We had cooked breakfasts and spoke to our parents. Then we went into the city to get ISIC's, train tickets and meet Jamie for lunch. It was good to see him again. We hung out at the waterfront centre and then went to find Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy new bags. We bought the same ones - they were on sale for $20. We then went home. We had a really nice meal - roast beef and talked until we went to bed.
Tuesday 7th July
We had plans to go to Queen Elizabeth Park today but both Claire and I had a bad night's sleep and slept in. We had another cooked breakfast and then showered and packed our stuff. We followed Audrey's directions to the mall and took a slight detour. We bought food for our journey - cookies, crackers, pot noodles. We then went back and watched tv. Claire finally got hold of Prentice and Toni but unfortunately they're not going to be in on Friday. So our plans have to change. Claire called Dave but he is going to be on a field trip. She also called Scott - whose Mum knew exactly who she was and said she was more than welcome to stay. I also called Novella who wasn't in but her Mum was lovely, she also offered us somewhere to stay.
Audrey cooked us a carbo loading dinner, spag bol and we left soon after. We checked in our bags and joined the queue.
We found seats between a huge American tour group and a couple of families with kids! And so we settled down to our journey.
Wednesday 8th July
Didn't sleep at all well. Not enough room and too light. I woke up when they announced some waterfalls - pyramid falls!
Haven't found any telephones as yet.
We saw Mount Robson - the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, and we stopped in Jasper. Would you believe it the moment we stopped a thunderstorm appeared so we all got wet!
Claire's disappeared up to the observation dome so now it's more comfortable in our proper seats. I'm afraid to say I slept through most of the amazing scenery in the Rockies - and now we're almost in the Prairies.
I've written to both Liz and Joe. I'm missing the latter quite a bit - and I really hope he visits. I just with we had a longer time together.
We stopped also in Edmonton - where Joe lived for a while. While we were there Claire called Scott. This time he was in and I think he's going to pick her up and let her stay for a while.
Thursday 9th July
Evil Aaron's birthday!
Slept in quite late. Today was prairies and lots of them. We stopped in Winnipeg around lunchtime and basically spent the whole time on the 'phone.
Claire called Scott again although he wasn't in. I called Novella and Aaron and listened to my messages. 1 from Darren explaining that Rich had just left and he couldn't give me his telekey. 1 from Novella and me on the other one. I had another one from Novella just before we left giving me the name of somewhere to stay in Toronto.
We explored the Forks market super-quick and would you know it met Chad & Mica! They were just driving along by the via-rail station. It's just crazy!
We stopped again at a tiny place called Sioux Lookout - I booked a room for Friday night.
By now we had changed seats to a 4 seater but now we had to share it with Alison, on her way to be a beautician in Toronto.
I couldn't get to sleep very well so I took 5 or so blankets and set up a bed between the seats.
<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98>
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