Aug 03 2017

Montana

We spent a night in Cheney, WA at a nice little RV Park before the 6hr drive to Montana passing through Idaho. Didn’t see any potato fields in Idaho…

As we entered Montana the visibility became increasingly bad. There is a forest fire burning in Lolo National Park that is still not contained as I am writing this blog entry.

We arrived at the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, our base for the next 2 days. We attended a ranger talk about predators of the night. We also went on a ranger led tour of the Lewis and Clark Caverns and interestingly enough those two men did not discover the caverns or had anything to do with it, it was just to way to get people curious about the place.

The caverns were interesting with multiple rooms with different formations. We spent 1.5 hours in the cave and at one point the ranger turned off all the lights so that we can experience complete darkness. We almost got to total darkness, because you always have fools who can’t figure out how to turn off their devices that were emitting the lights. The kids said that this cave is way better than the one on Vancouver Island

Next stop, Jellystone Park to see Yogi and Boo Boo. Well, not exactly, but Jellystone Park was based on Yellowstone park, today’s cartoon trivia for ya!

Jul 30 2017

Vacation Starts!

Our original plan was to leave on Sunday morning but someone was keen to start the vacation and so the countdown started early Saturday morning! The boys went to pick up the trailer while the girls stayed home – Caroline had just returned from SOAR (Girl Guides camp) in Smithers BC and she needed to do a load of laundry and pack. After lunch we headed straight to the Peace Arch border crossing, it was an hour wait and we were stopped for a secondary inspection. Fortunately that was quick and painless because we did not have any prohibited food items in the 5th wheel.

At the Peace Arch Crossing..

We made our way to Tulalip Casino and spent the first night in the parking lot – there were quite a number of RVs boondocking there. We had the buffet dinner and did some outlet shopping. Too bad Jeff wanted to tag along for the shopping bit because that influences how much I get into the shopping activity, if you know what I mean 🙂

The next morning we headed to Walmart. We had a cart full of grocery items and it was much cheaper than what it would cost back home. Next stop, Costco. If you think the portions are huge in Costco, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Some of the prices and portions at Costco and Walmart are pretty ridiculous. (Like a 5lb brick of cheese, what family needs 5lbs of cheese!)

We are now parked at Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell. If you want to see an RV park with expensive Class A motorhomes, this is the place to be at.  The RV Park is around a lake, full of Canada geese and ducks.

We will be off to Cheney, WA tomorrow for a night and then onwards to Montana. We’re taking it slow for the first bit just so we can get everything organized.

Oh, one more thing – having internet connection through OnStar in the truck without roaming charges is such a good thing!

Jul 25 2017

Easter Break

A 4-day long weekend for us and what do we do? Stay home on Saturday morning with 4 laptops ready to book a campsite at Yosemite. I was determined to get a spot at Yosemite and was not interested in going away. Fortunately for us my strategy paid off and we were able to get a highly coveted spot at Yosemite National Park.. we had an added challenge because in the whole of Yosemite, only 4 spots work for us due to the length of our 5th wheel. We are pretty darn lucky to get a spot for our dates! Within a couple of minutes everything was booked solid.

Once the camping reservation was finalized, Jeff was all ready to go away. He planned a little get-away. We drove to Pemberton and did a short hike to Keyhole hot springs. That is a very interesting place with the man-made rock pools right against the side of the cliff. It was busy but we managed to find a spot in a pool.

P1050858
P1050855
P1050848
P1050846

We explored the area and drove on the Duffy Lake Road to Lillooet- one of the most scenic drives in Canada.. We saw a mama bear and 2 cubs along the way, how cool is that?! Jeff had his new 40x point and shoot camera and I was able to zoom in to get a decent shot.

fullsizeoutput_143e IMG_0026

We spent the night in a rustic cabin right on Lillooet lake. It was so beautiful. The only thing I wasn’t too keen about the rustic cabin is that I have to use the outhouse, ugh.

The next day we drove home via Whistler and of course we had to stop by to have brunch at the Southside Diner. That was a fun and quick getaway.

IMG_0038

IMG_1131

A surprise find as we explored D'Arcy on our way home

A surprise find as we explored D’Arcy on our way home

Jul 25 2017

Spring Break – Ski vacation

I guess Caroline won’t be submitting her write-up for this blog post, so I’ll add it just to maintain the chronological order of trips.

Relaxing after a long day of skiing

Relaxing after a long day of skiing

During spring break, we spent a week at Silverstar. We had an awesome ski and stay package. Our biggest expense for the trip was the ski lessons for the kids. Fortunately this is the last year for lessons, they are able to ski the black runs with Jeff now. In fact Marcus skis faster than I do, my legs were burning just trying to keep up.

The kids also enjoy bumps and skiing between the trees.. ugh, I hate that.  Silverstar was an ok mountain for us, don’t think we will be back, we’ll try something else next spring.

 

Load more