Top Ten Pictures of 2017

Here are our choices for the top pictures of 2017. We would love your votes, on the poll at the end of the blog, to help us choose the best picture of 2017 🙂

And just in case you haven’t voted for previous years and would like to, here are the links … and just an FYI, all votes are anonymous, your name does not show up anywhere.

Top Ten Pictures of 2016

Top Ten Pictures Of 2015

Top Ten Pictures Of 2014

Top Ten Pictures Of 2013

Now off to 2017 …

Sunset, American Girl Mine Road, California. Picture taken 4 January 2017

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. Picture taken 21 March 2017.

Duck, Bear Creek Provincial Park, Kelowna, British Columbia. Picture taken 4 May 2017.

Okanagan Lake, Bear Creek Provincial Park, Kelowna, British Columbia. Picture taken 5 June 2017.

Pend Oreille River, Montana. Picture taken 25 September 2017.

Butterfly, Denver, Colorado. Picture taken 29 September 2017.

Close-up of Balloons at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Picture taken 14 October 2017.

Balloons at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Picture taken 14 October 2017.

Devil’s Bridge Hike, Sedona, Arizona. Picture taken 27 October 2017.

Snowy Landscape, Kelowna, British Columbia. Picture taken 20 December 2017.

Until next time …

Goodbye Bear Creek, Hello Grandchildren :-)

We hooked up and pulled out of Bear Creek Provincial Park this morning and I was sure glad I had my checklist! This is the first time we have parked Maxx for more than three months, he spent five months at the park, and I have to admit I was a little rusty on the pack-up 🙂  We really enjoyed our time at the park and it was sad saying good-bye to everyone, we even had about eight campers come and wish us well.

Some final pictures from the park that I have never posted.

The last week was spent completing final dental appointments, picking up the items we can’t get while in the United States, and wrapping the last of the Christmas presents. I had all the important last minute appointments to keep … hair, nails, shopping 🙂 Hubby on the other hand wasted his time cleaning the carpets and furniture, doing maintenance on Maxx’s under-belly (he added See Level sensors on all our tanks and did some other odds and sods) and he also washed and waxed Maxx so he is all sparkly for his trip … okay don’t fret I know how lucky I am to be married to such a hard working man!  We also had a chance to have a final happy hour with Rod and Sylvia of Six Saturdays and A Sunday and Driving Miss Murphy joined us as well (we missed 5Cs Que Pasa, hopefully they can join us in the spring) … what a fun time as usual!We arrived at our daughter’s place around noon and our eight-year-old grandson ran out, with his safety vest on, to help grandpa pull into the driveway. I told him pretty soon he was going to be so well trained that I would be able to leave him and grandpa to park Maxx and I can go inside, have a glass of wine, and visit with his mommy and daddy! It is nice to be back here and hear the cheery “Hi Grandma” every time they run past the trailer 🙂  We are in the driveway for the next five nights and then we are off for another year south!

Until next time …

YAHOO RAIN!!!

I never thought that would be the title of one of my blogs! After more than three months of no rain (I’m not including the maybe three days when we had about four rain drops) we finally had an actual rainfall and boy do we need it. The rain cleared out some of the smoke and hopefully it helped with the forest fires surrounding us.

What we didn’t need was the thunder and lightning that came with the rain but so far I haven’t seen anything in the news about new fires, so we maybe it didn’t do any damage. There were a few bolts of lightning and cracks of thunder that were right on top of us, and one that took out the power for a second or two, but fortunately it didn’t last to long.

While we really need the rain I did feel sorry for some of the tent campers who finally packed up and headed home just before 11:00 p.m. 😦

We are getting more rain today but then it looks like we are back to dry, warm weather again … let’s just hope it is enough rain to help with the forest fires!

I will leave you with some pictures of the blue heron that I visit with every morning …

The haze filled sky makes for some interesting pictures.

And some more smokey sunrise pictures. These are from two weeks ago, there has been so much smoke in the sky this past week that I haven’t even seen the sun through the haze!

Until next time …

Canadian Beaver

A few days ago I realized I had never posted pictures of the beaver I came across during one of my early morning walks. I have heard from many people that beavers are mean and aggressive but from my encounter, the Canadian Beaver is true to Canadian spirit and was very friendly. He wasn’t the least bit concerned that I was standing right beside his path from the lake to the trees. He barely gave me a look!

Shortly after his visit to the trees he headed back into the lake and again could have cared less that I was right along his path.

The fur trade was instrumental in the development of Canada and at the heart of the fur trade was the beaver, whose pelts were used to make everything from felt hats to robes to winter coats. The Hudson’s Bay Company, who was a main player in the fur trade, put the beaver on their coat of arms in 1621. The beaver has been our national symbol for over 300 years and is featured on our five-cent coin.

I have seen beavers before but usually from a distance and close to a beaver lodge. This was the first beaver that I have seen up close and it was truly awesome to see our national symbol right in front of me 🙂

I thought I would add this note for my blogger friends in Ontario who are writing about rain and fall weather. Even though we are now into September we are still in the mid 30C, 95+F, with no rain and it doesn’t look like this will change for the near future. The last time we had any significant rain was May, when we had major flooding, and believe me with all the forest fires we now have, a really good rainstorm would be welcomed!

Until next time …

It’s A Tough Life We Lead!

Not much has happened over the past week but I did have a few thoughts rolling around in my head, so here you go 🙂

We safely enjoyed watching the Solar Eclipse last Monday using a pinhole camera made by Driving Miss Murphy. Kelowna had about 83% coverage of the sun but I really thought it would get a lot darker than it did. What we noticed the most was how much it cooled off! For a brief period it felt much cooler than the 35C, 95F temps we had that day.If you want to see some awesome pictures of the eclipse check out Life On The Road who was in Cody, Wyoming last Monday!

Yesterday we spend another warm, sunny afternoon out on Okanagan Lake with friends of ours.

Someone has put a lot of work into this painting of Mary in a little grotto along the shores of Okanagan Lake!

Some excitement!

Seriously! I’m sure the people who own this house have this conversation … “Honey do you want to take the seaplane today, or should we take the boat? Or maybe we should take the car, no actually let’s take the helicopter it’s close to the house!

Just some of the many award winning vineyards along the lake.

As we cruised along the shore looking at the views I couldn’t help but think about what an amazing life we lead. We spend our summers at home, surrounded by family and friends, in one of the most beautiful areas of British Columbia, where temps in the mid to high 30C, 95F to 100F are the norm, and we spend our winters travelling the southern US enjoying sunny skies and warm temperatures … and when we return home at Christmas, if there is snow, we don’t have to shovel it, because our house is still south were there is no snow! Yes we lead an amazing life 🙂

Until next time …

Hubby Saves The Day!

A few months ago I started getting messages from WordPress saying I had reaching my limit for pictures. So I started uploading my pictures first and if that worked I would then write my blog and post it. This procedure has worked for a few months but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to last! We tossed around the idea of upgrading to a paid WordPress blog, but I wasn’t really keen on that idea. I also tossed around the idea of giving up with my blog, but I like having a record of our travels, so I gave up on that idea as well.

Fortunately hubby came up with the option of posting my pictures on Flickr and then linking them to the blog. Over the past few days he has played around with it and it seems to work so today is my first attempt. If it works you will see pictures of the sunrise during my morning walk along the beach, if it doesn’t work I will have to go back to Flickr school!

Yesterday’s sunrise, although the clouds looked like rain clouds we didn’t get any, very much needed, rain ☹

I though it was very kind of the seagull to do a fly by while I was taking this picture ☺

Until next time …

Safely Home

We arrived home safely after an almost eleven-hour drive but it was worth it to spend time with our cute, snuggly Edmonton grandchildren 🙂

She is so cute and such a good baby!

Our grandson telling his dog “See Jack grandma and grandpa are leaving to go to Costco, but they will be back soon.” Okay he is only sixteen months so maybe he wasn’t saying that, but he was watching for us to come home 🙂

One afternoon we all went RV browsing and came across this neat retro unit.

It was an early start today, although not as early as the picture below makes it appear!

I was trying to get a picture of the sunrise through the back driver’s side window but the tinting on the window was making it difficult, so hubby pulled over and I quickly jumped out and grabbed a picture.

A slight fog and the sunrise made for some beautiful scenery along Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary … even after an almost, what would have probably been very serious, collision with a big fat deer! Unlike deer in BC who feed on grass and trees, Alberta and Saskatchewan deer feed on grain so they are very big and fat.

  Almost as soon as we crossed back into BC the smoke from forest fires filled the skies, and the drive through Glacier National Park was filled with smoke so thick, it was hard to see and hard to breath!

It was nice to have almost a week away from smoke filled air. Hopefully the Okanagan gets the rain predicted for this weekend, it will help with the forest fires and knock down the smoke.

We were about an hour from home and I was just thinking I could put the camera away instead of holding it on my lap when we came across this semi accident. I sure hope the driver was okay!

Shortly after the accident we came across a forest fire that had just started along Highway 97A near Larkin Cross Road 😦

So now it’s back to our regular routine for the next six weeks and then we start our travels south.

Until next time …

Snuggle Time In Edmonton, Alberta

We left home early yesterday morning under what I’m pretty sure was clear blue sky, although it was hard to tell with all the smoke in the air.

A pretty sunrise

The smoky skies have provided some very pretty sunrises during my morning walk over the last few days.

We were treated to lots of wildlife at the beginning of our trip, three mountain sheep and six deer but I only got a picture of the mountain sheep.

Even though it was the Friday of a long weekend, traffic was pretty light and we were only slowed down a few times for construction.

Just south of Golden, B.C. We drove through a large section of wildfires on both sides of the highway. Hopefully they are under control before we head home next week.

The weather was great until we were just south of Edmonton, Alberta and then the skies opened up and we ended up in a torrential downpour. The first rain we have seen since the beginning of June and there was a lot of it.

The blurry shapes you can sort of see is a car in front of us and one in the lane beside us. The windshield wipers were on high and they just couldn’t keep up with the rain!

Fortunately it didn’t last long and ten hours later we arrived at our son’s house, just in time for a great steak dinner and a little time to get reacquainted with our sixteen-month-old grandson before he went to bed. The rest of the evening was spent snuggling with our new granddaughter!

Until next time …

Baby … Again :-)

Our seventh grandchild, and second granddaughter, arrived early this morning. Weighing in at 7 pounds 8 ounces (10 ounces less than her big brother), she is a little cutie with a full head of hair.

 Her aunt was born with a full head of hair and never lost any of it, so hopefully grandbaby Maxx will keep her hair as well 🙂

Once the family is settled into a routine at home we will head out to Edmonton, Alberta for some snuggle time.

Until next time …

This and That :-)

I hadn’t planned on writing a blog today but a few things have been tossing around in my head and all of the sudden a blog post was born.

First of all, thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s blog, The Written Word. While I appreciated what everyone had to say I think Rod of Six Saturdays and a Sunday summed it up the best for me. He said “My excuse is that I write the way people talk today” and I realized that was exactly it, I write my blog the way I talk to my friends and I consider you all my friends 🙂

Last week we enjoyed happy hour with Rod and Sylvia of Six Saturdays and a Sunday and Navigator and Chauffeur of Driving Miss Murphy and had so much fun that I completely forgot to take pictures.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Driving Miss Murphy on their boat. We cruised over to Raymer Bay, not far from our campground, and enjoyed some time swimming in the lake. We then cruised back to their slip at the Kelowna Yacht club where we enjoyed homemade burgers, salad and drinks while watching a beautiful sunset.

During my morning walk today I noticed a Blue Heron enjoying the calm waters of Okanagan Lake. Two young children on their bikes joined me and the three of us watched the Blue Heron for a long time before I finally pulled myself away and continued on my walk.

 Until next time …