goodbye victoria, hello quesnel

On our last weekend in Victoria, we hit a few more Hafer family spots -- first a little lunch at a homemade tortilla joint to ease Tony into the venture

 

 On the grounds of the Saanich Historial Artifacts Society, there is an old schoolhouse with pictures of Carolyn's grandparents as children.  There is also a lot of old farm machinery and exhibits on the Saanich pioneers, etc.  Here Mark and Carolyn show off the "Turgoose Station" sign -- Turgoose being the family of one of Carolyn's great grandmother's.

 

We then went on a hike up "Horth Hill" (not shown, too busy enjoying the view), then ended off the day with a glass of cold beer and an early dinner overlooking Brentwood Bay - Carolyn was told to smile big!

We left Victoria at the end of the first week of July, en route to see Carolyn's younger brother, Stephen, and his partner Lauren, in Quesnel, BC.  Our first port of call was Whistler, which was blanketed in smoke from not-so-far-away forest fires (no that is not mist in the picture!).  You might have heard about all the forest fires in BC this summer.  The atmosphere in Whistler seemed a little apocalyptic to us.  Nonetheless, we did make it to Quesnel the next day (Quesnel is about 650 km north of Vancouver).

In Quesnel, it was huckleberry season, so we went berry picking in some woods not far from Steve and Lauren's house.  In this picture, Tony proudly shows off his first huckleberry harvest.

Huckleberry picking was hot, so we followed the activity with a dip in Steve and Lauren's backyard pool -- actually, we followed all our activities with a dip in the pool!

One afternoon, after a trip to the Quesnel farmer's market and antique market, we had lunch on the patio of Steve and Lauren's favourite Quesnel hangout.

A game of dominoes in the evening...Jerene, Carolyn's aunt in Oregon, taught Mark and Carolyn how to play dominoes during their visit in March, and we are spreading the word.

About 80 km from Quesnel is the historic goldrush town of Barkerville, a living history museum.  We got there just in time to see a re-enactment (in the old courthouse) of a murder trial that took place in 1867 -- after the trial, Tony poses in the lawyer's chair

In the old schoolhouse, Stephen, Tony, and Carolyn, and several other tourists of all ages took part in an old fashioned lesson, complete with a very strict, 1800s-style schoolmarm.  Carolyn's work received high praise (seriously, sheesh!); Tony's penmanship drew criticism, though he correctly pointed out the Mediterranean on a very old map; and Stephen sat quietly looking out the window, thinking that school insulted his intelligence.

 In the picture, Carolyn shows off her bonnet (which all the girls had to wear).

On our drive back from Barkerville to Quesnel, we stopped at an out-of-the-way historic sight.  It is a headstone, a little ways along a path into the woods--actually the headstone of the man who was killed in the trial we saw re-enacted in Barkerville -- eerie!

And finally, we also checked out Bowron Lake provincial park, especially well known for it's canoe route, complete with snow-capped peaks in the distance!

After a great visit in Quesnel with Steve and Lauren, we headed southeast, making our way to Lethbridge, Alberta, where Tony is taking part in a conference at the university.  More on that leg of our journey later.