It was a long time since Jamie and I had gone on a vacation, not since 1999, so in this sense a trip was long overdue. Since both of were extremely busy this summer involved with work and other activities, we weren't able to book an extended vacation (i.e. three weeks!), but we managed to both take off the long weekend for labour day for a 'mini vacation'.

It was refreshing! I had been doing, like, 60 hour weeks and stuff during the last two months of summer. Jame had been doing, like extremely full days at his work on projects, so a vacation away from the city was just what the doctor ordered. We first got together at a Boston Pizza restaurant to discuss vacation plans, seeing as the labour day weekend was finalized. We were having a beer, and then Jamie came up with a fabulous idea: Why not take a train? Enthused, I was intrigued by the idea, and wondered where Jamie had come up with such brilliance. Of course! A train!! We had done car trips in the past, and both of us had plenty of experience on airplanes, but a trip by rail was a new thing. So immediately, we launched into the process of research.

During the research, Jamie mentioned that he knew a work-related contact who could get us free tickets on a BC Rail train. Looking up the BC Rail schedule and itinerary, we realized there were three trains running during the week, from Prince George to Vancouver. The train only went as far as Prince George, so, of course, that's where we decided to go. Let the train be the guide :-) The plan was as follows: we would fly to Prince George early on Saturday morning, stay in a hotel (ahh) for two nights, then leave early on Monday to take the BC Rail train all the way back to Vancouver. The plan was such we would save the best part of the trip for last - the train - while still enjoying a lot of cool stuff in Prince George first.

After we did the planning, budgeting, arranging, and necessary pre-trip planning stuff, I then went to one of my part-time jobs at the Chan cultural centre for the Performing Arts at UBC. I got into a conversation with a co-worker and we then discussed Jamie and I's upcoming trip. AFter telling her that we were interested in going to Prince George she replied with, "Why Prince George?! There's nothing to do there, it's the anus of B.C." Well, anus or not, we were going to have fun and explore a city in our home province!

On Saturday, early in the morning, we drove to the airport and confirmed our tickets and baggage check. It was done so smoothly and efficiently, we may as well have been pros at it. Then we waited for the plane, and in the meantime, I browsed the local airport newstand for reading material. I came across this neat article in 'Newsweek' magazine, and immediately became enthralled with the content. Then, we continued to wait, and our plane pulled in.

It was a packed flight. I was sandwiched in the middle of the seats, unfortunately, while Jamie got a window seat! No fair! But, the bright side of it, was the Jamie got some really awesome pictures out of the airplane window. We took off swiftly, but not so promptly, as we were 15 minutes late!! To my knowledge, none of us have been on an airplane flight that has actually left on time, so this wasn't too surprising. As we continued to gain altitude over Vancouver, we had a magnificent view of first the city, and then the beautiful mountains as we went north on our course. We reached crusing altitude, but not for long. Only an hour after we took off, the pilot announced that we were going to be landing in Prince George! The refreshing green scenery became apparent as we got closer to the ground, as all the pastures and cattle grazing areas were cut like swaths in the greenery.

We landed on the single runway at the Prince George airport, which I doubt didn't present much of a problem with air traffic control, seeing as we were the only airplane in the entire airport! As we completed the landing, the stewardess instructed us to leave the front door, and walk down the steps to the tarmac. This was a new experience, as was the first airport we had been to that did *not* have a covered walkway and entrance ramp! Jamie and I joked around that we could be like the president of the United States and the Secret Service, as we recalled much media footage of important people walking down the steps of airplanes into limousines. Ah, one can dream ;-) Jamie got a picture of other passengers walking down the tarmac steps, note that we did not know these people, so they are technically strangers. Oh well, now these people are famous on the Internet.

After we walked out on the tarmac, the first thing we noticed was how cold it was! The temperature was only a few degrees above zero, which was unusually cold for late August. We then walked into the airport terminal, and went straight to the rental cars. We scored a great car for a good price, a red Ford Taurus, and enjoyed driving it immensely! It was exhilerating driving out of the airport, fresh in the green scenery, zooming down rural roads and heading towards town. If this was the 'anus' of BC, it was quite all right! We drove to the Best Western hotel that we had previously reserved a room in, checked in, and parked the car right in front of De Dutch Pannekoek House (adjacent to the hotel).

Once inside the hotel, and settled in, it was kick-back time! The room was spacious, with two beds, a TV, a shower, and lots of other amenities. Jamie tuned into a tennis program, and we were watching Anna Kournikova competing. We were focusing on ..... uhh ...... the tennis, yeah, that's right, the tennis! Hardly. We enjoyed watching a great match, then the sports commentaries went on and on analyzing the game aftewards. During which, my head hit the pillow and I fell asleep. Jamie shortly followed suit.

When we woke up, the first order of business was to go for a walk in the brisk air, which was, suffice to say, quite energizing! We enjoyed walking down the main Prince George downtown drag, consisting of a few 10 story buildilngs (the highest we saw), lots of restaurants, a couple of strip malls, and surrounded by greenery the whole time. Prince George's economy, needless to say, is highly based on forestry resources, and there is a pulp mill nearby. There is abundant timber and forest surrounding the area, and it's quite beautiful, as well as greatly beneficial to the economy. We walked a good mile or two, uphill both ways, and then sauntered in to a Subway restaurant to get our dinner.

At the Subway, what we noticed was that they were blaring heavy metal music on Prince George's only alternative rock station, (I listen to country, by the way, so this isn't my favourite cup of tea!) and the service was half as fast as we were used to back home! It was like slow-motion subway sandwich making, and is was kind of fun to watch! We enjoyed eating our delicious subs, then it was back to the hotel.

Later in the evening, we drove to the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) to explore the campus. I regularly go to UBC in Vancouver, so this was a neat experience to see what some of the other BC universities were like, and to compare notes. The campus was very small and cozy. Warm and friendly. Homey-like and safe, as well providing a growth and learning environment for students, not to mention a safe place to explore all kinds of information and acquire knowledge. Could we ask for anything more? Hardly. This place was really cool!

We walked into the cafeteria, and came across a 'listening post' jukebox! This was the first university cafeteria and dining hall that had a live music jukebox where you could play tunes and crank them up. I am positive that the students at this campus have a lot of fun with this when school is in session! I stood at the jukebox, enthralled by all the choices that lay before me, then finally picked a song by 'Everclear' and started dancing. Everclear is a band famous for writing songs that have a happy and carefree tune to them, but with really depresing lyrics. So, I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics, but was enjoying dancing to the hip-hop like beat of one of their songs. It was quite fun, and I was going nuts, seeing as there was nobody in the cafeteria to watch!

Jamie then had his turn, and proceeded to select a song on the jukebox. The music got loud, and then he cranked it louder! Pretty soon, the place was just blasting with music! None of us had any idea that the jukebox could get so loud, and it was quite a surprise when it cranked like that! So we enjoyed our dancing and playing music, and then waved goodbye to the cafeteria.

After that, we walked through the campus, and tried to get our way in to some lecture halls, but that was to no avail as they were all locked up. However, there was a Wellness information booth next door to one, and I became enthralled with what was written there, and begain to read it. Basically, what 'Wellness' is, is a life management program that focuses on maintaining a balanced between physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and career aspects of life, for instance. Good health and proper eating and sleeping habits are part of wellness, and I should learn a lesson or two to knock back a bit on these 60 hour work weeks!

Proving that I was a little on the tired side, I found a nice couch midway up the stairs heading back to the parking lot, and proceeded to lay back and veg. That was refreshing! Back at my home campus, they have a bunch of couches that many people sleep on during the day, and also there is lots of sleeping room in the benches in the aquatic centre. Students pulling all-nighters probably make full use of those benches.

As we were leaving the university and heading back to the rental car, a truck pulled up to us, and we happened to spot that the driver was from Texas! He asked us, "Howdy, y'all, do you know how to get to Hwy 16?" We answered that we didn't, but had a map on us that would show how to find it. So, between the three of us, we figured it out, and the truck driver thanked us. However, the problem was, he turned the wrong way out of the parking lot, even though we all agreed that he was supposed to turn left! We tried to direct him back to the main road, but he kept on going, so presumably he ended up going to a gas station and getting directions again!

After the university visit, we drove back to the main strip mall, and then sat in to watch the evening showing of 'Coyote Ugly'. It was an excellent movie, and was thoroughly enjoying. After the movie, I was so psyched up about New York City, that both of us said that it would be one of next vacations! Who knows, you may see it right here, in future, on myroadtrips.com.
--by Steve Ruelle

Some links...

• Canada Vacations - Order FREE Brochure!
• Best Western City Centre
• University of Northern British Columbia
• Tour of UNBC with Panoramic View of the campus
• Coyote Ugly
• More sites...