What I have learned in Fernie...

10. The Book Exchange - I discovered the book exchange when I walked into one of my favorite places to grab a coffee in Fernie, Tea and Coffee House, and noticed a small shelf of books. There are a few shelves like this around town and the deal is, you can take a book for free as long as it's in good condition and you also contribute to the book exchange. This was a great way for me to 1. take some unnecessary weight off my own book shelf and 2. read free books. I love it!

On top of that, there is another program where you can register your book and see where it goes around the world. Once I find out what this is called, I'll post it.

11. Ski and Snowboarding videos follow you everywhere. You could be sitting down in a restaurant for dinner, browsing a store or grabbing a coffee at a local cafe and guarenteed you will see a ski and/or snowboard video on the walls of each location...just staring you down. It's unbelievable. My roommate, Mike Tonge, is a ski patrol guy at Fernie Alpine Resort and after a long 10 hour work day at the hill, he can come home and put on a ski video while he eats his McDonalds take-out dinner; never tiring of the same DVD. How do they do it?

Rod keeps saying to me "That's a ski town for you."

And then I remember: ohhh yeah. I moved to a ski town.

12. Free camping galore. Growing up in Ontario, I'm used to planning months and months ahead of time for a weekend camping trip and paying good money for it too.


In and around Fernie, there is ample amounts of camping locations and most of them are completely free and empty. Can you tell I'm excited for summer? I'm looking forward to spending my weekend, any weekend we choose, in a cool remote spot on a lake with hardly anyone around. Now that's my idea of camping!

the highly anticipated photos

We did it!! I have our mini vacation photos nicely organized and instead of 1 photo per day, you get 3!! Hooray for you.

So to begin the trip, we have the road trip on Friday from Vancouver to Fernie, BC. It's supposed to be a 12 hour drive but ended up being a 16 hour adventure for 3.

The Okanagan Vineyards

Everything was going quite smoothly until some strange metal piece FLEW off our car. After a few cars drove over the run away part, we picked it up and tried to pretend we knew what we were doing and place it back where it was supposed to go. Without it we would be driving a loud bad ass Rav4 for 8 hours. We're not very bad ass.

Ben was the one who got it temp fixed so we could get to Rod's place before sunrise. Way to go Mr. Krich!!

Ben taping the Rav back together

On Saturday, our first mini mini trip was to Lake Kookanusa where we found our own private camp site with our own private Jamaican sand beach. We felt really special. In between patting ourselves on the back, we managed to relax, play FrizKnock in the water, speak Science by the fire and cook hot dogs.

Teenie and Ben enjoying the view

FrizKnock in the water and our fire

On Sunday we enjoyed more camping fun times.

Teenie and Ben floating.

Rod enjoying his new hammock

But the fun didn't end there. Monday consisted of White Water Rafting (thanks to Jared of Mountain High Rafting in Fernie), frizbee golf and hanging out in Fernie. We didn't end up getting rafting pictures...which is a shame because that was AMAZING.

Ben gracefully riding Brandon's mini bike.

Good form, Brina!

Tuesday was another day of new discoveries and brilliance. We all slept in (finally) and did a bit of shopping in town while Rod put a few hours in. When we all got together in the afternoon, Rod, Ben and some friends did a quick mountain bike ride in the backyard...but first you have to take the truck the mountain...and then the girls have to take the truck down to the house...and the mountain is STEEP...and I've never driven Rod's truck before. We didn't scream once!!

The boys all suited up for their meeting with destiny.

We prepared our sweaty feet for the ride down.

And Wednesday was the saddest day of all. It was packing and spend time in Cranbrook day. SIGH. All good things must come to an end. But we didn't waste any time, even near the end. We managed to witness an amazing waterfall in Marysville and then buy apple strudel in Kimberley. When Rod and I were driving back to Fernie we encountered a super bright rainbow to lead us all the way home. Anyone know how rainbows form? I think I might do a little research.

The waterfall of greatness.

Rainbow of greatness.