Today we awoke at our new regular time of 6:30 and I finished yesterday’s blog post that I was too tired to write last night. After I had finished, we went downstairs to have breakfast at the hotel.

We then went to Shuswap Pie Company to grab some lunch for today’s picnic. Mum got a Sausage, Apple & Sage pie and I got a Chicken Pesto Baguette. This is our second visit to Shuswap Pie Company and one of Mum’s favourite restaurants – stopping in Salmon Arm was a requirement for this trip.

On our way out of Salmon Arm, we also stopped at Grass Roots Dairies to buy some cheese. This is another repeat visit from our trip last year and I was looking forward to getting more Habanero gouda. Mum got a couple different types of gouda, as well.

Once we had our cheese, it was off to Kamloops for a stop at Michael’s. Mum needed a couple of craft supplies and I never turn down a chance to browse the scrapbooking aisles. Although I was denied any good deals and decided against buying anything, Mum was able to find one of the things that she was looking for. On our way out of Kamloops, I once again got lost and took the long way back to the highway. I don’t know what it is about Kamloops, but I almost always seem to get misplaced there.

Once we had finally found Highway 5, we headed south towards Merritt. In Merritt, we stopped at the Rotary Park for our picnic lunch. I had a scone that I bought at the Village Cheese Factory yesterday, as well as last night’s leftovers. I didn’t end up having my baguette from Shuswap, but it will be great for the ferry tomorrow. Mum had her pie and surprisingly, ate the whole thing. I was able to get a picture of it, but not until Mum had already devoured half of it.

We left Merritt and continued on to Hope, arriving around three. We checked into the hotel and while Mum relaxed, I went for a walk around the town. It is still the sleepy little town that I remember, but at least I was able to find a couple of shops to find some last gifts. I was also able to take some pictures of the wood carvings that are scattered around the downtown area. I am posting the pictures of the wood carvings below.

We ended up having a quiet night at the hotel, doing wiki-research and watching some TV. I had my leftover benny from yesterday and Mum decided that she was still full from lunch and begged off dinner.

After dinner, I went for a walk by the river and took a few more pictures.

We didn’t really do much today, but it was a nice, relaxing day after the two weeks of adventures. Tomorrow, we will be heading back to the Island and back to reality. We are hoping to stop at Tomahawk BBQ in North Vancouver for brunch tomorrow, which will be our last Food Network stop of the trip.

Thank you for sharing our adventures and I will post my last post of the trip tomorrow.

L

This morning we woke at our normal time and I walked over to A&W to get our breakfast and coffee. We “dined” at the table in our room, while Mum reviewed my blog for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Then we did some of our wiki research that I had been unable to do the night before, while we waited for the time to head to our adventure of the day.

Every year, I try to find something a little different for us to do/visit. This year it was a ride on the Kettle Valley Steam Railway. It was a beautiful day for the ride and it was surprisingly not too busy. It is a 90-minute ride along ten kilometres of the old Kettle Valley Rail Line from Faulder to Trout Creek. It was a very interesting and informative trip. It turns out that the original engine that they used from 1995 to 2009 was Duncan’s very own Mayo Lumber #3, which was on loan from the BC Forestry Museum.

As we traveled along the tracks, the conductor told us of the history of the railway as well as the surrounding area. There was also a banjo player onboard and he sang Morningtown Ride for me and Mum. I’ve always loved the Irish Rovers and it seemed to be a perfect song to sing on a train.

Before we knew it, we were pulling back into the station. We had purchased some tickets for the 50/50 draw that they were having as a fundraiser, and just as we stopped, they called out a number – my number. I couldn’t believe it, but I was the proud winner of $56. Not bad for a morning’s adventure.

Our next stop, was brunch at The Jammery, in Lake Country. It wasn’t that long a drive – just over a hour – however we hit traffic from hell all the way through Kelowna. Neither of us is sure if we would like to go back there on a future visit since the traffic was so bad.

Brunch at The Jammery was delightful. Mum had a Reuben with caesar and I had the Besto Pesto Benny with cheesy hash browns. After we ate, we went next door to the gift shop. They had tons of jams, honeys, and other yummy things for sale. Thankfully we were full from our brunch and didn’t buy too much.

We also stopped in Armstrong at the Village Cheese Company to pick up some cheese. I picked up some habanero, horseradish, beer and wild salmon flavoured cheese. Mum picked up some gouda and parmesan and then we were on the road again.

Within a half an hour, we arrived in Salmon Arm at our hotel. While Mum took a brief nap, I organized the back seat of the car and chatted with hubby on the phone.

Dinner was at Setter’s Pub, just up the hill. We went here for dinner on our trip last year and enjoyed it, so we decided to go back. Mum had the Yorkie Sliders and I had the Buffalo Chicken Salad (sorry no pictures, I forgot).

Tomorrow we are heading to Hope, with a stop at another cheese place, and of course, Shuswap Pie Company.

Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you soon.

L

Today was a fairly early start again, waking at 6:30. We had breakfast at the hotel before grabbing some coffee and heading out of town. It was a beautiful day today and I was quite thankful that I didn’t have to drive over those passes (or into Osoyoos) in the rain.

It was a fairly uneventful drive and we arrived at the top of the Osoyoos hill, just before noon. I remember the switchbacks from my trip out in 2002, but the sixteen years have blurred it into only a couple of switchbacks. I was reminded today, that it was a couple more than just two lol.
We continued through Osoyoos, stopping for a coffee and a bathroom break and then headed north up Highway 97 towards Penticton.

We stopped in Penticton at Fabricland as Mum needed some lace for one of her sewing projects, then decided to have a late lunch at Shades on Main. It was a family restaurant that was close to where we were, so we figured that it would be convenient. Not only was it easy to get to, it was really good food. Mum had a bacon & tomato sandwich and I had a Blackstone Benny, which is basically a benny with bacon and tomato ;).

After lunch, we drove the last few kilometres to Summerland and checked into the hotel. After a brief rest, we headed out again – first stop was Sumac Ridge Winery. We each bought a bottle of wine (gifts for people) and then went to Summerland Sweets. It is a dangerous place to go if you have a sweet tooth. We both bought some jam and some other treats before continuing on to the Summerland Ornamental Garden.

We spent just over an hour touring the garden and I took a bunch of flower pictures. Even though it was late in the season, and a lot of plant were no longer flowering, I was still able to find quite a few that tickled my fancy. We also saw several families of quail darting in and out of the bushes. The gardens are located fairly high up on one of the hills surrounding Summerland, which allowed for a couple of great pictures of the surrounding valley and Okanagan Lake.

By the time we were finished at the gardens, it was seven o’clock. We returned to the motel and Mum grabbed a Buddy Burger at A&W for dinner. I started on my blog, but had connectivity issues with the wi-fi, causing me to sit under the hotspot in order to upload my pictures. I have put all of my flower pictures below for your enjoyment.

Thank you for sharing our adventures with us and I will talk to you soon.

L

Today we had an earlier start, waking at 6:30. We had a small bite to eat at the hotel before heading out. Since we didn’t have a Timmy’s close to the hotel, we drove to get our coffees and then pointed the car west.

We drove back through Fort Macleod, where we noticed a Subway with a drive-thru. Neither of us had ever seen one with a drive-thru, but while typing this blog I decided to research it and it turns out that there are several across Canada. I am pretty sure that my daughter, who used to work at Subway, is very glad that her restaurant didn’t have one.

We continued past the turnoff for Hwy 2 and Buffalo Jump, and on to Pincher Creek. There, we caught our first glimpse of mountains in almost a week.

We decided to stop at the Frank Slide to take some pictures. On our trip in 2010, it was so foggy that we could barely see the boulders piled on either side of the road. Thankfully it was much nicer today and I was able to get some good pictures. It was the deadliest landslide in Canadian history – killing between 70 and 90 people when over 82 million tonnes of limestone slide down Turtle Mountain within 100 seconds. The section of rock that broke off was 1,000m wide, 425m high and 150m deep travelled 112 km/h down the mountain and reached the opposing hills, burying the eastern side of Frank, the CPR rail line and the coal mine.

We carried on, over the Crowsnest Pass, and stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area, just east of Cranbrook. Just west of Creston, on the Kootenay Pass, we drove through the Blaze Creek Fire. Although it was mainly just smoke that we saw, Mum said that she also saw some flames, close to the road. We were just thankful that the road wasn’t closed as it is still considered an active fire zone.

Other than a couple of construction zones with single-lane, alternating traffic, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful and we arrived at the hotel around four. We spent an hour or so relaxing at the hotel before going out to dinner.

We decided on the Lions Head Pub as it had Moules Frites (mussels and fries) – one of Mum’s favourites. When we got there and looked at the menu, we noticed that several things that we had seen on the menu (as per Trip Advisor) were no longer being offered. Thankfully, they still had PEI mussels – just served differently – and Mum was happy. I had a Lions Head Burger (with Swiss and blue cheese and bacon) and fries. This way, Mum was still able to have her “frites”. We also had Dilly Chips (deep-fried pickles) as an appy.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel and did our wiki-research before Mum turned in and I started my blog. Tomorrow, we are heading north through the Okanagon to Summerland.

Thank you for sharing our adventures and I will talk to you soon.

L

Today was probably our latest start of the trip. I awoke at 8 to find Mum patiently waiting for me to get up. We went down to breakfast at the hotel and I proceeded to finish my blog from yesterday. After my normal run to Timmy’s, we ventured downtown to the Clay District, only to see a tour bus full of people outside the entrance. Since we were pressed for time, we decided to put Medicine Hat on our list of places to return to next year and decided to head west.

One lovely change form the last couple of days, was the return of the sun. There were still some clouds in the sky, but they didn’t threaten any rain. It was a fairly uneventful drive to Lethbridge, where we stopped for lunch at Arby’s. I realize that this is a Food Network trip and we are not supposed to be having meals at fast food restaurants, but we wanted something fast. It also turned out to be a good choice as we both enjoyed our meal.

After our quick bite to eat, we headed to Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump. Mum had visited before, but I had only stared longingly at the sign on my previous visits to the area – wishing that I would have time to visit one day. I also noticed that the number of wind turbines in the area had greatly increased. When I first came through Fort Macleod in 2002, there were only a couple of them. This time there looked to be well over a hundred and I was happy that the weather allowed me to get a picture of some of them.

I was also able to get a good picture of the Porcupine Hills as we were driving up the highway towards them.

I learned a lot about Blackfoot culture and the importance of the piskun (buffalo jump). For thousands of years, the Blackfoot drove the bison over this cliff as well as others like it. They would come together from far away to communally drive the bison over a precipice to kill them. When there was a successful hunt, they could feed their families in the coming winter, cover their tipis with the hides and use the bones for weapons.

Although it may seem cruel to us to kill bison this way, it wasn’t until the white man came in the late 1800’s and killed the bison indiscriminately for sport (or no reason at all) that the bison’s numbers dwindled to the point of near extinction.

Mum and I were lucky enough to see bison up close in Yellowstone, a few years ago. They are beautiful creatures and I am so glad that they were able to be saved. One day I hope to go to Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta and see even more close-up.

After HSIBJ, we headed back to Lethbridge and checked into the hotel. Not long afterwards, we went to dinner – I think the fresh air made us hungry.

We went to Two Guys and a Pizza Place which was featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Not only do they have great pizza, but they have a ridiculously large selection of craft beer. I had a Smashbomb Atomic IPA from Flying Monkeys, which is based out of Barrie, Ontario (my hometown for those who don’t know that). For food, Mum had a medium Greekus Veggius and I had a small Monterey Chicken. While we waited for our food to come (and also while we ate), we read each other Trivial Pursuit questions. Mum and I pride ourselves on our knowledge of useless trivia and always enjoy finding cards on the table in restaurants we visit. (I am planning on bringing a box with me next year so we will always have something to kill time in restaurants). The food was to die for and although I am not a big fan of pizza, yet again, Mum was right in her choice of a place to eat.

Tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us as we are heading to Castlegar – just over 500 km away. We are hoping that we won’t be delayed by the fire just west of Creston or the possibility of snow on the Crowsnest Pass. When we drove east at the end of May in 2010, we encountered snow there, so just because it is August doesn’t mean anything.

I would like to thank you all for reading and sharing our adventures with us.

I will check in tomorrow from Castlegar.

L