We're Back!!!!!

We made it back from the coast!!!

After returning from Las Vegas just a week ago, I did a load of wash, repacked my suitcase and Bruce and I headed off to the B.C. coast (Gibson's Landing) to visit some friends on Tuesday morning. Our trip out was rather uneventful. We did see some wildlife along the highway though, mountain sheep and goats, an elk and a coyote. We made it to Hope B.C. the first day. We probably could have gone further, but we were tired and rest seemed to be in order. We got a motel room and headed off in search for a restaurant for supper. Bruce had fish and chips and I had teryaki chicken. They were okay. While we were eating the waitress brought these 2 huge pieces of lemon meringue pie to the table behind us and Bruce heard her say that the pie was 2 for the price of one. We couldn't pass up that deal so I had lemon pie and Bruce had Coconut Cream pie. It was very good!!!!:) Then we got the bill.......$13.77. Bruce went to the waitress and said that she had made a mistake. She said that it was seniors day and that meals were half price!!!! They even gave it to near seniors!!!! Bruce thinks he should get the discount as he is 56 years old. Anyhow, the bill was actually LESS than my dinner from the menu price of $13.95.

Up the next morning, not too early as we thought it would be best to avoid the morning commuters into Vancouver, with a stop for gas and Tim's in Chilliwack and then off to Horseshoe Bay to try and get the noon ferry across to Gibson's. We just made it!!!! We were the very LAST car to get on the ferry. It was looking a bit bleak at getting on, but the guy on the ferry radioed saying "Ralph, send in the PT Cruiser in front of you!". We arrived in Gibson's and had a terrible time getting hold of Betty on the phone. We were using a payphone and each time Bruce dialed it said that the number could not be completed at this time. We decided to get some lunch and attempt to get hold of Betty after we ate. To make a LOOOOOOONG story short, Bruce finally had our friend Vern (in Medicine Hat) call Betty and she met us and we were able to begin our visit. Betty and Brenda had moved since the last time we were there so we didn't have their address.

We did some eating out, some shopping and we went and picked Blackberries and Blueberries. I have never seen so much fruit on bushes as there was on the blackberry and blueberry bushes. We brought home 2 ice cream pails of blackberries and 1 pail of blueberries. They're frozen so when I take them out I will have to do something with them all at once. If you were to compare the 'Edmonton' grocery store price to the amount of berries we brought back, I'm sure it would have been close to $200.00 worth of free fruit! The peoples yards that we picked the fruit in, don't want it!!!!! Betty goes quite often and picks the fruit and makes jams and jellies to sell at the market. That was what we did on Saturday. We helped Betty out at the market. Each week she and Brenda bake cookies (chocolate chip, peanut butter, ginger snaps and coconut macaroons), banana bread and lemon pound cake, and muffins plus they sell jams and jellies. It was quite slow at the market on Saturday but usually they sell between $300 and $400 dollars worth of stuff. It was fun. There were vendors selling fresh produce and some artisans with their wares. I bought a few pieces of pottery and a stained glass piece and some homemade spice mixtures and catnip (which the kitties love!!!!!!! :) :) meow).

We were hoping to bring back a salmon but we couldn't because we would have needed a second cooler as we didn't want to transfer odors from a fish to our berries. Saturday was the end of the salmon run there!!! We did, however, barbeque a salmon on Saturday night with some friends of Betty and Brenda. It was a good time.

We were up early Sunday morning to get packed and ready for the trip back home. After breakfast of yummy pancakes, we headed to the ferry to get on our way. We stopped in Chilliwack again to fill up the 'Cruiser' and headed off down the highway. Just on this side of Kamloops we stopped for a late lunch at this little restaurant in a town called 'Rayleigh'. We were only there for about an hour, and headed off again. Bruce thought that we might make it to Jasper......but that wasn't meant to be!!! We got about 30 km when traffic was STOPPED on the highway. There had been a fatal accident a bit of a ways ahead. A motorcyclist was killed and the police had traffic stopped and it would probably be 3 to 4 hours wait. We turned around and headed back to Kamloops for the night. We had a terrible time finding our way around to where the motels were and eventually after about an hour we found a place and checked in. After a bit of a rest we headed out to find a bar to play KENO in. B.C. lotteries has Keno and Bruce loved to play that whenever we were in a pub. We played that for a while had some dry ribs and I had a ginger ale and Bruce had a couple of beers before heading back to the motel for an early night.

Yesterday, we headed out a 7 am after getting our morning Tim's coffee and arrived home about 5:30 pm. We traveled around 2600 kilometers in total. We are already talking about doing another trip next summer. Bruce even said that he might take 2 weeks off together!!! Maybe even going into the Okanogan on the way back.

I suppose I should go and unpack the suitcase now and put away our stuff. I was too tired last night to even attempt it. I think the kitties are very happy that mommy is home with them today!!!! Even though they are pretty independent creatures they seemed to really miss us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!