It's officially summer now, and so far Carmella and I have made great use of our province. Below are some recent pictures of weekend trips we've made.
Here's Carmella in Osoyoos, about a four hour drive west of Vancouver. It's a desert climate there, so the mountains have sparse vegitation. Osoyoos is a Resort Municipality like Whistler is, except where Whistler attracts skiers, snowboarders, hikers, and mountain bikers, Osoyoos attracts people with SUVs towing large and powerful boats. They have municipal parking lots dedicated to boat trailers, which I thought was quite unique.
I don't look quite as ready for the photo as Carmella did! In the background is a convention centre and golf course, so they're careful to keep it watered and looking green. Osoyoos lake is claimed to be the warmest in Canada, and our hottest, driest climate.
The lake had a sandy bottom, so it was quite refreshing to swim. The weather was nice and warm when we were there, but not too hot. Even though the lake is supposed to be very warm, it still takes courage to plunge your head under the first time. It was also a week or two before school let out, so the town wasn't in full tourist season yet.
Carmella and I rented a room in one of the few remaining mom and pop motels along the shore. They had a paddle boat you could use, so we had a happy hour on the lake in the boat. I wonder if anyone's designed a paddle boat with gears, so you can really make headway. It felt like we were pedaling hard, but going nowhere.
Cindy won a wine tour package, and brought Ty, Tina, and Amy, so they were in Osoyoos also. We played minigolf and got the biggest single scoop ice creams around. Their tour came with a swanky 2-bedroom hotel room, so we visited them and used their pool and spacious environs for gaming. Below is a rousing game of San Juan, which I won.
Tyler's looking strange because he was blinking in the previous shot. In addition to this game, we played a game called What?! which is more of a party game and less of a strategy game. One question in the game required us all to make up a new political slogan, or something like that. My slogan was "Vote for another O in Osoyoos". I think it would make a very funny t-shirt, so I might see about making one.
If you drive a bit outside Osoyoos and up the mountain, you come to this lookout. Group shot!
This Canada Day weekend, Carmella and I drove to Pemberton, the town we were married in. It's nice and quiet here. Carmella found a nice bed and breakfast for us to stay at, and this is the view out our bedroom window. It's hard to see him, but there's a horse in one of the fields.
Here are some shots of the first of three Joffree Lakes, about half an hour away. The other two are off
in the distance, closer to the glacier you can see in the centre of the
picture below. Carmella came prepared with her towel and bathing suit, but it turned out to be too cold. The lakes are glacier fed, so they're frigid.
The parking lot was very full! There's a campground about 5K away from this lot, but you have to hike in. Apparently it takes four hours to get there. The campground is by the third lake, but we only hiked in for 200m to get to the first lake. We saw about ten or fifteen people on our short hike, and at the lake, so the rest must have been elsewhere. I wasn't expecting this many cars for a place with a campground four hours away!
So far it's been a great trip. It's very quiet here, and a great time to do nothing and not feel bad about it. We'll head home to Vancouver tomorrow, and get ready for another week. Carmella's having a short snooze, and I have the whole bed and breakfast to myself. It's quite nice.
Whenever we leave the Bed and Breakfast, we pass a small Catholic church called St Francis of Assisi, and is a tad smaller than the one we got married in. Judging by the outside of St Francis, there probably isn't a bog under it that breeds mosquitos, and I bet there's not a cable strung between the walls to keep the building from collapsing. It looks quaint and nice and kept up! Carmella and I need to remind ourselves that we like the church we got married in better because it had a church bell to ring, and also because it had feral dogs and friendly locals peering in, wondering why anyone would get married there! I remember the pastor of that church saying that he's never had a request for a marriage there before, and he wasn't quite sure how to deal with it!
So, that's been our trip so far! Time to wake Carmella up before she naps too long.
