Heat Wave

Well, we made our way up to Williams Lake. The drive up here from Whistler was one of the most beautiful so far. Pictures can't capture even the half of it, but we sure tried. We went through two pretty large mountain passes and then finally hit Cariboo Highway and Ranching Country. Just as my Dad described it, we drove over the hill to see the puddle (Williams Lake) below... completely frozen over. And this is no small lake to freeze.  Pulling into the town we were in a heat wave, it was just under 20 degrees.... that is as high as we've seen it up here.

Once we finally got settled into our lovely little lakeside motel it was time to start our visits. The last two nights have consisted of great food and even greater conversation. Our first night was with a family I've heard a lot about. A good friend of my Dad's was taken by cancer last December and we went to visit his two girls and their mom (who my dad also knows pretty well). It was definitely a fun experience. Heard lots of stories, laughed, and got to see buddy almost eat a kitten. Really that was probably the highlight story of the night. We walked in and the girls had just gotten a new kitten. Buddy comes in the house and I'm holding him and he notices the little snack. Everyone else in the room was convinced he was just getting to know the kitten and was going to like it... I on the other hand was pretty sure he was going to think it was his dinner. Yet again, Erin was right. I know, not shocking.... So as buddy starts smelling this thing I feel him pull. He licks the little guy and right as my dad says "see, he's just getting to know it" ... he takes a snap. I literally think the kittens head was in Buddy's mouth as I yanked him back salivating. The next few minutes I was holding him back while was licking his lips and wouldn't take his eyes off of the thing... so we put him back in the car.

Williams Lake Stampede grounds from the highway above

The next day we drove around, saw a few places around town (including the stampede grounds) before heading up to our next stop.

View from the bridge

 Our next trip was up to an old cowboy couple that ranched along side my Dad for years. They were the best man/maid of honor in his second wedding (which is a story in itself...). They have a great little place just over the river (on a bride that a man bought in Alaska, took apart, moved back over here, and rebuilt himself.. it's a great little story about how he connected the community around here). So we arrive and again spent the evening telling stories and laughing while getting to know each other. They prepared an amazing ham dinner that was accompanied with some of their spectacular stories of their travels. They were lucky enough to work on a ranch where they got 3 months a year off and spent many many months traveling the world. They literally have stories for days. After staying there last night we returned to town.



I then learned why Canadians are good at sports that you do inside..... I attempted to jog....and even with the heat wave that brought the 6 degree high up to 10 degrees I have never felt my lungs hurt like that. I jogged up the road, and once I saw the kids playing ice hockey on the lake I decided I was ridiculous and it was time to go back. Tomorrow they're doing something called the polar plunge to raise money for the rugby team up here. Basically they're cutting a giant hole in the iced over lake and people are jumping in. At first I was all for it, but after thinking about it the last few days I'll have to still be feeling my celebration tonight and then some before I would jump into that bad boy. It would be a spur of the moment thing... so I guess we will all just have to wait and see.

Picture from our room when I got back from running.. you can kind of see the kids

Never thought I'd see this.....

In light of the new year I have been thinking a little about some sort of resolution... last year I didn't make one and kind of feel like that may be the case this year. I've been trying to figure out what a resolution means to me personally and why I would make one. Because without the reasoning it just seems pretty pointless to me. Sure, we all want to lose a few pounds or get in better shape or eat more vegetables... but what keeps us doing that throughout the year? Do we look back and think to ourselves that we have to stay with it because it was our resolution? I sure don't..... So I'll spend the next few days thinking through the whole idea and see what I come up with before my next post.

In the mean time, I hope everyone has an amazing new years (safely) and a great start to 2011.