Wednesday May 15 Sunny & warm Nelson, BC
It was a bit cool overnight but we were toasty inside Ali. With no services, especially no electrical, we are at the mercy of the elements. After the warm temperatures last week in Castlegar, this cooler weather has been a bit of a shock to the system. However we will prevail.
This morning we drove in to Nelson. The sun was shining; the day was warming up quite nicely. Jen wanted to check out Abacus Beads. We parked Alfie then strolled the streets of Nelson looking for the bead shop.
We noticed this banner hanging across the street and wondered whether it meant the start of the tourist season in Nelson?!
When Jen realized were heading the wrong direction, we turned around and headed back from whence we came. Ah, here's the street; the shop is just….there it is! We'd found Abacus Beads! Guess what was parked right across the street from the bead shop? Yup, Alfie!!
Abacus Beads is a very nice shop with an interesting assortment of beads and beading supplies, very nicely displayed. I took pictures of some of the items of interest but Jen didn't buy anything.
Next it was coffee time. We walked to the Kootenay Bakery and enjoyed coffee and a treat.
Afterwards, we drove down to the waterfront and parked in the paid parking next to the Prestige Lakefront hotel. I quickly noticed the Nelson Tram. I thought a tram ride would be a nice way to start our visit to the waterfront.
I ran over to the tram to find three gentlemen working on setting up a manually operated lift to raise a wheelchair and its occupant to the tram's floor level.
Unfortunately the tram was not yet running; the three volunteers were getting ready for the grand opening this coming Friday (of the long weekend). As they were determining the best location for the ramp, I asked if they might be interested in a real live volunteer to assist. They looked at me with puzzled looks until I said that I was just getting my wife's wheelchair out of the van. I said Jen would be happy to be of help if they so desired.
They were extremely appreciative to see Jen and use her as their test subject. As they were working, one of them suggested that they could give us a ride to the other end (where they had a similar lift set up). They all agreed so a few minutes later off we went.
If I remember correctly, this tram was built in 1909. It ran in Cleveland, OH. In 1924 it was sold to Nelson who ran it until 1949. For the past 27 years, a group of volunteers has run this popular tourist attraction. It sure was fun to have our own private tram ride. I won't forget that for a long time.
After we disembarked, we walked out to the river's edge and began to walk back to Alfie.
As we strolled along the pathway, we walked past the tram's home, the Lyle Ward Memorial Car Barn.
The tram we rode on, tram 23, is stored on the left track, while the right track is home to a single truck tram and speeder.
As we continued our walk, I glanced across the park and saw the tram, stopped on the tracks.
You can't really see the trolley pole but it is at the left end of the tram; the car barn is to the left out of the picture.
Amazingly, they threw the switch and backed the tram into the car barn. I didn't think a tram could be moved with the trolley pole facing "the wrong way". But they did.
Continuing our walk we came across this sculpture.
Further along on our walk we came across another sculpture. The figure is pointing to an osprey's nest on the pilings out in the water.
Part of the walk is right by the tram tracks. Looks like the switches were removed at some point in the past.
Back where we began our interesting tram ride was the West Coast Grill, part of the hotel.
I suggested to Jen that we should have lunch 'cause then we wouldn't need a big dinner.
Well, the food was excellent. Jen had a smoked salmon wrap and I enjoyed halibut & chips. Thoroughly delicious.
Unfortunately the service sucked. I get really annoyed when a server (male) says "I will be back momentarily" and then 5-6 minutes later I have to go look for someone, anyone, to take our order! The only mistake I made was I didn't leave a tip so the server will never know if I forgot or not. I should have left a one penny tip!
Back at the park, the temperature, in the trees, had not warmed up one iota. I decided to see if there was an electrical site available for the remainder of our stay here. There was, so we moved to site 151 in the Friends campground.
Sure was nice to put the heat on again.
Tomorrow will probably be another rest day. We have some business to attend to and I want to at least write the next blog entries so that when I have decent wifi, I can quickly bring the blog up to date.
See you next time.
