Going Across the Border to Canada

The people at the motel in Oroville had two bowls of fresh cherries for us to enjoy this morning.  They also suggested that we try a side trip to the ghost town of Molson nearby.

The town of Molson was begun in 1900 and died out in 1901 when a rancher claimed that the town was located on his homestead.  The people of the town then moved one mile away and created "New Molson".  So there became actually three towns right together - Old Molson, New Molson, and Central.  The towns dwindled in the early years, but gained again in population when the railroad came through in 1909.  Unfortunately, the trains stopped running through there in 1939 and now the sign indicates that there are 35 "hearty" residents left in Molson.

The ghost town was on the site of Old Molson and there were several buildings with exhibits inside of each and displays outside of old farm equipment.  Lots of old photos that had been collected showing the early history of these towns.

The bank (left) and assay office of Molson

As we drove along the gravel road, away from the ghost town, we passed a truck labeled U.S. Customs and realized that we were traveling right along the Canadian border.  The border there is just a barbed wire fence which is only about 4 feet high with randomly spaced red posts.

Marker along the US-Canada border.

Crossing over the border into Canada was very uneventful - lots of questions to answer but no inspections or anything elaborate.  We had thought we would not be allowed to bring fresh fruit in, so we had spent the morning eating up the last 5 or 6 apples.  They did ask, but didn't say anything when we said we still had some oranges.

Today was Canada Day so there were lots of red around.  Free Canadian flags and pins at the Welcome Center.  Lots of cars going by with flags on them.

Throughout the afternoon there were beautiful views of snow-covered mountains and lots of rushing rivers swollen by the snow melt.  We only saw one group of rafts in the water.  Maybe the water is so cold that they don't do much on the rivers.  Lots of campgrounds all along the rivers.

Both before and after the border, there were orchards on both sides of the highway.  The signs indicated that there were cherries, plums, and apples being grown.  Lots of signs of irrigation for the orchards.  We stopped at one of the orchards and bought a large box of just picked cherries.

The further north we traveled we saw more and more vineyards.  We stopped at one of these wineries - La Stella.  The winery was set on a hillside surrounded by vineyards and looked down on a large lake.  We tasted several of their wines and purchased two bottles.  The woman told us that the grapes were organically grown and hand picked.

The vineyard overlooking one o the Okanagan Valley lakes.

As we were seeing more and more signs for Penticton and also for the winery circle route, we realized that we were on the wrong highway, particularly when we came to the town of Oliver.  We had gone north on 97, instead of getting off on Highway 3 and heading west.  We had gone a little out of our way, but we saw some beautiful scenery, got to see the winery, and still got to the town of Princeton, which is where we are staying, on time.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we headed out to Manning Park and enjoyed the evening of reuniting with Betsy, Steve,  Adam and Sarah.  We had never met Sarah and Matt's three children - Ollie (6), Willa (4) and Scarlett (2).  Sarah said that when she and Matt were young there were always others with their same names so they were known by their name and last initial.  They wanted unique names for their children so that that wouldn't happen to them.  They have found other Scarletts but think that that is because they are in the South.  All three of the children look very much alike and have very white blonde hair.

Adam will be moving up to Vancouver and doing a doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia.  He said that right now he was doing more composing than performing.

For the dinner we sat at a table with Adam, Bren (short for Brenda), and her parents who live outside of Vancouver.

Bren and Adam

After the dinner there was a larger gathering in The Bears Den Pub.  We were both really tired and left early.  Need to make sure we have energy for all the excitement of the wedding tomorrow.

We will be staying at the Princeton Inn, Princeton, British Columbia tonight and for the next two nights.  We will enjoy the wedding activities tomorrow and then have a chance to see some of this area around Manning.