Last of our trip

     Well our stay had finally came to an end and we had to start heading back to the Island. We hugged mom and said our goodbyes gave Dante some stress medicine and decided to take the back road or old hwy to Merritt. Its a nice drive with lots of beautiful scenery of mountains lakes and fields. We made a stop or 2 to take a few photos and let Dante have a run. it was a very nice relaxing drive.

     When we got to Natalie and Peters place we decided to go for a walk along the river again. It was a scorcher of a day so I took Dante down to the water and let him go for a swim and cool off. Natalie Peter, and Patty stayed up top and waved at me down below them.

     You can sure feel the love this family has for me lol. Hmmm Natalie seems to just be smiling and enjoying the weather but dont let that smile fool you she gave me the salute as well. We decided that we would go back home then go for another drive and stop and get KFC for a picnic like dinner.  We drove out to a lake past Hamilton hill which i never hear the end of taunting that Hamilton Mountain is smaller than Hamilton Hill. Ok so it may be taller but you couldn't build part of a city on it with thousands of homes and tons of malls and shopping stores. And there are some falls that you can visit  like Albion Falls. None the less it is a nice hill!

     We drove up a gravel rd past a couple lakes till we got to the one we were looking for. Natalie and Peter like to fish here. There were some people camping and one person out in a kayak. It was a bit breezy which kept it cool and we found a picnic table right above the water. We enjoyed a nice picnic then we did some family photos before cleaning up to head out.

I stole these pictures from Natalies Facebook page!

Thanks sis! 

     We decided to take a short drive around the campsite to check it out and we discovered some nature. We had a couple small rodents run across in front of the car. Everyone was worried that they might hear a pop as i ran over them so had to crawl at a snails pace. We were not sure what they were but then we spotted these other things and figured they must have been babies. Just so you know i did not run over any!

     We called them many things but as far as i could find on the internet they seem to be ground squirrels. They were cute but very shy. They kept popping up out of these holes and looking baround then any noise or movement they would vanish again. We were not sure if there was just a couple speedy ones going from hole to hole or hundreds of them. Im pretty sure there were lots of them.

      We continued our drive looking for nature when Natalie spotted a deer. She and i both grabbed our cameras and popped out to take some pictures untill the deer got annoyed and ran away. We started driving again and then i spotted a deer so we popped out again to take pictures. That deer diodnt stay around long it was already annoyed lol.

 
  I also saw a wood pecker and managed to get a couple photos before it took off. Patty had got out to take some photos of some tree fungus. While we were standing there we could hear some loud screeching and looking around we saw 2 birds circling around then landing in the trees. It was later in the day so hard to get good pictures but we tried. I discovered when i got home that they were red tailed hawks. A very distinctive screech!

     Well we had a blast and cant wait to do it again. We even talked about going camping there next year. This has kind of given me an idea. As long as there is no wedding next year not pointing any fingers [Ryan and Lacie} lol just kidding kids! Now the only person Ive mentioned this to is Patty. Now shes not a camper and well i haven't done it for quite a few years but here it goes.

     It would be nice to get some Ontario people to come out here and we could rent motor homes and go for a drive through the rockies. I figured Patty and I could get one and share with Peter, Natalie and Mom and hopefully Annette and Bob and the boys ?? and Robert and Jeannine and the girls ?? could each get one or any one else that might be interested? Could  pack tents as well. Id really like to hear back about this not setting anything in stone but lets toss the idea around and see if its feasible? Im told there might be some deals on one way trip. Drive one way fly the other?