At just after 6 a.m. this morning, I picked up my mum from my sister’s house and we headed to the ferry. We made it there in plenty of time and just after 7:45, we were on our way across the Strait to the mainland. It was a fairly uneventful ride and we sat at the back of the ferry, watching the Island get farther and farther away.
We arrived in Tsawwassen just before ten and headed towards Maple Ridge, where we had planned to grab lunch. We arrived just after 11 and we’re able to find a parking spot not far away. Big Feast Bistro was featured on You Gotta Eat Here and is our 76th Food Network restaurant. Although we had quite a long wait for food, we were lucky enough to not have to wait for a table and we were able to enjoy some much-needed coffee. For our lunch, Mum had the Apple Bacon Grilled Cheese with a Napa Salad and I had the Bacon Benny with Breakfast Potatoes. It was absolutely delicious and I finished everything but a few of my potatoes. Mum saved half of her sandwich for a later snack.
We left Maple Ridge and continued on the north side of the Fraser River. Just past Agassiz, we saw some helicopters that were water-bombing a fire. It was so close to the road that they had flaggers directly alternating traffic. Below was the best I could do for a picture from the safety of my car.
We travelled up the Coquihalla Hwy from Hope. It was shrouded in smoke and at some points, we had less than a kilometre of visibility. Between Merritt and Kamloops, the smoke was so bad that my eyes started watering.
Thankfully, we arrived in Kamloops, just before 4 and we were able to go inside our hotel room to get some relief. There was an eerie colour to the sky as the sun was out in full force, but it was more of a orangey-pink colour than the blinding orb it normally is.
We relaxed at the hotel for an hour or so before heading to dinner. We decided on The Noble Pig which was also featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Thankfully, we found a great parking spot and arrived early enough to beat the rush.
Even though we had a large lunch, we were both hungry and we started eating before I was able to get pictures of our appys, as delivered. Mum and I had trouble deciding on what we wanted to eat, so we picked two appys and two shareables and we both picked at all of it. We started with Pretzels and Crispy Pickles, then followed with Chicken Karaage and Roasted Cauliflower and Guyere Dip. I also had a flight of three of their house brews.
Although it’s hard to see, in the picture of the outside of the restaurant, in the top left, you can see a tiny pink dot that is the sun through the smoke.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to turn in early after our long day.
Thank you for reading and I am sorry that it was such a short post today. Hopefully, I will catch up on some much needed sleep tonight.
I will post tomorrow from Valemount.
L