A Trip to Williams Lake

Last week I went on a little trip to Williams Lake.  In January my Grandfather passed away.  It was decided to wait until May to hold a Celebration Of Life for him.  It ended up falling on the same weekend as the weekend that my neighbor and I had planned a Small Animal and Poultry Sale here in Terrace.  So my friend had to manage the Sale on her own, as I felt that it was important to go to my Grandfathers Celebration of Life.

At first, I actually didn't think that I would go as I had no way to travel down to Williams Lake.  But as luck would have it, my Sister's husband ended up having to work and so I had the pleasure of traveling down with her.

It has been quite a while since I went on a Road Trip with my Sister.  The last one that we went on, we only traveled to Old Hazelton to pick up 3 pigs.  You can imagine the fun we had on that little day trip.  

Now, my Sister is on of the best friends and traveling companions a Gal could ever ask for, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to spend this time with her.  Going down, we had her little baby (5 months) with us and my younger daughter who sat in the back with Baby Wyatt.  Alisha (my daughter) was so proud to look after her little cousin, feeding him his bottle, giving him his soother and entertaining him as we traveled.  She was such a big help. 

A few hours outside of Terrace is a lovely range of mountains, called the Seven Sisters.  

They are a beautiful rough new range, and it was so nice to see them on such a clear day.  Usually when I go by it's either clouded in or dark.

The Northwest at this time of year is absolutely beautiful.  

As you get near Smithers, there is this lovely little lake.  It's always such a beautiful sight, the way the blue in the sky reflects on the waters of the lake.  There is usually water fowl on and around here.

This time of year the Geese have their new little Goslings with them.

We were really, really hoping to see a Kermodi Bear (a rare white colored black bear) which was reported to have been hanging around Cedarville, but alas when we went by there he was no where to be seen.  My Brother and his Girlfriend who were only about an hour behind us texted us to brag about having seen it as well as a couple of Elk in Smithers.  The Elk are fairly rare in that area.  Of course Jessie and I told them that we seen 4 Black Bears, lots of Rabbits (did we need to tell them they were road kill?) and an Elk.... crossing sign (as well as lots of dead tires, large rocks and a lovely white plastic bag).  Yes, you couldn't beat our eagle eyes for spotting interesting things!

 Yes, we do have a lot of fun when we travel listening to great tunes, bad tunes and singing as loudly and badly at times as we can.  I supose to anyone on the outside, we may have been looked upon as a little nuts.  But at least we know how to laugh, I say!  

We made a little stop in Vanderhoof to have a look at my Sisters new Heeler puppy that she would be picking up on our way home.  The lady there had some lovely Neatherland Dwarf Rabbits and I got to do some snuggling with them.  But I did good and left without a puppy or a rabbit, as tempting as it was.

A brief stop in Prince George for some quick shopping and some Timmies and we were off again!

The scenery changes quite a bit between Terrace and Prince George.  You go from high mountain, lush green foliage in bush that you can hardly see through to a flatter more open land with different tones of greens.  A dryer area,  but it has it's own beauty.  There are large fields with hay, cattle and horses in them.

Because we were in a hurry to our destination, we didn't pull over very much for pictures, so I practiced what I like to call "Drive By Photography at 100km.

You can see the beautiful Frazer River.

I just love seeing cows out to pasture...

One thing that I love is the abundance of deer that are in the Cariboo area.  The morning after we arrived, we were sitting having coffee at my Grandma's and a couple dear wandered by her window to nibble at the grass and tree's in her yard.

My Grandpa's Ceremony of Life was very nice.  It was great to hear stories told about Grandpa that I hadn't heard before, as well as the poetry and songs that were sung.  It was also great to see so much family that I hadn't see since we were little kids many years before.

I also was lucky enough to get to spend a night at my Aunts house.  Across the road from her is a bunch of Marmots.  So neat to watch as they scurry about the field.  If you call out, you can see heads pop up all over, then they take off back to their holes.  While we were out on her porch a Coyote trotted up along the side of the road in between us and the Marmots.  You could hear them all whistling alarm over the field.

My Sister and I snuck away for a little while and took a drive out to where we grew up.

Along the way we passed the old school house that I remember going by every morning on the bus on the way to school.  The front used to have a little porch on it, but that is now gone.  the building is perhaps about 100 years old.  The lady who used to occasionally baby sit me when I was little used to go to school there when she was a young girl.  This winter she passed away.  I think fondly of her often.  I have a nice heavy blanket that she had made and gave our family when we where children, and I still use and love it.  It reminds me of this lovely lady daily.  She was one of those ladies who is always on the go.  Even in her 90's still spry and lively.  A real inspiration.

We got out and took a little walk around the school to take pictures from various angles.  There is just something I have always loved about old building.  Just before we got in to continue on our drive, we noticed this Marmot right up on top of the building.  Looking at the pictures, we realized that he had been up there the whole time.  The building also housed many swallows which dipped and dived all around us.

When we were near our old homestead, I was looking down into the bush beside the road and I was delighted to see some lady slippers.  I haven't seen these flowers since I was a small girl.  They are one of the prettiest of wild flowers.  When I was little I used to believe that Fairies wore them as shoes.

We were also lucky enough to spot a Chipmunk.  This is another creature that I haven't seen since I was a small girl.  I don't think they are in the Terrace area.  They have such a little pointy nose.  

We also stopped and had a visit with one of our neighbours out in Miocene.  It was so nice to have that visit.  She took us out and showed us her lovely little flock of bantams.  I got to give belly rubs to some disgruntled Broody girls.  The first chickens I got to touch since I culled my own.  I thought I handled it quite well.  After a minute, the broody girls took flight with great squawking.  They hadn't been given eggs to hatch so we weren't interrupting anything like that.  Anyways.  I really enjoyed the chicken talk, as I miss my chickens greatly.

In my Grandmothers yard is a little creek.  As a little girl, I love to play in and about this creek.  I seen my kids doing the same thing.  How could you give them trouble?  My Mom used to play in the same creek when she was a girl too.  So that would be Three Generations of kids in our family that have enjoyed and played in that creek.

We left Williams Lake early in the morning and decided to start back along the Soda Creek Road.  That's a pretty drive too.

Looking back towards Williams Lake.

I love seeing the cows and calves along the roads.

The Canyons are so beautiful in the still of the morning.

We stopped at this little place and had a little snoop around.  It was quite early so there was no one about.

Going into one of the houses.  Wish I could remember what the names of there were...

It was neat to see the difference in construction from the Long Houses that they would have built in our area.

Of course, the girls had to climb outside.

Back up the road and onto the highway.  We stopped for a second so I could take a picture of the Bee Hive Burner.  My dad used to work at the Mill in Williams Lake and it was his job to empty these things of the ashes.  He remembers driving in there to scoop out the ashes and it being still very, very hot with coals still burning.  

Most of the rest of the ride home was not really that eventful, except that we seen a couple Elk out in a field near Quesnel.  Also we stopped and picked up my Sister's new Blue Healer Puppy in Vanderhoof from a very nice lady who also sells Neatherland Dwarf Rabbits.  I thought I resisted the urge of bringing one of those home pretty good.  They were pretty stinking cute and snuggly though.  

We had such a great trip there and home again.  What could be better then travelling with the best Sister in the world?  I'm so very glad that I went.