22/03/2009 - 21/04/2009 - Seattle to Penticton

22/03/2009 - Seattle. The weather has still not brightened up, it is raining and cold, so we have decided that we will come back to Seattle at another time and do the city. We did decide that today we would leave the park and at least go and see the Boeing Factory - we shouldn't get too wet. The building is recorded in the Guinness World Records lists as the biggest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feet (13.3 million cubic meters). The building is so large that it has it's own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substation's and water treatment plant. There are about 30,000 people working at the factory over three shifts. We were visiting on a Sunday so there weren't too many workers about - Sunday's you need to pay overtime and penalties.

22/03/2009 - 23/03/2009 - USA to Canada. Well, to our surprise and relief, we had no troubles crossing the border, customs didn't even want to look inside Stubbie. The Canadian officials did take our US I-94 forms out of our passports and apparently they forward these onto the US immigration. So at least we should now have a record that we have left the States and hopefully we will be able to get another Visa when we arrive at the US border to travel into Alaska.


Travelling up to Kaleden from the border gave Dave and I a really unusual feeling in a way it felt like we were coming home - or at least to our holiday home. So of course the first thing that we just had to do was drive past the Canyon House, and what a great surprise to see Tony and Lisa working out in the yard. It was great to catch up for a quick chat and we hope to be able to catch up for some dinner and drinks later on in our stay - we will be hanging around and annoying the Howard family until later in April. That evening we had a great catch-up with Bobby, Brant, Peter and Lisa - and of course the old Oyster Bay.




24/03/2009 - We have been very lucky in being able to park Stubbie in Peter and Lisa's driveway and hook-up to electricity. This morning I woke up to snow on the ground and also being able to see the deer out on the road - unfortunately they didn't recognise me (probably without food) and took off quickly.





We are now back to reading the snow report on a regular basis and this morning they've had a few centimetres of fresh snow - they have still got a great base, so the big fella and I are looking forward to the day. Bobby and Brant picked us up and off we went. The drive was just like we had remembered and Apex hadn't changed at all. We all had a great day skiing - fighting the crowds NOT.

25/03/2009 - Today we have been able to talk Peter into slumming it at Apex. So Lisa, Peter, Dave and I all head up to Apex - oh did I mention the fact that they had 25cm of new snow which also helped in getting Peter up to Apex. So another great day on the hill - it really is good to be back in Kaleden.

26/03/2009 - 31/03/2009 - We had yet another great day up the hill with Bobby and Brant on Saturday and Sunday. News Break - Brant took a fall today and we all saw it...

Dave finally got his Lasagna dinner on Saturday night- thanks to Bobby - he really has been craving this since we crossed the border. Bobby is just too good to him. Lisa and Peter kindly made us some great Venison burgers on Sunday night. I've taken Buck (Lisa and Peter's dog) out for a couple of walks and it was great to see the quail and deer running around and to hear the woodpeckers making their usual ruckus.

01/04/2009 - 20/04/2009 - As we had expected we've had another fabulous time in Kaleden. The whole Howard family have been just fantastic and I blame them for the few (ok more than a few) pounds that both the Big Fella and I have put on - but to be honest it was worth every pound. Although, we didn't get to see the Penticton Vees play Ice Hockey, but we did get to go see the new Arena, we went and saw the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, which to my surprise I really enjoyed. We finally bought a new Camera to replace the one that was lost in Mexico, at least we will be able to take some not so fuzzy photos. Unfortunately, I know that I wont be able to get my hands on this until Dave has had enough or he has another new toy.

Easter was spent with the Howard family incl. Jeannie and Ross from Vancouver. I had my last day skiing on Easter Friday, the Big Fella decided to have a rest day. We had dinner over at May's place on both Friday and Saturday nights and then on Easter Sunday we had a great meal over at Bobby's place.

In the last week that we have been here I've been out walking with Buck and I've been watching Kaleden start to welcome Spring. It has been great to see some of the trees, plants and flowers all starting to bud and bloom, we also got to see the Pussy Willow and Buttercups in flower, whilst driving up and down the hill. The only problem that I've had with walking Buck is the fact that she (yes Buck is a female dog - great name Peter) decided one day that she had enough of walking and took off on me - so after a 3 hour walk and calling out for Buck I decided it was time to go back to Peter and Lisa's and see if she had returned home. I was really worried that I would have to tell Peter that I had lost his dog. I returned back to Stubbie and unfortunately no Buck. I had only one hope left so Dave and I jumped into the car and drove over to Brant and Bobbie's to see if she was there - and to my great relief she was there, well I didn't know if I should hug her or yell at her. (There were reports from neighbour watch stating that there was a strange lady with an accent screaming obscenities....)

Dave has bought himself a new toy an Ipod Touch. He did tell me that it wasn't a toy, that it was a necessity and that it was for us. Well he has had it for about a week, I haven't been able to touch it and he has hardly put it down. He has downloaded an audio book - of which he said I could listen to as he had finished listening to it, well if I did want to listen to it, which I don't - it's a book on the stock market (he knew he was safe) and I don't think I would ever be able to get the Ipod Touch off him - oh well at least now I'll be able to use the new camera.

We had a trip up to Maury and Gwen's, in Kelowna) to help us with our planning for Alaska. It looks like we are all set to go - as it looks like the roads and RV parks aren't going to be open until mid May we have decided to head over to Edmonton, Alberta, then make our way back over to the North of British Columbia, then up to the Yukon before entering Canada.

We have made plans to be in Calgary, Alberta for the famous Calgary Stampede in the beginning of July and hopefully we should be able to meet up with Bobby and Brant, and Peter and Lisa.

So as much as we don't like to leave Kaleden we are looking forward to getting back on the road - so we are still keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to get a Visa for the US.

A trip to Penticton would not be complete without a trip to the Lost Moose restaurant so we took May up for lunch. Once again the food was great and the company was even better.

Some great news - Brant and Bobbie will be making the trip to down Under early next year. It may finally happen.... Can't wait to get them in some real surf after they have shown off year after year on the white stuff.....