Whirlwind Road Trip

Last Thursday, I was sitting with my grandma and told her about the road trip that my mom would be leaving on the next day. The trip would take her to Seattle to see my sister and back to Peace River within a five-day period.

'Round about the third time explaining that in a ten-minute time frame (Grandma's memory is mostly gone), it occurred to me that, with very little rearranging of my schedule, I could go, too. Oh, happy day! I haven't been to my sister's since 2015.

A few phone calls and about half an hour later, it was arranged.

The trip went via Abbottsford, BC so that my mom and uncles and aunties could attend their aunty's funeral. (I never knew this particular great-aunt and was only acquainted with one family member, so I skipped the actual funeral in favour of more time with my sister, Katrin.)

It was a lot of driving, but so worth it. Here are a few of the gazillion photos I took on the trip.

Completing a family tradition at the David Thompson Resort.

A new perspective at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk near Revelstoke, BC.

Giant Cedars Boardwalk. Spring is springing!

Beautiful moss.

Lovely light.

Aunty Joy marvelling at the trees.

At the Bellevue Botanical Garden, Washington.

So much beauty!

I took far too many photographs of flowers. Wait, scratch that. It's not possible to photograph flowers too much. :-)

Entrance to the Yao Japanese Garden of the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

I literally can't even.

This confirmed my suspicions... faeries live here.

While I'd substitute "tea" most of the time, it was coffee that morning! Pretty good coffee, too, served with a smile. :-)

Beginning a 1.3 mile/500 foot elevation hike with my mom, sister, and uncle at Twin Falls, Washington. It turned out that I was in much worse shape than I thought. :-P

This was a view of the falls from the bridge at the end. Only, we didn't know it and went for another half of a fairly steep mile. Yes, I hurt the next day.

Maidenhair ferns are ubiquitous here.

Towards the end, the sun came out and made the hike even more beautiful.

This photo was taken at about the .8 mile mark. The circled part has the teeny-tiny bridge that we hiked to in it. If you really blow it up, you could probably see people on it. Only, we had to go down and back up a long ways to get there. It was awesome.

This was also great "research" for my book, because my main characters live at the top of a steep mountain about this far from the bay. Now I know how they stay so thin. :-)

More lovely light.

On the way home, we stopped to stretch our legs at this lovely little spot near Pincher Creek, Alberta, called Lundbreck Falls. I never knew it existed until Tuesday. The water was roaring pretty good with all the spring runoff. Definitely worth stopping (and maybe even camping) again!

(P.S. I also made progress on a new knitting design. That was a nice change. :-D)