July Long in Salmon Arm

July 2, 2007 | 629 views | Trackback | |

I was excited about escaping the city and heading up to Salmon Arm in the interior of BC this long weekend for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I was able to spend a full weekend of quality time with not only Michelle, but also her family... and let's face it, anytime you're able to become acquainted with some of the more personal aspects of the life of someone you care about, it's always amazing. Secondly, I'd never been up to that part of BC before save for our New Year's trip to Kelowna earlier in the year, so I was pretty pumped about getting the opportunity to head up that way again.

Before I get started with what I got up to, it's probably suitable that I provide a quick geography lesson. Nestled on the banks of the Salmon Arm Bay section of the stunning Shuswap Lake, Salmon Arm is roughly 463km from Vancouver, about a 6 hour drive. The beautiful landscape populated by around 17,000 residents lends itself to outdoor sports of every variety across all seasons from trail hiking, mountain biking and every water sport under the sun in the Summer, to cross-country skiing and snowmobiling in the Winter. The town also serves as a busy launching spot for tourists partaking in the popular Shuswap activity of house boating (something I'd LOVE to do at some point).

The only thing that takes away from the beauty of Salmon Arm is perhaps the long weekend traffic associated with the drive to get there. To coin a distinctly Canadian phrase - it was BRUTAL! Despite knocking off work on Friday afternoon at 3pm in an attempt to give us half a shot at beating the traffic out of town, it really didn't seem to work and it took us something like 2 and a half hours to crawl out of the city limits towards Chilliwack - a trip that should normally take something like an hour tops.

Nevertheless, the scenic drive eventually delivered us in Salmon Arm and at Michelle's parent's new house at around 9pm. Cliff and Dianne were very welcoming with cold beers at the ready upon our arrival - the perfect refreshment after a long drive. They proudly gave us a tour of the progress of their beautiful new self-designed and constructed home.

Had the opportunity to meet Michelle's brother, Chris, briefly while he bolted home for a quick break from work. He headed out of town for the weekend to go rock climbing with friends, so Friday night was his only real chance for hugs from his big sister for the time being. He's an avid outdoors man with a passion for climbing, hiking, back-country skiing and naturally photography, so we had plenty to chat about, albeit briefly. It would be awesome to spend some more time with him to "chew the fat" over his adventures and photography topics down the track when I get the opportunity.

Saturday morning we headed to the picturesque Salmon Arm Marina to cheer on Dianne's boat in the local Dragon Boat festival being held this weekend. The turnout down at the marina was pretty impressive and it seemed like a good percentage of the town's population were out to lend support to the racers whether they knew them or not. The great sense of community in Salmon Arm is something that has stuck with me that's for sure.

The one race we saw of Dianne's was a bit of a shambles with the starting officials completely botching up the start. A false-start indicator sound was given yet officials allowed Dianne's opposing boat to streak off towards the finish line. The ladies didn't let this get to them, however, and they rallied to put in a good showing being narrowly beaten to the line in the end.

I was wondering what kind of wildlife, if any I would see while down at the lake's edge. I noticed on the way in that there was quite an extensive area of "wetland" right near where we were going to be watching the races, so I was pretty confident there would be some bird life around if nothing else. Boy was I NOT disappointed. As it turned out, there was a number of nesting hawks in the area and one of them happened to put on quite the fishing show for onlookers. I scrambled to get my camera out to get some shots.

We didn't hang around for the afternoon's race, instead Michelle wanted to head out to nearby farming district of "Armstrong" to pick up some cheeses from the famous (across Canada and the US) "Village Cheese Company". The cheese factory was set up in one of those traditionally tourist ways, with displays for every cheese variety on offer, a tasting area and a bin of "off-cuts" (just like the Confectionery Warehouse back home). I couldn't help myself and invested in a block of their Canadian Maple Cheddar and a block of the Mediterranean (sun dried tomato) variety. I can't wait to get stuck into them this week - Yum!

On the way back to Salmon Arm we dropped into this cute little market called the "Log Barn". Run by the local "Mennonite" community, the Log Barn is an attractive, crazily-themed, roadside market offering local fresh produce and crafts of all kinds to passing tourists. Michelle grabbed a few traditional favourites while I ran around taking a few shots of the colourful set-up.

Back in Salmon Arm we enjoyed a fantastic dinner with guests George and Dilys, former neighbours of Michelle and her parents. Plenty of laughs were had, good wine was consumed and bellies were satisfyingly filled - does it get any better than that?

Sunday's main activity was a big family bash at one of Michelle's Aunt's place. "The Aussie" (that's my typical label) was introduced to a bunch of relatives over the course of the BBQ event and everyone had a great time. I was fortunate enough to meet "Gran" who I'd heard so much about too - what a charming woman.

Back at home post-BBQ I sat around in the living room chatting with Cliff and Dianne - the last chance we had to talk before Michelle and I headed back to Vancouver.

As expected, we shared the driving duties on the trip back to give Michelle the opportunity to get a little sleep after a big weekend. I had a tonne of fun, it was great to meet Michelle's wonderful family and also to sample the wonders of the "Shuswap".

A big thanks to Cliff and Dianne for their generous hospitality. Cheers - hope to see you guys again soon!

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