Kelowna, British Columbia (Day 52)

It's been a very busy, exciting, fun, and exhausting couple of days!

Our first stop yesterday took us to Yellowstone National Park, which was nice all on its own, but we specifically went through there to visit with this amazing young lady right here.

Seren & Porter with their "sister"

This is Mary-Gray Mahoney and we think she's pretty neat. She was one of our very first advisees at Orme, but she has just finished her BA in English at Willamette University in Oregon. Rather than sitting around, wishing that she had a clue what to do with her life, she is working for Xanterra and seeing some really spectacular places while working the front desk at the Lake Lodge Cabins in Yellowstone. She hopes to see a little bit of the world before settling down and we approve. In fact, we couldn't be prouder of her approach to life and hope her travels will lead her to enormous success and fulfillment.

After spending our lunchtime with MG, she had to get ready for work and we needed to get back on the road, but we decided to take in some scenery along the way. This is an easy task to perform in Yellowstone.

And surely, we couldn't leave without seeing Old Faithful.

The kids had some time to run around, too.

Later on, after we left the park, our poor Nissan Pathfinder reached a landmark of its own.

That night, as reported in yesterday's post, we stayed in Missoula, Montana.


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This morning we drove straight to Spokane, where we met up with some more of my relatives, Robert & Joy Ruiz.

Sitting at Olive Garden with Uncle Robert & Aunt Joy

Aunt Joy is my mother's youngest sister and Robert is a licensed orthodontist. They have two children, Brandon and Heather, who were sadly out of town during our visit. After lunch, we walked around a park in Spokane and took in the scenery and there were plenty of water attractions to keep the kids cool on such a warm day.

Playing in the fountain

Waterfalls

Crossing the bridge with Uncle Robert

Playing in the sprinklers

Aunt Joy was sweet enough to bring us fresh-picked cherries from the orchard near their house. So after we said our goodbyes and drove our separate ways, we had a very refreshing (if not messy) snack in the car. Somewhere during this time, we made a wrong turn and, instead of heading North, we wound up heading further West. This navigational error took us a bit out of our way, but we ended up seeing some pretty cool stuff at the Grand Coulee Dam.

Back of the dam  (Lake Roosevelt)

Back of the dam

Front of the dam

Spillway

As seen crossing the bridge

 So that was our day. We are holing up for the night at a Canada's Best Value Inn in Kelowna, British Columbia and I must say, it feels good to be so close to home.

Whale Park Adventures!

It was a beautiful day on Friday, so the four of us took Nika out to the Whale Park to picnic, take in the scenery, and do some creature-watching.

The gazebo where we ate is one of four at the park. The concrete whales are popular for climbing children.

A small squirrel came to watch us eat from a safe distance.

After lunch, it was down the steps to the shore.

There are a lot of steps to get down there.

Climbing on the rocks.

A tide pool with starfish of every color, lots of pretty green anemones, and seaweed. All the black in the foreground is a bed of mussels.

Starfish pile!

Seren touching a starfish.

The view across the bay.

Anemone and seaweed in a mussel bed.

We discovered that Nika's not a half-bad climber, but she was sure tired when we went home.

Soon it was time to climb back up the steps and head back to the car.

Porter wanted to ride the whale one last time before getting strapped into the car.

taking in some scenery

I've been taking pictures all over town of pretty areas, broad seascapes, and scenic views from unlikely places. I wanted to share some of these with you so that you can get an idea of what we see all around us every day. I hope you enjoy these sights as much as I do. :)

One of my favorite spots to look out into the ocean is from the parking lot of the grocery store, located about ¼ of a mile down the hill from our house.

Shore and islands viewable from the Seamart parking lot.

More view from Seamart.

Same parking lot.

Obligatory sun-shining-on-the-water picture, taken at the Seamart parking lot.

The shoreline on a different day.

View of MEHS from Seamart's parking lot.

If we paid enough attention, we'd see dozens of float planes like this one every day.

Even McDonald's has a fantastic view of the marina from their main dining room!

McDonald's tabletop overlooking the marina.

I've talked about the view from our living room before, but here are better pictures:

View of Japonski Island (MEHS on the left), taken from our front porch.

MEHS and lots of sky.

And the view from Mt. Edgecumbe High School's parking lot is just as spectacular.

Marina and mountains viewable from MEHS Parking lot. (Look familiar at all? --Stephen)

Boat heading into the marina.

Same boat, different perspective.

O'Connell Bridge, as seen from MEHS.

Downtown Sitka.

More of the marina.

We spent an afternoon at the Old Sitka State Historical Park, just checking out plants and mussels that had washed up on the shore and skipping stones. These pictures were taken there:

A little bit of shoreline.

A dead tree on the pebbly beach.

More beach.

Sparkling water.

Just a beautiful day to be near the water.

Mountains and placid pools.

Seren trying to decide if the water is too cold to try out. (Hint: It is!)

Kind of reminds me of "One Morning In Maine."

Clear pools and water trickling down the rocks.

Driftwood.

More driftwood.

A small island nearby.

Throwing rocks.

Pretty little flowers in the grass.

Finally, here are just a few pictures taken from the downtown area:

O'Connell Bridge as seen from Baranof Castle.

Different perspective.

Totem Square.