The week before we left, the kids had been in MB visiting Curtis' family and I took some of my free time and cleaned out my office and put stuff away. So, when it was time to pack for our trip, I didn't even think about my camera and left it at home, deep in the drawer I had put it in when cleaning. Didn't even realize that I didn't have it until about 30 kms from Fernie. I asked, but Curtis wouldn't turn around and go back for it. So, if you would like to see some awesome pics of the fishing portion of our holiday please visit Stephanie and Aaron's website. I am sure she will have the pics up sometime this week and she took some great shots when she went as the official photographer on some of the fly fishing expeditions.
We rented a condo on the upper part of Fernie and it was great because we had lots of room and were able to cook lots of our own meals.
We did, however, dine twice at the Blue Toque and had a great dinner out at the Island Lake Lodge. Another great thing about where our condo was, was that you had a great view of the Ghost Rider on sunny days.
Lying in the shadows, a legend waits for the afternoon sun. On a summer evening, out of Mt. Hosmer’s face, comes the Ghostrider – the shadow of a distinctive horse and rider, the ghost some say of an angry Indian Chief and his jilted daughter pursuing William Fernie.
As legend tells it, William Fernie was courting an Indian Princess to learn the source of her sacred black stone necklace. It is said that after learning the secret location of the Morrissey Coal Seams, Fernie stopped seeing the Princess and the tribe’s medicine woman placed a curse on the Elk Valley.
Residents of Fernie feared the curse was real after several tragedies struck the town. Fire reduced the town to smoldering rubble in 1904 and again in 1908. In 1916, the Elk River flooded and in 1917 there was a mining disaster. A public ceremony in 1964 officially lifted the curse. Members of the Kootenay Tribes assembled in Fernie and Chief Red Eagle (Ambrose Gravelle) and Fernie Mayor James White smoked a pipe of peace.
Although the curse was lifted over 35 years ago, on summer evenings, the ghost of an angry Indian chief and his jilted daughter still rides above Fernie and their legend lives on in the shadows of the mountain.
While the boys and Steph were fishing Mom and Claire and I spent some time relaxing on the Elk River with our books and Spitz and we spent a couple of afternoons/evenings at the Fernie aquatic centre and Mom and I even swam! Claire and Daniel swam in the Elk River, but it was WAY too cold for anyone else. The following are pictures that I took with my phone at the River and then had to upload to Facebook and then copy to my desktop so, needless to say, the quality is a little shitty.
Daniel and Claire walking across a more shallow part of the River.
Claire chillax'in on a tree in the water.
Claire found a deep spot!
Claire close up.
Daniel and Claire swimming for the opposite shore.
Of course, if you know me, my Mom and Stephani, you know that at least a couple of afternoons were spent checking out the downtown shopping. They have some great stores in Fernie with lots of neat artsy things. I bought some clothes for the kids and Curtis and also a beautiful vase from Naked Earth Pottery and a small print by Melanie MacVoy
Naked Earth Pottery
Melanie MacVoy Print
And that is it. We are hoping to plan a cruise to Alaska next year so that will be amazing and I can hardly wait. Hopefully we will all be together again at some point during the Christmas Holidays.
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