Visit to British Columbia

 Sunday, Aug. 3 - We closed up the motorhome as we were leaving it at the Chewelah campground and taking our car to Canada. (Praying there would not be more storms and it would be safe while we were gone.)  Heading northwest to the border, we could see smoke from the western Washington forest fires in the distance.  We crossed into Canada at Midway, BC - the smallest border crossing into British Columbia.  West on Hwy 3, then north on Hwy 33 to Kelowna.  As we got closer, we came over the ridge and saw the Okanagan River valley, very beautiful for miles and miles.  Then down, down into the city of Kelowna.  With the help of our Garmin, we drove right to Brian and Krista's building.  (Brian & Krista Komar are friends we met in Arizona - they had lived in Winnipeg, but retired and sold their home there in June and now live in Kelowna.  They had been there just six weeks and we were their first visitors)  Krista made lunch for us and showed us around their new home.  Afterward, we went for a drive in the area and visited three wineries.  Then back to their home, we had a delicious supper with smoked ribs, salads and sweet corn. A long, warm day - we all went to bed early.

Canadian border crossing

Monday - After breakfast, we headed to the Mission Hill Winery, an European style architecture on a hilltop above the lake. (It reminded us of our visit to the Melk Abbey in Austria) Mission Hill is also known for its new sculpture collection by Icelandic artist Steinunn Thorarinsdottir. Here, the Komars' had arranged a private tasting for us with one of the sommeliers.  Carl was very knowledgable and taught us more about the grapes and the winery.  He gave us a short tour of the grounds and the barrel storage room.  Afterward, we looked at all the sculptures and the beautiful view of the river from there.
Our next stop was at an orchard known for their fruit jams, syrups and ice creams.  Nearby, we stopped at the Dirty Laundry winery.  Their property was once a Chinese Laundry Service that added a brothel to get business to them, so their themes and decor played on that business, "Madam Vines" and women's lingere.  Afterward, we stopped for lunch, a nice Italian style restaurant, we ate outside under the canopy of vines at Zia's. Heading back toward town, we stopped at a goat cheese dairy - goats were everywhere.  There we tasted many kinds of goat cheese and they had goat milk ice cream.
At 5:00 we had a winery tour at Quail's Gate Winery.  Here Pierre gave us the tour, first we were out among the vines full of grapes and this is where we saw the helicopter land nearby on one of their wine tour stops.  (Made a short trip of going across the large lake for those people) Pierre then took us inside, showing us the crushing machine, stainless steel vats and shared with all the steps they go through to make their wine.  At the end of the tour, he gave us a tasting and taught us the proper way to really "taste" the wine.  (Appropriate to learn wine tasting from a French gentlemen!) It really made a difference in experiencing the different fruits and flavors of each wine.  A very beautiful winery, again on a hillside above the lake. We headed back home and had grilled sausages, salads and gobbled up the left over ribs.

In the cellar with our sommelier

View from Mission Hill Winery

Sculptures on left and right

Copy cats!

Reminded us of Melk Abbey views

Brian wants to put a Battleship Game in the middle

Winery view

Dirty Laundry winery gate

Goat cheese farm

Afternoon tour

Our ride (we wished) at Quail's Gate

Quail's Gate grounds

Okanagan Lake valley view

Tuesday - a wonderful breakfast by our hostess again and then off to a "private virtual winery tour" at the Sandhill Winery.  Here we sat at a tasting bar in front of a large TV screen and the sommelier touched the screen like an IPad and showed us maps of their five winery locations, showed us the soil from the different regions and taught us a lot about the huge Okanagan Lake area. At this winery, they also make and distribute the Wayne Gretzky label of wine.  While we were there, other visitors told us about a brewery next door, with fruit beers.  We walked over and tried the beers, specifically grapefruit beer (which was very refreshing) and raspberry porter.  Interesting.  For lunch today, our hosts took us to one of their favorite winieries - favorite because of the picnic grounds there.  Krista had made us a gourmet lunch with deli sandwiches, watermelon soup, cheeses and crackers.  Picture perfect in all ways.  Very refreshing on the hot day.  Because it was hot out, we headed back home and all took a nap.  When we woke, we walked across their block to the lake and the boys took a dip, while Krista and I visited and took pictures.  Afterward, we played cards for a while and then walked up town for supper at the Mission Pub.  A great way to end a wonderful day.  We all slept very well.

Cedar Creek winery view

Picture perfect picnic lunch

Our picnic view

Grapes are plentiful

Swimming beach view near Komars' home

Wednesday - our time in BC has ended.  After breakfast, we packed up and said goodbye to our dear friends and fantastic hosts.  We left Kelowna about 9:30 that morning, and returned by our same route.  About half way to the border, we could see wildlife ahead in the ditch and going by saw a moose next to us in the ditch.  Too much traffic to stop and get a picture, we think she had two calves that had moved up into the tree line.  We were allowed to cross the border back in to the United States, they questioned us more than the other way and one guard opened the back hatch to look at our luggage.  As we got closer to Chewelah, we could see smoke hanging - we found out there was a forest fire about 30 miles west.  We found our motorhome had stayed safe and sound, there were a couple new campers in the lot.  We unpacked, picked up a few groceries and rested.  We would be leaving the next day.

Thursday - we leave Washington, drive through Idaho and enter Montana on Hwy 2.  Beautiful scenery in the forested areas of Idaho. After crossing the border of Montana, we passed Kootenai Falls and drove on in to Libby.  Here we were camping at the Elk Lodge in Libby.  They did not have hookups, but invited us to park behind their lodge and would have run a electrical cord to us if we wanted.  We ran the generator to keep cool, later that evening we were able to turn it off and open the windows.  Once parked and set up, we decided to drive back to the Falls - we had looked it up and found out there was a hiking trail and rope bridge.  On the way, we stopped at the visitor's center in Libby and got more information on the trail and places to eat and information on Glacier Park.  The volunteer there strongly advised us not to take Hwy 2 to Kalispell the next day because of heavy construction with delays.  Thank you!
We drove back to the Kootenai Falls, located between Troy and Libby.  This is one of the largest free flowing waterfalls in the northwest.  As the trail began, we crossed over the Amtrak railroad tracks on a pedestrian bridge then followed the trail to the swinging rope bridge which overlooks the falls.  Very beautiful, unfortunately a hot, humid day to hike.  Back in town, we rested and then went into the Elks Club for our supper.  We had a nice visit with some of their members and they invited us to stay for their kareoke night.  We declined, we went back to the motorhome and read until bedtime.  With our windows open, we heard most of the singing - they certainly enjoyed it!

Kootenai Falls

Swinging bridge

Swinging bridge view from the trail

Our camp spot behind the Libby Elks Lodge

Friday - Up early, we headed to Kalispell hoping to find an available site at the Kalispell Elks Lodge campground.  We used the alternate route given to us by the visitor's center, so went north on Hwy 37 past the Libby Dam and along Lake Koocanusa and then down Hwy 93 from Eureka to Whitefish and then Kalispell.  Pulling in to the Elks lot, we found three open sites, so parked and got set up for our stay.  (By the end of the day, all sites were full and several were parked in the lot, boondocking).  This Elks Lodge has an exercise center, locker rooms, hot tub and outdoor swimming pool.  However, the pool was closed because the ground level water has risen with all the rain and the health department made them close it.  Unfortunate for us, because it was still hot out.  We ran errands that night and planned our visit to Glacier Park for the next several days.

Lake Koocanusa

Sunset from Kalispell

Another direction - same evening