Monday, August 6, 2012

Vacation Part II

Kelowna turned out to be a great place.  Our hotel had been redone and had lots of room for all of us.  We were right in the downtown area, across from the city park and beach.  We were right close to the harbor as well........win win.  The part that made this stay so very nice were the amazing people who worked at the hotel and willingly helped us out in many ways.  The kids pretty much had the pool to themselves  probably because of the beach, but our kids are pool people!!!!!  

Our friends from MB who we shared life and parenting info with from toddlers to married adults now live on a mountain at Penticton.We had a super visit with them  at their mountain top home.

This country of ours has so many climates and land forms in short distances from each other.  We experienced the desert from roughly the Penticton area to Kelowna that I thought looked very much like the area in Arizona where we had visited.  Since returning home I read somewhere that this area was Canada's only desert.  That could very well be, but, I do know that there is also a desert in the Carberry MB area altho very much smaller.

The tom tom that the kids named Mordecai??? got us right to Aunt Margaret's door in White Rock.  What a neat place with the boardwalk and pierdown by the water. Makes me think back to 50s movies and  Down on the boardwalk sung by Bett Middler.  Had a lovely visit with our lovely relatives---aunt and cousins renewing and learning about each others lives.  We stayed at what folks call The Pink Palace actually the Pacific Inn.  It is very grand and the rooms were very large.  Once again the kids had the pool and lovely surrounding area to themselves.  They went in early in the am and after a few hours discovered that the seniors from the area come in and have water exercises.  The kids were amazed to see how hard some of the seniors worked in the water.  Not sure why A looked at Bob and I-----was he suggesting that perhaps we should be more vigorous in our exercise!!!!  Time to move on again.

We took the ferry to Nanimo and the kids had total freedom---just meet at the van when the warning is given to return to the vehicles.  It was fun for all and a little extra space for everyone.

Nanimo was very special.  We stayed 2 nights with Bob's uncle Henry Rempel and aunt Kathleen.  They were very generous with their hospitality and time. We had lots of fish to eat and very fresh crab legs that naturally had yummy melted butter and spices to dip them in. Bob helped get the legs out of the shells.The guys all went fishing.  We roamed the shore looking for whatever.  The house H&K live in overlooks the Strait of Georgia.  We planted some flowers for aunt Kathleen.  That was the craziest soil ever. I dug the holes and put water into the holes before planting and the water just sat there didn't soak in.  This soil is rock--fine rock mind you!!!  Anyhow we put the flowers in and I am hoping that they are growing.  These flowers are suppose to be ones that the deer won't eat but my oh my sure are a lot of deer roaming those streets.  We learned a little about tides and the effects of tides.  What affects the tides.  We went to Parksville and enjoyed the amazing beach area.  The sand sculpture competition was on and the sculptures were totally amazing.  It sure wasn't the family spending a day together building a sand castle.  Sculptors came from all over to compete.  The sculptures will be there until mid Aug.  The sculptures are sprayed with a mixture of white glue and water to try and keep them nice.  Fortunately we were there right after the judging etc. so they were pristine.

Well once again it is time to move on and see where this road trip takes us to next.

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