RV Trip Update Week 16: Okanagan, BX Falls & Kalamalka Lake

I know–“Weren’t you in the Okanagan last week?” Yes, we were. When we were planning our trip we decided to spend two weeks on Vancouver Island (where I grew up) and two weeks in the Okanagan (where my husband grew up). Then we allowed each other to come up with the game plan for their childhood hometown area.

I decided to wander up and down Vancouver Island, moving the RV to four different spots since my parents are gone, and my remaining family lives scattered throughout the island. My husband decided to stay in one place since his family is still all in the same town–Vernon, B.C.

Once we made our plan known to Jack’s family, his sister blessed us with a huge sacrifice on her part–she gave up her entire home for two weeks. She has been living in her RV over at her parents’ home while we have been enjoying having bedrooms with real doors and showers without shower shoes.

By the time this travel update is posted, however, we will be back in our RV traveling further eastward.

But that is next week so for now, let’s dig into what we got up to this week.

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Sunday we started our day with church service at Emmanuel Baptist Church. This was our church home when we lived in Vernon 15 years ago.

We didn’t recognize the majority of the congregation, but we did see a few familiar faces in the crowd and enjoyed catching up with them.

After a quick bite of lunch, we picked up Jack’s sister and headed to BX Falls. The trail up to the falls was fairly muddy due to all the spring rain, but that same spring rain did make for a beautiful, foamy white water fall.

Monday we headed to the nearby town of Salmon Arm. We stopped first at a local flower & gift shop owned by a friend in the area. If you live in the Salmon Arm area, be sure to check out Wildwood Flower Emporium. It is full of beautiful flowers and local arts and crafts items.

After catching up with Ellen (the flower shop owner), we asked her where she thought we should go for lunch. She suggested the Shuswap Pie Company as well as a few other places. We went with the Pie Company because it sounded so good–and it was.

My husband and I had the Shepherds pie. Yep, they sell a wide variety of meat pies! One of our sons had chicken pot pie, and the other two had sandwiches. All five of us loved our meals.

After lunch, we headed out to Sunnybrae Bible Camp where friends of ours work. When we were just several minutes away, we noticed we were over a half hour early. Apparently, the camp was not as far away from Salmon Arm as we remembered (oh, how 15 years can fog up your memories).

We felt it rude to show up so early so when we noticed a nearby park we pulled in and took a walk along the beach and then sat down and soaked up the view for a while. The picture above was taken where we waited. Pretty nice view to enjoy!

We had such a good visit with our friends that the time flew by and before we knew it was past dinner time and they had meetings to get to and kids to pick up. We ended up picking up a quick dinner in town, but I felt bad for our friends who probably ended up making do with the snacks we had that afternoon until their errands were done.

Tuesday we enjoyed a mostly at home day. Well, at least the kids and I did. My husband left mid-afternoon to see a friend of his in Kelowna and didn’t get back until midnight.

I did go out in the morning for a run, though. That morning I chose the Middleton Mountain Trail. This is a very steep hill full of homes. When I was in my 20s I walked up this hill like it was “nothing.” Now that I am in my 40s this hill kicked my behind!

I am going to blame it on the fact that I have lived in a very flat part of Indiana for the last 15 years and not my age. In fact, after I finished ~~my run~~ (slow jog) I texted my running partner back home in Indiana and said we needed to start doing one hill filled run a week.

Of course in Indiana, we won’t find anything close to the size of this hill, but we can find a few.

Wednesday we took the kids out to Kalamalka Provincial Park. Jack and I went last week, but we wanted the kids to see it too.

We hiked a bit deeper into the park this time so that the kids could take in more views of the lake and see just how big the Rattlesnake Point of the park is.

Thursday we let the kids enjoy sleeping in and then after lunch, we took them to Ellison Park–a provincial park on Okanagan Lake.

When my husband was in his late teens and early twenties, he enjoyed climbing and rappelling on the rock cliffs inside Ellison park. This rock he is standing in front of is one he had me climb and rappel when we were dating.

Friday we were going to spend the day mostly doing errands, but I just couldn’t resist going out for another hike. Especially since the day ended up being one of the best ones we have had during the two weeks we have been in Vernon.

I hopped online in the morning and found Turtle Mountain listed as a place to hike. We first went down the Canal Trail where we enjoyed views of the entire town from Swan Lake to the hills above Kalamalka Lake.

As we were heading back to the truck, I said to my husband, “These are not the views I saw online.” He replied that he had seen another trail on the other side of the road from where we parked.

And that is how we found Rocky Ridge Park with its incredible views of the Okanagan Lake end of the Vernon area. It is what you see pictured above. That is my husband sitting with our eldest son, Thomas. I snapped the picture without them knowing–dad and son conversation moments on this trip warm my mom heart. It is one major blessing of this journey. Usually Jack is gone 10 hours a day or more but these past 16 weeks he has been available to bond with his children pretty much 24/7 and I see them all getting closer in their relationships with him.

Saturday we had a few errands to do before we left town on Sunday, but we still managed to fit in an afternoon hike with Jack’s sister to the Cosens Bay area in Kalamalka Provincial Park.

So this week’s 10th picture isn’t one of something we saw this week, but of something I did. My book Thrifty & Thriving: More Life For Less Money is finally done and ready to purchase in both paperback and Kindle format.

Here is the book description…

We all know that thrifty family—the one that manages to live on a cash budget with ease. They don’t worry about their credit card bill, because there isn’t one.
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You can go here to get either your paperback or Kindle format copy.