2017 Northern Migration - The Canadian part
Fruit trees in bloom in the Okanagan Valley, 10 km from the US border in Osoyoos.
Rock climbing in Skaha Bluffs Provincial park.
JF showing the girls how to build an anchor.
Stout drinking in the Okanagan Lake at Evely Recreation Site campground, a little gem of a campground.
Watercolor by the lake.
Brrrr!
Such clear water!
Biking in Vernon with friends.
Camping by Lodgepole Lake, near Kamloops.
Stout fell through the ice on that lake and gave us quite the scare.
Dinner by Lake Kamloops.
Late spring and very high water levels everywhere (Kerry Lake).
We got completely stuck in mud going to Inga Lake, just before Wonowon. A towing was needed to get us out of there.
There was even snow between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson!
One of many similar gas stations/motels/restaurant along the Alaska Highway. The guy that lives there had grey skin. He says he spends his winters here all by himself. What a life!
Liard Hot Springs.
I am unclear about how to handle social media right now. It seems like the blog is more and more a rehashing of what I have published on Instagram and Facebook in the last week or so... I am really enjoying the My Story feature on Instagram right now (the bubbles at the top, where you post little blurbs that disappear after 24 hours, yes, a copy of Snapchat) and this is where I feel more compelled to post. I feel like the IG community is more active now than the FB one... So where does the blog fit in that? Not too sure, but I know I want to keep it up and going. Let me know what you think or what you would like to see more on the blog.
This is a text I published on my personal FB page and on Road it up Instagram. You might have read it already.
As we drive through rows of black spruce, the girls fight over iPad charging cables. I put my earphones back on, close my eyes and go back to the Masai Mara in Kenya with Tsh Oxenreider. I'm listening to her latest book, At Home In The World, the retelling of her year abroad with 3 young kids. She discuses with expats she meets along the way about how intense it is to be with her kids 24/7. I've never known anything else. I've been with my girls day in and day out for 13 years straight. As crazy as it may sound to some, I wouldn't want it any other way. Even on hard days. There were hard days when I worked in an office too (many more!). I smile as I now hear the girls laugh in unisson at a movie on which they finally agreed. I am back in Venice, eating gelato twice a day and drinking an afternoon macchiato with Tsh and her family when I spot a black bear scratching his back on a tree on the side of the Alaska Highway. We're home. Or rather, one of our home. But we're always home in our bus. The outside might be less familiar, but we feel home anywhere.
I pause Tsh’s book and look ahead, lost in thoughts. What is home anyways? A familiar bed? A favorite mug? A sense of safety and comfort? A smell we recognize and that makes us smile? The way the light filters through the tall branches of trees at 10:30 pm?
I dig my face into the Yukon moss. Yes, I am home, indeed.
