Nelson and nice things

So this blog post was almost completed.... When technology chose to fail me and the whole thing deleted itself! The good side of this is that you get to read less of my ramblings, but for those actually interested, I'm afraid I really am not down with much explanation the second time around!

So this photo collection is for all times in between returning to Kelowna from the Rockies up until the end of my Nelson visit. (July 30 - Aug 14)

Firstly, this was something I forgot to add to a previous post. We came across the strangest of museums in rocky bordering town Golden (which also hosted a hot spring that we visited for a dip). Basically it is what you see. A weird house thing full of thousands of carvings of men's bearded faces from tree stumps.

The owner greeted us, after we cautiously moved inside. He was adorned in a full length hooded red gown, long beard to match. Full wizard like. But the entranceway where we met him was the workshop. And the messiest I've ever seen at that! ...

I was fortunate enough to catch a free air show by the famous 'Snow birds' across the Okanagan lake. Stunning, death defying skills!!

Had a couple of climbing days out with a friend. Also got in some beach time, creek/canyon walks and got to try my hand at slack lining. Which is my new favourite thing!!

And spend some relaxing time paddle boarding down the lake for half a day. Another favourite thing to do!

The rest of my time in Kelowna consisted of going out for 'Wing Wednesday', going boating, many hours in coffee shops doing some work, reading books in parks and "browsing" outdoor stores!

I also had a few days spend with Nicole's folks - Larry had some heart issues so was admitted in to the local hospital. All was fine after a brief surgery!

On the 9th of August, Maureen and Larry had a party to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. We travelled to Nelson for the party a day early - to help with setting up, as the daughters had organised most of it. The party was an afternoon/evening do with bring your own food.

The sign I made :)

Due to having a Doukhobor wedding the first time around, they never got a chance to say their vows as would be done in a standard western wedding. So they took the opportunity to renew them today.

And in classic style, Maureen's Dad just got up and started singing a song for them (sweet 16). I thought it was the most beautiful thing ever. But then I find out that he does this, with the same song, frequently! Haha. Was still a winner

Then many of their friends got up to say a speech and one coulee played a song they had written about marriage. Preceding this song, they read a note from each of Maureen and Larry's "diaries" from their past. Complete fiction, but absolutely hilarious.

I got up during with the kids and their partners. And I did a speech too!

The day after the party, most people (including Nicole) were heading off home, but I took the opportunity to see another part of Canada and stayed on for an extra few days. 

The week of Nelson adventures started with a hike up the local grind to Pulpit Rock. A nice moderately steep walk, not too long, but hard enough in the heat of the day.

But the view from the rock yielded great views over Nelson

Later that day, Maureen took me on a little local tour to show many many of the old Doukhobor sights and taught me the history of them in the Nelson area. Basically it is a small Russian cultural group who refused to get called up to the war, so had to flee and landed in this part of Canada. Living pretty communally to begin with, then sectors got fractions off, but the mainstay of the descendants still live in the region today. And so on...

Here's a bridge I think they built....

And a local old building in downtown Nelson.... City hall??

We also spend a couple of days checking out the Main Street and a couple of small museums.

Then we had a day where we decided to drive a large loop to surrounding towns and valleys, 1/3 of which neither Maureen or Larry had seen before. The first couple of hours we drive through the Slocan Valley, which is where Maureen lived when she first moved this way, years before the met Larry. We got to see the hues she lived in, school she worked at and all. In just the tiny little lakeside town of Slocan.

The next stop was New Denver. Here there was a museum recounting the history of Japanese descendants that had been detained in camps here during the war. Basically Canada threw all of its Japanese citizens out of the cities and away to little hidden places like this, for the countries "safety", despite that fact that many of them were in fact Canadian citizens and even fought for them in later wars. 

From here we went to a mountain town Silterton. This was basically only half a dozen houses, but it was host to a huge mine (silver and similar minerals that I forget the name of). Amazing little historical display here in what would have been the local stores. And for some reason a collection of old buses!

Later that day, driving down a quiet highway, coincidently driving past what we later discovered was 'bear lake', I finally got to see a bear!! A really big black one was devouring all the berries, right on the very roadside. We noticed and backed up the truck (like I said, quiet highway) and sat parked (with the engine running) in the middle of the road watching him! I got a great video (don't think I can post here), but the photos don't show much. I was excited like a kid, nothing else was impressive for the rest of the day after that!!!

On my final day in Nelson, after being unable to find anyone to join my on a glacier hike (too many bears to do this one on my own), I compromised by hiking up the local hill in Nelson again with Maureen. Which was something I really wanted to do anyway. This time however, we didn't stop at Pulpit Rock, but went all the way to the flagpole at the summit. This is more than double the distance to the rock, and much, much, much steeper!! Was really hard work in the heat, Maureen is damn amazing! 

Views from the flagpole!

The Veregin house!

Getting home from Nelson was an adventure of its own. To save some cash I organised a rideshare (a common thing to do here - people offer lifts online as a way of getting company and covering petrol costs for what are usually very long car journeys. And the buses are very expensive and there's no trains). The lady who I got a ride off seemed very lovely, down to earth and organised. But maybe not actually the last part. What should have been a 3.5-4hr journey ended up taking a full 8 hours!!! I learnt early on that she was going the long way round, to collect her son. This was fine with me. Including stops, it may have added 60-90minutes extra and I was really in no rush at all. But what I didn't expect is for her to stop and do all this other shit on the way including stopping to talk to a stranger in a car park for almost an hour while I had to throw the frisky with her son. Not a bad day, but honestly!!!

The view of the detour was well worth it though...

The day after my return from Nelson, we headed off to Salmon Arm for the annual Roots and Blues festival. It was a 3 day festival of all sorts of roots bands - lots of women singing the blues, harmonica, and some wicked guitar vs fiddle battles!! During the day there were live workshops where various members of different acts jumped on stage and jammed. Really good muso's, one of the most impressive of which was an Aussie I've never heard of - Genevieve Chadwick I think was her name. Epic guitar player and great style. 

For the festival we camped in 'Pete's field' across the road. It was expensive! But fun. Pete is a semi creepy local farmer, who has a huge, overgrown field that he offers as an alternative to the actual festival camping on the other side of the fence. We got there early, got a place near the trees and set up some wicked 'tarpology' which kept us dry (it rained one night).