OH CANADA

The day I got home from Paso we also left for Canada.  Josh's dad is from Nelson, British Columbia and they have big family reunions there every so often.  Josh and I drove to Utah to meet up with his parents and his brother, Brandon's, family to caravan the rest of the way there.

We stopped at Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana upon Josh's request on the way there.  It was where the largest battle was fought between the Nez Percé and the US government forces as the Indian tribe was trying to escape to Canada.  They had a cool walking tour that showed you different sites of the battle and different stories from both the Indians and the US soldiers.  Unfortunately we showed up pretty late in the day and there were crazy mosquitoes everywhere and giant ants that made the stop unpleasant. 

Saturday, after the Big Hole Battlefield, we traveled into Missoula, MT and stayed the night at a hotel that had water slides for the girls to enjoy.  Sunday we started the last leg of our journey into Canada.  We got to the Kootenay Lake Ferry to cross into Balfour (just outside Nelson) at just the right time... we were one of the last few cars to make it on board, thankfully we made it! 

We finally made it to our Cabin Sunday evening and get all situated.  We had rented out a lake house for the week with an up/down stairs to fit us, Josh's parents, Brandon's family, and their cousin Todd's family.  We went to town and ate some Chinese food before heading back for the night.

Here is our cabin

View from the balcony of our cabin.

The stairs leading down to our lakeside backyard 

Crazy Jewel on the stairs 

Monday we went to try this hike that was supposed to have amazing views but when we got there we found out that there was low snow fall from the late winter that blocked the road you drive up on.  We were only able to get as far as Sandon, which is a ghost town that used to be a booming old mining town.  Josh, Jewel, and Loretta went to check out the museum in Sandon while the rest of the group went to see how far we could hike up to since we had driven over an hour to get there.

The "hike" got into some wet ground and a few of us decided to skip it, so we had a few groups kind of doing there own thing. 

Afterward we drove across the river to see the "tin house". 

 Josh even found the Sandon Cemetery hidden up a hill on the side of the road... he will never miss an attraction if he can help it ;)

We passed this beautiful lake on our way down and I forced a stop for a picture. 

We stopped in Jasper for a quick stop to see the S.S. Moyie 

Then we made a run to Nelson to Lakeside Park for some french fries with vinegar and some Dairy Queen, which we would get a few more times before the trip was over. 

Tuesday we headed back into Nelson for some of our must see sites.  We went to Gyro park for some great views of Nelson and some wild salmon berries and sascatoons picked by Gary :) The salmon berries, aka thimble berries, have a raspberry like appearance and the sascatoons look like a blueberry and taste like a pomegranate.

Then we went down to Cottonwood Falls which is a gorgeous waterfall right in town!  Nelson is built right into the side of a mountain completely covered in trees and greenery so nature is never too far away.  

Josh, Loretta, and I went back to Nelson later that night for a little sightseeing.  We did an architectural driving tour around town that talked about some of the historic old buildings and then we took a trolley ride from Lakeside Park.   

Wednesday we went on a hike up to Kokanee Lake.  It was about a 5 or 5 1/2 mile hike round trip and it was absolutely gorgeous.  You can see in the pictures how densely the mountains are covered by trees.  We saw high mountain lakes, waterfalls, snow covered trails from the late winter, and chunks of ice in a lake in the dead of summer!

The snow on the trail was a trip because it didn't feel cool enough for the snow to be there.  Everyone was wearing tank tops and shorts and were totally fine.  I just can't get over that, lol. 

 I love this picture because Brandon got an impromptu shot of me exiting the port-a-potty.  He knew I would have a disgusted look on my face from the nasty bathroom and he was right.  I don't know if you can tell here, but it cracks me up.

By Thursday the reunion was full swing.  We had Carters from all over meeting up at Marv's place (Josh's Dad's brother).  I think I heard that Friday there was around seventy people there! Everyone just hangs out at their lake house, goes in the water, plays volleyball, eats, and chats. 

Friday Josh and I slipped away for some one on one time in Nelson. We went on a walking architectural tour of the town. This was our favorite building because we have been to one on Victoria Island, B.C. that looked very similar and turns out they were designed by the same guy!

Saturday was our last real day in Nelson before we left.  We packed a lot into this day.  We went to Fletcher Falls in the morning to check out the waterfall we had heard about. 

Here is a shot of me and my cute lil nieces, Jewel and Aspen. 

Saturday was also family pictures and the meal our group was responsible to make, Sloppy Joes.  It was a hectic process to get all the food ready, but it was a hit.  Gary, Loretta, and Leandra carried the weight of this one and they did a great job!

 Here is Josh and Aspen enjoying some dessert before the reunion ended. 

 Then we did clean up and headed back to our cabin.  We had a few more good rounds of catch phrase before the trip was through!

Sunday morning we finished packing, got a last couple pictures and headed for Utah.  We drove the 15 hours to Utah and slept a few more hours before our 10 hour trip back to Cali on Monday.

Another Great Trip!