With age comes wisdom (supposedly)!  I have learned to avoid early morning flights unless it was absolutely necessary so I booked our return flight to Seattle to leave at 11 AM which would get us back in to Seattle before noon (time zone change). Trip to the airport and check-in was flawless and our Nexus cards got us through the immigration line without a wait. One funny incident was as we went through security the lady said we needed to take off our shoes and I questioned it as, because of our age, we do not need to do that in the US.  Her comment was “this is Canada”, so we dutifully took off our shoes and successfully passed through.

We arrived to sunshine and glorious views of the city from the air. As we walked from the gate to retrieve our luggage I was amazed at how busy the airport was, and it was mid-day Monday. It looks like it will be a busy summer at Seatac this year.

Epilogue:  Lately I have tired to summarize my feelings about a trip just taken. Here is this trip’s version.

-The Canadian Rockies are still magnificent after all these years! I recall when we did this trip in 1965 we went to Glacier National Park after having visited Canada and frankly I was disappointed when I compare the beauty of the two locations. I always tell people headed in that direction to go to Glacier first, then head up to Canada.

-The Rocky Mountaineer train trip was awesome. It is well run and worth it. Yvonne wished it had been longer than the two days.  And if your budget allows taking the Goldleaf service option over the Silverleaf is worth the extra money in my opinion. An interesting option is to simply take the two day train ride, rent a car in Jasper and do your own thing for as long as you wish. We traveled with a couple who did that.

-We were super impressed with the “kids” who were working at the hotels, restaurants and shops. Most are from Commonwealth countries and they were all friendly and eager to help make our trip enjoyable.

-As I said earlier if you plan to travel (probably anywhere these days) you might want to avoid peak travel dates as everyone seems to be on the road these days.

-I am sorry to say we were unable to exactly replicate those pictures from 1965 which was my goal before we left. I could not find that rock we sat on together, Yvonne no longer had that hooded coat from the glacier and that old Sears canvas tent was discarded decades ago! Maybe if we return there for our 75th anniversary we can try to replicate 2023!

The trip did bring back fond memories of that first trip and we have created new memories for the future. Onward!

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Unknown