On June 1, 2008, we left Chimacum, Washington and headed up to Canada for our several month long trip across Canada. Our border crossing was very simple and quick and we had nothing taken away from us. As we crossed into British Columbia, we noted that there were many orchards, fruit stands and wineries. The first provincial park we came to was Vaseaux Lake and we decided to stop to see what it was like. 
Unfortunately, most of the sites in this particular park were very short and narrow so it would not have been a good place for our large rig, but it was a beautiful spot in the road.
We headed on to Vernon, British Columbia where we would be visiting with our dear friends from the desert, Al and Betty Thomas. They had just moved to a new modular home
and it was really beautiful. Betty and Al had done an excellent job of decorating on the inside and were busy planning their deck and landscaping.
McKenzie especially liked the small chairs that Betty’s teddy bears sat in and had a great time terrorizing one of the bears. 
Al and Betty’s son, Calvin and his wife, Connie, had invited us to their home for a steak cookout and on the way, we drove up to Silver Star Ski Resort. It was cold and overcast but we were able to see the brightly painted condominiums. 
Calvin and Connie also had a beautiful home and had just returned from a trip to Australia. While they were gone, their dog, Sambucca (excuse me if I got the spelling of his name wrong), decided he was lonely and took off. He was picked up very close to their old home, about 15 kilometers away. Betty and Al picked him up from the pound and brought him back to the house. 
The next day we awoke to drizzly rain and chilly temperatures. We decided to drive over to Enderby to see another set of friends that we had met out at the desert, Stan and Lorraine Ramstad..jpg)
We had a lovely visit with them and caught up on all the news since we had last seen them about six years ago.
Though it was chilly the next morning, we decided to head on over to Sun Peaks Mountain Resort. It is a picturesque, ski-through alpine village with charming walkways, unique shops, cafes and spas, nestled between three inviting mountains. Sun Peaks is BC’s second largest ski area, spread across 122 runs on 3, 678 acres. The Sun Peaks Resort is steeped in Olympic greatness. As the Director of Skiing, Female Athlete of the Century and Olympic Champion, Nancy Greene brings excellence and inspiration to visitors and local athletes. She also has her lodge in this area, with a great many of her skiing medals and awards housed in the lobby.
Sun Peaks is a four season mountain resort. During the summer you can discover the pristine meadows of brilliant alpine wildflowers and feel the warm wind at your back in the world-renowned mountain bike park or challenge yourself to a round of golf on the impressive 18-hole Graham Cooke designed golf course. The homes and condos here are absolutely beautiful – quite a different look from the Silver Star ski area. 
As a change of pace and to give Al a rest from driving, we decided to attend the Creative Chaos crafts fair, one of the largest in B.C. Betty and I had a ball going down all the rows and looking at all the unique crafts. A Scottish band marched thru the craft hall and we all gave them a wide berth as they went thru. 
After leaving there, we drove to a new neighborhood named Turtle Hill which is very exclusive. From the top of the hill you were able to see all of the town of Vernon as well as the Okanagan Lake. Each home should have a beautiful view. 
We finally got a beautiful day and we headed over to O’Keefe Ranch. It is a historic site that steps back in time to the late 1800’s.
At that time, huge cattle ranches occupied the valley and ranch headquarters were self-contained settlements. The ranch was founded in 1867 by Cornelius O’Keefe who, along with his partner, Thomas Greenhow, was driving cattle north to sell to the hungry miners in the gold fields. Impressed with the lush grass, ample water and the beauty of the valley, they each pre-empted 160 acres of prime meadowland and began cattle ranching. By the turn of the century, the O’Keefes and Greenhows owned over 20,000 acres of prime Okanagan land. While much of their land was sold off in 1907 to be subdivided into orchard land, the O’Keefe family carried on ranching after the death of Cornelius O’Keefe in 1919. Up until the 1960’s, the ranch was still being run by Tierney O’Keefe, son of the founder. It was Tierney who restored and rebuilt the original ranch buildings and opened the ranch as an historic site in 1967.
We toured the main house which was very beautifully decorated to reflect the original O’Keefe home.
Inside the door was a hallway with beautiful banisters going up to the second floor.
On the right side, was the ladies parlor,
the gentlemen’s parlor and the dining room. In the dining room, both the lady and the master of the house had glass bells, each with a different ring, to signal the butlers and maids.
Also on the grounds was the old store which Greenhow and O’Keefe established to supplement their ranching income. 
The O’Keefe ranch is helping to care for and preserve the heritage of rare breed farm animals. One we found very curious was Jacob’s Sheep. It is an ancient breed probably originating in Syria over 3,000 years ago. The name “Jacob” came from Jacob in the Old Testament who selectively bred spotted sheep. Jacob sheep produce 2, 4, or sometimes 6 horns and is a small mixed breed not considered commercially viable for its meat, but its wool is very popular with hand spinners. It is now considered “Internationally Rare” which means its numbers are very low worldwide. 
Our last day with Betty and Al, found us driving over to Shuswap Lake to see all the houseboats.
Just outside of the town of Sicamous, which is the houseboat capital of Canada, there are houseboats being built and floating down the lake. Of course, we had to make a stop at the D Dutchman Dairy which has excellent homemade ice cream.
We hiked a short distance to Margaret Falls which is named after the first white woman to see this impressive falls.
The water originates at the top of Bastion Mountain that lies directly to the west, and follows a fault in the limestone. 
The spray of the falls keeps the vegetation moist and allows the mosses that adorn many of the cedars to survive.
After leaving Betty and Al’s home, we drove east on our way to Alberta to visit with another of our desert friends, Sam and Wally Beck. On the way, we stopped to see the place where the last spike was driven for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. An iron ribbon crossed Canada from sea to sea, nearly 3,000 miles of steel rail pushed across vast prairies, lofty mountain passes, twisted thru canyons and bridged thousands of streams. The spot where Andrew Onderdonk’s crew ran out of rails in Eagle Pass became, in terms of what it represented, the most important point in the entire line. Van Horne named it Craigellachie after a gathering place of that name used by the Great Clan in Scotland. Here, on November 7, 1885, a plain iron spike welded East to West.
It was raining heavily, so we bypassed the Enchanted Forest where you can discover over 350 handcrafted figurines in amongst 800 year old cedars. It looked like something we’d like to view, but unfortunately the rain was too heavy and since everything was outdoors, we decided to file it away as some place to visit in the future. We also stopped by Three Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town, and dodging mud puddles and big rain drops, we looked around briefly. Also a place to put into our files for another trip. We did manage to get a picture of George next to the steam tractor. 
The 1915 – 65 horsepower steam tractor is the landmark of the Three Valley Motel. It was in continuous use til 1959 and was considered to be in the best condition of any tractor of its period in Western Canada. It is run for a few days every year to keep it in working order.
As we drove along thru British Columbia we were in awe of the beautiful snow-capped mountains and all the lush greenery and forests.
We also noticed the avalanche tunnels which had been constructed across the roads to protect the cars from being buried when large tundras of snow slid down the mountainside. 
It is truly a beautiful province!
We thank Al and Betty, their family, and Stan and Lorraine for the great time we have had in British Columbia. Now we will head over to Alberta to see the beautiful landscape there. So stay with us and read about Part II of Crossing Canada! Til we get to see each of you again, stay well and happy.
Unfortunately, most of the sites in this particular park were very short and narrow so it would not have been a good place for our large rig, but it was a beautiful spot in the road.We headed on to Vernon, British Columbia where we would be visiting with our dear friends from the desert, Al and Betty Thomas. They had just moved to a new modular home
and it was really beautiful. Betty and Al had done an excellent job of decorating on the inside and were busy planning their deck and landscaping. McKenzie especially liked the small chairs that Betty’s teddy bears sat in and had a great time terrorizing one of the bears. Al and Betty’s son, Calvin and his wife, Connie, had invited us to their home for a steak cookout and on the way, we drove up to Silver Star Ski Resort. It was cold and overcast but we were able to see the brightly painted condominiums. Calvin and Connie also had a beautiful home and had just returned from a trip to Australia. While they were gone, their dog, Sambucca (excuse me if I got the spelling of his name wrong), decided he was lonely and took off. He was picked up very close to their old home, about 15 kilometers away. Betty and Al picked him up from the pound and brought him back to the house. The next day we awoke to drizzly rain and chilly temperatures. We decided to drive over to Enderby to see another set of friends that we had met out at the desert, Stan and Lorraine Ramstad.
We had a lovely visit with them and caught up on all the news since we had last seen them about six years ago.Though it was chilly the next morning, we decided to head on over to Sun Peaks Mountain Resort. It is a picturesque, ski-through alpine village with charming walkways, unique shops, cafes and spas, nestled between three inviting mountains. Sun Peaks is BC’s second largest ski area, spread across 122 runs on 3, 678 acres. The Sun Peaks Resort is steeped in Olympic greatness. As the Director of Skiing, Female Athlete of the Century and Olympic Champion, Nancy Greene brings excellence and inspiration to visitors and local athletes. She also has her lodge in this area, with a great many of her skiing medals and awards housed in the lobby.
Sun Peaks is a four season mountain resort. During the summer you can discover the pristine meadows of brilliant alpine wildflowers and feel the warm wind at your back in the world-renowned mountain bike park or challenge yourself to a round of golf on the impressive 18-hole Graham Cooke designed golf course. The homes and condos here are absolutely beautiful – quite a different look from the Silver Star ski area. As a change of pace and to give Al a rest from driving, we decided to attend the Creative Chaos crafts fair, one of the largest in B.C. Betty and I had a ball going down all the rows and looking at all the unique crafts. A Scottish band marched thru the craft hall and we all gave them a wide berth as they went thru. After leaving there, we drove to a new neighborhood named Turtle Hill which is very exclusive. From the top of the hill you were able to see all of the town of Vernon as well as the Okanagan Lake. Each home should have a beautiful view. We finally got a beautiful day and we headed over to O’Keefe Ranch. It is a historic site that steps back in time to the late 1800’s.
At that time, huge cattle ranches occupied the valley and ranch headquarters were self-contained settlements. The ranch was founded in 1867 by Cornelius O’Keefe who, along with his partner, Thomas Greenhow, was driving cattle north to sell to the hungry miners in the gold fields. Impressed with the lush grass, ample water and the beauty of the valley, they each pre-empted 160 acres of prime meadowland and began cattle ranching. By the turn of the century, the O’Keefes and Greenhows owned over 20,000 acres of prime Okanagan land. While much of their land was sold off in 1907 to be subdivided into orchard land, the O’Keefe family carried on ranching after the death of Cornelius O’Keefe in 1919. Up until the 1960’s, the ranch was still being run by Tierney O’Keefe, son of the founder. It was Tierney who restored and rebuilt the original ranch buildings and opened the ranch as an historic site in 1967.We toured the main house which was very beautifully decorated to reflect the original O’Keefe home.
Inside the door was a hallway with beautiful banisters going up to the second floor. On the right side, was the ladies parlor, the gentlemen’s parlor and the dining room. In the dining room, both the lady and the master of the house had glass bells, each with a different ring, to signal the butlers and maids. Also on the grounds was the old store which Greenhow and O’Keefe established to supplement their ranching income. The O’Keefe ranch is helping to care for and preserve the heritage of rare breed farm animals. One we found very curious was Jacob’s Sheep. It is an ancient breed probably originating in Syria over 3,000 years ago. The name “Jacob” came from Jacob in the Old Testament who selectively bred spotted sheep. Jacob sheep produce 2, 4, or sometimes 6 horns and is a small mixed breed not considered commercially viable for its meat, but its wool is very popular with hand spinners. It is now considered “Internationally Rare” which means its numbers are very low worldwide. 
Our last day with Betty and Al, found us driving over to Shuswap Lake to see all the houseboats.
Just outside of the town of Sicamous, which is the houseboat capital of Canada, there are houseboats being built and floating down the lake. Of course, we had to make a stop at the D Dutchman Dairy which has excellent homemade ice cream. We hiked a short distance to Margaret Falls which is named after the first white woman to see this impressive falls. The water originates at the top of Bastion Mountain that lies directly to the west, and follows a fault in the limestone. The spray of the falls keeps the vegetation moist and allows the mosses that adorn many of the cedars to survive.After leaving Betty and Al’s home, we drove east on our way to Alberta to visit with another of our desert friends, Sam and Wally Beck. On the way, we stopped to see the place where the last spike was driven for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. An iron ribbon crossed Canada from sea to sea, nearly 3,000 miles of steel rail pushed across vast prairies, lofty mountain passes, twisted thru canyons and bridged thousands of streams. The spot where Andrew Onderdonk’s crew ran out of rails in Eagle Pass became, in terms of what it represented, the most important point in the entire line. Van Horne named it Craigellachie after a gathering place of that name used by the Great Clan in Scotland. Here, on November 7, 1885, a plain iron spike welded East to West.
It was raining heavily, so we bypassed the Enchanted Forest where you can discover over 350 handcrafted figurines in amongst 800 year old cedars. It looked like something we’d like to view, but unfortunately the rain was too heavy and since everything was outdoors, we decided to file it away as some place to visit in the future. We also stopped by Three Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town, and dodging mud puddles and big rain drops, we looked around briefly. Also a place to put into our files for another trip. We did manage to get a picture of George next to the steam tractor. The 1915 – 65 horsepower steam tractor is the landmark of the Three Valley Motel. It was in continuous use til 1959 and was considered to be in the best condition of any tractor of its period in Western Canada. It is run for a few days every year to keep it in working order.As we drove along thru British Columbia we were in awe of the beautiful snow-capped mountains and all the lush greenery and forests.
We also noticed the avalanche tunnels which had been constructed across the roads to protect the cars from being buried when large tundras of snow slid down the mountainside. It is truly a beautiful province!We thank Al and Betty, their family, and Stan and Lorraine for the great time we have had in British Columbia. Now we will head over to Alberta to see the beautiful landscape there. So stay with us and read about Part II of Crossing Canada! Til we get to see each of you again, stay well and happy.
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