Missoula Niece!

Margaret's niece Cara and husband Grant live in Missoula MT directly on our route from Seattle to Yellowstone! On the fly visit we checked out Cara's grocery store Good Food Store and spent a fortune, then checked in later that evening to their new house they moved into only a few days ago! Owen and Nora welcomed us to their new home on "Grant" street!

Cariad gets hitched...

We've known Cariad since the late 90's when we met her parents in St Barth's and Cariad came to St Margaret's School, graduated in 2004, went to Skidmore and volunteered with the Peace Corps to Niger... many years later she met Chris and now begins her new life in Seattle WA... We have enjoyed the tranquility of Lummi Island for over a week and helped Robin and Marsha with the wedding preparations and celebrated three days of wedding festivities! Now to brave the dreaded ferry back to the mainland and on to Montana and Yellowstone...

Taco truck arrives!

Cariad's wedding rehearsal dinner features a taco truck offering the full assortment of Mexican dishes - yum!!

Rare clear view

Mt Baker is often hidden from view but on the occasion of Cariad's wedding we get the full beautiful vista from Lummi Island. Some 32 miles distant from our location Mt Baker at 10781 ft emits the occasional plume showing their is still life in the young volcano!

Dinner near the Willows!

Being encamped 200 ft away from the highly acclaimed Willows Inn top tier restaurant inspires you to try a little harder! So we made a new potato, shallot, parsley and prosciutto casserole in our new Walmart $7 cast iron pan and put it on the gas grill for an hour, then we made Surryano wrapped scallops which also went in the grill for 20 minutes over foil and then were finished over the open grill along with our favorite steamed broccolini! It was 9 pm PDT by the time our dinner was served so the Willows guest dinners were on about course 15 of the 20 course marathon that started at 6 pm with the delivery of guests arriving by seaplane! We had a splendid evening and saved over $700 by staying home!!

Don't leave home without it!

"IT" is our Barista espresso machine that travels in the kitchen sink underway but starts every day with a delicious treat. Margaret has an almond milk latte frothed with a battery powered mini whip and I have regular milk both with Starbucks decaf French Roast Turkish grind! Worth getting up and starting the generator when boondocking! No comforts left behind!

Oyster prep!

Experimenting with Pacific NW oysters (long shell about 5") and although delicious and milky they were a little large for raw consumption! So I put the rest of the dozen on the gas grill and separately prepared in a saucepan my tasty dressing of butter, finely chopped shallots, parsley and prosciutto. When the oyster shells opened I put a spoonful of dressing on each oyster and allowed it to roast and simmer in the shell until the oyster meat is approx half its original size- now it's ready to serve on the half shell and wow!

Boiled duck egg for brekky!

We thought we'd start the day out to the mainland with a sturdy breakfast at the Willows Inn! All foraged and local produce, yogurt, buckwheat crepes, apricot butter, honey in comb, blueberries, granola with toasted pumpkin seeds, blueberry jam, soft boiled duck egg, thick rashers of pork belly, cured salmon, pancetta, cream cheese and soft matured cheese, creme fraîche, crispy kale leaves in grape seed oil, apple cider, coffee! So you could wrap the crepes and make cheese, pork and kale wraps! Not bad for what gourmets hail as the top restaurant in the US!

Prolific blackberries!

Roadside on Lummi Island the hedgerows are brimming with fruit for the picking! Take a short stroll and get dessert! Need to bring the ice cream along....

Our neighbors on Lummi!

Next field to us is full of happy goats! In the opposite direction about 100 yards is one of the very top US restaurants The Willows Inn famous for its 20 course foraging and local produce menu served over 4 hours and costing $300 a head! I'm wondering if the goats are in the food chain?

My Chinese Toaster

After my electric toaster meltdown I made an investment in a $10 Chinese toaster that performs well on the propane range- the trick is setting the gas about midpoint so it browns rather than burns the bread!! It's a lot quicker than the electric version and much more compact for storage however the exhaust fan needs to on full to take the smoke away!

Kelowna Farmers Market

Always got to check out the local farmers market and Kelowna is one of the best with 200+ vendors all outstanding including the French crepes on demand and the samosa vendor both I did quality control on! Picked up a few veggies but an imminent cross border encounter with customs makes us cautious to seizure of fresh produce which has happened in the past!

Orchard Hill RV Kelowna

Orchard Hill is a market gardening farm with 10 RV sites nicely spaced out with espalier trained fruit trees between pads. Bruce our farm host is one of the local farmers' market weekly vendors and is hiding behind a huge mountain of prime radishes! Our first day here we placed an order for peppers, cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers and regular tomatoes that were delivered to our door! Fresh veggies from farm to grill in a blink!

Another steam locomotive!

Can't resist the urge to jump on another steam train this one the Kettle Valley Railway in Okanagan BC running an oil fired 4-8-0 locomotive with two closed cars and two open cars. Probably the most interesting part of the old KVR track was not on our itinerary and is now a bike trail and that was the Myra Valley section with eighteen timber built trestles and two tunnels. We had a 30 minute excursion down the track near Summerland to a smaller and more modern trestle bridge and back. About 3 out of 10 on the db steam train scale of delight!

Yoga in the Winery!

Margaret doing her best yoga pose with a couple of dummies! At least it was in an outstanding winery!!

Mission Hill Winery

About ten miles south west of Kelowna sitting on a hill overlooking the scenic Okanagan Lake, the Mission Hill Winery is a contemporary architectural ovation to wine making! Developed by Anthony Von Mandl a Vancouver wine distributor, no expense has been spared to turn this beautiful estate into an outstanding wine and dine experience! Purchased a couple of bottles of Chardonnay and a Rosé to do quality control!

Lavender farm

Margaret made a bee line for the lavender farm and we enjoyed a half hour walk around the gardens, the pond and maze, herb and rock gardens, and eventually to the ubiquitous shop full of lavender products!

The Enchanted Forest

A midday break on the TCH* near Craigellachie brought us to a park that we realized was more suitable for kiddies than adults however it was fun wandering the trail through the forest and looking at all the nursery rhymes portrayed through fires pottery figures!
TCH: Trans Canadian Highway #1 and only highway some 5,000 miles long from coast to coast!

French cuisine in the Rockies!

Stumbled on this magical dining experience at Woolsey Creek Cafe in Revelstoke and enjoyed a rabbit and wild mushroom baluchon (phyllo pastry wrap) over red wine poached pear and Dijon sauce, then followed that with venison loin with gin and juniper cream sauce. Arrived in heaven!

The Eclipse

Coming over Kicking Horse Pass between Alberta and British Columbia on the Trans-Canada #1 highway we stopped to check out the spiral railway tunnels.... and that coincided with the eclipse! Our location was at least 400 miles north of the complete dark track so it was just a small occlusion! We were about 20 minutes early and one of the few views through a hole in the clouds was captured before heavy clouds moved in. We were in the first in line for the experience as the phenomenon hit the Pacific coast first and then exited over South Carolina about 90 minutes later...

Rock Isle Lake

Our last hike out of Banff helped considerably by a 20 minute 5 km 1,600 ft elevation rise gondola ride followed by a chair lift taking us up another 800 ft to the top of Standish where the meadows, dwarf pine and amazing pink wild flowers allowed us to hike for a couple hours including the goal of our journey Rock Isle Lake! This sits right on the Continental Divide separating Alberta and British Columbia. No fire smoke today and great visibility!