I’m traveling back to Katie and my Amtrak Cascades train trip to Vancouver B.C. last Thursday before Christmas Eve and Christmas activities commence!

We had to dress with a few layers because the temps on this day did not stay above freezing for long.

We started our journey in Edmonds, Washington. For many miles the tracks are right next to the water and it felt if I leaned towards the window I could land in the water.

As we approached Everett, Washington I wondered if we’d see a battleship or an Aircraft Carrier.

I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m glad I don’t have to clean off that rust…

So many interesting things to see with my camera.

After Everett the tracks came inland and we got to see some rural views before the tracks bent back west to the water.

Looking back I caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier and zoomed in to catch our famous volcano in the distance.

It was fun to see the views of Semiahmoo from the train. Dear and I spent our anniversary at the inn which is right next to that water tower.

Seeing Semiahmoo I knew we were very close to crossing the border into Canada.

White Rock, B.C.

The train station in Vancouver.

We were underwhelmed with the Christmas market that was our destination choice. Thankfully food is my love language and Finch’s Tea and Coffee House came to the rescue. We really enjoyed our baguettes and Lady Grey tea.

This was in Katie’s words a “Hipster” establishment. The menu was posted on the blackboards. They delivered most of the sandwiches on brown waxed wrap paper.

Betty from Mennonite Girls Can Cook made the scarf next to my nice big cup of tea for me and the really cool thing about it is that she included slots in the scarf that serve as hand warmers/slot pockets.

Speaking of that large cup of tea, we had to take our signature sipping tea shot!

We visited some antique shops in the Gas Town area of Vancouver and a fun shop called Old Faithful.

We walked back to the train station and boarded our train for our long trip back to Edmonds. We were very happy that there was a dining car on the train with several food and drink choices. The trip back was in the dark so it seemed slow and long to me. It really helps to be able to see things out the train windows that are interesting to make the trip seem shorter. If we do this trip again we’d like to spend the night and only travel one way each day. I do like the quiet stress free aspect of traveling on the train.

Well here we are with just a couple days before Christmas. How are you doing? I hope you are calm and collected and that you have time for joy and peaceful moments.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Corrie Ten Boom…

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”