.action video

Sorry for the delay on this action video. Turns out video editing is pretty time consuming! Enjoy this video of the trip M and I took this summer!

Click here to read about the day's featured in this very long action video!

.martha trip part 4 .08.20.16.

.martha trip part 5 .08.21.16.

.martha trip part 6 .08.22.16.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.22.16.

The next morning we went to Flathead lake, where we were originally were supposed to be camping the night before. The sun was shinning, but unfortunately the wind was blowing!  We cooked some delicious breakfast, and then strolled around Wayfarers State Park. We took loads of pictures and enjoyed the sunshine, oh and the wind.

When we finally got bored of walking around, we decided to go back up to whitefish mountain resort to go on the adventure park. I turned out of Wayfarers State Park and we drove along Flathead lake enjoying the beautiful views. About 15 minutes later I realized we were driving in the wrong direction!! We turned around and got to see the beautiful views all over again! My bad... 

The adventure park was loads of fun! I did every single course, including the kids ones. You gotta start somewhere right? 

K did the first few with me and then got distracted by another handsome mountain man. To be fair the man had on a bright orange toque, so he was pretty hard to miss. I went on a few more of the courses while K gabbed with her new man.

Finally I got her to come on the intermediate course when suddenly she became scared of heights. I'm gonna chalk that one up to a coincidence, considering the mountain man was watching from below.(just kidding, she was originally scared of heights)

After the horror of the intermediate course K and I did an easy one to increase her confidence in heights once more. Mission failed, we stood on the platform for the final zipline for about 15 minutes waiting for her fears to tame themselves. To be fair the cute mountain men below heckling her wasn't helping. 

 

There was only one course left, the black diamond. K was out, she didn't want to do the black diamond. I don't blame her really, it was extremely tough and painful to complete. K videoed me and laughed at my expense as I slowly made my way through the obstacles, each one harder then the last! 

One particular obstacle was especially difficult. It was a ladder, made out of logs with tiny spaces between them. Sort of like those chains of hotdogs you get at the local sobey's. About the only way I could figure out how to get down was to straddle the log and slowly slide down to the next opening between logs. It was EXTREMELY PAINFUL and I was probably doing it completely wrong, but I made it down and that's what matters!

The second last obstacle was by far the worst. You had to hold on to the rope for dear life and jump your feet over to the platform circle at the bottom of each rope. I was exhausted. I clung to the rope and jumped my feet over the best I could. What seemed like an hour later I finally made it to the end!

 The last obstacle was a "trust fall" similar to the one I went on in chase BC. With the two adventure park guides and K heckling me I opted to go for the actual trust fall instead of just stepping off the platform and gracefully drifting down to the ground. Instead I fell backwards and flopped around like a rag doll. Peer pressure, it's a real thing; don't give in!! 

We were off, on route to find the perfect mountain setting campground. We drove through Glacier National park until the sun set, we picked the first campground we saw and pulled in. 

It turned out to be a little diamond in the rough! Nice clean bathrooms, spaced out campsites and a fire pit. Finally I'd be able to make my campfire meals I'd planned!! 

K made some Mac and Cheese in the van while I messed around trying to get the fire started. I got slightly sidetracked by another campfire activity I had planned, glow stick bubbles. 

Once I realized the bubbles weren't going to work, I moved along to trying to get the campfire food ready!I wrapped the tinfoil around my creation and tossed them in the fire! Once again I was distracted by glowsticks. I cut them open and flung them around,this created a nice "starlight" glow around the campfire. By time K had finished cooking the Mac and Cheese I had used up most of the glowsticks and broke out the sparklers---or sprinklers as I kept calling them. (They sprinkle you with fire, DUH)

After I got our "Campfire Feast" loaded in the fire, we sat and enjoyed the roaring fire; eating our delicious M&C and admiring the stars in the sky (and the fake  glowstick stars on the ground, and all over me). I even started to serenade K with one of our old girls-camp songs "Like the stars" by Jenny Phillips. 

Once the campfire food had finally cooled off we were ready to feast on my "pinsperation dinner/dessert" I slowly unwrapped the pigs in a blanket and this is what I got.....

Thank goodness we had decided to have back-up food!!!

Turns out I suck at almost everything there is to do with campfires. I can barely get a good campfire started without going through mass amounts of matches and fire-starter. I suck at cooking campfire food, and my campfire activity of "glow in the dark bubbles" was also a huge disappointment! Better luck next time I suppose! 

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.21.16.

While researching things to do in Montana, I came across the Whitefish Mountain Resort

website. They had tons of off season activities going on, including zip lining, alpine slide, downhill mountain biking, and my personal favorite, a suspended "adventure park"!! I had done an adventure park course in Revelstoke the previous summer and was so excited to try one again! 

When we woke up I called the mountain resort to book us a time to go ziplining!! It was K's first time I was so excited for her to experience ripping through the mountains hanging from a wire, there really is nothing like it! 

While K cooked breakfast I took advantage of the fresh water connection and flushed out all of the water tanks in the van. The previous owner had left some water in the tanks and it did not smell very good! Being new to this whole "RV ownership" stuff I searched for about an hour for the grey water dump valve, and the fresh water fill connection. After finally finding the connections I hooked up the water to the van, not totally thinking straight I started filling the hose before unraveling it.

I turned my back for one second and the hose erupted out of the plastic casing. Having no idea what just happened, I dropped to the ground ducking in cover from the imminent danger! As I slowly got out of the fetal position, surveying my surroundings to figure out what had happened; I noticed that my neighbors had been watching the whole time and were now hysterically laughing at my reaction. I smiled and waved at my audience as I stood up, brushing the dirt and gravel off of me. 

Over breakfast I told K about what had happened outside while she was cooking! After we finished breakfast we packed everything up to head up to the mountain. I had noticed earlier that the windows weren't rolling down, but didn't think much of it. When I started the van and began driving, I realized that all of my gauges weren't working!! A quick call to the dad's and we determined that we probably just blew a fuse. The trip just got a little more interesting, the only indication of how fast we were going was my GPS which only displays your speed some of the time. We also had no clue how much fuel we had... Let the adventure again! 

We stopped at the local Safeway to get some Starbucks for the drive and headed up the mountain! The clouds were gathering early in they day while I was messing around with the water tanks, and by time we were heading to go ziplining they began to get really dark... No matter, the adventure must continue! When we got to the ski hill and were pleasantly surprised that our "Zip instructor" was super cute!! We suited up and took a few pictures while waiting to go ziplining! 

Unfortunately it began to rain as soon as we began zipping! Rain drops hurt when you're zipping through the air at 70km/h, they pelt you like pieces of hail! On the first few zip lines We had to shield our faces from the rain drops! Luckily the rain slowed down and we were able to enjoy the beautiful views of the whitefish resort mountain. The rain turned the rocks a beautiful green and burgundy, K and I were fascinated by the rocks and kept " ohhh, ahhh" -ing at the beautiful rocks! 

Check out this ACTION VIDEO, of K and I enjoying the rain at lighting fast speeds!! Featuring our super handsome zip guide guy and our equally as awesome zip guide girl!! 

While we were picking out these fantastic professional pictures, Jeremy; our zip guide guy, came and asked for K's number. I nudged her arm, it's not everyday cute mountain men ask for your number; you have to take advantage of these moments! 

After zipping in the cold for hours we went back to the van and cooked some grilled cheese and creamy tomato soup, cause what else do you eat when you're cold?!? We laughed at our pictures and gabbed about how much fun we just had. The plan was to go back and do the "adventure park" for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately they had closed early for the day due to the rain. So we chose to go look around some more American stores in Kalispell, that would get us out of the rain for a bit! I have really missed target since they chose to abandon us in Canada, so I was more then happy to spend an evening looking around at all the "Pinterest worthy" decor! 

Later on that evening we met up with Jeremy for some dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, there was a few football games on while we were there so we were surrounded by screaming fans. We sat and visited for a while before deciding to go back to Jeremy's place and hangout with him and his brother! We visited for hours before K and I had get going to our campsite, we bid our new mountain men friends adieu and headed down to flat head lake! The drive was gorgeous, there's just something about town lights at night that makes everything look so peaceful. The glow of the street lights on the water was absolutely beautiful, I stared out the window while K drove us to our campsite. 

Unfortunately the gate to where we were going to camp for the night was closed, so we found the nearest church and camped there for the night. Ah the luxury of camper vans. Park anywhere and climb up into bed.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.20.16.

The bed above the captains chairs in Bea is slightly smaller then the one in Martha was. There's much less head space so if you wake up abruptly you will most likely smack your head off the roof!! Nonetheless it was comfy cozy. I had put a spare memory foam on the mattress and we had lots of blankets to nest in.

The sun streaming through the windows slowly woke us up, I'd opened the blinds overnight because I was too warm in my nest. The air was crisp and a slight fog covered the ground, K and I put on our matching new plaid jackets and set out to roam the campsite. As we strolled along a cute little chihuahua came running up to me, she was slightly bigger then Tia but had the same coloring; her name was Arizona. Her owners stopped to chat with us, I told them about my two girls and we swapped stories about our chihuahua's. They were surprised that Arizona had so quickly warmed up to me, apparently she's usually quite timid! I explained that she probably just smelled the girls on my clothes, but truthfully I am a closet dog whisperer. After chatting for a while about the gorgeous campground and nearby hikes, the couple offered for me and K to borrow their kayaks to explore around the lake!! How extremely kind and generous of them, we graciously accepted their offer.

The lake was a gorgeous turquoise color, the sun was shinning and the only sound was the distance hum of fishing boats out for the morning catch. It was beautiful. We stayed out paddling for almost 2 hours before coming back to visit with our friendly camping neighbors. After an hour of listening to stories about their travels across the states we bid our new friends adieu.


It's so wonderful meeting new people and hearing about their travels. One of my favorite parts of camping is you are surrounded by a lot of like minded, very friendly people who love to sit and visit for a while; one of my favorite pastimes.


Next we headed into Eureka to get some much needed brunch! My friend from work had also recommended a "mom and pop shop" in town that had great breakfast, Cafe Jax !

We got milkshakes with our breakfast, because when you're on vacation; calories don't count!! Cafe jax was filled with history from the small town of Eureka. The walls were covered in signatures and old photographs, it was truly a classic American diner! K and I basked in the small town atmosphere and decided to explore around the town a little more instead of going on a hike like we planned.

We walked up and down main street stopping in every store and admiring the "false front" historic buildings. We loved that all the stores were in these old-fashioned buildings, it gave the small town such character. Antiqued false front buildings, adorable decor shops, the beautiful colors of fall and the crisp mountain air mixed with warm glowing sunshine, I was truly in my happy place. 

 

After hours of strolling around Eureka we decided to head into Kalispell to do some more window shopping. We were pleasantly surprised to find another "Historic" Main Street! Again we strolled up and down the street, stopping in every store and gushing over the treasures each one held. The shops were so diverse; decor, knitting, thrift stores, western wear, antique's and even a Christmas decor shop. At the end of the main street there was even a gorgeous church, the St. Mathews Catholic Parish.

After a few stops at some American stores like Target, TJ Maxx, and the classic Walmart, we headed to our campsite in Columbia Falls. While K was catching up on keeping our parents informed about our daily adventures, I took advantage of some free time to change out the stereo in Bea. K, sneaky as always, took this video of me while I maneuvered the cords around the dash.

Unfortunately the stereo I had was too big for the dash, so I put the old one back in and cleaned up my mess while K made supper. We had delicious home (or Van) made mac and cheese.

It was getting chilly outside so we relaxed on the van, reading and catching up on social media before drifting off to sleep.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.19.16.

K and I had planned to go on a road trip down to Montana in Martha. I had kept it a secret from K that I had bought Bea and sold Martha, so when I picked her up I had her younger sister take a reaction video of K seeing the new van! 

​​

After running a few last minute errands around town we were on our way to Montana!! Our first trip to the states without our parents, we had truly reached adulthood! The 4 hour road trip down to Montana was filled with lively conversations. Mostly my new favorite past time of asking/answering lots of deep, personal, and hopefully soul searching-ly motivating questions! We talked about our goals and things that we aspire to be some day. We talked about how grateful we are to be single and independent. Sometimes it is a little lonely, but it is also incredibly empowering to be completely happy on your own. We also discussed the things we'd like to learn to do! K wants to learn new knitting patterns and to learn how to make new things, like mittens and slippers for her best friend! I'd like to learn to make beautiful patchwork quilts, and also to play the ukulele which has been comfortably living in my closet! 

I love going on road trips late at night with friends! There's no social distractions so you get to spend multiple hours with your friends just talking! Something that our busy lives can sometimes take away from us. I love the opportunity to just sit down and visit, taking the time to learn more about your friends through asking questions which lead to deeper conversations. 

Finally at 2 am we crossed the border!! The border patrolman was very direct and cold, my mom had warned me about this behavior so I was prepared. I answered all of their questions plainly and didn't try to make small talk. After shinning a flashlight around in the back of the van the gentlemen handed me our passports and said "that's all". We did it!! We officially made it across a border and we're off on our new adventure!! 

A friend from work had told me about this great camping spot that was free and absolutely beautiful on lake Koocanusa. It was pitch black out when we arrived so we picked a spot close-ish to the water and climbed up into bed! Slowly falling asleep while chatting about how excited we were to be out on our own, seeing the world one road trip at a time. 

I couldn't wait to see what our campsite looked like during the day!

.martha trip part 4 .08.20.16.

** videos to follow, editing is time consuming**
Martha has some issues. 1. the fridge doesn't work on electric. 

The previous owner told me about it, but not until we were picking it up.. Which was late late at night. When dad was with us at Fort Steele we attempted to repair it, we weren't successful. The attempted quick fix also resulted in us losing the outside cover to access the fridge. Part of the adventure and learning experience right??? 
Well luckily the fridge slightly works when it's running on propane. Currently all of our fridge food has spoiled, but we are having quite the problem with our chocolate bars melting during the day! So we stopped to top up our propane tank on the way over to Penticton! (Then never even bothered to use it the rest of the trip) 
Today's adventure consisted of: Finding a campground that allows dogs, EXTREME jet boarding followed by a "relaxing" float down the canal between Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake! 
After finding a campground to stay at we set up the van for the day, plugged in the A/C and took off on a walk down to the beach to go jet boarding! M and I had gotten another deal on the "Get In the Loop" App which made this little adventure a little cheaper than expected! Score! 
Jetboarding was so much fun! It took awhile to get used to being propelled into the air by a stream of water, finding balance was definitely difficult! Once I got the hang of it, it felt just like snowboarding--- through the air! It was really so cool and I wish I could do it over and over again!! After watching the footage from the GoPro, I realize I am not as good as I thought I was at jet boarding. My dives look more like belly flops and I'm significantly closer to the water then I thought I was!
M seemed to grasp the concept/balancing of it wayyyyyy faster then it felt like I did! (Probably her background in snowboarding, and my lack of coordination)
She was especially good at exiting the water after diving! ---I was not so great at this! 

We immediately called Dad and raved about how much fun we had!! The jet board simply hooks up to a Sea-Doo and away you go!! We begged him to look into buying one for us to use back home. 
After that adventure it was back to the campsite to pack up for our float down the canal! Our campground was conveniently located at the end of the canal so we took a cab to the "Coyote Cruises" entry into the canal. A beautiful Saturday probably wasn't the best time to go to one of Penticton's popular attractions! The place was packed!! 

We had left our phones back at the campsite so the only way to get back was to float! We came up with a great system to keep ourselves together while we floated down the canal! The little boat we had bought on the previous trip made a perfect backpack holder, M held on to one strap of the backpack and I held on to the other. Flawless! Tia and Mia were quite used to the floaties by this time so they just relaxed in the sun. 
Welllll maybe that's not all true. At the beginning of the float we were just mindlessly floating not paying attention to anyone around us and not looking where we were going. As a result of that we ended up pretty close to the shore and Tia decided to jump ship, she was on M's floatie at the time. M was also holding the GoPro at the time. Being the helpful older sister I am, I opted to laugh at her struggle instead of helping! After all, the water wasn't that deep and Tia (my little Princess) could stand to swim a little. That taught us a valuable lesson, you have to watch where you're going or else you hit the shore or bump into people. 
Speaking of people, there was SO many people on the canal that day. It seemed like almost all of them had to say something about Tia and Mia being on the floaties with us. 
"Oh they're so cute"

"There's two of them?!"

"Are they related at all" 

"How old are they" 

"What are their names"

"They're so calm laying on the floatie with you" 

"Are you girls twins?" 
We heard that series of questions about a million times while we were floating. Not to say I'm not proud of my adorable dogs, but sometimes I consider carrying around a sign with me that answers that series of questions. For some strange reason strangers just like talking to me and M when we are out doing things. Maybe it's a sign that I need to be more friendly 🤔
Anyways, the float was taking forever. We had passed the Half way point and decided to stick it out and float to the end. Then the water slowed down significantly and the wind started working against us! 

We'd already been floating for about 3 hours and it looked like we had another 2 hours ahead of us. We ditched the idea of staying together and put the backpack boat on M's floatie, I took Tia and Mia and we began paddling our floaties in an attempt to get to the end faster. An hour later we weren't making much progress and the weeds were really REALLY grossing us out! 
We picked about the steepest spot on the bank possible and pulled our floaties out of the water. The only thing to grab on to was some thorny bushes and some pathetic grass that came straight out of the ground if you even looked in its general direction. Awesome. 
Tia and Mia went up first, then the floaties, and then M and I. After a few failed attempts we finally got up the bank and proceeded to pack up our floaties and put on our sundresses. About 600 meters from where we got out of the water there was a path and stairs where lots of other people were getting out of the canal. Another valuable lesson: patience. 
We strolled along the path beside the canal for about an hour chatting about how we would execute another float next year. 

1. we would bring more water and snacks

2. We would get one of the big fancy floaties that you don't have to touch the gross weedy water!    
We finally made it to the beach and decided to stop and get some ice cream for the rest of the walk back to the campsite! 
Both of us were pretty hungry at this point so we ordered some pizza and sat down on the beach admiring how pretty the lake was with the sun setting over the rolling hills.

.martha trip part 3 .08.19.16.

We started out our day by heading straight back to the beach! Christina Lake is said to be one of the warmest lakes in BC! Growing up around a lake that is complete opposite of warm, I had to feel it to believe it!

Early in the morning probably wasn't the best time to test the waters, but the lake was still pretty warm considering it was 7:30 am! Some day I would like to go back and spend more time there, the beach was really nice. Plus swimming in a warm lake would be a nice change compared to what I'm used to!!

We were off again, on route to Penticton.

Martha didn't seem to like the hills in the beginning, the motor would rev right up and the gas needle would drop at a very similar rate!! One call to dad solved that problem and I (being the spoiled new car driver that I am) learned about a little button called "Overdrive". Martha took the hills with much more pride after I learned this new trick!! Along the drive to Penticton, we came around a corner and were completely amazed by the view of this gorgeous little lake town!

Turns out we were in Osoyoos BC! The thing about these spontaneous trips I've been going on is they're very short notice and unplanned. This adds to the adventure but also allows you to change your mind about your destination if you want to!! M and I decided this was a good enough spot for the night! So we googled a campground and followed the directions!

Ironically on the way to the to the campground we had picked we drove by one that had some waterslides!! How fun is that?! So we abandoned our plans and pulled in!

Check out this video of M and I being ridiculous and having a great time on the slides!

After a full day of watersliding we decided that an actual restaurant would be nice for supper! So we left the girls in a nice air-conditioned van and cabbed over to the towns steak-house. Once we arrived we made the executive decision that the Smitty's across the road would suffice and be much more cost effective! We enjoyed our supper out on the patio soaking up a little more sun!

Turns out, cabs are expensive. So we decided to walk back to the campsite instead! After all it was only 3.5km's away, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous!! Along the way home we met some pretty interesting homeless people 

(close your eyes Mom and Grandma, you don't need to read this part)

One gentlemen didn't say anything he just rode around in a circle on his Recumbent Bicycle. (Had to google what they're called) He just shot us a "hang loose" and carried on his merry way, bags of bottles hanging off of his bicycle with his clothing draped over them.

The real winner of the show was a woman we met as we were walking along the beach. She stopped M and I to ask us if we were twins and then began to rave about how "sexy" we looked! Awkward, and slightly scary! So we said thanks and picked up the pace on our walk! The sun was starting to set at this point and I was getting nervous!

When we were about 3/4's of the way back to the campground we noticed the "Rattlesnake Canyon" amusement park! Earlier in the day we had driven past it on the way to the campground but it looked sorta lame and mostly aimed at children. At night it was absolutely adorable! They had bulb lights strung along the pathways, and above all, a mini donut stand!! The lines were a little too long so M and I just roamed around the park taking in the sounds of the rides and the smiles on everyone's faces!

If you're ever in Osoyoos I highly recommend checking the park out, it would make a great date night!!

20 minutes later and we were finally back to the campsite! Our particular campsite had a really pretty view of the lake! So we sat in the front seats of the van staring out at the city lights reflecting off of the water! We soon passed out after such a long day.

I'm so glad we decided to detour our trip and spend the day in Osoyoos, it was such a cute little beach town!