We have our breakfast almost alone in the dining room.  We think that there was only one other room occupied last night.  A larger room with three ladies, who join us in the dining room.  It is scrambled eggs and ham this morning to go along with the usual fruits.

We head back up to pack up our things.  We have the 12 1/2 bottles of wine to pack and to keep cool.  We have ice packs in the hotel freezer to help with that.  We have brought a collapsible cooler as well.  We start packing the bottles in and are not liking that they are clinking together.  hmmmm, what to do???   SOCKS!!!

We pack all of our belongings into the little car.  We are taking more home than we brought with us.  Off we go.

We are heading to Keremeos and the Hope Princeton Highway aka the Crowsnest Highway.

Just before Keremeos we spot another bear

We have another construction delay. This one is really stinking and smokey

Glad to get past this

This is the Copper Mountain Mine. Just chopped off the top of a mountain. Not one of the most scenic views we have had.

Traffic is getting progressively busier.  Once we hit Hope it is very steady in our direction.  Oncoming traffic, long weekend traffic is very heavy.  Glad we planned to be home before this weekend.

We make it home by 1:45pm.  Nice.  Although we have had a wonderful holiday, we will enjoy the holiday weekend from here 🙂

Happy Canada Day everyone!!!

Last night  we went into Penticton to have dinner with our friend Denise who is lived there for a number of years.  She has now sold her house and will be moving shortly.  We meet her a the Barking Parrot Pub.  This is a pub right on the Okanagan Lake in Penticton.  They have all items on their menu for $5.95.  We share some chicken wings and a couple other appies.  Oh yeah, some wine too.  We have a great catch up with her.

This morning we go down for our breakfast.  Today they are serving a spinach quiche, along with the usual fresh fruits and breads.  This is a historic old building.

The lobby

The staircase 🙂

The down side

The upper floor

There are 7 rooms up here

The grand dinning room

The beverage station

The front garden

The other way

After our breakfast we head out for a walk around the charming little town.  I start my tracker a little late 🙂 .  We pass by a small beach that appears to be public, but there are signs indicating that it is privately owned by the church.  You are welcome to use the area if there is no church activity in progress.

Our walk takes us to the Naramata Store where we pick up a newspaper before heading back to the Inn.  Back on our little patio we take our time and do the crossword puzzle and read some of the newspaper before we head back out to taste more wine.

We stop at 3 wineries today.  We begin with La Frenz where we buy a Pinot Noir and their Grand Total Reserve, which is a Merlot, Cab Franc & Cab Sauvignon blend.  We follow that with the nearby Deep Roots.  Deep Roots has a logo that is a corkscrew that has four

screws.  We learn that this represents the four generations of the family that have farmed this land.  The lady serving us is the wife of the 3rd generation, her son the 4th generation is now the wine maker.  They have grown grapes on the land for 25 years but have only recently begun to make wine.  They have a great number of awards since 2012.  We purchase a Merlot and a Syrah.  We travel another short distance to Lake Breeze.  It is early afternoon and we have heard they have a great restaurant and we would like lunch.

Our timing is perfect.  The restaurant is quite busy, but someone is leaving a table with the best view.  We get to see the view without looking through all of the other people.

The food here is amazing.  We order Mussels and an Antipasti with a selection of meats, cheese and other yummy things.  Very nice lunch done, we head into the tasting room.  I already know that we will buy their Meritage as it was the suggested pairing for the Antipasti.  It was very very nice.  We sample their wares and come away with 4 bottles from here.  The prices here are all over the place.  We have paid between $25 and $45 per bottle.  Here our choices are all in the $25 range.

We now have 12 bottles to take home.  We think that is the limit for our tiny car.

We played scrabble this afternoon.  I lost very very badly  🙁

We plan to have dinner up the street at a bistro that is a coffee shop (the one with the peacock) by day and a bistro by night.  We are seated in the outdoor area.  We review the menu as we chat with the server.  He tells us about the chef.  He is happy to be working with him, he loves he approach to food.  We are both ordering an entree, but he describes a specialty of the house, a peanut soup.  It sounds intriguing but I think what we have ordered will be way too much already.  He does bring us a small bowl to share.  It is delicious.  I say, “I need this recipe”  Ahah!!  There is a cookbook.  🙂  He brings us the book to look over.  The dishes look amazing.  A percentage of the proceeds are being sent to the Congo to help children there.  The chef Victor Bongo was born in the Congo.  We decide to buy the book and our server brings the chef out to sign the book.

He asks us where we are from.  We say “Pitt Meadows” expecting a blank look on his face.  But it was not blank, he has a big smile and tells us that he graduated from Maple Ridge Secondary in 2001!!  He confessed he wasn’t the best student, but loved cooking.  His cooking teacher at MRSS personally paid for him to go to culinary school.  He has a great story.   We loved his food and will have enough for lunch tomorrow.  🙂

Prosciutto wrapped halibut

Linguine with chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce.

Our last night of our Beautiful British Columbia Road Trip was amazing too.  The whole trip has been amazing.  Loving it!!

Homeward bound tomorrow.

We woke up this morning with the smell of breakfast downstairs.  This is an old building and sounds and smells do not escape detection :).

The dining room is so elegant. (we need to take a photo before we leave).  There is coffee waiting for us as well as scrambled eggs with chives and herbs, crispy bacon, a variety of fresh fruits, breads and nut loafs.  Also orange, pink grapefruit and cranberry/raspberry juices.  Enough to keep us happy definitely!  The Inn is not full, but we see more guests at breakfast that we thought we would.  I count 5 couples.  There are 11 rooms, so less than 50% occupied.  It was a Monday night and the lady that checked us in told us that they are full most weekends this summer.

We were here a few years ago, (maybe 7 or 8) and did a really nice walk along the Kettle Railroad Trail.  A trail that used to be a railroad.  We would like to do that again.  We head off after breakfast to the parking area and walk nortwe h along the trail to the “Little Tunnel”.  That is 4.4km so will turn around there and come back.  Here are some photos from that 8.8km plus walk.  The image below makes it look like we walked 2 trails, but there is only 1 trail.  That satellite must have moved  🙂

Here are some photos from the trail.

A vineyard on the way to the trail

Looking south towards Penticton

Another slightly different view 🙂

Beauty everywhere you look

The day is stunning

and more stunning

Cyclists ahead of us on the trail

Vistas through the rocks

the lake towards West Kelowna

again more beauty

ditto

Along this trail that was originally the Kettle Valley Railway we see areas that have been blasted out to create the way for the railway.  At some of these areas we see many rusted out tin cans strewn with the rock below.  After looking closely at one of the tins I notice them at each spot that appears to have been blasted out.  It is odd to me that one can is just at the side of the trail.  I suspect that someone scrambled down the rocks to bring one back up to see what it was.

The rusty bits in this photo are large tin cans

This one just at the side of the trail

This one has around the circle “Canadian Explosive Limited” and in the center “Black Explosive Powder”

We approach our turn around point the “Little Tunnel”

The Little Tunnel

We think this is a marmot. We saw a few of them near the tunnel

Through the tunnel

After our walk we head back to our old hotel for a clean up.  Then off to do some wine tasting 🙂  After our first tasting we decide we need some food so we head to Legend Distillery as they have a restaurant.  Here are some photos from there.

Cherries ready to eat

The server photo bombing Stu

Out 2 local beers, the one on the left from Penticton the other from Revelstoke

The view we have to suffer

We noticed a young couple at our hotel this morning at breakfast.  We also saw them cycling the Kettle Valley Rail Trail and have now met them at Van Westen winery.  We have time to chat with them and find that they are from Colorado, have rented a car in Vancouver and driven up here.  They also find this area exceptionally beautiful.  We may see them again at breakfast 🙂

We find time for one more winery and have bought 4 bottles of wine to take home.  It was another great day.  We certainly do appreciate our province more and more.

Just as we were to bed last night we saw some flashes of lightning.  It took quite a while for the thunder to reach us, so it was quite far away.  I did see a few other flashes but never did hear the thunder.  We had heard that there was a possibility of thunder storms in the Thompson Okanagan so we weren’t surprised.

We woke up to find the grounds very wet from heavy overnight rain.  The skies were a mix of clouds and sun so when we packed up and headed out we had the roof down.  We were optimistic.  🙂

It was only an hour or so before we had to pull over to put it up.

We are once again driving through the sites of some of the larger forest fires from last year.  We are seeing burned trees very close to some homes and are certain that just over a year ago these people were under some severe stress.

Near Barrier

Near Barrier

Soon it begins to rain.  We have changed our wipers from intermittent, to steady on and now to the fast setting as the rain is so hard we can hardly see the road.

It does slow eventually and we are now driving on pavement that seems to have had no rain at all.  Crazy weather patterns.

This is to the west of us. We are trying to get through before it hits.

This is where we are heading. Looks nicer 🙂

This is the route we were planning on taking today.  It was slower, bypassed Vernon and Kelowna.

The storm that we saw a little bit of last night was much more severe here in the Okanagan we find out.  This is route we ended up having to take.  We were 26km into the Westside Road at Kilinney Beach when we saw a lot of debris from the tall trees.  Then we saw the flag person who stopped us and told us the road was closed and we would have to go back to Vernon and then continue on Highway 97.

Power lines were down across the road.  They need to do the work, but it would have been nice if someone had put a sign up about 26 km ago!!  Could have saved us a 52 km detour.

As we are passing through the north Okanagan we are seeing several gas stations that have $0.00 posted as their price of gas, the pumps are blocked off with yellow tape.  We are guessing that the gas shortage we saw in the north is happening here as well.

We now know why Google maps routed us the slow way.  We have to drive right through Kelowna.  It is a nightmare at 2:30 in the afternoon.  Just as busy as Vancouver.  Many kms of bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic.  It did come in handy as we were able to roof up and roof down at a traffic light.

We have heard that there were many many trees down and in some cases into peoples homes.  Power was still out for about 7000 homes in the Kelowna area.

The weather is still unsettled and we see this as we look across the lake to Naramata.  Hope it passes soon.

When we drive through Penticton we see evidence of very heavy rain.  Large puddles everywhere.  The sun is shining however as we make our way to our accommodation, the Naramata Heritage Inn.   It is over 100 years old and was built as a small hotel before the road was here.  Guests arrived by steamships that took people and goods up and down the lake.

Our room, small but charming

Old style tub

We have a little patio too!

Here are a few more photos I took from the car this evening.

Just a few off the wineries on the Naramata Bench

The sun going down across the lake

This is a cherry tree that has been covered in netting. I assume to protect them from the birds

Today was a wild weather day, but all in all we have had fabulous weather for this trip.

We have decided to do some hiking to see the some of the 39 named waterfalls in Wells Gray Park.  We start by visiting the Tourist Information Office to get some advise.  The young woman was very helpful and armed now with a map and a plan we chart this course.

We decide to start with the closest waterfall Spahats, then head to the farthest one Helmcken and finish with the Dawson falls.

We find the parking lot for the Spahats Falls.  The falls are a quick 5 minute walk from the parking lot.  It isn’t long until we hear the roar of the rushing water.

The beginning of the trail

This is what we found

A slightly different view

With a viewing platform

This shows the far viewing platform and the height of the cliffs

The walls of the canyon have been created by multiple volcanic eruptions.  In this photo you can see the different layers of lava that flowed half a million years ago.  Since then the Ice Age gouged out the canyons and since then the water erosion continues the work.

We take a 1km hike from these falls to a lookout over the Clearwater River.

The trail

Many many fallen trees that have been cleared from the trail. It is like pickup sticks just off of the trail.

Once we are at the viewpoint this is what I see

This is what Stu sees.

The mosquitoes are ravenous out here.  We use bug wipes and find them a great help.  We see many people spraying repellent before heading off from the parking lot.  We also hear very little English being spoken.  Almost everyone here at this stop were speaking German.

We think that more German speaking people are seeing these beautiful sights than British Columbians or even all Canadians.

We pass the Wells Gray Golf Club.  It appears like there is a disk golf tournament in progress.

The players on the course

The boat in the pond retrieving the disks that have gone into the pond 🙂

We head off to the end of the paved portion of the road to see the Helmcken Falls.  There is a 5k road we need to travel off of the main road.  Very soon after turning onto this road we see this guy!!

We saw him, we stopped, he saw us, he stopped, he didn’t seem to know what to do, he started to cross the road and then changed his mind and ran back into the woods.  All but the last photo was through the windshield.  A slight fog  🙂 .  Pretty cool!!

Excitement over for now, we park in the lot for Helmcken Falls.  This is a very short walk, just a couple of minutes.

This shows a comparison between the 3 falls we are seeing today with Niagara.

These falls are 462 feet high

Can’t stop clicking the shutter

Ad you can see

We head back towards the Information Centre to see that last of the falls we will see today.  These ones are the lowest and the widest of the 3.

Looking towards the falling water

The direction of the water.

Stu took the photos from this bridge

So for dinner we looked at our options and decided to break The Greg Ross Rule again!!!  So we return the “Hop N Hog”.  We order a variety of their yummy selections with the thought of leftovers for lunch on the road to Naramata tomorrow.  🙂  This is an amazing restaurant here in Clearwater.  It has been very busy each night we have been there.

Another great day.  The weather has been amazing for us.  Just a few sprinkles of rain so far.  The next 3 days promise to be very nice as well.

Okanagan tomorrow.  More of our Beautiful British Columbia Road Trip!!

Our Sandman Hotel has a Denny’s attached.  We can’t remember the last time we had breakfast at Denny’s.  Seems like a perfect time to try it again.  It was a very busy place and the food was not too bad.

We started off at 10:30 and found a Chevron gas station to top up the tank.  This is the second time we have pulled into a Chevron and found signs indicating that they have no gas.  Another time they had only regular gas.  We found a Petro Canada station that had fuel.  I chatted with the cashier, she told me that last week they ran out of gas.  Apparently there is a gas shortage in the north.  Good to know.  We won’t let it. get down too low in case we can’t find any.

Off we go still following Highway 16.  This time we are heading south east from Prince George toward Clearwater following this route in blue, about 5 hours of driving.

As we head toward the Canadian Rockies we see more stunning scenery.  After leaving Prince George we feel that we have the road to ourselves.  Very few vehicles going south east.

This leg of our trip is particularly “buggy”.  Fat juicy ones.

Just before Blue River we need to pull over to put the roof up on the car as a nasty rain shower starts to pelt down on us.  We need to fuel up in Blue River and by that time the rain has stopped, so the roof goes back down.

Arriving in Clearwater a little after 4, we find the accommodation that we booked this morning in Prince George.  It is called Watauga Village Cabins & Motel.  It is older and cute.  There are however, many large hungry mosquitoes here!!

The main room, The cabinets are made of reclaimed wood.

A cool old 4 poster bed in the bedroom.

There are a few choices for dinner in this small town.  We select the Hop N Hog, a smoke meat restaurant.  We arrive about 7 and it is a very busy little place.  We order a Smoked Salmon plate for an appy and a half rack of ribs with coleslaw, macaroni salad and homemade baked beans.  It was AMAZING.  We would recommend this place any time.

Head back to our little cabin for another glass of wine before off to bed.

Another fabulous day!!  <3

We had a wonderful evening with Debbie and Mini.  We wake up in the “Travel Room” and go upstairs to have a wonderful breakfast prepared by our gracious hosts.  Their son Jeff popped in for a visit and a coffee.  We met Jeff  he was just a little guy.  He is now 6’4″!!  A captain with the Terrace Fire Department.  It was nice to see him again.

Debbie, who works for Jazz, has to work at 2pm.  She is coming down to the lower mainland on Monday to have a complete ankle replacement next week.  Pretty amazing surgery.  We have until 1 pm for them to show us their city together.  They drive us around Terrace.  The image below is where their son Jeff lives and they have their eye on a unit up here as well.

A view from a townhouse complex above the cityThere is a ski hill just outside of town called Shames Mountain.  The owners of the facility went bankrupt a few years ago.  The community stepped up and created a co-op to keep the ski hill running.

The views along this gravel road are beautiful.

We returned to Terrace so that Debbie could get to work.  Mini then  drove us to their camp site that they have an annual lease on.  It is on Kitsumkalum Lake.  They put their trailer on this spot for about 4 years.  It is a 25 minute drive from their home.  Very convenient for them.

The trailer at the lake

Maroon Creek running swiftly into the lake

Stu by the creek

More swiftly running creek

After we leave their campsite we drive north along the lake.  We stop at the store for a snack.

Rosswood Store

The tiny library

We carry on north on this road until we reach the Lava Fields.  A volcano erupted here over 300 years ago and destroyed 2 Nisga’a villages.  The lava covers many acres along this section of the road.

After our tour of their favourite spots we go to the Terrace Airport to have dinner with Debbie on her break.  The airport has had an upgrade recently and the views from the windows are spectacular.  After dinner the 3 of us head back to their house and Stu and Mini (who is taking up photography) learn one of Stu’s 6 things on the camera.  🙂  It is quite informative.

As Debbie works until 12:30 am we to stay up until then.  It is difficult and Stu needs a nap at 11:00 pm!!!!  So disciplined as he wakes up at midnight on his own, no alarm.  When Debbie gets home we sit with her for an hour and head to bed a 2 am!!!    The drive tomorrow will be challenging.  We are head to Prince George an almost 7 hour drive.

We really enjoyed seeing Terrace with the locals and have also enjoyed reconnecting with these good friends that moved up here 26 years ago!!

Definitely a great day.

Here is our route for today.

We leave Smithers a bit earlier than we need to as there is a chance of thunder showers and we have heard the it is a beautiful drive and we don’t want to miss the scenery.  So we head off about 9am and plan to take our time and see the sights along the way.

We stop at a viewpoint at Moricetown which is a Wet’suwet’en village on the road between Smithers and Terrace.  At this spot the First Nations fish for salmon in this gorge of the Bulkley River.  They use dip nets or gaffs to catch the fish.

The weather is still cooperating and we can still drive with the top down.

We stop at the Tourist Info Centre in New Hazelton to see what we can do here.  The Kispiox Clans were recommended to us, but not many other details.  We get the map of the area and decide to take the 20k drive up the Kispiox Valley Road to  the stand of totem poles.

We thought that there would be a cultural centre at this location but there was not.  We decide to head back toward Highway 16 which is the “Highway of Tears” to visit Ksan which is a replicated First Nations village.

We enjoyed the village very much.  We were there with a group of school children and a bus tour of senior ladies.  These ladies were really enjoying the gift shop  🙂

We are taking our time on our way to Terrace.  We are staying with our old  friends Debbie and Mini and Debbie is working until 7pm so we don’t want to arrive too too early.  We now continue on Highway 16 to Terrace.  There is definitely beautiful scenery.  Here are a couple of the nearby mountains.

We arrive in Terrace about 2 pm.

We find a spot for a snack, a car wash to clean the bugs off of our car and a liquor  store then make our way to Debbie and Mini’s.  They prepare an amazing meal of halibut, corn, gnocci.  yum yum!!

After dinner their daughter Kelsey drops by for a visit.  Kelsey is pregnant and expecting twins about the end of July.  A boy and a  girl!!  🙂  Their daughter-in-law Katy dropped by as well.  We had a nice visit with both of them.

After a little bit of wine we retire to the “Travel Room”  for a great sleep.

Bev and I stayed up until midnight chatting.  Stu left us to go to bed a couple of hours before.  Bev and I have known each other since we started high school, grade eight, we were 13 years old.  A very long long time.  It is a great friendship to have.  🙂

We slept a little later than yesterday and sat out on Bev’s beautiful deck for our coffee and breakfast.  We pack up our things and head out towards Smithers by 10 am.  We stop in Quesnel to gas up.  Regular is 1.399 for regular.  A lot cheaper than at home in the lower mainland.  All gassed up we head north on Highway 97.  We arrive in Prince George and turn west to take Highway 16 – The Highway of Tears.  Not long after we encounter a highway construction delay that lasts at least 10 minutes.  This is a huge project.  Miles and miles of the east bound lane is being resurfaced.

We then come to a landscape that is more prairie like than we have seen so far.

Then 7 billboards outside Vanderhoof.

More interesting landscapes ahead.

We arrive at a Rest Stop called Dry William Lake Rest Stop.  Time to have a bite to eat and to change drivers for a couple of hours.  Pretty spot,

We arrived in Smithers about 5pm and find a motel.  We take our hostess’s recommendation and have dinner at the local Pub & Bistro.  We chatted to the server and she tells us that it is difficult times in Smithers.  They were affected financially by the fires last year as tourists stayed away even though there were no fires here locally.  This year the fishery has been cancelled due to lack of fish or over fishing.  Sport fishing is a huge part of the economy here, so they are suffering again this year.  Sad times.

As we get back to our motel we see some motorcycles parking in the lot.  I notice that the one bike has a Florida plate.  We say, wow you’re a long way from home and ask how long they have been away.  He tells us June 1st and they have already been to Alaska and are on their way home.  They expect to be home by the end of the month  WOW!!!  That is a very long way every day!!  We felt we had a long day at 5.5 hours  🙂

Short day to Terrace tomorrow, about 2.5 hours.  We will try to find a car wash to clean the bugs off my sweet little car.  We also picked up a chip in the windshield outside of 100 Mile House, so might try to get that fixed.  We will see,

Another great day!!