In and Around Penticton

Pictures from the next installment about our trip!!

The Penticton River--downstream,  This river is never usually so wide!! We stayed at the Ramada right beside the river and golf course and so we could take Duffy for walks along the paths that line both sides of the river.

Upstream on the river, towards Okanagan Lake

Duffy and I posing while rafters go down the river on a warm day.

We went up to Rattlesnake Springs on the Penticton Band Reserve to get water.  It's wonderful water, Duffy lapped away, and watercress grow around the spring all year round!!

Dave and Duffy on the beach.  I was so looking forward to taking Duffy for walks along the beach, but the signs said no dogs allowed from May until September--phooey!! But we snuck on, for this photo!!

Duffy and I in front the of old paddle wheeler, the HMS Sicamous.  They have been trying to float that ship for decades.

The memorial rose garden at the end of the lake. The roses were in bloom everywhere--it was so beautiful!! We can't grow roses too well here--even with wrapping them up, they die from the winter cold. So I enjoyed all the roses and took lots of pictures--you have been seeing some of them in the blog header photo.

My 2 roses!! ♥♥

A walnut tree, for goodness sake!! Never grow in Edmonton!!

Ducks on the river, hoping for food!

On the way to Okanagan Falls, south of Penticton, to visit Dave's Uncle Jack and Aunt Brenda.

The little hamlet of Okanagan Falls.

Diana will really like this picture!!Back on the reservation on our way up to the ranch.  Their livestock roam free and it's kind of nice--like the old days

The old ranch house--Dave's grandparents lived here while Dave and his family lived in a log house near where the pictures of Duffy and the horses were taken. The log house is gone now.

The A-frame that the 2 American brothers built when they bought the ranch from Dave's step-grandfather.  It's huge and there's a tennis court if you can believe it!! Like a tennis court is a necessity on a ranch!! Well one of the wives thought so.  There's a guest house, and another house also on the place. Some rich guy out of Calgary owns the ranch now and it's going downhill even more.  He's grazing fewer and fewer cattle and therefore he is losing the grazing leases that Dave's grandfather had worked so hard to acquire.  He let go the guy that was looking after the place and rehired some dipstick female who knows crap about cattle.  She had quit several years ago, but she wants her job back now and she gets it. And apparently the owner is planning to turn the ranch into a guest ranch.  Idiot.  I know it hurts Dave to see how the place has gone.

A stately Ponderosa Pine standing guard on the ranch.
We are really disappointed that our plans to buy some of the ranch land and live there is probably out of the question now that the owner is going to do the guest ranch thing.  Back to the drawing board!

The Attack of the Mutant Mosquitoes

Well, okay, maybe not mutant--but there sure are a heck of a lot of them!!After a cool and wet Spring, guess what kind of a Summer we have been having?? If you guessed cool and wet, you'd be right!! Add in humid and over run by mosquitoes and you have the whole ugly picture.  And Edmonton now has the dubious distinction of being the mosquito capital of Canada.  We elbowed Winnipeg aside for that honor!! Haha!! The report out today told us the good news that this week there were 569 mosquitoes (exactly???) per trap throughout the city, compared with 30 per trap last week.  And apparently we haven't peaked yet!! ACCKKK! That's expected next week. Yesterday I braved the outdoors to cut the lawn, because if I waited any longer I either would have to hire some sheep (Baaaa) or start baling the grass!  I think I swatted, slapped, smacked, and smeared 569 mosquitoes!!!

The worst attack occurred when I had to pick out all the mushrooms from the lawn before I mowed.  We have tons of mushrooms too.  I was picking them the other day and the mailman asked me if I was going to make a salad?  Haahaha!! I replied, "If I wanted a shortened life." Some of the mushrooms might be edible, but who knows and I'm not taking any chances.  My Polish grandfather knew about mushrooms, but that knowledge has been lost.  I do have puff balls popping up in a couple of places and I know those are edible.

On the brighter side I picked the first basket of raspberries of the season--yay!! They are one of the few things doing really well.  They have adapted to any kind of weather this country can throw at them--all they need is a little water, and they had no shortage of that!! The cherries hardly seem to be ripening or growing at all, the zucchini  and cucumbers are stuck in a no-growth zone, and everything else is later than usual.  My poor corn that was battered down in all the rain and wind last week, is righting itself and sending out their stalks, and the peas and beans have blossoms, so we will get some veggies.

Poor corn!!

Back to the mosquitoes--did you know that the oldest known mosquito with a similar anatomy to modern mosquito species was found in 79 million year old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous period?? Just think, the ones biting us now are the 5000 trillionth generation from that one!!! 

No more of this please!!

Let's hope we get some dry weather, so we can go back to sitting outside in our backyards and enjoying what's left of Summer!!

Heading to Penticton

We left Edmonton Saturday morning, June 25, heading west on the Yellowhead Highway, aka Highway 16. This was our first trip with Duffy and I was excited to be travelling with him!! He's been to BC before--just a day trip though from Olds to Golden and back, with Dave.  But this was his first time to spend a night away from one of his 2 homes!!

First view of the Rocky Mountains at Edson--I'm always thrilled to see them!!

Pit stop for Duffy

Pit stop for us at Hinton--gassed up as this would be the cheapest gas until we were back in Alberta.  There's about a 20 cent difference in gas prices between the 2 provinces.

Our fearless driver!!! ♥♥

Beautiful scenery everywhere.  I took a bazilliion photos, but I won't post them all, as I'm sure most folks would be bored out of their minds!!

Mt. Edith Cavell. Named for the English nurse executed by the Germans in WWI for helping allied soldiers escape from Belgium to the Netherlands. It's 11,033 feet in altitude and has Angel Glacier.  Lots of snow still on most of the mountain peaks for this time of year--due to the cool and wet Spring, and now Summer!

Canadian National Railway's mainline.

Impressive Mt. Robson.  Highest point in the Canadian Rockies at 12, 989 feet. Apparently only 10% of the attempts to climb this mountain over the years, have been successful.  Steep faces and bad weather are the reasons given.

At Mt. Robson Park's interpretative centre looking across the meadow to the mountain.  It's very rare to see the top of the mountain because of the weather, and we weren't lucky that day either. There's still 1/3 of the mountain obscured by clouds.

I love seeing how the flora changes through the climate zones.  In the foothills and mountains in Alberta, it was a lodgepole pine, larch (tamarack) and poplar forest. In BC, this photo shows fir and poplar, and it won't be long before we start to see cedars.  So neat!!

We stayed overnight at the Blue Mountain Motel in--you guessed it--Blue Mountain.  Very clean and quiet--I would highly recommend it!!  We stayed there again on the way back, although we didn't have a reservation this time and had to stay in a one roomer.  There's a great restaurant in town called the Saddleback--named for one of the mountains in the Cariboo Range east of the valley which has a number of ski slopes on it.  They serve cordon bleu style food, local produce, even organic!! Dave and I both liked the town.  It's so quiet there, there's not even an RCMP detachment!! The only problem is the 10 feet of snow in the winter!! We'll spend summers there though!! And no allergies for me!!! Yippee!!

Heading south through the Thompson River Valley on Highway 97.

Destruction from the Barriere fire of 2003. It was one of the 2 worst fires that year, 3000 people were evacuated, homes, and the saw mill were destroyed.  The fire jumped the river too, which is highly unusual and really scary!!

I love this picture.

Stuck in a construction zone north of Kamloops.

But at least there were some sheep and goats to look at!!

Kamloops--we are definitely out of the lush terrain!! This is Ponderosa Pine and sage brush country and it's really hot there because you just bake between the hills.  There was a gas war going on and we got gas at 10 cents cheaper!!

We are now in the Okanagan Valley, coming down towards Vernon.

Crossing Lake Okanagan at Kelowna on the William R. Bennett Bridge, opened in 2008. This 5-lane bridge replaced the old 3 lane bridge.  I wonder why they couldn't make it a 6-lane? Anyway, this is the most congested portion of Highway 97 through the valley, so it was a much needed improvement.  Imagine what this looks like on a long weekend???

Penticton at last!!!

Signs

Because Diana likes signs!!!!!!

Lots of these

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practicing for a circus act??

We didn't see any mountain goats at Mt. Robson--we saw them on the way home close to the east entrance to Jasper National Park

Falkland, BC--very patriot.  Also the home of a biker bar!!

 

On the upper bench lands of Okanagan Lake

Yay!! Welcome home!! Also welcome to bumpy roads which will culminate with every street in Edmonton being a bump fest!!

Duffy and the Horses

While I edit and organize our vacation photos, I thought I would share the pictures from Duffy's experience with 2 horses up in the hills north of Penticton.  We went out to the ranch that Dave grew up on and worked on even after his step-grandfather sold the place. We wanted to give Duffy a chance to run around free and do some exploring. We crossed over Shingle Creek into a pasture area where these 2 horses were. Duffy has touched noses with a horse through a fence, but had never been up close and personal with any horses. Duffy never barks at animals when we encounter them, whether they are horses, rabbits, coyotes, deer...that's pretty good for a collie!!

Down the road to Shingle Creek

Shingle Creek. All the creeks and rivers in BC are running fast and high right now.

Hello horses!! They are wearing those masks to protect them from fly and mosquito bites.

Duffy standing by the horses just as if he does this all the time.  Luckily these were horses who are used to dogs!!

 

Can I herd them, can I, can I??????

Hey, who's herding who???????