Inveremere Camping Fun

In August we did a big family camping trip to Invermere 

and had a sweet surprise with Jeremy's brother from Hamilton 

and his family doing a last minute trip out West!

One of the highlights of the trip for us was our day trip to Fort Steele, near Cranbrook.  We have visited Fort Steele before, but in March, when nothing is happening, so we were excited to explore the townsite with the hustle and bustle of shops and street actors.  I worked for a couple years in Barkerville as a historical interpreter in the Anglican church and as a shop worker, so to say historical villages are right up my alley is an understatement.  When I was in Junior High my parents planned a trip to the Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and New Brunswick).  For three weeks we traveled in a van, camping, exploring the Maritimes and visiting countless historical sites: Halifax Citadel, Fort Louisbourg, Signal Hill, etc.  It was an amazing trip!

So here are some highlights from camping and our Fort Steele experience:

Blacksmith Shop

School house - the teacher was quite direct and made Aria cry after talking to her about the length of her nails and not sitting facing forward!  Yikes!

Jeremy's scared of the teacher face!

Enjoying the sun and the swings.

Super yummy cookies from the bakery.

No, there isn't an animal in the bag, its ice.  For making ice cream!

Churning the ice cream.

Mmmm, yummy Fort Steele Cinnamon ice cream.

Panning for fool's gold.  There were several free activities in Fort Steele that made it super family friendly, such as panning for fool's gold, making and tasting the ice cream, and all the street performances and tours.

We also did a short hike up Mt Swansea.  We drove up the mountain, and hiked for 15 minutes.  We had met a couple at the bottom and they hiked the entire way up!  I'm glad we drove as we weren't wearing proper hiking footwear!

Camping was lots of fun in our friends' tent trailer that we borrowed.

Roscoe LOVED fishing!  Every night he'd say "I go fishing tomorrow?"  and every morning he'd say "I go fishing now?"  We didn't catch many keepers, but we sure caught a lot of squaw fish!