A reminder that these photos are old ones that I have scanned into my computer. It was a different time of picture taking--we didn't take 10 shots to get one good one--we took one and it was what it was. I hope that despite the poor quality of some of the photos that you will still enjoy the memory of this amazing trip.
Enjoy!
"Friday night we stayed at Butcherites in Spokane. They are fine. They are still kind of overwhelmed with having two babies (one, 21 months and one 7 months). David (he is almost 8 now) was the only one for so long this is really a change for them.
Saturday and Sunday nights we camped at Yahk, British Columbia. which is just across the border about 9 miles."
It seems like us older ones remember this little Church well. Robin remembered that another large family was also visiting the same day as we did.
One of my memories was that one of the speakers talked about America being the promised land. He was Canadian and was speaking from that point of view--as another place. That is when I felt that we were truly in a different country.
"Near our camp, the Moyie RIver tumbled by. I had neglected to take our bathing suits so we played in the river with our clothes on. It was cold but not too much so, so we enjoyed it."
I didn't remember that we were wearing our clothes, but I remembered how unusual it was that we would be swimming on Sunday. It was a beautiful memory though. Of course, I love playing in all types of water.
 |
| Rick and Scott thought it was too cold to get in, but loved throwing the rocks in. |
 |
| Lynette |
Lynette shared: " In the Richland Years, Mom says about our romp in the Moyie River as " The Best Sabbath I ever broke." Normally we wouldn't have gone swimming but this seemed to be a special situation." About a year and a half ago I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Keeping The Sabbath Day Holy. I shared mom's story about swimming in the Moyie River. That got quite a laugh from the Congregation. "
 |
| According to the back of this photo, this is Mike and me (Judy) playing with a ball in the river. |
"On Monday, we left Yahk about 10:30 and drove to Cranbrook where we stopped to do our laundry. Then we drove up to Kootenay National Park and camped at Marble Canyon, which is in the east part of the park. First time I'd seen the Rocky Mountains. They were impressive. Richard was sad that I'd left out the bathing suits because Radium Hot Springs is in Kootenay park and it only costs 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children.
I am not sure which part of the drive one of my favorite memories occurred but I am going to add it here. Much of our drive was in the beautiful forests of British Columbia. At one point we drove out of the forest lined highway into a beautiful meadow area and right in the middle of that meadow stood a huge MOOSE. It stood perfectly still as our car made its way down the highway and curved through the meadow--and then the moose MOVED. It startled me and then I realized that it was a REAL MOOSE out in the WILD--not some pretend moose at Disneyland. Todd was sitting next to me. I am not sure who spoke first, but both of us had had the same experience--of being startled by the moose moving. It was cool not only because we saw a moose in the wild, but Todd and I shared something that others in the car had not experienced in the same way.
"Tuesday we went sight seeing. We thought Lake Louise was really beautiful. It wasn't the color of the water on that post card, but aqua, almost green. A lot of rivers were green also. We went on a short hike, which Judy mentioned on the card. Four went on the uphill hike and the rest of us went a little later and took the wrong turn, so we took the lakeside hike."
 |
| Todd, Mike, and Scott with two random tourists |
I thought that Lake Louise was the most beautiful place that I had ever seen. Although I was not a romantic type person, I remember thinking that I wanted to come back here with my husband someday because it was that type of place--one to be shared. (We still haven't done it yet, but it is on the list.) It made a big impact on all of us as Lake Louise was a frequently mentioned memory.
I am not sure if I ended up doing the uphill hike or the lakeside hike. My memory was that Scott and I were behind everyone, because I had changed his diaper and were behind everyone else. I always thought that Scott was two when we took this trip but realized as I prepared to write this that he would have only been 18 months or so in August of 1970. I think the twist in my memory came from this hike. Scott and I were going up the path to catch up with the family. Scott refused to let me carry him, so we were going at a slower pace than I wanted to go to catch up with everyone else. But Scott just kept walking and heading up the dirt path. A dad coming down the trail with his tired kids said: Look at that two year old boy. He is climbing all by himself. You shouldn't complain. You are bigger than him." Scott did make the whole hike (around a mile up and back.) Amazing for someone 18 months old, but shows the determination that was common for Scott.
"Then we went back to Kootenay park, ate lunch, and went to the Paint Pots, another short hike. That was three small pools, some green water, that filtered out orange mud form so much iron in the water. It was quite unusual. The ground all around was orange.
 |
| Robin, Todd, me holding Scott, Rick |
Robin remembers that this was the first time she remembers red dirt (although she did see it in Utah a few years earlier when we went to Zion's National Park. That was another amazing trip.) The Paint Pots have always been a memory that we talked about since then. It was a fascinating study of geology.
 |
| Todd at Paint Pots |
"We got the biggest kick out of Scotty. We have gone on some hikes with babies who would rather be carried, but he is such a hardy little fellow. He walked and walked, and was all excited about the whole thing. He walked most of the way to the Paint Pots and back which was a total of a mile. And that was after his morning hike at Lake Louise. We all enjoyed watching him. He was a pill at night but I'm glad that we took him along anyway. Ricky was a good walker too, went on all hikes on his own feet."
"Scotty insists on running down the hill after the others, half-way down he tumbles."
 |
| Mom with Scotty |
I think Robin remembered that Scotty fell and got very dirty in the red dirt.
"Later, while Scotty took a nap, some of us went on a short hike up Marble Canyon. The trail goes back and forth across Tokumm creek which is a regular-type creek most of the way down the mountain but near the bottom hits a limestone fault and has worn a chasm that is 200 feet deep in places. I'm glad we didn't have the baby with us. As it was I nearly went nuts with the kids leaning over bridge rails and getting close to edges, etc. The sides were nearly straight down."
 |
| Mom wrote that Robin took a step backwards and she, Mom "nearly had aheart attack." |
This was nearby where we ate lunch. It was Vermillion River. Mom wrote that it was very cold.
 |
| On the photo, mom wrote that Scotty insists on having his shoes off but the water curls his toes. The throwing rocks was good though. |
I have no memory of the fry biscuits, but you are welcome!!!
"We left there Wednesday morning about 10:15 so it took us almost 12 hours to get home counting the stops we made."
Mom made mention at the beginning of the letter that we came home one day early because we had run out of money. I remember that we only had so much money for gas and food on the trip home and it was pretty limited. (Probably the reason that the mistaken purchase of the Miracle Whip by Mike became a memory for him.)
Mom ended her letter with the following quotes:
"Quotable Quotes from the trip:
Lynette: "Mom, I don't care about the sink part, but I just wish they had that little handle." (We didn't have flush toilets at Yahk.)
Dad: "This tent is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here."
In the text of The Richland Years, Mom wrote: "At the end of August was our famous Canadian trip. (We must have been inspired because of the move to Texas the following year.) It was a short vacation--about five days-- but very excellent and remembered with much pleasure.
Yes, it was, Mom! We loved it and appreciate now, as many of us are parents ourselves, yours and dad's sacrifices so that we could have such a great memory.
And I would add this recent quote from Scott: Sounds like the best trip I ever went on that I don’t remember.J
No comments:
Post a Comment