Baby bears, breweries, bowling and beaches!

On Saturday we had to go to the hospital after I spent a lovely night, shivering, then burning up, throwing up and generally just having a good time. We had discovered that Cranbrooks doctors and walk in clinics didn’t open on Saturdays or Sundays (cos people obviously don’t get sick on the weekends). So instead had to go check in at emergency where we spent 3 hours and after a few blood samples and an IV we finally got out of there. The next 2 days were spent watching movies, catching up on gossip girl and the office and sleeping in one of Cranbrooks finest motel rooms (thanks ma and pa) and eventually I was feeling better.

The time finally came after spending so far all of our trip in Cranbrook to say goodbye. It was sad, we had bonded but I think it was time for both of us to move on. After a quick clean of Stanny we headed to Creston which was a short drive away and had some lunch at a lovely park before heading on a brewery tour. It smelt kinda weird (Zach described it as a strong vegemite smell) and we had a private guide through the Kokanee brewery (we paid extra for the privilege, well actually no one else wanted to go) but we learnt all about the different processes and also got to go through the canning and bottling bit which was pretty cool. The end of the tour even left us with a cool beverage (not bad for a grand total of $2 for the whole thing). The afternoon was still young so we decided to take a walk through town, after walking into 2 shops that looked slightly of interest, we crossed that of our to do list and carried on to another fun activity...Bowling! We threw of our thongs and put on our razzy dazzy shoes and bowled the night away. Well for a game at least, and as seems to be the trend with activities of late, Mr Kilner got beaten by a late come back. Woo hoo! We then found a campground and set up for the night where we had a delicious dinner of potato chips (made out of a real potato), steak and salad (mums be proud) and it was delicious dinner made on our adorable mini BBQ.

The next day we got up (earlyish) and headed on over to Nelson. Before we left though we made a nice stop at the Creston museum, where again we had a personal guided tour which was good as she told us the history behind the stuff. Sometime with those things its like, seen an old telephone you've seen them all (which really, you have) but it was good to have a bit ofa personal touch. On the way to Nelson, the unimaginable happened, the whole reason I came to Canada (well not really), the one reason I actually stay awake when Zach is driving...I saw a bear! It was a little baby brown bear and it ran right out in front of the van causing us to slam on the brakes and have everything fly out from its place. but totally worth it. I can now return to Aus knowing that I had in fact seen a bear. Woo!

Anywho as we continued driving we got a lil hungry and stopped by a lake to have our delicious daily lunch of ham sandwiches and an apple with a drink bottle of warm water. Delish! It was a rocky beach though, and we ended up skimming rocks and having apple core races down the rapids leading into the lake. Fun! Although I have definitely forgotten my rock skimming skills since last doing it as a kid (Dad I may need some lessons when I get back). We then realised we may have played a little bit too long and may miss the ferry going across the river, might I add FREE ferry. But luckily we had just made it, we were literally the last car on the ferry. But that was fun, riding across on a boat, getting some fresh air and stretching the ole legs - whilst still making distance. Perfection! After another short drive after getting off the ferry we made it to Nelson. We had another walk downtown (much more impressive than Creston) and i managed to purchase a beach umbrella (very important for pasty skinned people like myself) and a gripball 2000 (which subsequently broke on literally the third throw (just cant trust a good plastic toy from the dollar stores these days). We also treated ourselves and got some icecream cos it was ridiculously hot. After deciding we needed to cool down a bit we went to the beach and played on the playground (swings and spinny things only - we do have some self respect) and then lay down and read on the grass area which was a nice afternoon. I then decided that this would be a nice place for dinner and so we went and bought some burgers from Safeway (along with salad) and cooked them on our little BBQ in the park. Zach was worried the whole time about being kicked out and now being allowed to BBQ in the park but I didnt want to be cooking in a walmart parking lot so we went with it (at time of printing - author still not arrested). After the splurge on icecream, umbrellas and toys we decided tonight would be the first night we cheaped out and would stay at Walmart. We pulled up and at first glance something didnt look quite right, for one, this Walmart was on the riverfront. Thats right, we simultaneously parked in the Walmart parking lot AND had first row river views. WOW. The other thing that was slightly absurd was that there was not a single other RV anywhere to be seen. This should've set off warning bells, but alas did not. We went to bed thinking all was fine but woke to see a big white flyer on our windscreen. At first I worried that it was a ticket but after using my superior inside out back to front reading skills, found that it was only a warning telling us that this was not for overnight parking blah blah. I then rolled back over and went to sleep for a few more hours. Warning schmarnings.

Eventually, Zach got up and drove us over to the beach again (me still in the back - pretty much my favourite way to travel, being chauffeured around while laying down a good couple of metres from any form of human contact).. ahh i joke. we spent the good part of four hours lying on the beach (under the umbrella) reading and going for the occasional dip. unfortunately the water was chillllllllllly and my legs pretty much hurt after standing in there for too long. but still good times. At about 3 we decided we should probably head on over to our next destination of Castlegar. I was allowed to drive (for the second time in the whole trip) and am pretty much an awesome driver, although still get confused on some of the rules. Pretty much every 4-way stop I have to ask Zach when its my turn to go. But I havent crashed or had too much of a freak out so all is good. Although apparently I am a "shoulder hugger" which really I think is better than a "centre-line hugger" but now whenever anyone goes slightly off the centre of the lane its called "doing a KJ" lovely. Anywho we got to Castlegar and went to the information centre - our first stop at any destination now where the lovely lady told us a few nice campgrounds etc. We found a nice one that was relatively cheap and cooked another delish dinner of sausages, buns and salad. They had a frisbee which we played around with and also a volleyball net where we had a game. We then also went on the "eager beaver" trail for a quick walk before bed to see the fish spawning areas (delightful). All in all a good day.

This brings us to today (finally) we drove the short distance (only an hour or 2) to Christina Lake, where we went to the worlds smallest beach. Well pretty much, it was tiny but at least the water was warm. After going for a dip it started thunderstorming and so we ran back to the campground, however in this process I may or may not have also lost a set of keys. Oopies. Ever since then, we've been hanigng at the campground, had dinner - steak again! (So affordable here for some reason) and pretty much just worrying about lifes stresses that have been thrown our way..oh wait - none! ha.

So that is us all up to date, I'll try to be a bit more frequent with the entries but internet is still few and far between.

Thanks everyone for reading and all your comments, we love reading them!

Love Zach and KJ xox

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