Day 4 - The Adventure Begins, but first....

For those of you who don’t know: my mother is awesome. 

I had a day to kill by myself because my friends all had to work and the train to Jasper didn’t depart until 8:30pm. My mom had emailed my earlier in the week to ensure I hadn’t forgotten anything in my haste of last-minute packing. Somehow I hadn’t, but did have second thoughts about certain things I’d left behind deliberately. She had arranged to come to Vancouver for the day to spend it with me; a much better way to say goodbye than five minutes before she went to work with a very long hug. 

I met her at 9:30 this morning, with half my things in tow: a bag resulting from my attempts to downsize my luggage and my duffel bag which she desperately wanted me to replace. We went for breakfast at the uber-swanky (mostly just crazy expensive) The Yew restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel. Then, before heading over to the Art Gallery for their surrealism exhibit (yay Salvador Dalí, among others), we sought out a backpack. Also crazy expensive, but much better than what I had. Much as I love that cheap duffel bag that I bought in Spain for something like 7 euros, it is not the greatest second bag for this particular journey. It was a good thing we bought the new backpack when we did though, because it turns out that the bottle of hand cream I had requested (also purchased in Spain) had exploded in my bag. The lady in the store was very patient and helpful, giving us paper towel so that I could clean out my bag and get the goo off of my clothes, etc. After that we headed to the art gallery for some very odd art. 

Once we finished with all of that, we were left with just over an hour before she planned to head back to Victoria. As soon as we got to that point I started crying. I had a fabulous time and I’m immensely glad that she came, but saying goodbye is never easy. 

Sitting on the train now, the reality of my final destination still hasn’t quite sunk in. It comes and goes, and right now all I can think of is going to Jasper and all that entails. I still have details to work out for my next stop after that: Calgary. 

When I speak to you next, I will be in Alberta.