I'm Leavin', on the VIA Rail Train

By the time you read this, T & I will be on our way home from our trip to Montreal by train. We should be back in Halifax at 4:30 p.m. Friday, and will be back home with our little furballs sometime that evening. I have written this in advance, trying out the post options by projecting this post into the future (about as close to time travel as I'll ever get), and I'll wonder the whole trip whether it is posting on Thursday, like I asked it to.

We left on Monday, on a VIA train scheduled to leave Halifax at 12:30 p.m. to arrive in Montreal at 8:05 a.m. on Tuesday. We spent a night on the train each way, as the trip from Halifax to Montreal is about 21 hours. We have travelled by train before (several years ago, we had a really memorable first train trip to Matapedia, Quebec, and have talked often of "our next train trip"). and really enjoy the pace of travel, seeing the countryside unfold out of the window, and the old time charm of the train. (and I am looking forward to all the guilt free knitting time, with no housework!)

Before I left on the trip, I researched and printed out a sheet detailing all the cool things we might like to take in ... the Biodome, the Botanical Garden (and Greenhouses), the Planetarium, Insectarium (eww .. but possibly nifty! - totally dependant on the icky insect to pretty insect ratio), Steve's music (a full city block of a music store), China Town, Old Montreal, and about 8 yarn stores ... plus a whack of cool sounding pubs and restaurants.

I'll be interested to see what of all the things researched we actually did do. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions ... they were a great resource to me. I'll post over the weekend with the update ...and some pictures.

Oh, yeah, and train knitting -- I have been anxting over that all weekend (prior to leaving) -- how much is enough, how much is too much? I don't want to run out on the way up, don't want to take something that is too difficult that won't allow me to interact and converse with T. and want to knit something with a higher degree of pretty/difficulty than a few dishcloths. In short, I want to take something that will be interesting to knit, give me a pretty result, and that I won't be a zombie glued to my needles on the whole trip.

I am taking/took my Girlie Girl socks ... spiral rib from Patons booklet - Socks in the City knit in Kroy Jacquards Mulberry Stripe, a plain pair of stockinette socks/possibly anklets like these (yarn to be determined just prior to leaving the house) and some covert knitting for 3 babies that friends are currently incubating {I hang with a very fertile crowd!}. That should be plenty for both ways, but if not ... I will buy yarn for the trip home!

Sorry for the lack of pics this post, but aside from an empty suitcase, a house in need of a tidy and vaccum, and some pretty sad looking pets (as soon as the suitcase comes out, the jig is up ... they are onto us, and stick to us like glue!) ... I got nuthing!