Silver and Gold Friends

Make new friends but keep the old                                                   

One is silver and the other gold…

Do you remember the song from scouts? Well I don’t know  if the old friends are silver or gold? or the new friends? But either way, we are having lots of fun with both the new and the old and they are all truly silver and gold!

Our main goal in staying in Riverside was to drive up into Canada to visit Dan. Dan and I had taught together in Japan back in the early 90’s. I was  there for only 4 years before Lee was transferred back to the states. But teaching in an International School was a great experience and Dan certainly helped to make it an awesomely fun time as well! Dan spent over 20 years living and teaching in Japan, but when he retired last year he moved back to his home of Canada.

So off to Canada to see Dan:

Our first stop was the city of Penticton where we would stay with Dan’s sister Sharon. Penticton is a lovely small city nestled between two large lakes with orchards and wineries flanking the sides.

This is Dan and I on a bluff overlooking the city:

Dan’s brother-in-law Bob took us on a terrific driving tour of the area. We saw the lakes and wineries as well as some interesting sculptures. This one is called the “baggage handler” and was originally downtown. But someone removed a very important part of his manhood and so the statue had to be moved. This winery bought the statue and put it here for all to admire.

 

 

Bob was a history teacher and so was emphatic that we see the location of the last spike in the building of the trans-Canadian railway. According to Bob the railway was built to provide protection to Canadians from the wild men and women south of their border!

Regardless of Bob’s misinformation…it was a lovely spot to stop for a break as we were driving north about 2 hours to Dan’s hometown of Revelstoke.

The town of Penticton, in the Okanagan valley, is warm and dry, while the town of Revelstoke is up in the mountains and is a skiers paradise. Here we stayed with another sibling – Dan’s brother Norman and wife Diane.

During the summer the town of Revelstoke provides live music every night in the town square. We spent a few very pleasant hours listening to music and checking out the lovely little town.

After another wonderful meal (Dan’s family are all excellent cooks) and a good nights sleep, we drove up to Mt Revelstoke National Park.

A quick stop to overlook the town.

Awesome country….

The mosquitos were terrible on top of the mountain. This was the first time we had been bothered with the nasty pests in over a year! Thanks to Diane we had bug repellent, but even so we covered up with sweatshirts!

The area is covered with many beautiful wild flowers. Even though we were a little late in the season, we still had a beautiful showing of mother nature’s art work!

Back to Penticton where we spent another night at Dan’s sisters beautiful home. On the way we joined Dan’s other sister Jen for a great dinner at a Thai restaurant and then braved our way through a ferocious thunderstorm.

The next day we headed back toward the US after a stop at SORCO (South Okanagan Rehabilitation Center for Owls). Dan’s brother Ken is the facility manager and caretaker of the owls. He gave us an interesting tour of the facility as well as a brief history of several of the owls.

This little guy will live his life at the center as he has only one eye. Since owls are hunters, they need both eyes to survive in the wild.

 

 

These four big owls will leave soon to return to the wild. Ken takes them back to their home areas when he releases them.

After a quick thank you we left for a bakery and lunch…yumm… and then it was on to the US. Thank you Dan and family for a wonderful view of Canada…great place and great people!

When we drove into Canada we noticed that there were many, many, fruit stands in Canada but only one in the US. We were therefore wishing we could bring some fresh fruit back into the US, but decided to be good and not. However, at  customs we found out that you can bring in fruits/veggies that are in season!  Next time I’ll load up!!

Tomorrow it’s the rodeo and then we move on east……