Mar 26 - drove up the Okanagan Valley, to Oyama and our friends' Jose (from PEI) & Len's. It's been a long time since we were here - early 80's??? The new Coquihalla Highway is great, smooth, straight, but some good mountain views too. They have a great lake view & soon after we arrived they were home also. Took Mia the dog out for a run in the park, or more like Mia chasing the ball until she could run no more! Back to watch Jose prepare a beautiful pork tenderloin, salad & wild rice, delicious, a gourmet delight!! It stays light until 7 pm + now, so quite a change from the south. Great to catch up on all the news in this part of the world & to see everyone on their own turf! Monica was home after her cooking class & met Len's Mom, Bea, also.

Mar 27 - after breakfast, short hike in the nearby park around part of Lake Kalamalka, beautiful with lots of geese. Got a chance to wash our sheepskin bike seats that the dogs at the Lookout Inn had played with (ick!) & lay them out in the sun to dry....hopefully they smell better too! Jose took the afternoon off, so we took Monica and picked up Jose from work & went to the Wild Apple on the Okanagan Lake for lunch, awesome view, funky restaurant and great food, good choice!! Drove to Summerhill Winery, where they have a pyramid shaped wine cellar. Wine tasting was great, very knowledgeable staff & yummy wines. Next up to Knox Mountain - what a great view of Kelowna!! Beautiful sunny day, so lots to see. Picked up red snapper, back to Jose & Len's to have a shrimp appetizer, snapper, salad with Jose's homemade dressing & asparagus, yum!! Lots of food talk, recipe sharing and then the pictures from CR came out (think home videos from years gone by, ha!).

Mar 28 - left Oyama after breakfast & drove up thru Vernon, into the country town of Armstrong, where Jose told me there was a good quilt shop. Couldn't resist that, and sure enough Clea had some great fabrics, so I left her some money.... Very cute town. Drove on along the Shuswap Lakes & Salmon Arm (reminders of my youth when I came here with the Brownlees to visit their relatives ...). Beautiful area, where you can rent houseboats to travel the lakes. On over to Kamloops and then north. Very scenic area and a lovely sunny day. Stayed overnight at a campground in Clearwater. We were the only campers, got to plug into the only electrical outlet available, no water or sewer. Nice walk around town, many shops closed, but nice view of the town & river below from the main road.Went out to eat at the local Country Inn, next to the RV park. That was a mistake..Gerry's ribs and my soup were great, but ick to the rest ...oh well, we didn't have to do dishes...

Mar 29 - another sunny, warm day & we drove to Jasper. Gorgeous views and mountain sights along the way. We were looking for bears and moose, but only sighted one coyote. Mount Robson was amazing, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The info centre was closed by the time we arrived (1 hr time change), but the outdoor outfitter store had all the hike info, so we got that & took off for the 4 km Old Fort Point hike. Quite steep to start, awesome views of the town of Jasper, the Athabasca River and the mountain sheep on a knoll partway up. Deja vu for Sher (Rosemary did we do this hike on our visit here in 97 for the Tourism meetings???) If not , I must have been a mountain sheep in Jasper in another life!!! Find a site at Wapiti Campground, the only one open in the park in the "winter"! Lots of snow around in the trees & tons of ice on the trail on our hike. There are lots of other campers though, our first experience of this all winter in Canada... Stirfried veggies, some shrimp and left over ribs for dinner tonight. It's light here until 8 pm, what a change!!