Grand Forks

Upon arriving at my mother's beautiful new house in Grand Forks, we were greeted with a small offering of wine and cheese. The proximity of Grand Forks to the Canada-US border making the purchase of large bricks of cheap, tasty American cheese very tempting it seems.

The next two weeks were spent enjoying the gorgeous views while lounging on the patio and checking out the sights.

We had some tasty coffees at Kocomo's enjoying the smell of roasting Hardy Mountain beans in the back courtyard complete with a koi pond. We visited Barbara Ann Park to check out the Grandby River with its stunningly-alien view of the giant wall o' slag: a souvenir from the copper mining days. We took a tour of the Rock Candy Mountain Mine and dragged back some great barite and fluorite samples. We made ourselves useful around the house. We spread out and made ourselves comfortable. We checked out the 70s flashback exhibit at the museum. Waking up early to thunder one morning we enjoyed a brief but much-needed break from the unrelentingly-beautiful sunny weather we've been forced to experience for weeks. We had lunch and coffees in charmingly-western Greenwood - known for having the best tasting water in the world apparently. We played in an agate-filled park while training agate-hunting newbies. RW filled shouted Garth Brook requests from drunken neighbours. RW and B got to enjoy a float down the Kettle River. We had picnics on cardboard boxes.

It was an amazing time and we all found it hard to leave. Grand Forks: we will be back!

~ A