Kelowna

Albert, in happier times, when he was sailing with me around the north end of Vancouver Island






The news of brother-in-law Albert's passing left me in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day on Wednesday. We have a very close family, and I felt a need to travel back to Southern Ontario to be with my sister, nieces, and nephews during this time. However, having thought about it for awhile, it struck me that with the family closeness comes the support that wouldn't really need me there.....I'd be best off to continue, to get Linda and our car home, and rather than spend a lot of money on air travel, could donate that toward his memory....to the Niagara Hospice.
So we continued southbound out of Vernon, stopping at a cemetery overlooking Duck Lake, near Kelowna. Here we found the resting spot for my uncle, Ray. We then went into Kelowna itself, and set up camp in a park near the lakeshore of Okanagan Lake.





These ducks kept mooching around the campsites, looking for handouts





There was still time left in the afternoon for some family research, so we arrived at the city Museum, with its archives, and spent the afternoon sifting through documents, voters lists, city directories, old school yearbooks, and such, to find traces of Linda's family. Then back to our camp for an early night.
Thursday morning we called Linda's cousin, Ernie to set up a visit, and decided to meet at a local coffee shop. Ernie and Linda have been mostly in communcation via email, but had met many years ago. The meeting was quite a friendly get-together, and after a bit of a visit, Ernie joined us for our trip to the Kelowna Cemetery. The people at the Cemetery were extremely helpful in helping us find the many relatives we had to locate, and with their help we were able to track most of them down within 3 hours.



Linda with cousin Ernie, checking out the Kelowna Cemetery







We dropped off Ernie at his home, promising to return later for dinner. Then back into town for a quick internet check, a bit of shopping, and a change of clothing. By 1700 we were back at Ernie and his wife Alma's home, where we had a scrumptious dinner, and a great visit, including viewing of many family photographs which Linda hadn't seen before. We made it back to our camp for a later bedtime of 2300.
Friday morning it was time to tackle the city Library where the newspaper archives are held. We spent much of the day there, finishing up our family research around 1500. A short walk around town to stretch our legs, and to photograph the war memorial which has several of Linda's relatives named on it - and then we were off to find another campground a bit closer to home. We headed west again, crossing over the Coquihalla Connector for Merritt. When we got there, however, it was still reasonably early, and the closest campsites would require a bit of a backtrack.....so we continued on, over the Coquihalla Highway, and arrived in Hope just in time to set up camp, make dinner, and finish up this section of the Blog. We are now in easy range for the lower mainland tomorrow, and then on to the Sunshine Coast, eventually ending up in Lund to put the boat back in the water.