Day 5 – Getting to Vancouver

When we went to sleep on Wednesday night we were expecting to wake up in Vancouver as our train was running slightly ahead of schedule. But, when I woke up at 6:30 and saw that we were stopped in a canyon of evergreens I knew that we definitely were not in Vancouver. Turns out there was a damaged section of track so all traffic going both ways was stopped until it got fixed, and then because the freight trains have priority, we ended up waiting for several hours until it was our turn. This meant we got to see a beautiful section of the route that normally westbound passengers don’t get to see. 

Our new ETA was noon, still plenty of time for me to make my 3:10pm flight. Then we had an unscheduled stop to let off an economy passenger who decided not to follow the no smoking rule. I’m glad they enforce that rule, though it meant we were further delayed and didn’t get into Vancouver until 1:45 and I couldn’t get to the airport in time for my flight. Luckily I was able to get a seat on the 5:30 flight. The flight was just over 2 hours and had no middle seats, which was great, but I missed the space, the views and the camaraderie of the train (not to mention the good food!)

I went through customs in Vancouver, so getting out of the airport in SF was easy. I hopped on the Marin Airporter and mom met me at the Manzanita station, so I was home by 9:45pm. And ready for bed after a day of trains, planes and automobiles (and buses!)