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Allow me to tell another story of an international trip associated with an APTA convention. Again my wife and I attended the APTA convention in Seattle. The trip this time was from Seattle to Vancouver BC using Sounder equipment. The ride was along the Puget Sound most of the way with the rails at water edge. To see the ground you really had to squash your face against the window. Scenery was terrific. Saw several places I could be very happy living along the coast even with a train track in your front yard. Our special train was competing with the regular Amtrak Talgo train. Due to the Amtrak train having a lower center of gravity we had to pull on a spur to let the Amtrak train overtake us then back on to the main to resume our journey. The host asked all non US or Canadian passengers to go to the head coach as they had a more thorough customs inspection. Canadian customs officials boarded in Blaine and went through the train checking documents. I have always found Canadian customs oficials being very courteous. You do not want to tell them that you are a consultant as this entails a 45 minute question period in the back room at the entry airport. When we arrived at the outskirts of Vancouver the train went about 10 MPH until we arrived at the station next to the harbor. This is the same station that the Canadian uses. One of our hosts asked a select few of us (including my wife and I) to join them for lunch at the Fairmont Hotel next to the station. Since it was raining quite hard this was a good item. They also chartered a bus for our small group to return to Seattle. At first the thought of missing the train ride and traveling on a (*&^%$ bus did not sit too well with me, but it turned out for the best. BN decided to put a freight car on the ground and the excursion train instead of arriving back at 6 PM actually arrived at 2 AM. We did attend the evening function in Seattle and were bright eyed the next day where those on the train were not so lucky. And Seattle has GREAT coffee. Siberianmo, in case you were wondering about me I had the pleasure of serving on the board of directors for DART for seven years hence my APTA convention trips. I have several other convention trips I could write about, but, alas, they are not Canadian.
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