The initial stages of vacation planning always included potential outings and sightseeing of some of the interesting parts of the Province. I endeavour to support local hotels or B&B’s, and all other small business and tourist attractions.
I like to know a little about the history and what makes the province special. In an earlier email, I listed all the places I wanted to visit. Keep in mind, I had to scope out all of these places with the help of my B & B hosts and my paper map of Manitoba, as my little “pay as you go” flip phone did not have google maps.
This first Canadian Beaches vacation started on July 26, 2017.
Better late than never in sharing the escapades of this inaugural trip, but I could not locate ALL THE PICTURES I had taken……lol….
Join me on this visual and word rich journey as I share with you some of the highlights of Manitoba, Canada.
On this day, we loaded up the Big Blue Beast and headed out to PEI from Moncton, NB. Breakfast and coffee for the road, courtesy of the local Tim Horton’s.
It is a 2.5 hour drive to the beach and this would be our first time crossing the #Confederation Bridge. I warned my BFF she was in charge of taking pictures of the breathtaking views, as I was not taking my hands off the wheel or my eyes off the bridge.
Once we made the trip across, we could now claim to have visited 5 provinces in 4 days. Quite an accomplishment and alot of driving.
The sun shone, the skies were blue and clear when we arrived in Souris. A quick bite to eat, a place to change into my swim suit and off to the water we go.
According to Reader’s Digest – “PEI has more than 800 km of the warmest beaches north of the Carolinas. What makes Basin Head Beach (known as Singing Sands) so special is that it seems to sing, or sqeak, when you walk on it – an intriguing phenomena scientists still don’t completely understand.”
As I walked into the water, Stacey walked out to the shore and with IPhone in hand, videotaped my swim. In the background and in the distance, one could see an cruise liner making its way across the Atlantic.
Beach # 3 coming soon – Parlee Beach, New Brunswick.
It occurred to me this past week, as I continually received reminders on my Facebook page, of my beach vacations over the last 4 years, that some of you may be questioning whether I did in fact complete these swims, as I’d set out to do.
So in the spirit of honesty and transparency, I’ll post the videos taken at the time of my swim. As well, the post will also caption the reason why the particular beach was named as one of Canada’s Best. The text will be copied directly from the Reader’s Digest Article that I had referenced back in 2014.
As for the first beach done – Grand Beach, on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, all I can offer is a photo of me on the beach.
In one of my earlier posts, I told you how I did not own a smartphone back in 2017. I had a video camera which was used to record the event. Unfortunately I am unable to transfer that media to this media.
En route to accomplish my swim at my First Canadian Best Beach!
The clean white sand, the boardwalk, the green full foliage.
I’ve just completed my swim! with the aid of a lovely lady who videotaped the experience for me!
For this vacation, I found myself without a vehicle and had been using public transit to get to and from work daily.
So it was fitting and rather exciting, that the morning of my vacation, I was up and out of the house at 6 am to take public transit to the airport, where I would catch my Westjet flight to Saskatoon, Sask. This will be a 9 day vacation and I will conquer two provincial beaches – Lake Manitou in Watrous and Devonshire Beach in Alberta.
This post is about my short train trip between the two provinces.
Details about this journey will come in another post.
Once my stay in Sask was complete, I availed myself of the hotel shuttle service and the very kind driver took me to Tim’s first for coffee and then drove me to the Via Rail Station. This trip would be the shortest of the experiences so far. I was training it from Saskatoon to Edmonton – a short 10 hour trip. I booked a cabin for 1 – why not, lunch and dinner provided, a nice view of the landscape and I could visit with the other passengers.
Even on such a short trip, I was still treated like royalty, my bags were brought onto the train, the porter escorted me to my cabin and took my lunch and dinner seating reservations.
It’s truly a feat of super organization on behalf of #VIARAIL as to how well they manage to provide storage, amenities, toilet facilities etc in such a small space while still making the area comfortable and airy. Not an inch of space is wasted, yet one does not feel cramped or claustrophobic. The scenery along this route offered a lot more to see and as such, I spent quite a bit of time upstairs on the Panoramic level of the train. As this trip was during the day, there was so much to see.
By the time dinner was served, I was feeling quite melancholy, as I wished I could have stayed on the train longer.
I arrived in Edmonton, hailed a cab and made my way to my next destination – a local hotel in the City core.
My next trip – back to the East Coast, to swim at Martinique Beach, NS and the Isle de Madeleine, Quebec will be all train and rental car. Stay tuned – as we plan for summer 2020.
In February, over dinner with one of my bff’s, I broached the idea that she join me this summer for my East Coast trip to New Brunswick and PEI.
In our youth when of legal drinking age, we spent many a weekend travelling to Montreal via the train for bar hopping and visits with her boyfriend. So we had a shared love of train travel.
She jumped at the chance to be part of my journey and gave me full rein to do all the planning and booking – “just tell me how much money I have to send you”
On the 19th of August, we met up at Union Station and made our way to the Via Rail Concourse. This portion of the trip was on the Economy car as we were stopping in Montreal to enjoy a pre-vacation spa treatment at #BotaBota Spa.
Now fully relaxed and pampered, we hailed an UBER and made our way to Central Station. We checked in our luggage and met up with the Lounge Staff.
Our dinner seating arrangements were made and we were escorted to our Sleeper Car. The trip from Montreal to Moncton, NB is 19 hours and we were going to travel in style. I booked us a Cabin for two complete with berth style beds and our own bathroom facilities.
We enjoyed a full course meal complete with scrumptious dessert and a glass of red Ontario VQA wine.
We made our way to the Lounge car afterwards and enjoyed an evening with our fellow passengers – including a group of 4 very good looking young men from Brazil who were heading to Nova Scotia for some surfing – not the Internet type, either.
Breakfast was served the next morning. Afterwards we strolled the corridors, then made our way up top to the sky car, where we could enjoy the breathtaking views even more. The sun shone the entire trip.
Lunch was served at noon and shortly thereafter we arrived in Moncton, NB.
Our porter retrieved our luggage and we made our way to the Station. A courtesy shuttle from the Rental Car agency picked us up and took us to the office to get our vehicle- a blue Toyota Minivan which we aptly named the Big Blue Beast….
Stay tuned for our East Coast Adventure – on a 5 day trip, I swam at two beaches in two provinces and we were in 5 provinces! – Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI…..and I drove across the Confederation Bridge.
In Feb 2016, when I boarded the Via Rail train for my short getaway to Ste. Anne’s Spa in Grafton, ON, I knew that I would travel with the train again.
Part of this journey to swim at the Best Beaches of Canada also involved seeing Canada through the window of the train, not the clouds of plane travel.
As I planned my trip to Manitoba in July 2017, I considered my options for the method of travel as I had only booked 6 days of vacation. I elected to fly #WestJet to Winnipeg and would take the train back to Toronto the following Tuesday.
Plane travel is convenient and fast but definitely not the most relaxing way to travel. At least I don’t find it very relaxing. I get motion sickness, I have to take gravol beforehand, I usually have one suitcase to check in, one carry on and then of course, my purse or knapsack. The seats are too close together and as I usually ask for a window seat, I have to trouble my seat mates every time I need to use the facilities…….
Now train travel – that’s a whole different experience and I will extoll the virtues of such travel in future posts.
You still have to get to the station and check in your bags. However, the cost for the check in is already included in your fare. Bonus there already! For these long trips, over 8 hours, Via Rail has a wonderful service called “Sleeper Plus”.
This is the car that is outfitted with “upper and lower” berths or you can reserve a cabin for 1 or 2 passengers. The berth bed style is located along the main corridor – each two berth unit is covered by a curtain and the person on the top berth has use of a ladder to get up to bed. The cabins also have upper/ lower berths, but more storage and your own “washroom” complete with toilet and sink. These cabins also have windows and the beds fold up for seating during the day.
Berth Style on the Sleeper Car – Via Rail
Each passenger on the Sleeper Car is assigned their own Porter who will turn down and make up your beds each day. As well, each passenger is given a complimentary “Shower” bag which includes, soap, towel, washcloth, shampoo/conditioner, lotion. The “shower” is located on either end of the corridor. The pillows are soft, clean and there is even a hammock along the wall of the bunk where you can store your phone, a book or even your reading glasses.
The cost of the fare for the Sleeper Plus car is more than the average plane fare, but with one HUGE advantage – your meals, three squares a day, are all included, plus complimentary coffee, tea, water, juice, cookies, snacks etc for the entire trip. Prepared fresh by an onboard chef and served to you in the dining car. Now I’m not talking hamburgers, french fries, salads or sandwiches, runny eggs or grilled cheese.
Each meal has a set menu and you can choose from the early sitting or later sitting. From your basic breakfast items to local fare cooked for dinner, the food was scrumptious and plenty. There were vegan options and specific dietary needs could be accommodated as well.
My trip from Winnipeg to Toronto was a 35 hour journey. Departure time at 2200 on the Tuesday nite and arrival at Union station at 09:35 on the Thursday morning. So, the meals were breakfast/lunch/dinner and final breakfast on the Thursday morning.
The other advantage of the Sleeper Car fare is the opportunity to walk up and down the corridors. You are not required to stay in your bunk or in your cabin. You can roam the cars – the activity car, the dining car, the lounging car and the upper deck car which offers you a panoramic view of the countryside as you sit two levels up on the train.
For this trip, we did experience a delay through no fault of Via Rail. Currently the passenger railway corridor is shared with the freight trains of CP Rail. There are only two rail lines and passenger trains must yield to the freight trains.
With that being said, the night of my inaugural province to province train trip, our train had started its journey in BC earlier that evening and was making its way east to Winnipeg. Sometime after 21:30, we were informed that a freight train had become disabled somewhere in Alberta ( I don’t remember the specific details). So our train went into a holding pattern and had to wait until this freight train was repaired . There we all were, sitting at the train station late at night with nothing to do but wait. Restaurants were now closed, stores were closed and most of us had already checked our baggage. Finally at approx 03:00 we were told the train would arrive by 4:30 am. I had been awake now for almost 24 hours and this was taking its toll. I was nauseated and listless and hungry. When the train pulled into the station, my porter escorted me to my bunk, turned down the linen and up I went for a nap.
I was very surprised by how well I slept and how comfortable the mattress and pillow were. There is nothing quite as soothing as being lulled to sleep by the motions of the train as it traveled along the tracks. I slept until about 8 am when I was invited to come for breakfast. We departed Winnipeg at 08:30 Wed morning. A ten hour delay.
It is worthy to note here that I was one of maybe 100-150 passengers that had the luxury to be on the Sleeper Car. There were many families (with small children and seniors) who were travelling on the regular economy car – the ones- just like on the subway….I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that trip must have been…..I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
To this end, the staff, porters, engineers, wait staff, chef, of #VIARAIL were kind, patient, caring, considerate, respectful and gracious during my entire trip. I applaud them for their exemplary customer service skills and am thankful for their efforts to keep us all entertained and informed.
We arrived at Union Station almost 12 hours later- Thursday evening at 10 pm. Despite this unforeseen delay, I was hooked and knew I would travel #VIARAIL again.
My next trip to the East Coast of Canada took place the following summer. This time my BFF joined me and we reserved a cabin for two. More to follow – Via Rail Travel – Excursion #2
As of the writing of this post, it is June 2021 and our Province is slowly getting vaccinated. We may all be able to enjoy some summer travel this season.
We all stayed home last summer-read books, watched movies, drank incessantly and looked at the birds and blue jays. Now hopefully we can get out and do some exploring.
With inter-provincial travel still not in the cards, I’ve chosen instead to explore parks and Conservation areas near me. With some careful planning too, I’ll finally get to the three Canadian Beaches within Ontario that have yet to be conquered- Sandbanks in Prince Edward County, Singing Sands Beach in Tobermory and Sauble Beach in Owen Sound.
I discovered two great adventure books and they will be my Inspiration for a future travel quest – #110naturehotspotsofontario – more to come on that..
I’ve had one Covid19 vaccination and am scheduled for my second at the beginning of August. Mid-July will see me travelling all the way to Pelee Island #peleeisland and then north to Grand Bend and ultimately Owen Sound for a dip in Sauble Beach #saublebeach. The hotels are booked- all local establishments to the area.
One of the hotels does have an outdoor heated pool on the property. Oh, how I hope it will be ready by that time. How I long to don my suit and do a few laps underneath the golden warm sunshine. By that time, we hope restaurants will be open for Dining In. I will be adding to the local tourist economy and fingers crossed, many of these small businesses will be open to welcome me.
Thank you for reading and letting me share my adventures with you.
As the days to my next swimming vacation approached in August 2019, I marveled at how much I enjoyed busing and biking to work these past few months.
When the day finally arrived to get myself to the airport, I decided to take the bus to the airport, instead of a taxi. I was packed and out the door by 6:15 am, grabbed my coffee and walked with my suitcases to the bus stop. Wow -what a thrill that was -where normally I would be going to work, now I’m going on VACATION! For the cost of one bus fare – $3.15, it took me less than 20 minutes to get the Terminal 3. My mode of transport for this trip would be flight to Saskatchewan, train from Saskatoon to Edmonton, AB and flight home to Pearson from AB.
The two beaches/bodies of water to accomplish this time would be Lake Manitou in Watrous, Sask and Devonshire Beach in Edmonton.
My accommodations while in Sask, included two nights at the #Park TownHotel in downtown Saskatoon and the #Manitouspringsresort in Watrous.
This Resort boasted a large enclosed pool with several hot tubs and areas with varying water temperatures. The water used to fill these pools was piped in directly from Lake Manitou. As a guest of the resort, we had unlimited access to these pools and the daily experience was sheer joy and relaxation. Due to the abundant amount of therapeutic salts and natural minerals found in the lake water, once submerged, your body/skin was treated to the most softening effect. If one is used to swimming in a chlorinated pool or any beach, the colour of the water took a little getting used to – it had a light green tinge to it.
The last day (Aug. 11) of my trip to Watrous, was the day I had chosen to swim in Lake Manitou. The temp hovered around 23 Celsius, with heavy cloud cover. Not the most ideal day for swimming. I set out to peruse the beach for anyone willing to be my videographer. I found one such couple and they were more than happy to accommodate me.
Now I must confess, the water temperature was quite chilly – lakes in Canada are not as warm as the world’s oceans – yikes!!!!! I put one foot in and gritted my teeth – cold, cold, cold……I was not so sure I could do this swim……..
A thought occurred to me then – “I don’t have to swim here – I’ve already been in the pool at the Resort which uses this lake water as its source”… Who would know????? See that’s the thing about integrity – I would know that I didn’t swim at one of the Best Beaches in Canada and it would haunt me for the rest of my journey.
So, in I went, and swam out for a bit. My beach buddies turned on the camera and got to taping………I did a few short swims and then made my way out………
I did it! Lake Manitou has been conquered – now time for a dip in the warm therapeutic pool…….lol.
If you are counting – I’ve now done Parlee Beach, Singing Sands Beach, Grand Beach, Lake Manitou and next is Devonshire Beach. We are almost done.
Thank you, as always, for reading and letting me share.
Since we have all been at home these past months, I’ve been doing alot of reading. I love my Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Harlen Coben, Jodi Piccoult, Nicolas Sparks to name a few. I’ve also embarked on some new authors who have inspired me to think more outside the box and look at alternate ideas for a second career.
The two most recent authors are:
Cathy Heller – “Don’t keep your Day Job” and
Chris Guillebeau – “The Art of Non- Conformity, Set your Own Rules, Live the Life you Want”
As I read thru the chapters, I started to consider my options about a part time career. I love my full time job – I’ve been with this one employer for over 10 years now – I get 4 weeks vacation a year, I’m close to home, I can ride my bike to work in nice weather and I really enjoy helping my customers.
I have no plans to quit this job even though both my kids think I should look for another one. The reality is, I’m in my fifties, I’m not going to earn that much more per hour than what I’m making and as I have ageing parents who will need more of my support in the future, I can be there for them as needed.
Anyway, I love to write, I love words and with a house crowded with one son and a dog taking up residence, I have little quiet time to devote to putting ideas and thoughts to keyboard. Thus I’m blogging at a public computer at our local branch library. What better place to write and be inspired to write than being surrounded by all of the world’s greatest authors.
In his book, Chris talked about alternate methods to achieve higher learning or expanded education. How?? – to read 30 non fiction books and read 20 of the Classic all-time novels.
So my first attempt at a classic was “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville. I say attempt – as I read about 3 chapters and simply could not visualize the scene in my head and embarrassingly I had a hard time understanding the “old English” writing style. This book was written in the mid-1860’s. The english – grammar, sentence structure etc, was very formal and proper. I returned the book to the library and went back to the list…….
I’ve now delved into another classic – again written in the mid- 1800’s. This one is by Charles Dickens – ” A Tale of two Cities”. The english is the same, but here I can at least visualize the scene in my head and this novel is a story set in London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution. I must confess my knowledge of history leaves alot to be desired – definitely not one of my best subjects in high school. However with that being said, one can always learn if one is willing to put it in the time…..
How does reading the classics help me decide on a part time writing career?
Well -I want to build this career by blogging where I can share with the world what I’ve learned, where I’ve been, where I can use fun and interesting words to express myself, what I struggle with, how I cope, how I de-stress and how I stay positive, how I set goals, how I navigate thru life as an older single woman, how I go about achieving my goals, where I can share the pitfalls/joys of travelling alone, etc.
I leave you for now.
Thank you for reading and for letting me share with you a little bit more of myself.
As has been quite apparent, I have not taken fingers to keys for quite some time and for this I do apologize to all of you that have been reading about my adventures. The pandemic has thrown a curve into my daily routine and I will be back soon to continue our journey.
In 2018 – with one of my BFF’S in tow – I accomplished Parlee Beach in New Brunswick and Singing Sands in Basin Head, PEI.
In 2019 – on my own this time, I swam at Lake Manitou in Watrous, Saskatchewan and Devonshire Beach in Edmonton, AB
This year would have seen me travelling to Martinique NS and the Isle de Madeleine in Quebec, but alas, we are all at home staying safe from COVID19.
Single Older Woman - Living Life Passionately 