only 1 kid threw up

A standard Ogopogo picture is needed.

Ferry ride to the IslandOur oldest enjoying Little Qualicum Falls. 

Our first foray onto the beach

Kids having fun, extreme insanity building....

All living s*** opens up and our oldest fella regresses 50,000 years!

Now we didn`t forget  to post about our day yesterday, we just wish we could forget about it.

We headed out of Kelowna early and hit the road for Vancouver.  It was a long drive for the kids, which made it a long drive for us! 

We checked into our hotel in North Vancouver.  It was a bit of a dive (so we al together left it off the hotel ratings for this summer), but supposively close to all of the attractions and close to the Ferry.  We dropped off our stuff and took off for the 5 minute drive to the Aquarium. 

But after 40 minutes of waiting to drive  the 3 blocks onto the bridge that would take us close to the Aquarium we decided it was best to go back to the hotel. I guess everyone in Vancouver also wanted to take the bridge to Stanley Park. The 1 km drive back took another 35 minutes.  We learned our lesson, driving in Vancouver is not the same as driving at home. The kids loved the pool though and didn`t want to get out, even for supper.

So we learned another lesson, book the ferry earlier than a day in advance.  When we went to book the Ferry over to Nanaimo our only options left were 6:20 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. 

6:20 a.m. it was! 

We packed up the night before and set the alarm for 4:15 a.m.  The kids loved the Ferry though.  Mom and Dad wanted to stay out on the outer deck, but the kids were more comfy in the big chairs on the inside of the boat.  We had brought breakfast with us, which was smart.

And they served delicious hot coffee.....so hot and delicious.

We got off of the Ferry at 8 a.m. and saw that Tofino was only 200 + km away so we made the silly decision to head to Tofino.  It took 4 hours to drive!!! 

We are still glad we went though.

The road to Tofino can be summed up by the warning signs of: Caution:  Narrow Winding Road.  Twisting and turning through the most beautiful forest ever! The trees were huge and we even saw 2 black bears.  We made a couple of stops on the trip, one to Little Qualicum Falls which was a super great little hike (lots of stairs, but easy terrain) and the goats on the roof in Coombs.  What a cool gimmick the goats are. 

The store is super neat and has lots of stuff and really reasonable rates.  The kids found wooden pop guns...you can imagine how long they lasted in the van before we had to threaten to take them away.  The bakery was also super neat and they had lots of food and garden stuff.  Dad ended up buying salmon jerky, home made granola bars, and a spinach brioche, so damn yummy!!!

Very fun stop! Worth it for sure for a few groceries or a lunch stop.

After we finally reached Tofino, but not before someone couldn`t hold his pre-lunch down going around all the little twists and turns in the road, the drive seemed worth it. 

Even with the sweet stick of barf mostly aired out of the van we stopped at the Tacofino stand for lunch, someone told us it was their choice for best fish tacos.

Ding Ding!!!

We ordered 1 fish taco, 1 bean taco, 3 cheese gringas (quesadillas), 1 mango-coconut smoothie, 1 mint-lime freshie, and 1 lemon-ginger freshie. It was amazing! The fish taco was hands down the best thing we have had in the fresh locally made food category. The little Tacofino truck pumped out a lot of tacos but they were lined up down the parking lot. We waited 30 minutes for our order, and they were moving to get everything out!

After lunch our little prairie children went nuts in the ocean.  Our youngest spent the entire time running out to the waters edge and then running away as the waves came.  He did this for a long time until he tripped and a wave caught up to him.  He had sand everywhere.  After that he yelled `bad water`and threw sand at the waves.  The other 2 ran and screamed and giggled.  They loved everything about it, the waves, the sand, the shells.  The were filthy and loving it!

It was great to see them experience something new and so different to what they have even done. There is something magical about waves and surf.

The drive back was long...but we did it!  We made it back to Nanaimo and went to a friends place to stay.  The graciously let us stay in their new house before they even move in.  It is on the side of a mountain overlooking the harbour!  It is insanely cool.  Tonight from the hot tub on their deck we saw a baby deer and a racoon.

Today was long but amazing!!!!

first full day in a city, Kelowna beware!

The Kelowna Farmers Market

The indoor pool in Kelowna, those windows fold up and the whole wall is open to the green space.

View from balcony in Kelowna. Pool indoors and hot tubs outdoors.

The oldest enjoying a picnic in Kelowna at a Regional park.

Our strawberry haul from the u-pick farm.

The little one saying "hello!' to the baby kangaroo in Kelowna.

A beautiful picture of our girl and an albino kangaroo baby!

We started off today by not packing the van to head out of town, but instead we packed a picnic lunch and planned a day in Kelowna.

We could write a whole post about the farmers market here in town, but we will limit it to just a few comments. It was fantabulous! Below is a list of what we bought;

- carrots, 3 bunches
- peas, 1 bag to be shelled and eaten in hotel
- cucumbers, 2 for snacking later
- kale crisps, 1 small bag of dehydrated kale crisps
- cheese bun, 1 bun that the young one selected
- lemon aid, 1 cup fresh squeezed that was selected by the middle kid
- cookie, 1 coco cookie that was selected by the oldest
- spinach buns, 3 spinach stuffed buns
- sweet and sour gluten, 1 order of soya gluten that was crispy, chewy and awesome
- cookies, a whole pack of coco cookies that everyone loved
- pumpkin seed brittle, 1 small bag of pumpkin seed brittle, so damn good
- chocolate mint ice 'cream', 1 cup of coconut milk ice cream that is 100% local and organic
- quinoa granola, secret recipe of quinoa granola that was crunchy and good
- cheese cake, 3 bite sized pieces of organic frozen cheese cake

Whew!

And we would have bought much more. There was so much fantastic booths and food trucks. And the kids enjoyed the kids magician that put on a show for all the kids at the farmers market. Check it out if you are in Kelowna on Wednesdays or Saturdays.

Then we found a awesome winery in Kelowna called House of Rose. www.houseofrose.ca. The owner was super nice, she walked us through the wines she had and Mom was able to sample a few. And we walked out of there with 3 bottles of wine and a map she gave us showing a u pick strawberry patch.

The strawberry patch was awesome. It was very hard keeping the boys from eating more than they picked, but they managed to collect 7 pounds of strawberries in 10 minutes...the juiciest, sweetest strawberries ever. The boys could barely eat their picnic lunch after eating as many strawberries as they could in the van on the way to the park. The left overs served as a wonderful topping on angel food cake back at the hotel.

Who knew that we would find kangaroos in Kelowna (that was not on the BINGO card)? We checked out a fun place called Kangaroo Creek Farm. The owners lovingly care for wallabies, kangaroos, goats and other animals. The kids got to feed a kangaroo and hold a baby kangaroo that was in a makeshift pouch. It is nice to see the kids interacting with animals. Our youngest had to crouch down at every animals and say "hello baby".

When it is 18 degrees and you are walking past an amazing spray park...decisions, decisions...but how can you say no when you also feel like jumping in there too? Needless to say, after a supper of cereal and fruit in the room we checked out ogopogo and went to the spray park (fully clothed, we had extra clothes in the can though).

Our middle was convinced that if he captured a picture of the real Ogopogo that he would, of course, be famous. He carried his camera around all day and told more than a dozen strangers how he was going to find Ogopogo. When we got to the lake though, he gave the camera back. He had decided that after he took the picture, a big limo would probably come and take him to a new hotel and then he would miss his family.

Great city and surrounding area Kelowna is! We could easliy stay for another 2 days. Next stop, the couv!

Fairy tale village, amazing ice cream, vineyards and ....Scandia?

The little guy enjoying chocolate milk from D Dutchman Dairy.

Walking from the chickens he said "cock-a-cock-a-doo-doo!" for 15 minutes straight.

Our little one feeding the young ones some hay.

Running from fairy tale to fairy tale in the Enchanted Forest near Revelstoke.

They went in and quickly came out saying "It is full of kids!!"

The kids using everything not nailed down to make a beaver dam between the beds in Revelstoke. Great Hotel!

"Those pigs have to be somewhere..."

Captain Hook vs. Captain Shaggy Beard

Today started with another early morning and a decent continental breakfast at the Best Western Wayside Inn. The pools were closed until 9:00 so we decided to hit the road because we knew of a few places we wanted to stop and check out.

And glad we did because today was jammed packed!

First, we stopped at the Enchanted Forest just outside of Revelstoke. It was early and rainy so we were alone there, but that place must get busy because it was cool! It was a walk through the forest with all the fairy tales and nursery rhymes recreated in little scenes spread through the forest. You could walk into all the 3 little pigs houses, the old woman's shoe, and even see jack cutting down the bean stalk (a tree) with a huge giant at the top of the tree looking terrified. We ended up spending close to an hour and a half there.

Second, we stopped in Sicamous Dutchman Dairy farm. We saw a sign that said friendly friendly farm animals...so we pulled off the highway and into an awesome place! We walked around the farm and looked at all the dairy cows, baby dairy cows (who were very friendly!), the chickens, llamas, donkeys, etc.

The kids loved the animals! The baby cows were great, we fed them hay, let them lick our hands clean, and they loved getting their heads scratched. And the surprise fun was our youngest went bananas for the chickens and roosters!

And we all loved the fresh ice cream, chocolate milk and whipping cream. Yes whipping cream, Dad accidentally bought whipping cream thinking it was milk and proceeded to chug it before realizing what he did. His guts were in knots for the rest of the afternoon.

But the ice cream.....holy hell! Best...ice cream...ever....period...no really...that...good...seriously.

Third, we were getting kinda hungry for lunch so we say signs for The Log Barn, waffles and sausage - sounds good.

The food was a bust because we pulled in behind two tour buses so it was way to busy to get anything. But it was not a complete write off because we found the smartest animals ever. Goats! These goats are on a bridge over the entrance to The Log Barn. What they have is a pulley system where the tourists (us) pay $.25 to buy a handful or corn and place it in a cup on a rope, that is attached to the pulley. These smart goats hear all this and use their little hooves to spin the pulley and raise the cup of corn up a good 50 feet to where they are camped on the bridge.

Smartestest animals ever!

Fourth, vineyards. Mom and Dad have just begun to enjoy wine (thanks to having kickass friends to share it with!) so we decided to pop by a few on the way to pick up a few bottles. This exchange sums up Dads experience at the vineyards:

- this vineyard was conducting a wine tasting -

Vineyard employee: "how are you doing over there?"
Dad: (carrying two bottles) "not to bad, just gonna buy a couple of these bottles."
Snobby vineyard patron: "So I guess you don't come to many wine tastings then do you?"
Dad: "no I guess I don't, good call!"

But we ended up with a few bottles.

Fifth, Scandia. We should just stop talking now about this place because it really doesn't deserve anything besides a glorious controlled blaze.
It advertises itself as a fun place for kids to have some fun and supper. But it was a terrible place that is a combination of a dirty Ruckers and and terrifying Chuck E. Cheese. Most of the games were broken and half of the working ones had no tickets. The mini golf was sad and thank goodness we can't tell you about the food because we left to go eat somewhere else. Just don't go there.

Sixth, hotel. We are at the Best Western Kelowna Hotel and Suites. Pretty cool place, it is super green and prides itself on being energy efficient. it has loads of skylights instead of lights in the hallways, they push recycling to the max, even in the rooms, and there is a full array of solar panels on the roof. The bad part is the hotel is 3 buildings,so we had to walk outside to go to the pool (and will have to go to the third building for the free continental breakfast tomorrow) and it was cool and windy tonight.

Here is how it looks:

Best Western Kelowna Inn and Suites

Room 2/5 (nice room and pretty good little balcony, but no microwave and the fridge is even to small for a dorm room.)

Pool 3/5 (the indoor pool is decent, no waterslides though. And the pool area is all concrete so it echoes a lot wand is very loud. The outside hot tubs are nice but small.)

Location 4/5 (good location. Near lots of shopping and restaurants, but not close to downtown. Can't walk anywhere.)

Hotel 4/5 (overall decent place, but we would likely look someplace else next time unless we had Best Western gift cards.)

Canmore, Giant Cedar, a drive and then Revelstoke!

So our morning in Canmore began very early, our middle kid was awake at 5:00! We tried to convince him to go go back to bed because it was waaaay to early for a hotel. Around 5:30 Dad got up with him and they went outside to not wake up everyone else. When we returned a few minutes later the young one was up!

So the three walk to Tim Hortons for a muffin and a coffee.

We had many other highlights for the day.

We left Canmore and headed towards Revelstoke. It was a slightly rainy day so the drive was a wet, lush and green one. We stopped at a few small streams and gathered some rocks and threw some rocks.

And we came across Giant Cedar.....the coolest damn place ever!! It was just off highway #1 but it was the farthest thing from pavement and RVs. It was a fantastic rain forest walk along a boardwalk. It was a lot of stairs that took you up the mountain a few hundred yards to an amazing cedar forest. The kids were good and enjoyed the walk and the old fallen trees, but it would be easy to lose their intest if you don't keep them engaged in the walk.

Giant Cedar was Dads highlight so far!

We also did a a forest walk to a 'rock garden', which was about 20 minutes long. It was on a a rougher path than Giant Cedar but the kids liked being able to walk and climb through the forest more. The rock garden was actually a deposit of old massive boulders that were covered in moms and lichen. Super fun as well, a lot more interactive and active.

Then it was in the Revelstoke after braving the last day of the long weekend traffic. It was raining and grey so we did not get to walk and see much of Revelstoke. But we did enjoy the Best Western Wayside Inn!!!

It was very new and had some very cool features that sets it off from others. It had a 6:00 am continental breakfast (great for early risers).

It also had an outside heated pool, outside warmer pool and an outside hot tub. Which was amazing because it was Gary and raining outside. But the best part of the hotel were the facilities. The pool change rooms were stellar, the breakfast area was clean, spacious, and the room was very nice and modern.

One thing lacking in town may have been the restaurants, though we ended up finding Emos pizza.....yes Emos. And to our dismay it was not staffed with long banged, pale, pantera shirt wearing teens. The food and service was very good though.

Busy day with a tough drive but a great end to the day sitting in the hot tub in the rain.

The hotel rates like this:

Best Western Wayside Inn

Room 5/5 (it was a good size and had amazing beds!)

Pool 4/5 (the pools were great, very clean and maintained. Only tick against it was no waterslide, but it is nice to sometimes not have a waterslide.)

Location 3/5 (it was just inside town so it was easy to find, but it was not really close to anything that we could walk to.)

Hotel 5/5 (a great place, the plaque said it was the #6 Best Western in Canada, and we agree!)

Canada's Birthday

Mom getting her feet wet in a cold mountian stream

The kids enjoying the refreshing splash in the mountian strem.

Our oldest boy looking out of the gondola in Banff.

The kids waiting for a Parisian Waffle in Canmore

A little cotton candy at the Canada Day celebration in Canmore.

A little Boston Pizza art to share with the world.

The view from our hotel balcony.

The view on our hotel balcony as we read books before bed.

Today started with a bang. Everyone was awake by 5:30....I guess that is the down fall of being asleep by 7:00 the night before. Instead of waiting 3.5 hours till the pool opened the family decided to get going to check out the mountains and get a start to our day.

We were exploring kananaskis village by 7:00 am. And on our way back to Highway 1 we came across a waterfall at the side of the road. It was awesome to see the kids put their feet in the water and try to come up with ideas as to why the water was so damn cold.

We also stopped the at a Texas gate and let the kids loose at figuring its' purpose. It took them a few minutes and some wild ideas like " a place where animals can hide under and get away from the cars." or "this is so I can balance on these.", and our middle child began to tightrope walk across the gate.

Then it was on to Banff and the sulphur mountain gondola. When we pulled in it was getting a bit busy, but we had almost no wait at the bottom and the top to get on the gondola. Both of us, Mom and Dad, were a bit worried as we started off but all the kids did great! Our middle one was crazy excited and was yelling and twitchy eyes. We were not the most prepared for the fact that the weather was going to be colder up top, we forgot our youngest one's hoodie. And he just kept saying "burrrr, cold. Burrrr, cold."

Then it was off to Canmore for some Canada Day celebrations. We walked around town, ate ice cream, ate cotton candy, ate Parisian waffles...and even ate birthday cake. The town was alright too. Then believe or not we even ate lunch.

Then we checked into the Best Western in Canmore and proceeded to go straight to the pool.

Meh.

The pool was alright, would be even better if the kids were a few years older. The was no shallow end and the waterslide launched the kids out at Mach 2. But the best part of the hotel was the balcony. We read books on it, we ate snacks on it, and at 10:30 we even were able to watch the fireworks. It was a great end to the day.

Except we then watched some bad rom com on cable way to late and we are currently regretting we stayed up for it.

Overall the hotel rates:

Best Western in Canmore

Room 3/5 (clean and roomy, but a bit old and dated)

Pool 4/5 (it is still. A good pool, slide and hot tub. But not quite suited to younger kids)

Location 5/5 (on the main drag in town and nice and close to restaurants and grocery stores)

Hotel 3/5 (we would stay here again but would likely look somewhere else next time for a place with a cool pool)

Tomorrow we are off to Big Cedar and Revelstoke.

Let Summer Begin!

Mom and the wee one at the Alberta border.

The kids in the van at 5:30 just about to set off for summer vacation!!!!

The kids at hte Alberta border showing off their tomahawks.

The little guy is in love with his new stroller because it matches.

Today we began our summer vacation to the West coast!

It was an early morning with a departure from home at 5:00 am. You can see the three of them droopy eyed but ready!

It seems as the vacation was doomed from the start with an early start, but it couldn't have worked out better. Besides a pee break and a gas fill we didn't really stop until the Alberta border at 9:00 am.

And it was a great stop. The weather was amazing and the sky was clear and blue. The temp was 19 degrees when we pulled in to stop! We enjoyed the park they had there and ran off lots of energy that was beginning to build in everyone. Mom even had a tire swing ride and Dad gave the slide a workout. And you can see Mom and wee one ran around the play structure having a good time.

Once the tourist centre opened at 9:30 we went in to use the facilities. But while Mom was going number 1 we talk to the young fella at the information desk. After a few minutes of looking at a map of Alberta with him and pointing at places we will likely never see, he gave the kids a mini tomahawk each. And they were not a shitty plastic toy but instead an actual stone tied to a stick with strips of leather! Pretty damn awesome.....until we realized the carnage that could occur by presenting captive children with a weapon to injury another. The picture shows them at the tourist centre with their tomahawks and a Dino.

So it was a rare combo Tourism Alberta fail/win.

And as if that wasn't enough we met these two amazing women at the tourist centre who are cycling across Canada to raise money for autism. Check out their blog as they head out East. http://www.2filles2roues.blogspot.ca/ Show them some love if you see two women cycling by in a tandem bike.

It is in French but it is still worth a look by non French reading folk like me.

And we rolled into Calgary at around 1:30 so we made some pretty good time along the way. So far we only noticed one thing we forgot, our youngest's stroller. So off to Sears we went to snap one up. And you can see how happy the little guy is with a new matching stroller.

More pictures will follow tomorrow of the hotel and water park here at the Hotel. The kids love the pools and slides!

Tomorrow off to drive our way into the mountains, we are looking forward to seeing the kids faces tomorrow.

Canad Inns Destination Center Grand Forks

In front of our favourite hotel ever!

Description:  Super clean and nice hotel.

Price:  Super reasonable, even for a kids’ suite.

Food:  Has a coffee maker, microwave and fridge.  99 cent breakfast in the restaurant, but why bother when you can have cereal in the room!

Location:  Beautiful Grand Forks.  The hotel just off the main highway and easy to find.

Waterpark:  Family favourite!!!  Lots of different areas including several waterslides – a couple of toddler ones, a couple of little kid ones and one giant one for older kids.

Rooms:  Get the kids’ suite.  It has a separate room for the kids with 2 bunkbeds and their own TV, video game system and CD player.  The kids loved being able to play in their own room…even if they ended up in our bed later on that night.

The bucket at the top drops a junk load of water on top of anyone below.

Looks scarier than it really is!

Waterpark at Canad Inns

Lazy River

Kids’ Room