From Vancouver we boarded the only passenger train allowed to journey on the rail line from Vancouver to Banff. This would be day 1 of 2 on The Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Kamloops.
Day 2
Kamloops to Banff
Kelly and I have been planning a trip to Canada since earlier this year with Pat and Sue. We called it Canada 50/50 since in turned 50 and this year it was Pat and Sue’s 50th wedding anniversary.
We met up in Seattle and then flew into Vancouver. We spent half a day in Vancouver before we get on the train day 2. In retrospect having another full day in Vancouver would have been nice so much to see.
Abbie made the varsity cheer squad at the high school this year. Tonight was her first game. The varsity football team won 21 to 20 against Pendleton. Go Wolfpack!
We took Abbie and PJ for a trip to north Idaho for the labor day long weekend. Our destination was the Sandpoint/Bonners Ferry area. Our goal was to scout some properties with a real estate agent. The weather was great/warm so we were also able to get some swimming in as well!
We travelled up to the Schweitzer Ski hill near sandpoint after arriving around noon on Friday. Great views of the lake from the village.
We went swimming twice at Sandpoint city beach.
One of the properties we liked along the Moyie River
Exploring different spots along the Moyie River
Bonners Ferry is a cute town (about 3600 pop)
This is Trump Country!
We were very close to the Canadian border so PJ wanted to go step foot across the border.
Noah works up at mount Bachelor so he gets some free passes to the activities up there. Since he works weekend I took the day off today and we went zip lining. It’s super fun and the biggest zip line in the Pacific Northwest.
Noah had a go pro and filmed the last of 3 sections on the run.
Beautiful August day picking berries in the hood river valley and some cider tasting!
Maybe he needs to get into a formal diving program…
Hunter, Preston and I went for a day hike on the west side of the Sisters mountains. We did about 10-11 miles on a loop that took us to some mountain lakes and to the top of Scott Mountain (6116 ft).
Hand Lake - first lake on the loop.
This is called the wagon trail. Before there was a road over the pass a trail was hacked out through miles of lava in the late 1800’s that you can still see today - only sparse vegetation growing.
The summit of Scott Mountain. Great views of the sisters slightly subdued due to the smoke in the air.
Benson Lake is a beautiful swimming lake in the mountains. I took Hunter and Noah here on an overnight backpack when they were younger in 2015.
This year we headed up to Elk Lake for July 4 to best the heat in town. It was an amazing relaxing day.
