Linda's Canadian Adventure

It’s cliche, but my mother is back in Holland and the time she’s spent here went by very fast. We have had a very good time and I loved having her with me. The first three days she stayed with William and Sheri in downtown Vancouver.

William made a delicious Easter diner and while he was working in the kitchen we emptied the wine bottles. On monday we moved mama to Burnaby, the home of Mike and I. It was a lovely day so we walked around in the park of Burnaby Lake and enjoyed the view on Burnaby mountain.

She had to meet Mike’s parents (Jody and Wing) of course so we went there for diner. Mike’s grandmother Joan was there as well. There was good food for everybody and enough to feed a orphanage. We took the pecan tarts with us and enjoyed those the rest of the week. They are all very sweet people so everybody got along with each other. My mother thought Mike’s grandmother was especially very sweet.

I had to take my mother to my volunteerwork as well. The Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society had their annual meeting this week and they also had a volunteer appreciation. It is very nice I’m already appreciated! I took her to the animal care centre of the Wildlife Rescue Association as well. She could see the bever that is staying there for awhile. “What a big animal!”. In former days the beaver was hunted on in large quantities. The fur was used to make vilt for the top hats in England. The first English settlement in BC was trading in fur among other things. Mama and I visited Fort Langley, the old fort is a museum and the town is very nice with lovely little shops.

On friday William, mama and I drove to Kelowna. A 5 hour drive east where the landscape slowly becomes dryer. First we had rain, in the mountains it was snowing, but in the Okanagan it was dry. We stayed in the Lake Okanagan Resort. We immediately went to enjoy the best treat of this region: Wine!

We visited 4 wineries on friday and tasted some wine at each place. William’s favorite is Pinot Noir, I’ll have a Chardonnay any time and mama fell for the Ice Wine.

On saturday we drove to Penticton and along the way tasted some more wine. All the wineries are beautifully situated along the lake and it is clear the businesses are doing well.

On each property is a nice building to taste and buy wine. It is very new and the architecture is debatable, but it is very nice to be here.

William and Sheri run the Sun Run on sunday, 10 km through Vancouver. Sheri has been training for months and was a little nervous.

Mama, Mike and I were close to the finish and when they ran by they looked like they could do another 10 km.

It is very strange that mama is back in Holland now, I think she will walk out her little bedroom any moment. I hope she had a good time too and she’ll be back in September. She’ll do a trip around BC with two friends.