Calgary to Sorrento, BC

Road tripping with my sister this week. We left Calgary Thursday morning and traveled to Sicamous along the TransCanada highway. The scenery is spectacular all along the way. We didn't stop a lot, but picked up yummy bagels in Canmore and took a tour of Field, BC; which is something I've never done in the 30 years I've traveled these roads.

Field, BC

We stopped and took in a pottery shop where a young lady and I talked about how mass production hasn't really done our humanity any favors. This young lady (and possibly others; I didn't ask) make beautiful pottery dishes. I love pottery, but how does a potter make a living when everyone buys cheap dishes from some big store chain.
We've made the makers nearly obsolete. Sigh...

Back on the road, we cruised along to Golden. Kathleen wanted a break from the driving and an electronic sign above the highway said, "Take your turn as designated driver,"so I figured I'd better.
I drove to Revelstoke and Kathleen took over again because she knew where we were going next.
We stopped at a beautiful historic B&B called Artists' B&B. We were staying with another couple of sisters and the owner who is also female. It was a really feminine energy night overlooking Shuswap Lake.

The next morning started very slowly after a late night of laughter, but we didn't have far to go. We moseyed along the lake shore because my sister wants to buy property in BC on a lake. She knows this route far better than I and took me to a few of her favorite spots. One of them was the DeMille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm. This is truly a diversified operation. It has a petting zoo, feed sales, grocery store, artisan shop, hay sales and more.

Coot on a log in Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm sits on the (you guessed it) Salmon Arm of Shuswap Lakes. The lake shore of the town is mostly wetlands... or was before the cottages, homes and now resorts went up. We met a local representative of the Naturalist Society. She was perched on the huge warf that juts out into the lake for the houseboats to gas up and buy ice cream. She had a high powered telescope pointed at an osprey nest and was letting people look at mom fusing over her eggs. She also told the story of how the local Naturalist Society is trying to preserve the remaining wetlands by the town. They are home to an endangered turtle species.


Today, we spent tripping around Sorrento, Blind Bay, White Lake and stuff. We started at the weekly farmer's market across the road from the motel we're in where I bought some goodies for the Quadra Island experience coming right up.
We looked all over the lake front areas until finally I started thinking about how little Shuswap lake front is left in a natural state.

We visited a provincial park on White Lake though that was remarkable for a couple of reasons. One was its beauty and the other was its fearless ducks and ducklings. One parent had 3 ducklings that simply were not afraid of the people swimming among them. And the parent jumped out onto the dock at my feet. These ducks were a perfect example of animals habituated to being fed by humans. The young ones kept checking out my toes to see if they were food and the adult quacked at me for being slow about bringing out the food. Except we didn't have any duck food with us and I learned a long time ago not to feed wild animals.

We dined at a lakeside pub where an old minstrel serenaded us with Jimmy Buffet and Bob Dylan songs. Life felt pretty good.
We put miles of miles on the van today. We saw houses galore sitting on the land water folk call the riparian zone.
In my mind, BC is officially no longer pristine. It has joined the ranks of provinces that haven't cared for the natural environment. It's off that pedestal for me.

"When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?"

Creativity