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JASPER TO LAKE LOUISE

The only meal we had in Jasper was in our room.  There was a market nearby, so we bought ingredients for nachos and chicken.  The wine was from the American Melody.  A fabulous Merlot from Paso Robles. So yesterday, we left Jasper for Lake Louise in a van with a guide and three others. s In particular, Jake, our guide from State Farm....nah, Alberta Blue Sky tours...talked about that  terrible wildfire of 2024. The ride continued, and scenery was awesome. We stopped by Athabasca Falls. A few miles further on was a smaller falls. I should mention something I've never seen before.  The pine cones for spruce trees are only at the very top of the tree.  Why?  Evolution has taught the tree to place future seeds up there to minimize animals eating the nuts.  Plus, if there is a forest fire, the outside protects the inner cones. More scenes. We stopped to film one of the Columbia glaciers. The highlight of this tour was the Athabasca Glacier. We were gre...
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TORONTO to JASPER: Part 2

In addition to just gazing at the scenery, Rail Canada provided two Canadian wine tastings and one for beer. Breakfast. Canadian beer tasting. A typical stop.  This at Saskatoon. Excellent pork chop dinner. There was a second Canadian wine tasting. Not much, but free.  There was also Bingo, and I won the first card.  A nice prime rib dinner. Thought we'd go up to domed car to watch the sunset. One of the marvels of technology are those freight car trains.  They are up to 2.5 miles long and consist of over 150 cars.  And there are longer ones.  I tried to take a video of one of them at this sunset videoing. A continuition.  To close, what do you know about  Canadian wine s ? I don't remember drinking a wine from this country ever, until this trip, although I've been through Canada maybe a dozen times in my life. Ontario and British Columbia produce two-thirds of Canadian wines, with Ontario responsible for 62% of them. Ice wine in particular has so...

TORONTO TO JASPER: Part One

The Fairmont Royal York was across the street from Union Station, so we had the chief bellman help us wheel our luggage to the check-in counter.  Except to the wrong place.  So we later had to bring our baggage to another desk where they were strict as to maximum weight.  Remember, we are on a nearly 2-month trip, and I have a rather large suitcase, which weighed 63 pounds, 13 pounds over the limit.  Had to scramble to get everything in order, and ended up carrying more on the train than we wanted. Shocks came one after the other.  Our room on Rail Canada is so small, more like a short walk-in closet of our cruise stateroom.  When we were at dinner, someone can in and converted the room into a bedroom. Compared to others, we had it well, for our toilet opened into another small room.  Many had no chairs and the toilet in the same room.  We all had to use a common shower. The part that most stunned me was no internet.  While aghast, I was also...