And so we've come to end of the Epic Summer Road Trip. To be honest, I wasn't ready for it to end! We had the best weather imaginable. But I'm getting ahead of myself ...
When we left Penticton we weaved and winded and followed the road to Kanaskis. On the way we stopped at The Enchanted Forest outside of Revelstoke. The kids loved it but I think Reese enjoyed it the most! Unfortunately for Blake the moss and dust in the buildings really bothered his asthma :( That is one thing we discovered during this trip - the smoke from the forest fires throughout BC, AB and Washington did not bother his asthma in the least but the dust and moss at Enchanted Forest did. Good to know! The Enchanted Forest was really cool to see and we're glad we stopped but I forgot to mention what a pain the parking was ... poor Cal had to wiggle and maneuver into a tight spot and that was after attempting to fit in two other spots. God bless him and his patience!! Thanks Cal, we appreciate the work you did to make sure we could visit this cool place ;)
After Penticton it was on to Mt. Kidd! It was a looooong day on the road, made longer of course by our stop at The Enchanted Forest. We arrived at Mt. Kidd right before 9 pm and drove into an ash storm - ash falling from the sky due to forest fires :( I was worried about Blake's asthma but when we woke up the next morning the sky had cleared! We enjoyed a few nights in Mt. Kidd, one of our favorite places but were sad the pool was under construction and closed :( We spent a day in Banff and walked along the Bow River and saw the Bow Falls, which is something we hadn't done before :) And of course we took in the evening entertainment at Mt. Kidd - one of our favorite things to do!! It was nice to finish up our travels, just the 5 of us and in one of our favorite places :)
On August 6th after 22 days and 4527 km's, we arrived back home!! Like my blog post titles have said, it was an Epic Summer Road Trip with my favorite peeps :) Priceless memories!!
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
Epic Summer Road Trip - Part 3
Part 3 of our Epic Summer Road Trip brings us to Penticton! And if the drive from Idaho to Seattle was beautiful, this drive may have been even better!! Much of the drive was through Wenatchee National Forrest and it was absolutely gorgeous. We also spent much of the drive following the Columbia River and I had the strong desire to stop and set up camp at any of the numerous campgrounds we passed by. I also dreamt of buying one of the many gorgeous properties that were on the river!!
We were happy to easily cross over the border in to Canada and slowly make our way to our campground. I booked sites at this campground after reading many reviews and was a bit nervous to see what sort of place it was! And much like we'd heard, the sites were tight!! But we were next to Cal's brother and his family and so it worked just fine and the campground was actually really good. We stayed at Wright's Beach Campground. They had all sorts of children's activities throughout the day, movie nights in the evening, special events and a gorgeous beach on Skaha Lake! We love the water and had so much fun on the beach and in the lake! Gerry rented kayak's one day and the kids loved paddling around. We also visited Penticton Beach and the Wibit park! The Wibit park was super fun but wayyyy more challenging than I anticipated!! I was like Bambi on ice out there! It was very hard to stay on the inflatable and even harder to hoist yourself back up when you fell off. Friends of ours from Edmonton were in Penticton at the same time as us and they joined us on the beach that day. It was great to see them and the ladies enjoyed a beverage across the street at the pub and when we returned, the men went across the street to enjoy a beverage (or two!!)!! We also had friends from Edmonton visit us at our campsite one morning! And we had dinner at Cal's aunt's house. She lives in Okanagon Falls and his cousin and her husband were also visiting at the same time, so we all visited Aunt Sharon's the same evening. It was great to catch up with them! It was Gerry and Lesley's anniversary while we were vacationing together so we planned a fun day for that day! Our first stop was Kangaroo Creek farm and I'm so glad we went. It was a very cool experience to hold a baby Joey and to walk around amongst the grown-up kangaroo's!! We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Joey's and visited Kelowna city park, walking along the beach and taking in the beautiful scenery :) Some of our other fun sightseeing activities included picking peaches, cherries and cucumbers at Hillside Country Market just outside Oliver. It was a SUPER hot day that day so we decided it would be the perfect day to jump off a bridge ;) lol ... Maybe that doesn't sound safe but this is a big tourist thing in Penticton!! There's even a ladder to climb back up! The bridge is between Okanagan Falls and our campground, on the Kettle Valley Railway trail. It is a cute little trestle bridge and Cal and the kids were so brave to take the plunge!! I really wish I would have jumped too but I left my swimsuit in the truck. Next time for sure!! Now I can not forget to mention the epic ice cream cones we enjoyed between the orchard and the bridge jumping!! We'd heard for days how we had to visit Tickleberry's in Okanagan Falls - the largest of all the Tickleberry's!! We we did just that and boy are we glad we did :) Delicious ice cream, 72 different flavor choices, home made fudge and chocolates, gift shop and souvenirs! A cool place for sure!! I can't believe all we packed in to our days in Penticton and really didn't want to leave this wonderful place! I definitely fell in love with the area :) We will be back for sure!!
This ended our time with the Stony Plain Cameron's. The kids were so sad to leave their cousins, they had such a great time together!! It was awesome to have all this time with them as we don't get a chance to visit much usually! They get along so well!
Part 4 of the road trip coming up next :)
Stay tuned ...
~Tracy
We were happy to easily cross over the border in to Canada and slowly make our way to our campground. I booked sites at this campground after reading many reviews and was a bit nervous to see what sort of place it was! And much like we'd heard, the sites were tight!! But we were next to Cal's brother and his family and so it worked just fine and the campground was actually really good. We stayed at Wright's Beach Campground. They had all sorts of children's activities throughout the day, movie nights in the evening, special events and a gorgeous beach on Skaha Lake! We love the water and had so much fun on the beach and in the lake! Gerry rented kayak's one day and the kids loved paddling around. We also visited Penticton Beach and the Wibit park! The Wibit park was super fun but wayyyy more challenging than I anticipated!! I was like Bambi on ice out there! It was very hard to stay on the inflatable and even harder to hoist yourself back up when you fell off. Friends of ours from Edmonton were in Penticton at the same time as us and they joined us on the beach that day. It was great to see them and the ladies enjoyed a beverage across the street at the pub and when we returned, the men went across the street to enjoy a beverage (or two!!)!! We also had friends from Edmonton visit us at our campsite one morning! And we had dinner at Cal's aunt's house. She lives in Okanagon Falls and his cousin and her husband were also visiting at the same time, so we all visited Aunt Sharon's the same evening. It was great to catch up with them! It was Gerry and Lesley's anniversary while we were vacationing together so we planned a fun day for that day! Our first stop was Kangaroo Creek farm and I'm so glad we went. It was a very cool experience to hold a baby Joey and to walk around amongst the grown-up kangaroo's!! We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Joey's and visited Kelowna city park, walking along the beach and taking in the beautiful scenery :) Some of our other fun sightseeing activities included picking peaches, cherries and cucumbers at Hillside Country Market just outside Oliver. It was a SUPER hot day that day so we decided it would be the perfect day to jump off a bridge ;) lol ... Maybe that doesn't sound safe but this is a big tourist thing in Penticton!! There's even a ladder to climb back up! The bridge is between Okanagan Falls and our campground, on the Kettle Valley Railway trail. It is a cute little trestle bridge and Cal and the kids were so brave to take the plunge!! I really wish I would have jumped too but I left my swimsuit in the truck. Next time for sure!! Now I can not forget to mention the epic ice cream cones we enjoyed between the orchard and the bridge jumping!! We'd heard for days how we had to visit Tickleberry's in Okanagan Falls - the largest of all the Tickleberry's!! We we did just that and boy are we glad we did :) Delicious ice cream, 72 different flavor choices, home made fudge and chocolates, gift shop and souvenirs! A cool place for sure!! I can't believe all we packed in to our days in Penticton and really didn't want to leave this wonderful place! I definitely fell in love with the area :) We will be back for sure!!
This ended our time with the Stony Plain Cameron's. The kids were so sad to leave their cousins, they had such a great time together!! It was awesome to have all this time with them as we don't get a chance to visit much usually! They get along so well!
Part 4 of the road trip coming up next :)
Stay tuned ...
~Tracy
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Epic Summer Road Trip - Part 2
The next leg of our journey brought us to the Seattle, Washington area! But first I must talk about the beautiful drive from Idaho to Seattle ... I loved watching the changing countryside as we made this trek. Windmills on the hillsides, gorgeous lakes and rivers, and finally mountains! Such a beautiful drive :) We pulled into the KOA outside of Seattle on July 21st. We were a bit surprised at how close the sites were to each other but were very happy to see the pool!! It didn't take long for us to set up and hit the pool! The kids were so excited and we made excellent use of that pool for the 6 days we were there!
The next day we ventured downtown to the Public Market. It was crazy bussssssyyyy!! Like super busy, shoulder to shoulder! But we got to see some fish throwing, which the kids thought was awesome!! (https://www.pikeplacefish.com/) We escaped some of the crowds by visiting the upstairs of the market, which afforded an awesome view of the waterfront and the Great Wheel. We then went on a mission to find a good spot for lunch and after checking many menus, settled on a small restaurant across the street from the market. The seafood platter was delicious as was the clam chowder!! We also stopped to see the very first Starbucks but the line was down the block so we didn't order anything. After lunch we found the Gum Wall and made our contribution, lol!!! Blake was quite disgusted! After much debate, we decided to head down to the Great Wheel! Some were hesitant to ride the wheel, some weren't but in the end we all rode together are are all so glad we did! The views were spectacular!!!
The next day in Seatlle was spent in the pool and then at Safeco Field for a Mariners game! It was a gorgeous day out and so much fun to be at the ball park. Lucky for the kids, it was kids day at the ball park and they all got books when they walked in the door, became Kids Club members and best of all, they got to run the bases at the end of the game (and we all got to go down to field level)!! So cool!
The Stony Plain Cameron's arrived on the 24th and the kids were all so happy to see each other, they jumped in the pool for some fun as soon as they could :) The next day we decided to visit Seattle Centre and the Space Needle. The history of the Space Needle was very interesting to read about and again, spectacular views from the observation deck!! Blake had clam chowder for lunch at Seattle Centre and it was even better than the clam chowder we had by the market ;)
The next day was a hang by the pool, soak up the sun kind of day for the morning and afternoon and then the Cameron gals and guys headed in separate directions! The girls were in search of the American Girl doll store and the boys were off to another baseball game (1st for Gerry and Colby)! Both trips were successful, with the girls bringing home new dolls and outfits and the boys witnessing a Mariners win in extra innings!!! I also had a blast at the AG store and quite honestly, I could have spent A LOT more (and believe me, I already had spent a lot!!)!! To see all the dolls and clothes and accessories in person was so much fun :) It took Emerson and Reese awhile to pick out what they wanted but they did and they had a blast!! So glad we were able to take them to an AG store :)
On the 26th of July Cal, the kids and I ventured off on a little adventure in pursuit of Mt. Rainier!! After quite a long, bumpy drive on a narrow gravel road we came to a corner of Mt. Rainier National Park! It was absolutely gorgeous and despite the poor road conditions and feeling somewhat lost, we're glad we made it!! We hiked around a gorgeous lake, ate a picnic lunch and explored. It was so gorgeous, words don't do it justice!! I hope we can go back one day and explore more of the park.
Between all the site seeing, we also did a lot of Target shopping ;) And a lot of swimming and splashing in the pool!!
We were on our way to Penticton on the 27th! We loved our time in the Seattle area and maybe one day, we'll go back :) But most definitely we want to go back to Mt. Rainier National Park and hope to make it to Tacoma and Mt. St. Helen's as well!!
Penticton post is up next :)
~Tracy
The next day we ventured downtown to the Public Market. It was crazy bussssssyyyy!! Like super busy, shoulder to shoulder! But we got to see some fish throwing, which the kids thought was awesome!! (https://www.pikeplacefish.com/) We escaped some of the crowds by visiting the upstairs of the market, which afforded an awesome view of the waterfront and the Great Wheel. We then went on a mission to find a good spot for lunch and after checking many menus, settled on a small restaurant across the street from the market. The seafood platter was delicious as was the clam chowder!! We also stopped to see the very first Starbucks but the line was down the block so we didn't order anything. After lunch we found the Gum Wall and made our contribution, lol!!! Blake was quite disgusted! After much debate, we decided to head down to the Great Wheel! Some were hesitant to ride the wheel, some weren't but in the end we all rode together are are all so glad we did! The views were spectacular!!!
The next day in Seatlle was spent in the pool and then at Safeco Field for a Mariners game! It was a gorgeous day out and so much fun to be at the ball park. Lucky for the kids, it was kids day at the ball park and they all got books when they walked in the door, became Kids Club members and best of all, they got to run the bases at the end of the game (and we all got to go down to field level)!! So cool!
The Stony Plain Cameron's arrived on the 24th and the kids were all so happy to see each other, they jumped in the pool for some fun as soon as they could :) The next day we decided to visit Seattle Centre and the Space Needle. The history of the Space Needle was very interesting to read about and again, spectacular views from the observation deck!! Blake had clam chowder for lunch at Seattle Centre and it was even better than the clam chowder we had by the market ;)
The next day was a hang by the pool, soak up the sun kind of day for the morning and afternoon and then the Cameron gals and guys headed in separate directions! The girls were in search of the American Girl doll store and the boys were off to another baseball game (1st for Gerry and Colby)! Both trips were successful, with the girls bringing home new dolls and outfits and the boys witnessing a Mariners win in extra innings!!! I also had a blast at the AG store and quite honestly, I could have spent A LOT more (and believe me, I already had spent a lot!!)!! To see all the dolls and clothes and accessories in person was so much fun :) It took Emerson and Reese awhile to pick out what they wanted but they did and they had a blast!! So glad we were able to take them to an AG store :)
On the 26th of July Cal, the kids and I ventured off on a little adventure in pursuit of Mt. Rainier!! After quite a long, bumpy drive on a narrow gravel road we came to a corner of Mt. Rainier National Park! It was absolutely gorgeous and despite the poor road conditions and feeling somewhat lost, we're glad we made it!! We hiked around a gorgeous lake, ate a picnic lunch and explored. It was so gorgeous, words don't do it justice!! I hope we can go back one day and explore more of the park.
Between all the site seeing, we also did a lot of Target shopping ;) And a lot of swimming and splashing in the pool!!
We were on our way to Penticton on the 27th! We loved our time in the Seattle area and maybe one day, we'll go back :) But most definitely we want to go back to Mt. Rainier National Park and hope to make it to Tacoma and Mt. St. Helen's as well!!
Penticton post is up next :)
~Tracy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)