Yesterday the Rocky Mountaineer cruised into the city of Kamloops, British Columbia. I don’t mean this to be disparaging to this lovely town but prior to this trip I had never heard of Kamloops. After listening to our guide it is no wonder that I had not heard of the place. It seems that the most notable fact about it is that Kamloops is the home of 100,000 people and 250,000 cows. It is also the town where Mark Recchi was born. Mr. Recchi escaped my brain until yesterday when I found out he was a former NHL hockey player and played on three Stanley Cup championship teams.
After settling into our hotel room and getting some much needed rest (after all we had been sitting on a train all day) we then went out to dinner (I might have mentioned the only activity we had on the train was eating). Initially we planned to eat at the hotel but Lindsay reviewed the place online and recommended that we try another restaurant not too far away. I have learned when it comes to picking restaurants I should trust Lindsay. We walked from our hotel to Terra (326 Victoria St, Kamloops, BC V2C 2A5) and were quickly seated upon our arrival. Lindsay is able to find great restaurants and this time she came through again. The food and service were excellent. Since I never can find good lamb in Los Angeles, I went for it here and I was not disappointed. Robby had pork belly and his plate was empty when we left so I will take that as a good sign. The others also seemed to enjoy their dishes.
The waitress at Terra’s told us an interesting tidbit. Since the Rocky Mountaineer has such a large presence in the town there is a hotline that townspeople can call to find out how many trains will be stopping that night (trains arrive from both directions), what time to expect their arrival, and how many people are on the train. As she put it, “If they say the train will arrive with 300 people at 5:15 pm we know to expect to see a bunch of people on the street seemingly walking aimlessly about at around 6 pm.”
Today we took the train from Kamloops to Vancouver. The trip was filled with lots of great sights and lots of great food. On these trips I keep meeting people who are retired and speaking of the virtues of that part of life. As many of you know I have been giving a lot of thought to calling it quits and must say it is looking like a better option everyday. Some of my patients have informed me that I can’t retire until they die so some arrangements might have to be made in that arena.
This leg of the trip took us through a much more arid area of the country before transitioning through more greenery. One sight that I found fascinating was where the Thompson River connects with the larger Fraser River. The Thompson River having much less silt looks blue compared to the brownish hue of the Fraser. In the picture below you can see the effect when they connect.
Another interesting sight was the other passengers every time a guide would tell us that something worth photographing was coming up on the right or left.
At about 6:00 pm we finally rolled into the Rocky Mountaineer railway station in Vancouver. We quickly boarded a bus to our hotel. Now we are chilling in our room getting ready to have …………………….. dinner !
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 