ah Vacation!

Well, every vacation begins with such expectation, such anticipation, such excitement...

This is us - in the parking lot of the train station - so filled with excitement and glee and bubbling enthusiasm that we had to sing! We sang this song "let me see your funky chicken! (what's that you say?) I said Let me see your funky chicken!! (what's that you say?) ooh, ah-ah-ah - ooh, ah-ah-ah - ooh!

And then - reality smacked us down to earth. The train would be delayed eight hours. It had hit a car outside of Toronto and sadly, there was a fatality even, so it was delayed. I tried to count my blessings that we were fine, it just meant our vacation would start a little later. K had a harder time finding the silver lining.

So, our train vacation began like this:



because we were really cool parents and took the kids to the local amusement park. Aren't we, like, totally awesome?

But finally - yes finally! we boarded the train. Not exactly on schedule but there nonetheless. We were seated on an eight seater which is four seats facing each other so K and I had plenty of room to stretch out. It was lovely. And soon enough, they were coming around with the blankets and pillows and eye patches; which proved to be more fun for the kids than you could imagine!





And for a little while...it seemed almost magical.







Remember that reality thing we were talking about? Yeah, well...it smacked us hard again the next morning when I awoke to realize the train had stopped. One quick check reminded me that ah yes! We had a bit of a stopover here and we'd be going again soon.

tick, tock, tick, tock...

Oh yes, we'll be going again soon.



tick, tock, tick, tock...

When we have more information - we will let you know.

tick, tock, tick, tock...

Two derailments - that's right TWO! ahead of us - meant that we could not pass through to Vancouver and we were stuck. They were trying to arrange buses to get us all there. We looked around us at the four children being really, incredibly, blessedly patient - and decided we'd rent a van and drive there ourselves.

We picked up a lovely girl named Sam from Australia


who was trying to catch a ferry to Victoria that night and we drove like bandits into Vancouver! In time to 1. Set up camp and not lose our campsite reservation 2. Return the rental vehicle that got us to Vancouver (a BIG SHOUT OUT to ENTERPRISE car rentals - we love them!) 3. Pick up the other rental vehicle for which we had a reservation and 4. Make it to the opening of the football game we'd spent (frankly) too much money on to miss!

Phew. And that was only day one.