Happiness is......a snow-free driveway?




Grandma's socks in action!



We have returned from a lovely weekend away with some of the other exchange teachers at Manning Park Resort, a ski resort about 3 hours from here near the Canada/US border.

It has been another weekend of great snow and snow-related experiences!

Last week Frank and I got ourselves fitted out for snow activity, and with Liam and Phoebe already sorted we headed off after school on Friday. Last weekend's driving experience was still in my head. We had a great run during daylight hours with easy driving. We made a stop at Merritt (the Country music capital of Canada!) for petrol and on we went. It seemed that as soon as the sun set we hit snow, and the fresh snow combined with what was already on the road, large trucks and very poor visibility made for another hair raising adventure! We made it, though, and were happy to calm our nerves with a nice drink with friendly faces!

We set out to Beaver Pond in snow shoes

 

A creek we walked along



Saturday morning we decided to try snow shoeing. This was a huge success for us! We wandered down to a place called Beaver Pond, but the pond was under snow (that was getting deeper as we snow-shoed!) so we couldn't see it. The walk through the magnificent scenery in the snow was great and the pine trees covered in snow were beautiful. Phoebe hitched a ride in a pulk that Frank and I shared the pulling of. It reminded me of our Shiida reindeer and Santa experience!



Stopping for a break



We think Beaver Pond is under here??



We had hoped to go skating but the snow got quite thick and we decided to stay indoors. On Saturday night we had a great meal with a beautiful Okanagan Pinot Gris at the restaurant and caught up with other teachers' experiences.

 

Al and Liam with Phoebe in the pulk



The snow kept falling, and we were thinking of our return drive to Kamloops. We figured it had to be better in the daytime........

and it was! We had a great trip home.

We learnt two more things about driving in the snow.


Phoebe hard at it!



One is that you need to get the snow off your roof before you take off. We had a good 3 or 4 inches on the top of ours, and when it started to melt and we braked, it all came down onto the windscreen! We got a fright!

The other is that cars get really dirty driving on slushy roads. When I say dirty, I mean that we could only see out through part of the windscreen, the rest of the car and windows being covered! Unfortunately our special anti-freeze windscreen washer liquid ran out half way home, so we had to rely on picking up water splashed up from other cars, and quickly using the wipers to clear a space for us to see. It was crazy.

So we returned safely to Todd Rd. I was delighted and relieved to find the driveway clear, clean and ready for the coming week!



 

Frank, Liam and Phoebe sneaking past the bear!



A close-up of the ice in the banks of the creek