Eddie we could do some serious damage on pantry and refrigerator stocking.  The “use in 2, 3, 4 days” would mean nothing, we would have food for weeks.  

We walked back in a light rain and put our feet up for a bit before rendezvousing at the starting point of our Ultimate Food Tour.  This is Chicago walking tour coupled with the food fare that comes to mind for the regular people…deep dished pizza, Chicago dog, Italian Beef Sandwich-wet or dunked, the original brownie, local brews…along with an history lesson of all the wonderful buildings that have old and new architecture styles.   It was an exhausting evening (my step count was edging up at 15K) …I did not look at wiki before I came, so the history lesson was just that, a lesson.  The names-while household in Chicago lore, are familiar, the legacy make Chicago unique.  Oh, yeah, my favorite…Chicago Dog…with everything…

 

Time Travel

The two day stop in Lake Louise was both a nostalgic and been there and done that moment for all of us.  We all have been to this area within the last decade or so, therefore, we knew what to expect and wanted to do or not do again.  The Fairmont Lake Louise overlooks the iconic Lake and glacier…it is classic RM but more than that, it was the first and only trip Ed’s mom and dad made outside of the country.  Ed’s father, George, had been with the railroads since the war (WWII) running troop trains which morphed into a passenger ticket agent job (read PR/Group trains).  Maxine had been with Army in a secretarial support role. Not sure what the exact purpose was, but in 1947 they came to Lake Louise on a business trip…on the Canadian Pacific and stayed in the Chateau Lake Louise,  I am sure it was to stimulate tourism groups post WWII.  Maxine and George would have been in their mid 20’s, childless…from rural Mississippi.  Few-people from their world had traveled much farther than the state capital in Jackson (65 miles away)…let alone New Orleans or Chicago.  Maxine and George were a rare pair indeed.  I always like to reflect on what people think in various situations.  Knowing Ed’s Mom, I am sure she thought she had arrived!  She had never loved rural farm life, she was drawn to the fashion, the excitement,  the glamour of big city life and travel to far off places.

Cameras for the non professional were rectangular affairs with Kodak film that was not only expensive to purchase but expensive to developed.  There were about 24 pictures loving placed in a leather small photo album.  Remember the corner holders we would put on the four corner, then lick the glue and place on the black album paper?  Well, these pictures have survived the 76 years and could be removed intact.  Old technology for the win….come on, you know you used the plastic peel and stick pages and tape in your pre phone albums…how did that work out?

I digitized all of our (and their) photos and slides in 2006.  I know my children.   One would hold on to them and not know what to do with them, but would never consider tossing them…the other would have tossed the 12 boxes of photo albums out, day one.  Guess which adult child is which?  Public Service Announcement …yes, it is tedious, but the over 100 years of pictures have been accessed numerous times by both adult children….in a digital format…speak their language.    It was time well spent.  Yes, I know there are companies and apps for all of that now.  Use them, your adult kids will thank you…you don’t realize how important these items are until you get to a certain age.   

When we have been here before, we re-enacted the various shots around Lake Louise that are in the 24 now natural sepia colored photos.    Fun to watch the changes in the Chateau.  One hotel is now 5 separate wings of a large sprawling complex.  The architecture integrity has remained the same.  Another thing, despite threat of global warming, the glacier has not additionally retreated since 1947…we have pictures.  The overall density and reseeding varies, but it is essentially the same as it was in 1947, 2008,  2018 and 2023.  Trees are a little bigger, but the rest seems like time stood still.  It makes me nostalgic for a kinder gentler time…George, too.  Maxine…only sometimes.  

I guess the one surprise of this leg of our journey for Eddie was departing from the Lake Louise Train Station…remember we bussed here from the Icefields, so we were delivered directly to the hotel.    The building (train station) was built around 1915…it has not changed in the 100+ years.  It is one of those Heritage buildings, frozen in time, with wood fireplace, no internet…leaded diamond windows and a wood log/stone based building…as this part of the world has lots of logs and rocks, not so many bricks..    We arrived at the Train Station around 8:15 under rainy damp skies.  Yesterday’s 2” of  snow has melted, so the Christmas card scene is gone.  The train station was warmed by a fire, and we got coffee and pastries and had an hour before the train arrived from Banff.  Eddie was like a kid in the candy store…there were rooms to explore full of the telegraph machines and the various train tools that he grew up with, the Canadian Pacific China, silver and silver serving pieces were on display…we have some from the Panama Limited Railroad.    Pictures on the wall were very similar to those in his memory.  There are several old maroon/brown Canadian Pacific rail cars in the side lot…two had been restored and were being used as a dining car restaurant.  The exterior mirrored a picture of Ed’s dad standing beside the rail car.  It was a full circle moment for us both.  Because I am so anal, I could actually access the phones and show Ed the train station pictures and train pictures.  Neat moment.

While the daytime scenery was probably the finest 8 hours of the ride…meaning most spectacular and most photographed (Lake Louise to Kamloops), the 70 minutes at the Heritage Lake Louise Train Station was like walking back in time. At this stage of the game, we like both flavors of travel.  Eddie had a moment, for sure.

Okay, I have done the sentimental moment…no funny stories…so I have to end on a funny story.  When chatting with one of our train hostesses (19 year old sweet gal) and sharing our train stories on the way up, she said the best story in her first year with RM was a lady who actually brought her dog’s ashes along on the train trip.  Somewhere along the way, she decided to take her dog’s ashes out onto the vestibule platform and release them into the wind…she was not the only passenger on the vestibule…remember the old adage about spitting into the wind…same holds true for Rover’s ashes.  The rest of the train passengers on the vestibule were covered in doggy ashes.  I guess this is when all the train managers have to be called in, along with the poor cleaning lady.  So, now when they give you the safety speech everyday before the train takes off, fire extinguishers locations, emergency window exits, medical emergency, and you must wear shoes when in the aisles and restrooms, no smoking or throwing anything off the vestibule platform.  I thought paper, never thought of ashes….but this is Canada…is that a thing?

Walking on the wild side

Boy, we have been busy.  Our non train days have just about filled out our Nature and Wildlife Bingo Cards.  Our two days in Jasper were jam packed.  We spent our first day on trip going to Maligne Valley for a boat trip out in the lake and waterfall tour.  Of course, it is raining, but just like Houston,  give it a couple of hours and we might get fog, sun, snow flurries or wind.  On our way out of the Jasper Fairmont property we spied a stag elk with an impressive rack….it is  mating season, and  for the female elks (his posse consisted of 5 ladies) it is all about the rack.  Apparently size matters when the females are in the mood.  Stags with only one rack or few branches on his rack get the leftovers. The stags grow complete new racks annually, so there is always next year for the weaker males that did not do well in the rack elimination fights earlier in the mating season. Our stag was calmly lying in the grass under a grove of trees surrounded by 5 adoring females.  It is good to be the Alpha Stag-in the ‘hood.  

The Maligne Lake and surrounding area was alive with eagles, trout (Brookies and rainbow, which are not native), spawning salmon,Canadian geese, loons (Eddie does not count as a Loon) pine beetles, and a momma moose and her offspring.  Of course, Eddie wanted to count a white horse as a unicorn, but no…penalty card thrown on that one.  While there is lots of evidence and signage, even a few electrified fences, warning of bears..grizzly and black, we have only seen the two black bears earlier in our travels.  You know train gossip, even without internet or cell coverage, we all know that two campers in Banff National Park were killed (and eaten) Saturday night (9/30). Thanks Apple, for that SOS beacon…we can find you, but not in time.  Yikes…glad we are booked in the Fairmont, no rustic heritage accommodations for us. I don’t camp, need running water, flushing toilets and a mint on my pillow….  On our way back we made the  hike down to the Athabaskan Falls and the limestone gorges that have been carved with centuries of rushing waters…we are not in Texas, or even Colorado, any more.

We learned the various terminology used in Canada to describe less desirable features…like Rustic Comfort Stations…more of a log or wooden closet with a green roof and a non chemical toilet-read out house.  A Heritage building means no air conditioning or heat…may or may not have a fireplace, but no  20th century conveniences (forget 21st-like Wi-Fi or cell service).  Rock flour… is the fine powdered crushed glacier rocks that travels in the various glacier fed waters that make looks blue, green or milk water color. Rock flour is code for Mountain exlax…so drinking the glacier water will result in a trip to the Rustic Comfort Station….pray for toilet paper.   We were encouraged to splash some of the glacier lake water on our face for a Glacial Facial at Spirit Island…no thanks, I would end up splashing the glacier water accidentally in my mouth.  

On Day two in Jasper, we were again up butt crack early (it is a RM theme-luggage out side your room at 6:15 AM with transport around 7:45-not sure what we are suppose to do for 90 minutes, since breakfast is on train), and on our bus (with 50 of our coughing,  sneezing, nose blowing train pals)to go to the Jasper Parkway and the Columbia Icefields.  I will be honest, it was included in our trip package, so I really did not do any research on the area.  So, imagine my surprise when it was the all glaciers, all the time bus trip.  10 hours of driving through some of the largest accessible (one two lane road, no trains) glacier ice fields in the world.  We have been to Glacier National Park in Montana (beautiful snow covered mountains and valleys formed by glaciers only a little glacier action), Alaska, Whistler, Chile, Norway, Iceland…we have seen tons of glaciers…but nothing prepared us for this.  Add in snow showers and 26 degrees…boy, did I pack wrong.  When we looked at the 10 day forecast for the trip it was 40-65 range for whole trip.  I last minute packed one long sleeved pullover,  water resistant pants, beanie and pair of mittens.  So, the pictures have a real one note on fashion statements.  Back to the glaciers….mind blowing.  Just about the time we we reached the turn off for the Glacier rider, we were rewarded with a Bull Moose…we will call him Bullwinkle…Rocky, his squirrel companion, is not indigenous to these areas, so Rocky was marked absent.  We exchanged our road bus for the high tired glacier bus for a trip on to the glacier.  As glaciers change daily, from the newly forming crevasses, to the fresh snow pack and the melt that forms new lakes at the base, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience …did I mention glaciers are cold and icy?  Joker stayed on the bus, said he was good…snow, icy temps are not love languages for our resident Bassett hound.  Yes, we have a picture of him in the glacier rider.     Next up on our agenda was the walk out over the valley on a skywalk….glass floor semi circle out over the valley.  I hate these kind of things…my stomach and legs turn to jello or alternatively freeze up.  Queue the fog…saved by Mother Nature…high five.    Coming down from the glacier, heavy fog filled the valley, clung to the mountains and pretty much made the skywalk a non event.  Joker and Cat woman stayed in the bus, Batman and Robin took the walk.  Good guys, to the end.

Coming down the other side of the Icefield Parkway into Lake Louise we made a couple of rustic comfort stops (see above) and a hike to Peyto Lake…arriving in Lake Louise at dinner time.  Yes, another Fairmont…but tomorrow, I will give you the Pickle history of Lake Louise.  Oh yeah, the l-o-n-g  day on the bus with 50 people confirmed our long held belief.…we are not big fans of bus tours.  Too bad Joker was not in charge of logistics…I could see a private hummer tour, even though the bus tour came with the train trip.  You know the Captain….

Leaping Lizards, Batman

Quick history lesson about the Canadian National Parks, Railways, and the Grand Railroad Hotels (all now part of the Fairmont chain).  Those of you that enjoy in-depth histories, dates, facts-Wikipedia is your friend.  For my purposes, I will try to be brief.  America took a page out of Canada’s National Park system. Our Canadian neighbor’s system was well established long before Yellowstone became the first NP…complete with moving the indigenous peoples off the better lands.   Canada saw the commercialization of the rich national resources coming…and the potential to spoil/ruin the Natural beauty in an effort to obtain these resources for profit.  In the late 1800’s Canada began creating areas and rules under their National Park system.  The rail system had been established to move both resources and people through these areas.  By the 1920-30, tourism was taking hold.  People wanted to see these places.  Various raIl systems built a network of grand hotels across Canada. Eventually, this collection morphed into the Fairmont chain.  During the last 100 years the National Parks are much more focused on preservation of resources and limiting commercial developments within.  So, these grand old hotel have almost a monopoly on hotel space within the national parks.  While there are some highway systems in and around the parks, they are two lane affairs, not a lot of services-cell, gas, food or otherwise.  The railroad is often the only link through the system.  Fast forward, the Rocky Mountaineer has capitalize both the nostalgia of train travel, and seeing these truly majestic sights without spoiling the untouched quality of the system.  Oooh, aah, trains, exclusive, grand old hotels…this has Eddie/Captain Powder Puff/Joker written all over if.  End of history lesson….please, no fact check…looking at you, Batman.

The Jasper Fairmont is a hotel built along the lines of the some of our early National Parks with stone, high beam ceiling and huge fireplaces.   The park over the years has expanded to include a huge network of bungalows, cottages or Estate properties that are nestled along side the picturesque mountains and a lake.  Imagine our total surprise when Batman/Robin and Catwoman/Joker were handed the keys to one of the Estate cabins,  probably 2,000 square feet of space, two separate bedrooms, three baths, huge living/dining/kitchen room complete with high ceilings windows and fireplace.  HolyCow, Batman.  This Bat Cave is some pretty nice digs. We thought had won the ultimate upgrade lottery.  A random check on the various hotel websites within the Fairmont NP system said that rack rate for just a simple king room within the hotel ranged from $400-1250 a night…two nights in this will so totally make up for Kamloops.  One other little detail they don’t share in the  glossy brochure from RM, while your breakfast and lunch on train days is included, you are own your own for all other meals, and you are virtually a hostage to the Fairmont way of life…read $50 CAD breakfasts and triple that for burgers and beer.  

Batman was in charge of dinner reservations.  Batman and Catwoman determined that with heaving feedings on The train, we would eat at the bar on first night of our stays then in one of the better restaurants on site for the second.  At the Jasper Fairmont it was Orso.  Not really paying attention to the menu when booking, we figured it was Italian based on the description.   This is not Olive Garden Italian- come to find out when we sat down for dinner.  Apparently, the chef is a Michelin star wanna be…the menu was pretentious at best and down right weird if you get right down to it.  Sitting there reviewing the menu, Robin could not find something that struck her fancy.  We all actually were jonesing for a big plate of comfort food…with garlic bread and a glass of red wine.  Nope.  Boys got venison loin, I had fish, and Robin had the lobster tortellini-substitute roasted vegetable for the cauliflower trio. Robin envisioned the tortellini to be perfect pockets of tender lobster bathed in a butter sauce.  Nope,it was ink squid black Al dente tortellini with lobster, carefully crafted Parmesan cheese fans fashioned like sea fans.  Instead of a butter sauce, the menu referred to a vanilla foam…imagine our surprise when her plate had two four inch high blooms of bubbles.  Not foam, but bubbles like the kind we made when we took bubble baths and made bubble beards.  Yeah, wish I had whipped out my phone…her face was priceless.  Kinda like dinner, a true Master Card moment….but we had the room.  Guess they knew they would make up for the loss on the room rate with what was spent in restaurants.  Come to think about it—-wonder if their computers match  high-end advance restaurant reservations with the upgrade list, makes you wonder.  Oh yeah, they do not charge extra for the four female elks that were in the front yard of our cottage for breakfast time…yes, we did get pictures of this….will there be a charge on my bill for that?

Just call us Team Needy

 Warning:  the following post may contain triggering language for some with a queasy constitution. Read at your own risk.  

The answer is 80. The question, is how many RM people does it take to care for 775 people (of a certain age) on board the Rocky Mountaineer that left Vancouver on Tuesday.  The 80 represents the people on board, two different classes of passengers.  Guess which class we are in…Gold Leaf, of course!  Did you have any doubt?  It is the one with the dome glass ceiling, each car has its own kitchen staff and white cloth dining, two bathrooms, 4 staff members and 3 member culinary team.  The silver leaf service…think economy, eat in your lap, airline food and a few less folks to powder your butt, but the liquor flows fast, so bottom line, the scenery is the same, just how much are you willing to pay.  The overnight stays are Fairmont down to Travelodge…

So, with lots of moving (slow, I might add, as we are the youngsters on board) parts to be gathered in 30+ buses and to be taken to the Rocky Mountaineer train station, with 1.5 (average) pieces of luggage for each piled on board to be transferred to trucks to arrive at your daily destination and placed in your room prior to your arrive.  The logistics of this operation is mind boggling for Robin and me. Organization and logistics are our secret love language….it is in our DNA.  It was an early start to our morning, we were up for 5:30, on buses before 6:45, and on the train before 7:45.  We were piped (yes, kilt wearing big pipe carrying fellow), fresh faced uniform wearing 20 somethings wearing the trade mark blue uniforms and ties float waving us out of the station…and they do this 4 days a week from Vancouver, April to October.  There were only 65 positions this year for first year hires, over 2,000 people applied.  Our 24 passenger cars (10 gold, 14 silver) two engines, and one power car Pulled out of Vancouver for the 8-9 hour ride to Kamloops.  We are in car J03. We are mid car in seats 37, 38, 39,  & 40…across the aisle from each other.  We are the dividing line between front and back.  They have created a very fair system for first and second seating, it flips back and forth daily. So, no unattractive Senior people whining.  

Well, today we are the early birds.  Breakfast at 9:00, lunch at 12:30.  So, 40 of us walk down the spiral stairs case to the dining car.  As we were first And we seated at in the first four top table. I don’t do backwards, so we were facing forward…Eddie/Joker surveyed the room.  Somewhere between coffee and pancakes, the solo gentleman at the last table facing backwards on the train, but in plain view of Eddie  (and an unfortunate couple that sat with him) Eddie calmly states…”we have a Barfer ”.  A little background…apparently RM passengers are like whale watching boats.  You shout out a wildlife sighting-bear black or brown, elk, moose, eagle, osprey along with clock position.  Everyone rushes to get a picture…silly, since the train is moving and all.  Anyway, Eddie announces to our table, Barfer at 11:00.  Betcha no one had that on their wildlife bingo card.  The host team was scrambling, additional personnel to include guest service manager for the 3 car area, medical, haz mat.  Not sure what the poor couple that was seated with him did, but they disappeared mid meal, this gentleman was promptly masked and also disappear from the passenger numbers in our car.  Batman and I had read all the information, Batman had watch countless hours of you tube videos and shows on the RM…we could never figure out what happened with Covid or passengers who become ill during the trip.  Guess we will find out.  

Sometime after lunch and after the third round of drinks were served….there was an announcement that the two toilets in our car had failed.  Just prior to the announcement, I had been on the vestibule (fancy term for the open area on train’s platform) and saw the water (and other items) surging from under the doors onto the the carpet and the roving cleaning lady, locking the doors with a key and muttering “this is not good, this is bad, very bad”.  Never good.  So, we were instructed to go across the vestibule, open the door to the adjoining car, careful jumping the connective train plate, steer left around the kitchen to the other end of the silver car and use their toilets (think airline lavatories)  If you required a gold leaf fix, down the rear spiral galley steps to the kitchen, through the working kitchen out the door, across the connective plate and gold vestibule and use those slightly nicer and bigger facilities.  Given the logistics, we went silver…besides we wanted to see for ourselves the differences.  

So, Breakfast Barfer, Lunch toilet suspension, sandwiched with great scenery, golden aspen, red maples and the ever present evergreens.  Yes, we saw the burned out forests…but it was not the first in the last decade, nor will it be the last.  It is Mother Nature’s way of renewal.  The forest floor is alive with yellows and reds where previous years’ fire had been…so, we are about an hour out of Kamloops and the natives on or train car are getting restless.  There she blows, another Barfer 7 rows back.  Bar service was abrupt suspended.  Instead of the 4 hostesses from the car and one Manager, we had 4 additional managers and the train’s medical officer, we had lots of flying rubber gloves, masks and defibrillators…and the poor roving cleaning lady thrown in for good measure.  So, one mile from the train station we stop on the railroad tracks…here comes ambulance, and fire department.  Wow!  The little old lady made or may not have coded,  7 rows back…but of course, with HIPAA regulations, we may never know.   Call this a first for all of this group…and come to to find out, for all of those bright faced kiddos that are on the crew, too.  Bottom line, three slots opened on the train at meal time….hope there is good airport service from Kamloops to where ever your final destination might be.  

Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and Joker…we are getting too old for this kind of stuff.  Especially after a night at the DoubleTree Hilton Kamloops.  How they keep their franchise serving Naan bread and chicken dicks with Indian seasoning is beyond me.  Tomorrow, we are in Jasper and another Fairmont…thank goodness, if not a defibrillator might have to be used on the Joker….he does not do 2 star hotels.