Text 31554, 82 rader
Skriven 2009-11-29 02:30:12 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Canada Tour 5
=====================
On the next day, we were scheduled for an early "session" which was a
tour of the lodge buildings.  We had gotten reviews of this from others
and decided to sleep in before going to a late finale brunch.  The
brunch was the excellent normal breakfast buffet plus more.  One of the
added items was the only thing served that I disagreed with.  It was a
smoked pork loin on a carvery station.  To me, it was overly brined and
did not have much smoke flavor -- just salt.  I much prefer what we are
doing in our home smoker which is lightly brined in a salt and brown
sugar mix and then laced with garlic cloves before hot smoking with
moderate smoke until done.

After the brunch, most people left.  Our group was staying an extra
night and had the afternoon free.  As we were wandering around the main
lodge, one of the junior sous chefs came by and offered a kitchen tour
to those who were around.  It was about an hour tour for the group of
20-30 folks who happened to be around.  At this resort, a Jr. Sous Chef
is actually fairly high up on the chain of command.  He supervises a
number of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level cooks.  There is another supervisory
rank as well between him and the cooks.  Above him is the Executive Chef
who does all the planning, menu selection, etc.  

We had the rest of the afternoon and evening free.  Dinner was not part
of the tour, and to the best of our memory -- we just skipped food that
evening.  Our final morning at the Jasper Park Lodge was breakfast in a
smaller downstairs restaurant, also buffet style with the usual eggs
benedict, bacon, potatoes, etc.  We ate well.  As we were preparing to
leave, the server offered us a plastic clam shell to stash away some
croissants or other rolls for the road.  We grabbed a few for each of
along with some of those jellies in small jars.  The jars will make good
spice jars in the future.

After breakfast, we loaded up into the coach and headed back to the town
of Jasper, with some side trips to scenic stops along the way.  One
thing we learned about the towns of Jasper and Banff is that you cannot
move there to live unless you provide some sort of service to the
community.  Housing construction is regulated, with permits for
renovation or building given out by lottery.  People own their houses,
but not the land.  Once you have been allowed to live there, you can
retire there if you choose.  This is all because they are inside of a
National Park.  

We were given a couple of hours to walk around Jasper for shopping or
snacking.  Our schedule was to board an afternoon train at about 2 pm.
It actually did not arrive until about 3:30.  We boarded slightly
afterwards and began our trip over night to Vancouver.  Dinner that
night was on the train.  We had a late seating (8 pm).  Gail had a fried
halibut and I had some sort of stuffed chicken dish.  Both were good,
but no where near as memorable as the foods we had had for the past few
days.  The best thing about the meal was the cheese tray which was
offered as one of several dessert choices.

Breakfast was also on the train.  The train pulled into the station in
Vancouver on time at about 930 am.  The tour director put us onto a cab
for the airport and everyone else went to a hotel in Vancouver where
they had booked an extra night.  We got to the airport in plenty of time
for security, duty free shop, and just chilling out.  The airport had
free wireless connections which was a pleasant change from the fees
charged at every other airport we've been in.  When we checked into
Horizon (Alaska) Air for our flight -- the clerk moved us up to an
earlier flight.  It was a prop-jet, 96 seat Bombardier.  The 45 minute
flight was uneventful.  After landing we got a rental car and proceeded
to our hotel, the Shilo Inn in Tacoma -- about 2 miles from Hap Newsom's
house.  After checking in, we called Hap and he and Anne met us at the
hotel within about 30 minutes.  Hap has already posted trip reports on
our two days with him and Anne.  About all I can add to that report of
his was that i t was a very nice visit -- lots of chat, lots of coffee,
lots of good food, and all around great company.

Finally, after two full days in Tacoma with Hap and Anne, we drove back
to Seattle airport on Tuesday morning and caught the flight back home.
We arrived safe and sound about midnight, with lots of good memories.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 00:25:38, 29 Nov 2009
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30

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 * Origin: Owl's Anchor (1:261/1466)