4 Wheels 4 Girls

On June 20th, we arrived at Glacier View campground in Smithers, British Columbia. So far I like it a lot.

The campground is called Glacier View for a pretty good reason

I like it even better than yesterday’s campground. This one has a really good internet connection, a great place to run around, nice bathrooms and showers, a gift shop, a tire swing, and lots more cool stuff. The only thing is.. the mosquitoes are TERRIBLE here. Unfortunately a pine tree, which the mosquitoes picked as their favorite hideout, is directly outside the door of our camper. It’s quite annoying. 🙁

We’re about to eat lunch, which is angel hair pasta and shrimp. It smells REALLY good. Yummmmmmm.

More later!!!

June 19, after the drive from Prince George, (on that drive by the way, Ana saw a moose!!!) we found a nice campground called Shady Rest RV Park. It is a good rest from the drive and it IS shady, but the one problem is the mosquitoes. Otherwise it’s great. 🙂

Playing in the field

The temperature is nice, and there’s a great grassy field right in front of our RV that’s perfect for running around in. My sisters immediately went outside, and I did as soon as I finished my algebra. We ran around and got rid of some of the energy that was bottled up inside us from the long drive. It was fun.

Campground field and flowers

Now I’m inside writing this post, and it’s almost dinnertime. We’re having a pork roast and potatoes. Yum! (I hope.)

This is a nice place. I’m glad we came here. ;P

On June 17th, after leaving Lake Louise, we took a nice drive on the Icefields Parkway on our way to Jasper National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL.

There was still ice on the surface of Bow Lake

First we saw Bow Lake. It was a frosty blue-green, with mountains all around it. I thought it was amazing, but then Dad said we’d see another lake that was ten times as beautiful, Peyto Lake.

When we got there, we got our hiking shoes on ’cause there was a little hike we had to take before we could reach the lake. When we did, I was SPEACHLESS. It wasn’t that big, but the color and scenery around it was gorgeous. It was honestly the brightest blue I had ever seen in my life; it made my blue sweatshirt look like a lame excuse for a bright blue. There were lots of mountains and glaciers surrounding it.

No photo can capture the actually color of Peyto Lake

I marveled at the lake for awhile, and then suddenly I heard a thundering noise that no one seemed to hear except my family. At first it was just a loud, distant BOOM! But then I heard snapping, cracking, tumbling. It was an avalanche, tearing down trees and scraping rocks as it barreled down the mountain! Unfortunately we couldn’t see it since it was on the other side of the mountain, but it was so cool to hear it. SO cool. The thundering sound went on for a long time.

We kept driving and suddenly we saw another RV parked on the side of the road, obviously looking at something. Once we pulled over to join them, we saw that it was… a black bear! We watched it eat for a little bit and then drove on our way.

A Black Bear walking along the Icefields Parkway

Some time later, we saw a whole MOB of cars parked at the side of the road. This time it was a grizzly bear!!! Some fool got out of his car, actually a few fools, and they were trying to take a picture of it. They were SO CLOSE to it, within twenty feet of it. I wanted to shout, “DUDE(S)! THAT”S A GRIZZLY BEAR! HE’S GONNA ATTACK YOU!!!” But of course I didn’t. I let them suffer the consequences.

It was such a beautiful drive!

On June 11th, Jean’s birthday, we finally went to Glacier National Park.

We arrived there in the mid-afternoon, around two or three. Dad checked out the visitor center, and then we drove to the trailhead of the hike we would be doing, the Avalanche Lake hike. Well, before I tell you about the hike, I should probably explain exactly what a glacier is.

*Speaks in teacher voice* Well, a glacier is a mass of ice that is frozen all year long. Glaciers move just inches each year. The neat thing is that a glacier can produce massive amounts of runoff/snowmelt constantly without completely melting away. As the mountain shelves where the glaciers are slowly fill up with snow, the snow and ice overflows and moves verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly down the mountain. As it goes down, it grinds up the mountain with it, creating the glacial dust that makes the water in the lakes and streams a beautiful light blue-green color. So eventually the overflow reaches areas of warmer temperatures and it melts, creating streams and filling lakes with the snowmelt.

So, we left on the Avalanche Lake hike. It was fairly long, 4.6 miles, but it was beautiful. The stream we were walking next to, Avalanche Creek, was thundering down the valley, cutting through the rock walls, and roaring over huge boulders. In some places the creek was moving so fast and splashing so hard against the rocks, it looked like there water fountains shooting up from the stream. The creek was that pretty blue-green color, and it was filled with multicolored rocks. The rocks were green, purple, yellow, red, blue, pink- and they were everywhere. In the rapidly-moving stream, on the path, in the forest…

Along a relatively calm stretch of Avalanche Creek

We walked along the path, going slightly uphill for most of the way to the lake. We saw lots of cool stuff, including bear scat but unfortunately no bears. After a long uphill walk, we got to Avalanche Lake, which filled a large U-shaped shelf in the valley and was surrounded on all sides by mountain walls and waterfalls. We could see the edge of the glaciers between the surrounding mountain peaks.

Me, Dad, and incredible mountains at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park

There was another surprise waiting for us at the Lake, but Ellie will tell you about that in another post.

We ate our bag of trail mix at the lake, and then walked back. After our hike, we left Glacier National Park and went to find a restaurant where we could celebrate Jean’s birthday. It was a beautiful park and a great day! 😀

On the evening of June 8th, we went to have dinner with some friends of my dad’s, Duane and Dawn Nightingale. We met them and their kids, Emily and Alex. Emily was almost 15 (happy birthday, Emily!) and Alex was my age. They were all very nice.

We played on Emily’s new Wii for a bit before it was time to have dinner; it was pizza, chips and salsa, and fruit salad. The food was great, and we had a really nice conversation.

After dinner, we went back to the living room and continued our game of Wii golf. Then we made a whole bunch of random Miis and then played baseball, bowling, and boxing. We only played one game of boxing ’cause Stella went down really quickly and she said it was too violent. So then we played more baseball and golf. It was fun.

Soon though, we had to say goodbye because it had gotten very late. We thanked them for dinner and then we loaded up in the RV and drove back to our campground. It was a great night!

The next day, Duane came by the campground with another nice friend of my dad ‘s, Jeanie. The adults hung out together for a bit.

With Bayview friends, Duane and Jeanie

June 7, we arrived in Bayview, a town my dad comes to for business. It was obvious the second we drove in that he knew the town like the back of his hand and was very proud of it.

After we settled in to our campground, Dad was eager to show us his home-away-from-home. We got down our bikes and rode to the house of Dad’s friends, Bob and Elsie. They were very nice. We saw their house and Dad chatted with them for a little while to catch up on each other’s lives.

After we said goodbye to Bob and Elsie, we got back on our bikes and rode around town. Then Dad took us to the marina and showed us all the cool boathouses and the one where he had stayed the first time he came to Bayview. We also saw an awesome one that had just been built that was huge and very complex. It’s too hard to describe so I’ll just show you a picture of it:

That is one elaborate boathouse!

Then we rode back to our campground up the big, long hill. When we got back we were exhausted.

It is good to see the place that Dad visits so often. It was great!!!

On Sunday, June 5th, after the bike ride, we (Stella, Ana, Lori, Sarah, and I) hopped in the van to head home and make lunch. We made grilled cheese sandwiches, steamed broccoli, and fruit salad. We all contributed to the meal, and it was delicious.

After lunch, we played Wii, relaxed, and hung out with the poodles. I helped Sarah out in her garden, and we planted sunflowers. We also took pictures and played with them on iPhoto. It was really nice.

Then Sarah, Dad, Ellie, Stella, and I played Rummikub; two games. Dad won the first one and Stella won the second. Then we played more Wii and then started to prepare for dinner. We made shrimp, pasta carbonera, salad, and homemade ice cream. It was just as delicious as lunch, if not better.

Then we hung out a bit more, and then got ready for bed. It was a great day!

Another favorite activity at Lori and Sarah's: hot tub!

On the morning of June 5th, we decided to go on a bike ride. We knew it was going to be a tough, uphill ride.

We left the house and biked very downhill then very uphill for about a mile until we (Dad, Jean, Sarah, Stella, Ellie, and I) got to the trailhead, the Senator Mark O. Hatfield trailhead. Quite a mouthful, huh? 😀 We followed Lori and Ana in the van. When we reached the trailhead, we filled up our water bottles, used the restroom, and then we were off!

The trail was mostly uphill but very pretty. We had a great view of the Columbia River from the path, and we used the helmet cam to take pictures and videos while we were biking. It was really nice.

Riding the bike trail, along the Columbia River

Soon we reached some tunnels and we met Ana, Lori, Olive, and Roxanne there. Ollie was seemingly exhausted ’cause she was panting like crazy, but Roxy was still full of energy. So Stella, Ana, Sarah, and I decided to bike to the van and go home at this point, while my parents and Ellie decided to bike home.

A lookout along the trail

We drove home in the van and Lori dropped us off. Then she took the van to the bottom of the valley and picked up the biking crowd so they wouldn’t have to bike up the last steep hills. Then, once we were all home, we ate lunch. Read my next post to find out about the rest of our day!!!

After the Catherine Creek and Shreiner Zoo, we went to our friends’ boathouse in The Dalles, back in Oregon. We drove up and parked, and then walked down into the marina and found their boathouse. It was REALLY nice, and was incredibly surprised to find that they had built the entire thing themselves!

Hanging out at the boathouse

We stepped inside, and we were surprised to find how much it was like a regular house. It had a kitchen, a dining table, a shower, a murphy bed, a bathroom, another small bed, some living space, and a large deck, and even many places to store things. We settled in, and then Lori got out some manicure stuff and many colors of nail polish, and we did our fingernails and toenails. I painted mine black, metallic blue, and hot pink. They look awesome. 😉

Meanwhile, the adults made lunch, soba noodles mixed with veggies and chicken. We also had fruit salad. The meal was delicious. We ate out on the deck and enjoyed ourselves.

After lunch, we plopped down on the comfy couches in the living room and played Scrabble. Jean won, obviously. She’s a beast at Scrabble, and usually the only person that can beat her is her older sister Barb. Although Dad has beat her once, he says.

We ran a few errands on the way home, and then we hung out a bit at home and then we had halibut and a mixed green salad for dinner. For dessert Lori made pumpkin pie.

It was really nice to be able to see Lori and Sarah’s boathouse!

After looking at Multnomah Falls and taking some great pictures, we drove into Portland and went to Powell’s book store. It is HUGE. It’s two stories tall and it has TONS of rooms. The one I picked out my books in was the Rose Room. It was stocked to the brim with young adult and kid’s books. It took me like an hour just to walk through all the aisles of young adult books!

The view from Crown Point, on the road to Portland

Soon we had to pick out books and leave the bookstore. Then we walked to a nearby restaurant we all love, Noodles and Company. I ordered an asian pasta dish with some coconut curry soup, and it was delicious.

Visiting Portland, OR

After that, we went back to Hood River. When we got home, Sarah had a surprise for us. She had gotten an ice cream cake to celebrate Jean’s upcoming birthday! We ate it happily and then got ready for bed. It was a really fun day!!! 😀