Over the Canada Day weekend my fiance and I took the kids to the Othello Tunnels for a bike ride. It is an absolutely gorgeous area to visit and I highly recommend it. The tunnels were part of the Canadian Pacific Railway back in the early 1900s. Today the trail is part of the Kettle Valley Railway Trail and it’s a beautiful place to visit. Although the tunnels’ trail is only 3.5 km return, it is still 2 hours drive from Vancouver and with 2 babies, it’s hard to make it a day-trip.
So we decided to stay a couple of nights in Hope, BC – the closest town to the tunnels. I had never been to Hope. Its name is on all traffic signs pointing East on the highway so to me it was always this super major city that you use as a geographical reference point. It turned out that the city hadn’t changed much since the 1980s and overall it looked kind of empty. Maybe because we arrived on a Sunday, the streets looked deserted. It almost had a ghost town feel. 😀 Slowly though we started noticing people – the local restaurant was open, the coffee shop, there were people in the park. Everyone we talked to was super friendly and we settled in for the Canada Day holiday. The kids loved the park across the street from the motel and we also saw a car show (with a great turnout) on Tuesday. Some cool things about Hope that I didn’t know before – it’s home to the TV show “Highway thru Hell” and 32 years ago the movie Rambo: First Blood was filmed in Hope. Check out the YouTube video below. 🙂
One of the days while the kids were napping I decided to google yarn shops and go visit some… of course 😉 I couldn’t believe it! There were absolutely no yarn shop in Hope. (if you know of any please let me know) When we arrived it looked promising when the first thing I saw was a beautiful bead shop right next to the motel. I thought: “Ok, this is something I can work with!” But no yarn shops? I did NOT expect that. Isn’t it strange? 😀 I found it strange. I am sure most people don’t even think about it, but to me, it was the weirdest thing. Considering that Hope is not such a small town, and there is a first nations’ reserve there, I thought maybe there wasn’t enough demand?! So there I was in the city of Rambo and so close to the highway through hell… looking for yarn… what’s wrong with me?! 😉
Do you have the habit of looking for yarn shops everywhere you go? 😀
Funky Air Bear 
Yes, it’s almost like not knowing where the nearest bathroom is. Great pictures.
Haha I love that analogy 😀 So so true 😀
Thank you!
Love the pictures of the city. cool
Thank you 🙂
We went to Norway last year and I insisted on finding a yarn shop in every town we stopped in (Mr Snail is very log-suffering when it comes to yarn). Sadly, although there were many shops, few of them sold Norwegian yarn, it all came from other parts of the world – now that was sad.
That must have been a wonderful trip.
It’s too bad you couldn’t find Norwegian yarn… I would LOVE to make a nice cosy sweater with some nice warm yarn from Norway. That would be fantastic! 🙂
It doesn’t have a yarn shop but it sure looks nice!
It’s a beautiful place. Definitely going back for more exploration and adventures 🙂
I do look for yarn stores wherever I go, and had this same experience this spring in a realtively big CITY – Charleston South Carolina. It is very strange! They, too, had a great bead shop. 🙂 Your photos are lovely, it looks like a fun place to spend a few days. Just bring your own yarn!
Next time I definitely will. Usually when we travel for a weekend only, I tend to “forget” my knitting project so I have a good excuse to buy yarn haha I am very mean that way 😀
lol I am, too! I like getting local yarn when I travel, but sometimes I have to be sneaky like that to do it. 🙂
😆 Feeling a little bit like Rambo on a mission 😆 haha
🙂
Oh yes, I do check the yarn shops whenever I go and I always feel I have to buy something. Which does not help in my yarn diet goal.
On another note, I just tagged you for a little game of blog hop because I always have fun reading your posts. If you want to play too, check the simple rules and questions here: http://readytoknit.com/2014/07/14/blog-hop/
The analogy is awesome!
Oh God yes. That’s basically the first thing I look up about a location! And I agree, how can a city not have a yarn shop?! How strange!
Exactly 😀 That was the first thing looked for too. But nothing!
Love your blog btw 🙂
Thank you! Yours is awesome too!