All Booked

As many of you will remember last Christmas Zach, Sami and I undertook a road trip to Florida for our week together.  We had a great time driving to Florida, granted it took us the better part of 32 hours because of our circuitous route and constant stops, but we had a great time!  Who knew that a road trip with teenagers could be so enjoyable…actually I did and I think deep down so did they.  

The reality of it is that they're excellent travellers who I've trained well especially when it comes to packing light for a flight, yes carryon only thank you very much!  Two curious souls who enjoy exploring as much as I do...thank goodness. ☺  

En-route to Los Angeles earlier today and
following along on the seat map

As I write this week’s blog we’re somewhere over Iowa jetting toward Los Angeles for a long weekend of fun and exploration.  Incidentally this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving hence the long weekend. This time last year Sami and I were in New York City for our annual father – daughter weekend.

It seems that our lives are defined and punctuated by a constant travel schedule, but in a good way right?

For the past couple of weeks I had been canvassing the kids as to what we should do for our week at Christmas. Both Europe and a ski trip to Western Canada had been in the running early on, but after further consideration and research both seemed too expensive.  So earlier this week we began discussing other options…  

Zach mentioned in passing that he’d love to take the train from Toronto across Canada to Vancouver; when I then bounced the idea off Sami she  enthusiastically agreed saying that was a great idea.  The more I thought about it the better I felt about exploring that option.  So on Wednesday night I logged onto the VIA rail website with the intent of booking our trip.

It took only a couple of minutes to realize that this is quite a popular trip and so dates were an issue if we wanted a sleeper car.  Okay, so plan B was to fly to Vancouver and catch the train back to Toronto…scathingly brilliant TW!  ☺

This time I was able to get us a sleeper and for dates that could possibly work, but the cost was astronomical!   It was going to be over $5000 for the three of us to take the train across Canada from Vancouver to Toronto with a sleeper, again a non-starter.  

Okay, how about we take the train from Vancouver to Calgary?  At least that way we’d be able to see the Rockies during winter with some beautiful scenery.  The “Rocky Mountaineer” as its know is one of the most popular activities for visitors coming to Canada – who knew? I couldn’t believe its enormous popularity, the earliest availability was May 2014 and that was very limited.

Amtrak routes throughout the United States with
the Coast Starlight route highlighted

I was quickly running out of ideas, but not to be beaten, as I also really like a good train journey, if you remember my year backpacking was spent primarily on a Eurail pass traveling around Europe, so I have very fond memories.

After further pondering, I began to doubt whether I could find something that would work for us…  I thought about what other places Zach & Sami had mentioned to me that they would like to explore including Seattle, and San Diego.

Then it hit me!   Do they have a train that goes from Seattle to San Diego?   A quick visit to the Amtrak website confirmed our saving grace, and there it was starring right back at me from the screen.  We could easily fly to Seattle and then catch the train down the west coast of the US all the way to San Diego, with short stops in Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Everything just seemed to fall into place – sleeper car available…check, reasonably priced = $1200…check, available flights to Seattle and home from San Diego…check!   Hhhmmm is that Karma knocking on the door?  Sweet!

It's all booked, we’re taking the “Coast Starlight” from Seattle to Los Angeles, before changing to the “Pacific Surfliner” in Los Angeles for our last leg to San Diego.  All things being equal the train trip should take us about 34 hours. As well we have a day of exploring in Seattle at the start of our trip and then four days in San Diego at the end, which should provide us with plenty of time to unwind, play cards, tell stories and generally hang out.  Can you tell I’m excited about it? 

Just the idea of spending Christmas day in Southern California is so alluring, almost an Australian Christmas if you will, with the prospect of both beach and sunshine on the cards - bring it on baby! ☺   Last year we were at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for Christmas, although it was bit wet anything is better than being stuck in cold and grey Toronto at that time of year...enough said.

Old style poster for the Pacific Surfliner
that we're picking up in LA and
taking to San Diego

When I called Zach and Sami last night to tell them about this years Christmas trip they were both genuinely excited at the prospect of our train adventure over the break!

I was telling a friend of mine how I had always dreamed of these sorts of adventures and feel extremely fortunate that I can do it now with my kids.  They smiled and said that Zach and Sami’s lives are being shaped and defined by these types of experiences and that their childhood memories will be a constant source of joy in later life.  I also realized through that conversation that exposing them to the world in a way that continues to feed and build their innate curiosities, was the true gift in all this.

I’m so looking forward to our next adventure, but wait not so fast mister!   We have this weekend in Los Angeles to enjoy first.  ☺    

As I’ve said in the past I've needed to slow down and appreciate the here and now, savouring our time together moment by moment, so that’s my plan this weekend.  What better way to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving than to spend it with the loves of my life?

All the very best for a great weekend!