Canadian vacation

Over the past month we've been poking around British Columbia reconnecting with family and friends and introducing the boys to their Canadian roots.

We started out with a 36 hour marathon trip from Cape Town to Vancouver, followed by a four hour drive to my folks' place in the south Okanagan. Needless to say we spent the first few days just chillin' out and recovering from the jet lag. We were glad for the rest and the grandparents got a chance to do some quality bonding with their grandchildren.

Uncle Scott made an epic journey of his own, driving the 5500 odd kilometers from Toronto to join in the family reunion. We spent some time enjoying the warm summer days, teaching Luca to ride a bike, swimming in the river and sampling some of the local food and wine. Canadian wines have a little way to go before they are on par with South African and Australian wines, but they have made great strides since we were last here and we discovered a couple of wineries (i.e. Blasted Church, Nk'mip, etc...) that we really enjoyed. The sun doesn't set until 21h30 or so in the summer in Canada and we took full advantage of the this to sit out on the deck and have long leisurely dinners.

Some evenings we were joined by unwelcome visitors as the mosquitoes would come out in force just before sunset. However my dad was equipped with an electrically charged tennis racquet-type of implement that proved pretty effective at zapping the little buggers. If you hit them just right you could make them explode in a fairly impressive flash of light and loud crack.

Once we had our fill of incinerating mosquitoes, we loaded up the motorhome with supplies, said good-bye to my parents and set off on a camping trip into the Kootenays (a range of the Rocky Mountains) with my brother.

First stop was Christina Lake, just outside of Castlegar. It is peak holiday season in Canada so we struggled to find a camping site, but eventually we managed to squeeze ourselves into a campground run by a William H. Macy look-a-like. It was a little crowded for our taste, but it was close to the lake and had wireless internet... not something you find at every campground. The lake was lovely and warm and we spent most of our time swimming. It was on this first night that we discovered that Canadian softwood does not make ideal coals for cooking on. The coals only seem to last a few minutes before they burn out and unfortunately we undertook to braai chicken. We ended up eating at around midnight and consumed most of the wine we had purchased while we waited.

From there we drove north to Nakusp. The plan was to get far enough from civilization that we could escape from the crowds and enjoy some peace and quiet. Well... as much peace and quiet as is possible when camping with a three year old and a nine month old.
En route we ran into a severe thunderstorm that blew over a bunch of trees and blocked off the road between us and our destination. As we were waiting for the road to reopen, a helpful logging truck driver named Wayne suggested that we could backtrack and get around the blocked road by way of another road around the other side of the lake. Aided by Wayne, we managed to get the motorhome turned around (no mean feat on a narrow mountain road) and set off on our detour. In the end it probably would have been quicker waiting for the road to reopen, but the drive was spectacular and we ended up in a beautiful little provincial park near New Denver (an old silver mine) set next to a river in a forest of tall pine trees. We were one of three vehicles in the park and were starting to get the feeling of being in super natural British Columbia.

Next stop was St Leon's creek hot springs. You would never find them if you didn't know where to look, but thanks to Scott we located the unmarked logging road and picked our way over 4km of ruts and washboard until we were at the trail down to the springs. We soaked in the water for a while, chatted and reminesced about the last time we had been at these springs back in 2003. Heaven.

After we'd had our fill of soaking, we drove back down the logging road and set out to find ourselves a campsite. And we found a good one. Macdonald Creek provincial park set on the banks of Upper Arrows Lake had everything we were looking for. A camping spot right on the water with an amazing view, cool refreshing water, great weather and a 10 minute drive back to our hot springs.

We decided to stay on there for a few days and relaxed. Swimming in the lake, soaking in the hot springs and working on my softwood braaing technique. The kids loved being in the water and being out in nature. I suspect that one of Luca's favorite parts was the fact that in the mountains he can drop his pants and take a wee any time the urge takes him.

From here we said good bye to Uncle Scott who set off to continue working on his current project, taking photographs of railroads around North America. We drove south to Vancouver to reconnect with some good friends down there. We stayed with Jon & Kylie and their two daughters, Sophia and Amelia.
We had a great time catching up with old friends and Luca and Nikolai loved the girls.
Luca especially developed a real crush on Sophia and the two of them were inseparable for most of the time.
After a few days in Vancouver, we piled back into the motorhome said our goodbyes, and set off for Lake Louise and Banff. We saw a fair amount of wildlife on the drive - bighorn sheep, elk and a lone coyote - and Luca turned into a keen game spotter. More than once he would say, "Pappa, do you want me to show you a deer?" and I would think he was making it up and then, sure enough, he would point out an elk or a small herd of bighorn sheep.

We found a gorgeous little campground called Two Jacks Lake just outside of Banff and spent two nights there. In the morning we'd take the boys out for a walk by the lake or in the woods and do our best to try and preserve a little of the peace and quiet by getting them as far away as possible from the campground. But boys will be boys and I'm pretty sure that we weren't the most popular campers in the park.

We also sat and soaked in the Banff hot springs. It was more developed and busier than the rustic springs we had frequented up until then, but the big swimming pool and the life jackets were a hit with the kids. Also the view was pretty spectacular as the pool is on the side of the mountain overlooking the whole valley.
Speaking of spectacular views, the trip wouldn't have been complete visits to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake has to be one of the most stunning lakes in the world with its crystal clear blue-green waters nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks.We sat for a while and took in the view while munching on fresh plums and cherries purchased at a fruit stand on the drive up.

Nikolai fell asleep, while Luca climbed on the giant boulders deposited in the moraine at the bottom on the many glaciers hanging over the valley.

To get a bit of a different perspective, we drove down to the bottom of the Lake Louise ski area and caught a gondola up to the top of the mountain. We were a little limited in terms of doing any hikes due to the kids, however they more than made up for it in terms of the sheer enthusiasm of their first gondola ride, the blast they had playing on the observation platform and just rolling around on the grass of the denuded ski slopes.

After we'd had our fill of majestic mountain scenery in the national parks, we headed southwest over the continental divide towards Whiteswan Lake provincial park. On the way we stopped at Radium hot springs for a soak, shower and shave. While getting dressed in the change room afterwards, a very large bald heavily tattooed biker came and started getting dressed next to Luca and me. Luca stared at the guy for a long time and then announced that "this one didn't wash very well" because he hadn't washed off his tatoos. After a bit of an awkward silence, the guy laughed and then explained to Luca that his tatoos were on forever. Luca looked a bit dubious, but what can you expect when his onlt experiences with tattoos up to that point had been press-on temporary tattoos.

We made camp at Alces Lake, a small lake next to Whiteswan but still inside the park. The setting was beautiful, the water relatively warm and the campsites were surrounded by tall pine trees and their protective shade. The best thing about the campsite though turned out to be the tent sand box intended to provide tenters with a soft level spot to erect their tents on. Luca and Nikolai immediately appropriated this large sandpit and they were soon joined by the children from the neighbouring campsite. Eventually when the tenters arrived, they had to set up their tents 0n rocky ground as the sandpit was covered in ll manner of children's toys.

There were also some relatively undeveloped natural hotsprings four km down the road in the Lussier River. Given that this was some 20km off the highway up a rough windy narrow forest service road with sheer cliffs at the sides in a number of places, this kep the number of people visiting the springs to a bareable level. However it was still relatively crowded compared to some of our more secret springs. Nevertheless, we had a grand time digging into the rocks in the riverbed redirecting the hot and cold springs into our pool in order to try and come up with the optimum temperature for our little family.

Our next destination was Panorama ski resort where we would meet up with my cousins, Jeanine and Heidi, and their families. Luca was very excited at the prospect of meeting up with cousins and he wasn't disappointed. In the evening over pizzas and a variety of Blasted Creek wines, the kids played Uno and the adults played poker. It was Luca's first experience playing cards and it was my first royal flush. Let's say that neither one of us was disappointed.

After saying our good-byes to the cousins, we drove back to Keremeos to drop off the boys with their grandparents for a couple of days while we checked into the Burrowing Owl estate for our 4th anniversary.

The rooms were top notch, the food excellent, the wines were respectable and the setting was unmatched. We breakfasted on smoked sockeye salmon and cream cheese on a bagel next the pool in the morning, laid next to the pool in the afternoon and read books, feasted at the restaurant in the evening and would finish off with a bottle of Cabernet Franc in jacuzzi in the evening.

The only catch was that Nikolai is still breastfeeding, so we had to make the 40 minute drive back to Keremeos each night between 2am and 4am, so he could feed at least once a day and avoid inflicting serious pain on Anree.

After we'd had our fill of luxury and lounging, we returned to Keremeos to rejoin the kids and the grandparents for the last couple of days of the vacation. Luca and Nikolai were having a blast with Gramma and Grampa, riding bikes, painting, digging in the sandbox and playing to their hearts content.

On the last full day, my parents arranged for us to take a trip on the restored Kettle Valley Railroad. Luca was fascinated at the prospect of riding on a real train and had to conduct an inspection before boarding.
After stocking up on ice cream and popcorn for the journey, we climbed on board and set off an authentic wild west train ride. We were treated to some beautiful views of the Okanagan valley, a rather disturbing sheriff who kept walking around and pointing his pistol at terrified children, a banjo player who gamely attempted to get everyone singing and some dodgy dancing girls, who turned out to be quite sweet in the end.

At one point, the train stopped and everyone got out to have a look around. When Anree asked where Grampa and Gramma were, Luca responded, "They're probably hiding from those dancing girls."

It was after everyone had piled back on the train and we started back towards the station that the highlight of the trip... at least from Luca's perspective... happened. We were stopped by a gang of mock train robbers ... kinda reminded us of home ;-)... who rode around on their horses furiously firing off blanks into the air. At first Luca was terrified and literally climbed up my back and perched on top of my head, but once we explained that the horses wouldn't be coming onto the train he relaxed and enjoyed the show.

After the robbers parted us from a few dollars in cash that went to charity (apparently the gang leader's wife was named Charity), the train returned to the station and we had a big ol' barbecue.

The next morning we packed up and set off for Vancouver just after noon. Thinking we'd have plenty of time to get to the airport for our 8pm flight, we stopped in Hope for a relaxing sushi lunch. Unfortunately we had failed to take into account the traffic caused by the fact that it was the Monday after a long weekend and just over 100km from Vancouver we hit traffic that brought us to a stand still.

After much praying and a nervous half hour or so, the traffic started moving and we ended up making it to the airport in plenty of time. An 11-hour flight to London, 9-hour layover in Heathrow and a 12-hour flight to Cape Town later and we were home. Exhausted from the journey, but with loads of good memories.