Monday, July 11, 2011 (New Denver, BC)

I was up at 6:00 a.m. this morning (as usual)...still can’t sleep in.  But that’s okay...the mornings are so quiet and peaceful and it’s so beautiful here watching the sun rise over the mountains.  Steve got up shortly after 6:30 and headed straight over to the showers...he wanted to beat the morning rush.
As usual, I sat in my recliner with my laptop and coffee, updating our travel journal on the events of yesterday.  After numerous cups of coffee, I finally decided I had better get my exercises over with and then head over to the showers.
Steve unloaded our bikes while I was making breakfast.  We thought we would ride them to explore downtown New Denver.  We also need to stop at the local bank (Kootenay Savings) and get some cash from the ATM.  This campground, as with the Provincial Parks, only accepts cash for payment.
After breakfast and dishes, we headed off on our bikes.  The main street of New Denver is very quaint with shops and cafes housed in old refurbished buildings. We stopped at the bank only to find a note on the ATM saying that it was out of service...but a technician had been called...sheesh!  Oh well, we’ll check back later. We continued down the hill to the bottom of the main street where there is a small park overlooking the lake.
We stopped at Santerella, a boutique and coffee shop that had a nice veranda with tables and chairs.  They have free WiFi so there were lots of laptops out!  I decided to have an iced coffee so Steve said he’d have one too...but it wasn’t what he was expecting and he didn’t care for it. 

This is the Visitor's Centre...

A little history info on New Denver...

On our way back up the hill, we stopped at the bank again...this time I found out that the technician was there and should have the ATM back in working order in about 10 or 15 minutes.  Okay...we’ll take a ride across the highway and check out the new supermarket in town...New Denver Market.  Oh good...parking looks easy enough...I might just be able to bring the truck here myself later since grocery shopping was on the agenda for later on in the day.  These are pictures of Villa Dome Quixote, aka "The Domes"...accommodation New Denver style...very interesting...

Our third stop at the bank was successful...although my first transaction was denied; I managed to get the cash I wanted on my second try.  After the cash was secured in Steve’s pocket, we headed back to the trailer.  Steve took this picture while I was in the bank...a cute little church built in 1897...
The next item on the agenda for today was to visit the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre which happened to only be a couple of blocks from the campground.  So we decided to ride the bikes back home and then walk to the Memorial Centre.  We learned about the thousands of Canadians of Japanese descent who, during the Second World War, were forced into primitive internment camps in the Slocan Valley.  Amazing...and very sad... 

These are pictures taken inside the Memorial Centre...a lot of pictures, exhibits and information has been gathered explaining what life was like for the Canadian Japanese during this time...



Beautiful gardens...
  

On the way back, we stopped at Kohan Reflection Garden which is right next to the campground...again, very beautiful gardens...




Once back from the Memorial Centre, I decided to go to the New Denver market and get the grocery shopping over with.  It’s a nice new grocery store but a little limited and somewhat pricey...but look where we are...it’s pretty good for a small community like New Denver.

It was pretty darned hot again (but I’m not complaining!!) so we relaxing in the shade and when it clouded over a bit, Steve thought it would be a good time to off-load the boat from the truck.  By the time we had that all done, it was about 4:30 and Murray invited us over to their place for Happy Hour.  We sat in the shade chatting with them for almost 2 hours and then headed home to get our dinner on.
I had taken my laptop to a picnic table over by the washrooms where the WiFi signal was...I did manage to get on but it wasn’t a very good connection and I kept getting bumped off.  So it was more of an exercise in frustration than anything.  It was just easier to walk over frequently with my ipod and check email and Facebook.
It was cooling off quite nicely outside but taking a little longer for the trailer...so we sat outside until about 9:00 and then decided to go inside and watch TV.  For some reason our batteries hadn’t really charged as fully as we would have expected after a full day of direct sunshine...hmmm...we’re hoping it’s just because Steve topped up the distilled water in the batteries this afternoon.  Anyway, instead of powering up the big TV in the living room, we decided to just watch the 12 vdc one in the bedroom.
Shortly after 10:00, I was falling asleep so crawled under the covers and was out like a light.  Steve closed up the windows and the blinds sometime a little later and apparently even put the awning up due to some strong gusts of wind...but I didn’t hear a thing...

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