Oliver

Today was a long haul - nearly 7 hours in the truck until we reached Oliver, BC. We went through some gorgeous scenery, enjoying Christina Lake and Osoyoos along the way. This is the Okonagon valley, the same as in Washington, and wineries are famous and prevalent here.

We stopped about 5 hours in and had lunch at a Provincial park at the top of a pass and had lunch that we had packed that morning. It was a nice spot to stretch our legs and other than a quick gas stop, we had not other break on the trip. Lots of steep passes meant some tougher driving but all went well. Dad's mysterious coolant problem seems to be a thing of the past although we can't really explain why....

We arrived in Oliver around 3:00 (but time changes again to Pacific). Our RV park is very nice, although designed a little more for the full-timers than the Grizwald traveling circus. Flat, paved lots with full services, but no playground, park or pool for the kids. As a matter of fact, I believe ours are the only youngsters in the park. We are surrounded by 45'+ motor homes, several of which my dad has estimated at costing a pretty penny (the one across from us runs about a cool $1M). Colby riding his bike and Grady playing slingshot marshmallow does not really feel at home here.

Regardless, given the fact that we are in WINE country, we decided to see some of the wineries. We were a little apprehensive about bringing the boys but it turned out fine - in fact we ran into another family who happened to be from Mill Creek (and a former student of Steve's sister, Stacie - small world). We went to 3 wineries, buying some wine at each one and the kids were really great. They were incredibly patient and well behaved.

As a reward, we drove back into Rattlesnake Canyon, where we treated the boys to bumper boats, go-karts, rock-climbing. Tilt-A-Wheel and - gasp!- the trampoline bungee. The boys were out of their mind at finally getting to do the bungee trampoline on this trip. Their smiles were about as large as their jumps! it was a fun little park, although there were virtually no other customers there.

We came back home and made our final dinner for the trip. As usual, dad & Steve are playing Cribbage, mom is playing Skipbo with the boys and i am blogging. Tomorrow we head for home...