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In the wintertime, the local ski resort of Big White was also an awesome place to have some fun, as it is only an hour out of town, making it possible just to go up for a weekend of skiing or snowboarding. The resort had some six lifts back in 1993, and has added a few more since then. The snow conditions were fairly good most of the time, however, it got pretty foggy up there as well. Hence, the mountain is also known as Big Whiteout to the locals. Nevertheless, we had some excellent times at Big White.

Big White

After searching for a little while, we eventually found a house....ranging from yellow on the outside to green and pink on the inside I mean being creative is good, but this was definetely something else! Anyhow, after renovating the entire house for a few months, it looked more decent. The best way to cope with temperatures in the mid thirties was to go down to the beach and cool off in the water. Other times we would also go waterskiing with our little boat and occurrences like not putting in the plug were sure to add some excitement to the whole adventure (Remember that Arne?!)

The House

Whenever I wasn't tied up with school work, I had many hobbies including cross-country running, playing basketball and mountain biking. The numerous trails through the beautiful countryside in the entire Okanagan Valley made it very enjoyable to go for a run along the lakeshore or through the hills behind the house. If I didn't feel like doing any of that, I sometimes simply gazed at the lake, trying to unpuzzle the mysteries of Ogopogo, the lakemonster. Well, I have spent a lot of time trying to spot it, however, the only Ogopogo that I ever saw was the fake one in dowtown Kelowna. I guess it'll remain a mystery for a little longer.

Another fact that I remember quite clearly were the busrides to school in the wintertime. Since the road was quite steep for part of the way, it always got a little interesting after a fresh dump of snow and Ed, our busdriver, had his hands full trying to keep the bus going somewhat straight. The thing that caused him the most trouble was the ninety degree turn at the bottom of the hill. However, Ed was an excellent busdriver, playing our music tapes that some people brought along to make those early morning busrides a little more comforting before stepping out onto the school grounds. I had to keep thinking of those grumpy old German busdrivers...

Well, to make a long story short, my parents were very busy looking at many different ranches throughout British Columbia as far north as Prince George. It had always been my dad's dream to own a ranch and have cattle, horses and other various critters, this being the main reason why we moved to Canada in the first place. Kelowna was just a temporary stop, so that we had enough time to find the right place. In May of 1995, after having looked at over twenty ranches, we finally found a beautiful place in the Cariboo Mountains, just an hour east of Williams Lake, BC. The Big Bear Ranch has been our home ever since.

Anyhow, that pretty much concludes my little story about us moving to Canada and some of the things we experienced in the meantime. For most of you, this wasn't anything new but I still thought it would be worthwhile to include it in here.

Ogopogo