Across Canada By Train

We took a train trip from Vancouver, British Columbia to Toronto, Ontario. Overall I'm glad I went, but there were some bumps along the way. Vancouver was spectacular. The Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel was really special. The train ride had a couple of problems:

1. I had not anticipated how bumpy and unstable train travel would be. The train cars sway in all 4 directions, sometimes seemingly all at the same time! I've never been on a bumpier ride whether it be a plane, ship or car.

2. We lost hours due to a broken down freight train on the very first day. So, our stops were cut back. For example, we should have had about a 2 hour stop in Jasper -- enough time to walk around a good bit of the town, even have lunch somewhere. But, we only got 40 minutes. Almost all the stops were reduced, except Winnipeg -- which ended up being from 2 AM to 4 AM!

The food was great and the room was nice. We met some great people.

The lower floor of the dome car. Comfy seats and a great place for after dinner drinks.

Near the Manitoba - Ontario border

The plains of Saskatchewan and Manitoba were not terrible exciting.

Our dome car -- one of 3 -- was at the tail end of the 24 car train.

Jasper Park

Jasper Park

Mount Robson - the tallest in the Canadian Rockies. Too cloudy to see the top.

Pyramid Falls

Our dome car.

Our room during the day. A Murphy bed was lowered from the right and took up all the area in the picture. The bathroom is behind me.

The lobby of the Fairmont Pacific Rim where we stayed in Vancouver.

Vancouver

Vancouver -- our hotel is one of those tall buildings.

The lobby of the Fairmont Royal York -- where we stayed in Toronto.

A view of our hotel (the older looking building to the left of the train station) from the CN Tower.

A view of Toronto and Lake Ontario from the CN Tower.

Our dome car.

Vancouver

Saturday, October 25, 2025

It's chilly and gray this morning. I got some Dunkin Donuts and headed out to Dick Young park. I took a short walk after consuming my donuts and coffee (Dunkin has great coffee) and took some pictures. Fall is arriving. Leaves are dropping, but the trees have more to give.

Saturday, 2025-10-11, in Batavia, IL

It's a beautiful fall day. The temperature is in the high 50s with a perfectly blue sky.

A sculpture on the Wilson Street Bridge.

Not as many people as normal on this second-to-last Farmer's Market event.

2025-10-09 Fox River Trail

Both of us are under the weather. We seem to have caught colds. But, it was just too nice out so we took a stroll on a little bit of the Fox River Trail from the Batavia Depot Museum to a bit south of the Fabyan bridge.

Water Street Writers | Sandra Marchetti | September 21, 2025

Sandra Marchetti is the 2023 winner of The Twin Bill Book Prize for Best Baseball Poetry Book of the Year. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, DIORAMA, from Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2025), Aisle 228 (SFA Press, 2023), and Confluence (Sundress Publications, 2015). Sandy is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Her poetry and essays appear widely in Mid-American Review, Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and elsewhere. She is Poetry Editor Emerita at River Styx Magazine. Sandy earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University and now serves as the Assistant Director of Academic Support at Harper College in Chicagoland. You can find out more at: https://sandramarchetti.net/.

Water Street Writers | Donna Latham | September 21, 2025

Playwright, author, and history geek Donna Latham’s over the moon to be back at Water Street Writers. Her plays have been produced coast to coast and around the world. AND WE WILL SHARE THE SKY received the Kennedy Center Mark David Cohen Playwriting Award, and ALL THE WAY BACK received the Prize for Climate Justice. Donna grew up in a haunted house in the wilds of Chicagoland and has been obsessed with spooky stuff forever. She’s a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Water Street Writers | Cathy Borders | September 21, 2025

Cathy Borders is the author of The Tarot for Writing Project, A Suburb of Monogamy, and her latest, Robin Williams Is My Uncle: And Other Stories We Possess, is a work of autotheory about alienation, the uncanny, and epigenetics told through the lens of Robin Williams’s children’s movies, fairy tales, feminism, and the death of her beloved cat. She's a book midwife, story therapist, and also the founder of The Republic of Letters and Water Street Writers. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School in New York and a Bachelor’s degree in English literature and critical theory from the University of Iowa. She now lives in the forest with her husband and two daughters where she writes, edits, and walks. You can find out more at CathyBorders.com.