Montreal, Sept 2012.

We spent one day in Montreal this year before boarding the sleeper train to Halifax.  We spent the time taking a walk around the Downtown and Old Town.

Christ Church Cathedral.

The Edward VII Monument

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Bonsecours Market seen from the Place des Vestiges

Bonsecours Market from Rue de la Commune

The angels looking down from the Notre Dame de Bonsecours

Inside the Notre Dame de Bonsecours

Stained glass windows

The front of the church

The pretty cobbled streets of Old Town

Back along the North side of Bonsecours Market on Rue Saint Paul

Vauquelin Square

Side streets lined with artisan shops

Montreal City Hall

Three chatting women, deep in conversation.

Mt Baker from the air

Great views of Mt Baker when we flew to Montreal early Sept.

Return from Veranda Beach via North Cascades National Park

On our drive home from the Osoyoos Lake town of Oroville, WA we decided to take an alternative route – rather than the direct one through Manning Park that we usually take we returned through Washington State.  While this route was a little slower (about 1hr longer than back through BC) it had two potential advantages – it takes us through scenic North Cascades National Park and enabled us to pass through Bellingham before crossing the border to stock up in US grocery stores.

Initially starting through the South Okanagan desert we turn West and head towards the mountains.

We pass through a few non-descript towns before hitting Winthrop.  Our first impression was of Winthrop Hardware on the edge of town :

Then we discovered the whole town has a wildwest theme

Winthrop had originally been a long forgotten gold-rush town until the opening of Highway 20 across the Cascades in 1972.  At that time it was decided to rejuvenate the town and create a wildwest theme.

After passing through Winthrop we continue into the North Cascades National Park and pass through beautiful scenery including Washington Pass:

Views West from Washington Pass

The road winds through the mountain pass

Soon we reach a couple of lakes formed in 1924 to generate electricity for the Seattle Metropolitan area.  This is Ross Lake.

Finally a couple of views of stunning Diablo Lake

Veranda Beach

We are finally back from our summer of travelling so can get up to date with blogposts and photos of our activities.

Continuing on from our previous post, driving through Manning Park on route to visit our friends staying on Osoyoos Lake.

Our friends had rented a house in a beach complex on the Southern end of Osoyoos Lake, just over the border in Washington State.

Situated in the town of Oroville, the Veranda Beach vacation development was built around 5 years ago although there are expansion plans in progress.

The short drive down the hillside from the road, through the Veranda Beach vineyards to the development at the waters edge.

The streets all have cutesy names, such as ‘Flip Flop Lane’ and ours was ‘Barefoot Lane’.

 

Sig outside the cottage they had rented for a week (we were just joining them for a couple of nights).

There are cottages of assorted designs and sizes, all with small enclosed garden areas, perfect for the dogs or young kids.

Large greenways provided safe areas for children to play and walking routes around the village.

The greenways all lead back to the village centre which had a bar/restaurant, swimming pool, gym, games areas and the family beach.

For us however the best feature of this location is the lake access and dog beach. 

Views of the beach at Veranda Beach

There was also a boat dock so you can bring your own boat to use on the lake if you wish.

Views South down Osoyoos Lake towards Oroville.

Panorama from Veranda Beach.

Both the US and Canadian flags fly here – we might be in the US but the majority of the patrons of Veranda Beach were Canadians and we are actually so close to the border our cellphones still picked up signal from Rogers.  It was like we never left Canada (except beer, wine, spirits, dairy products and a whole bunch of other stuff was much cheaper in the supermarket !)

The dog beach on Osoyoos Lake.  Lovely warm, clean water.

We could barely get Mojo out of the lake.  He swam his legs off !

Buddy too made the most of the lake.

While Missie rocked her funky floatation device

In-and-out of the lake.

One of the nicest aspects of travelling here in the summer is that the lake’s so warm you can get in and swim with the dogs.

David with Mojo in the lake.

Mojo swimming at Veranda Beach

Finally some video of Missie enjoying Osoyoos Lake.