3. Ride the Dayliner on Vancouver Island.

I lived on the Island for something like 19 years, and I'd only ever taken the Dayliner once, when I was too young to remember. So when we were over on the Island for the annual Father's Day picnic, we seized the opportunity, and took the train from Duncan up to Parksville.

Mom was kind enough to drive the car up, so we could have some time in Parksville (rather than coming home again on the train three hours after we arrived). This meant that Dad and Holly and Sophie and I could take the two hour train ride north. Here's one of Mom's shots of the Duncan train station - in my opinion, the nicest station by far, at least of the ones we saw.



Here are some pics of us on the train. Sophie spent a lot of the time standing on the seat, looking out the window, and at the other passengers. We had a bit of a chat with the conductor, and learned that we were only going around 40 mph (about 65 kph) at our top speed, although the train was rated for 120 mph (about 195 kph). The way we wobbled going around corners, though (especially in the bathroom!), I'm glad we weren't going any faster.





We enjoyed seeing things from a different point of view than the usual highway drive. The scenery varied from dense forest (with branches brushing the train as we went by), to wide open farmland, to a few overpasses and tunnels, to some beautiful rivers. We went right by WildPlay Element Parks (formerly the Bungy Zone), although we didn't see anyone jumping at that moment. We were right near the back of the train, so here's a shot out the back window to finish this post.