I'm back from my brief holiday, having had a wonderful break from life on the coast by travelling into the semi-arid desert country of the southern interior of the province of British Columbia. While I get back into the swing of life here in Victoria, I will take the liberty of sharing with you a few vacation photos. First, I will introduce a couple of my travelling companions, grandchildren Molly (foreground) and Rosie (background) in the van.
They are sampling fruit the Fraser valley is famous for: fresh-picked raspberries.
However, before we could travel to the interior of the province we had to take a ferry across to the mainland since Victoria is on an island.
The ferries are large car-ferries that travel hourly during the daylight hours and evening.
It takes about two hours to cross to the Vancouver ferry terminal called Tsawassen. Below is a view taken from the ferry window while passing between two of the Gulf Islands.
After arriving on the mainland we travelled eastwards up the lush Fraser Valley, which provides Vancouver with much of its food (including raspberries) from the rich river delta agricultural lands.
--->Next Stop:
Cultus Lake Provincial Park.
One of the reasons we wanted to visit the interior of the province was to get some real summer HEAT. Here Rosie found a neat device to cool off with while traveling. After an overnight stop in the Similkameen Valley in sagebrush country we drove through the Richter Pass (below).
As we descended from the Richter pass the town of Osoyoos came into view. The Okanagan Valley is a long string of emerald lakes surrounded by lush orchards and vineyards on the valley floor and sagebrush and pine trees on the dry mountainsides.
After a cooling swim in Lake Osoyoos...
...we traveled northward up the valley to the small city of Penticton, where this vacation report will close with a shot of the steamer Sicamous in the sunset on the shore of Lake Okanagan.
Thanks for joining me on my vacation. Tomorrow I promise to return to Victoria!
