Squeezed into the bottom bunk in a minuscule cabin, with my six-year-old son, Charlie, tucked in by my side and my husband, Rick, and 11-year-old daughter, Hazel, in the bunks next door, I would quietly draw the blinds at dawn, marvel at our spellbinding country, make a battle plan and assure myself that someday my kids would thank me for this trip. Those first few uninterrupted moments of each morning gave me the strength to face each long and repetitive day.
For our March Break trip this year, I nabbed a 40 percent off deal on Black Friday for Sleeper Plus cabins on VIA Rail?s flagship route?the Canadian?with real beds and doors. It was still wildly expensive but included meals and unlimited tea, coffee, soft drinks, fruit, pastries and cookies, namely Peek Freans (Cranberry Citrus Oat Crunch cookies for me and Fruit Creme cookies for the kids). For four long nights and four even longer days, we travelled across 4,466 kilometres of dense Ontario bush, snow-dusted prairies and picture-perfect mountains. The kids didn?t know it, but our great Canadian train trip was going to teach them important life skills.
Photo: Jennifer Bain
1. Patience
?Due to rail traffic, train one will be delayed.? Not the kind of thing you want to hear when you?re travelling with kids, but we quickly got used to this.
There was no choice but to cultivate patience. I already knew VIA?s guilty secret: Freight trains take priority over passenger trains, and we were going to be slowing and stopping a l...