.barbados .12.09.16.

My alarm went off around 8:30 so we could still make it to "fancy breakfast", which turned out to not be as tasty as we thought it would be. The highlight was having eggs Benedict, at least for Dad, Mom and T. M and I had French toast, it was absolutely delicious! It was thick but still crispy on the outside and lightly sugared, we topped it with with thick  whipped cream and strawberry syrup. The whipped cream is more like "solid milk with sugar”.

After breakfast we tossed on our swimming gear and headed off the boat. Someone had told me that there was a beach beside the port in Barbados so instead of taking a taxi we decided to walk to the beach. Unfortunately his opinion of the port being "right beside the beach" actually meant it was a 30 minute walk, or short taxi ride to the beach... We’d already walked about a kilometer to get out of the port, what’s a few more right? The side walk to the beach was beautiful, it trailed along the ocean with large trees to provide shade from the piercing sun. When the pathway ended we walked along the street until coming to the boat harbour where we quickly turned to the boardwalk to get away from the busy streets. After what seemed forever I saw it. Through a little crack between the buildings I saw sand and water glistening through. I yelled down the road to the family who had gotten ahead of me, I  waved them over to follow me.

When we walked through  the small entrance was we were immediately greeted by a vendor trying to sell us a "shipwreck/sea turtle" excursion package. We declined repeatedly and walked straight to the water, the beach was almost empty so we got the water to ourselves for most of the morning. We all immediately dropped our stuff and ran into the water, it was a long walk and we were all overheating from the burning hot sun. So far this trip this beach has been my favorite, it has  perfect waves for body surfing/wave riding and the sun. The only drawback is the sand is so fine it gets into every nook and cranny you can imagine! When we would ride the waves up the beach the crashing water would fill our bathing suits with sand. All of us girls were sporting very sexy “Sand Diapers”

The sun was so incredibly hot today, luckily there as some clouds in the sky to give us a little break; but as soon as the sun came out from behind the clouds it immediately started burning our skin. Poor T, she must have put on sunscreen a million times today and she still burnt to a crisp.

Since this has been a very go-go-go trip I tried to take a nap on the beach while the sun was behind the clouds, but as soon as it came out I felt it was biting my skin it was so hot.

 Later in the day my bathing suit was so full of sand that I couldn’t take it anymore. I swam out far where no one could see me and slipped my bathing suit off to clean the sand out. Word to the wise, don't take your bathing suit off completely when you’re swimming in the ocean; salt water is extremely buoyant... Mom saw me swimming out and was starting to swim towards me to see what I was doing. I tried to quickly put my bathing suit back on when a wave came and pushed me over while I was just getting my bathing suit around my ankles. Since I was in the ocean I got knocked off balance by the waves, my butt floated to the surface… mooning the beach, and a party boat that happened to be passing by!

 I don't think anyone on the boat saw, but Mom sure did! When I finally got my bathing suit on I swam over to here, she was laughing so hard I was sure she was going to suck in some sea water! She asked me what on earth I as doing  and we had a good laugh about it. I learned a very important lesson that day, do not to take your one piece bathing suit completely off in the ocean.

Mom was swimming along looking at the sand below when a tiny fish swam straight into her goggles, it shocked her and she jumped back surprised that such a tiny fish would swim right up to her. That little fish spent the rest of the day with us. It would follow us around no matter where we went, its favorite spot was right between dads legs. If dad would move it would quickly swim so it was right between his legs again. It was so cute, I'm sad we had to leave it haha we all gained a small bond with the little guy! 

We snorkeled and played in the waves while soaking up the extremely hot Caribbean sun,  until it was finally time to go. We had soaked up as much sun as we could handle and Taylor's skin was starting to look like 2rd degree burns. With slight hesitation we began our long walk back to the boat, I walked barefoot most of the way because my feet were still covered in sand. 

We stopped in the main market to see what souvenirs we could find. I bought a "Barbados" wrap for the beach, and a Jamaican colored bracelet.

As we were shopping around for gifts for the girls boyfriends, T called my name to get my attention. She lip-pointed over to the Norwegian guys that had been hanging around us off and on the whole trip. I turned my head and said "oh yeah I already know". Apparently he had heard and seen the whole thing and started lightly chuckling. M made eye contact and gave him a raised eyebrow look, aren’t family hilariously embarrassing? When it was time to go back to the boat we ended up sitting right in front of the Norwegian men on the shuttle bus back to the boat. Thank goodness for that shuttle bus because we were all exhausted. When we got back on the boat we changed into dry clothes and we went up for lunch.  Today was the "Tshirt" sale on the boat so we went and got some cruise Tshirts to commemorate our cruise. These T-shirts were more involved with the cruise line instead of the individual ports, making them more meaningful because that's where we spent the most time!

T was sore from her sunburn so she stayed in the room to rest while the rest of the family dressed up and went to our final formal dinner. 

I fell down the stairs twice because of the heels I was wearing luckily J was there to catch me each time, then relentlessly tease me about not being able to walk in heels. After supper we went to "the show" off the night. It was called “The west end to Broadway” it was a bunch of singing and dancing with no story line again.

 After the show we came back to the room to shower and write in our journals. T and I watched a few videos on my laptop before we all passed out.  

.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.

.martha trip part 5 .08.21.16.

In the spirit of not spending a ton of money on this trip as I just bought a new camper; we opted to do something that doesn't cost money! Walking! 

I googled "hike" and found Myra Canyon Trestles and Crawford Falls both didn't seem to be too long so we decided we would try it out! 

First on the list Myra Canyon Trestle bridges. Remember what I said a few posts ago about Google maps misleading us? I believe it was in .excation part 7

Well that may have happened again. In all fairness Google was leading us to the destination I had entered. Plus we learned that Martha is able to handle hills (and paths) a lot better then we figured she could! 

Once again we were driving along and all of a sudden Google told us to turn right. From what I could see there was no turn, so we turned around and came back, then we saw this---

Doesn't look like much of a road hey? That's because it's not. It's a trail, most likely meant for ATV's and Horse's. 

Fun fact! If you google map Kelowna to Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park it will literally map you to the center of the park. Google thinks it's a road, when clearly it is not.

Well, what's an adventure without a little bit of mystery? So we proceeded. The gravel path quickly turned to a very bumpy grass road. The first bump hit hard!! All of the cabinet doors burst open and I heard a very loud smash. Some of the cabinet doors have mirrors on them so I assumed it was just one of them breaking. Easy fix-- so we carried on. Not without taking a video first mom and dad wouldn't believe us if there wasn't video evidence. 

​​

The trail smoothed out, and then immediately began to get narrower. At this exact moment 3 dogs came running directly for us. 

****I have a pet peeve, people who don't leash their animals. Currently I was the one in a big camper van on a walking path, so I won't complain about people who don't leash their dogs.****

I also have a crippling fear of animals getting ran over by vehicles. So I immediately stopped the van and made the executive decision that we needed to turn around. Just then two graceful (old) women came down the path on horseback. The puzzled look on their faces only reaffirmed my decision that we needed to turn around. They came to the window to ask what we were doing and why we were up there in a van. After giving us directions to get to the trestle bridge parking they began to tell us horror stories about people on the news who had driven off cliffs because they were following google maps/GPS systems. Old people 🙄 

Once their (unleashed) dogs were clear from my wheels we inched forward and began to make an Austin Powers 3 point turn. We were turned around we headed to try to find these dang trestle bridges, when all of a sudden the dogs reappeared. I slammed on the breaks and heard the glass sliding in the back. M turned around to look, turned out the loud smash we had heard was actually the microwave plate. We hadn't noticed that it could have been the microwave because when we turned around to assess what may have broke the door was already closed! 

Anyways we finally found our way up to the trestles and walked to the first two! The views were amazing, I'd like to one day come back and do it again. Maybe on a bike next time though, the whole path is about 12km one way!! Too much to walk. Plus I have a sissy sister who did not enjoy walking across the bridge, she is a scared cat! (Love you M, I don't mind your sissyness)

Off to Canyon Waterfalls we went! It was close by and seemed to be an easy hike with a pretty view of the waterfalls! Google led us through a very residential looking area.. I was confused, and maybe slightly frustrated with the incompetency of Google today. 

Turns out that the waterfalls are in this field beside a ritzy neighborhood. 

I guess I should have read the reviews on this "hike" because you essentially have to scale the side of the hill to get down to it. So we admired it from above and strolled back to the van.

Our feet were absolutely filthy and we needed some supplies for the van (like a new microwave plate) so we went to town. Here's a few pictures we took while messing around in Homesense and Dollarama! 

​​

​ By this point we were so exhausted and just wanted to get to a beach! We found this really great campsite right on Okanagan Lake called "Princess RV park" we had a beach front campsite for the night! 

​​

We got to enjoy maybe half an hour of swimming before a huge storm rolled in! What better way to wait out a rain storm then taking a nice hot shower?! We finished off the night by playing "Speed" and listening to the storm roar outside.

There's something so comforting about NOT being in a tent sometimes! Every once and a while on this trip M and I would turn to each other and say "Hey, you know what?? We're not in a tent, we are in this sweet camper van!"

Not to say that I don't still love tenting, but it feels much better to fall asleep listening to the storm outside instead of fighting the storm from inside a tent! We climbed in bed and listened to the storm run wild outside. It was the biggest storm I have seen in a while and I loved every second of it!