What I did on my summer holiday . ..

 For years the kids and I have talked about exploring. We talk of faraway places, if you could go anywhere where would you go? Leif has South American goals, Hannah loves the sun of Mexico and Hawaii and Ivy doesn't really care, as long as she can come with us.
Me? I want to check out Canada. I've never really travelled in my country. Yes I've visited relatives in Ontario, and did a school trip to Quebec once. But those were very specific trips, with mainly indoor, family visit sort of activities. And up until now, I've never really cared about Canada. So I steered our conversations towards getting to know where you are from. We've travelled more in Washington state than we have in BC, so we decided to plan a local trip this summer. We started with big visions like faraway Drumheller, but thankfully a friend pointed out that southern Alberta in August is not somewhere to put yourself on purpose. Then a friend suggested going to Barkerville. Then 15 friends agreed that it was a must.

So we did. And I don't think I've ever learned as much as I did on that trip.

*Check your tires before you go.
*When you do get a flat, tell the towing company about your 3 children under the age of 10 stranded on the side of the highway with huge motor homes racing by.

*When the tire company tells you they can't help you due the coming long weekend and your hard-to-find tire sizes, tell them about your 3 children under the age of 10, and their Barkerville dreams.

*When you do get everything sorted out, and 2 hours later you're back on the road, it's appropriate to break your 10-year ban on Tim Horton's, just this once, to cheer up those sad kids mentioned earlier. It's alright to remind them after they order that you're never bringing them there again. They'll hear you but be too excited by the prospect of real doughnuts to protest.

*The best way to amuse two siblings on a road trip is to put them in separate seats with a huge box of Lego between them.

*The best way to amuse a 4 year old is to give her a ball of wool, the digital camera and a pair of binoculars.

*Do not rely on any technology you bring with you, it will all fail, break, or run out of batteries. The time you spend trying to figure it all out is time you can never get back.

*When you run out of all the healthy food you brought, it's okay to cut the trip short when everyone is sick of scrambled eggs and Dairy Queen. Ugh!

*The best swimming holes are in fact those marked on the back roads map book as Parks Canada swimming holes. Those un-marked, off the beaten path places are buggy, rocky, dirty and cold. That's why no one goes there. Sorry kids.

*It's best sometimes to just do the fun touristy stuff. Fun is the goal right? And so in that vein, here's Barkerville.

We panned for gold.

We rode the old stage coach around town.

We found far-too-big-and-far-too-costly ice cream cones.

We took in a fantastic musical theatre production about life in Barkerville in 1860. Yes, I cried a bit. Their lives were hard, man.

And it was fun! And there was so much that we did not do, that we hope to do on our next trip up. Oh yes, we're definitely going back, and we're definitely bringing Kit with us next time.

Before we went, I learned about Barkerville, and talked about it with the kids. How prospectors travelled here from Europe, rode horses and wagons all the way up the river canyon, to this little town that sprung up because an Englishman (old Billy Barker himself) found gold there. Travellers opened up businesses to serve the prospectors, the gov't opened survey and testing offices, and a whole community of risk-takers and hard-workers was born. The entire thing burned to the ground one year, and the residents began re-building it right away.

While the kids took in the fun sights and eats, I just stared at the forest that surrounded the town. We were in a basin of trees, no sign of which direction you were facing. Out here you really were on your own, your only support for anything, companionship, food, comfort, were those people around you. Many prospectors came for 5-10 years, having spent every penny they had just to get there, unable to leave until they struck gold, and 19 out of 20 of them never did. They left families behind in England, hoping to strike it rich here and come home a success story. Many never made it home.

What struck me most as we turned off the main hwy at Quesnel and headed East on the hwy to Barkerville, was how isolated it was. We'd already travelled 1000 km by car to get there, a trip that was originally taken on foot and horseback. As we got closer to Wells, the town outside Barkerville where the locals all live, it really became clear that this was it, end of the line. There are no roads going further East, or in any other direction for that matter. Here is where the forests destroyed by the pine beetle are. The chains of lakes and miles of logging roads. There is no cell service here, which was actually a lovely thing. They get between 18 and 24 feet of snow each winter, and even though it was the middle of the summer and the days were hot, it was cold at night, and night came much sooner than we were used to. And yet we were still in BC, and at that, only half-way up the province. We could still drive another 1000 KM and still be in our home province.

It made me want to go further.

The vegetation was different than what we were used to in the South. The roadside was covered in these bright red wildflowers that made every thing brighter, more vibrant.

One of our greatest memories of Barkerville was going to school. When I first told Hannah she'd have to go to school there, she burst into tears. Oops! This made her fearful of the entire process and I had to promise to stay with her during class.

We had to line up outside, in two lines (boys and girls) to greet our teacher, Mr. Mundell. Us girls were reprimanded for not wearing the necessary bonnets to hide our distracting tresses from the boys. He loaned us a basket of his extra bonnets, which we had to wear before we went in. Once inside we had quizzes, a spelling bee and practiced a song for the Queen. It was the most fun we had! Trying to stifle my giggles, remember to say "Yes Mr. Mundell" and help keep Ivy on task had a constant grin on my face. Leif loved the necessary courtesies "May I speak Mr. Mundell?" ("Yes Master Bright you may"). Hannah was afraid of messing up, but she soon  relaxed. Our teacher never broke character, and it was the most exciting 45 minutes of  'school' I ever had.

As the only driver and grown-up, I had limited opportunities to take pictures of all the gorgeous sights. I was a reckless driver going up the Fraser Canyon, as I craned my neck left and right to see it all, exclaiming at the mountains all around us, the long trains going by on either side of the river, and the extreme heights of the bridges we crossed. It was a landscape I had never experienced, and it was incredible.

We stayed in lovely B&B's, tiny lakeside cabins, towns with only a pub, towns with a pub and a McDonald's, and tiny towns with only a cafe and 8 or 9 trains that passed through in the night. We met such lovely innkeepers, and swam in clear blue lakes. We shopped in a Fields and drove way off our route to try to find wildlife. We explored the different historical displays in the tiny towns, and the kids climbed trees and ran amok amongst those displays. Yes, I did this trip as the solo parent, with a broken arm. It was my idea, and I knew we could succeed. They've always understood that we operate as a team, a tribe that works together for common goals.

We had a blast, and fell in love with a small part of our vast country. I can't wait to get out there again.

xoxo

C