The A Team: Where I Live/Where I am From

Friday, March 8, 2019

Where I Live/Where I am From

Well, I had hoped to have this out long before today, but last week was INSANELY busy, and this week, I HAD the time to blog, I just haven't really FELT like blogging :) Ha!

Well, I have talked about this a few weeks ago, so I guess I had better make good on my promise, and do what I had set out to do! #blogginggoals

Three years ago (almost to the DAY!) I joined up with a fellow blogger about talking about our hometowns. You can find the link here. Here is where you can find what I talked about. I have talked about on/in my IG stories. But if you missed any of those, here is a quick recap: I wanted to a bit of a project (for lack of a better word), and to talk a bit about where I am from (or where I live), and I wanted you all to do the same. If you don't have blog, you can post on IG/FB; in either stories or feed, or both! With Spring Break looming (can I get an AMEN?), and summer on our minds (hello, sunshine and warm days!), we are all probably looking at places to travel to (heck, maybe even move to!), so I thought this would be a fun way to share either where you live (currently) or where you are from.

Here are a few rules:

It has to be somewhere where you have lived, either past or present. If you don't want to talk about your current community for privacy reasons (which is totally ok), post about either where you lived in the past, or your area (or county). For instance, if you live in Vernon, but don't to particularly say you live there, you can post about the Okanogan Valley. You can also talk about your county, but please keep it to the area (IE: Don't give a description of your state or province, or even your country), as it can otherwise be too broad. Feel free to use descriptions of your area from their website (I guess you probably should say where you found it from), and of course, post some pictures! Preferably your own, but if you see one that you want to use, make sure you credit the picture-taking people!

I think I have created my FIRST link party!!! I hope it works! If not, put your blog post in the comments.

Ok! So, here goes!

I am going to talk about my current city where I live (and have for nearly 15 years consecutively!), which is Kamloops, B.C (Canada). I will probably reference a lot to the city's website page, as their description of it really is the best.

Kamloops is in the heart of the Interior of British Columbia. We are are the gateway to Vancouver (commonly called "the Coast"), the Okanogan, and right on the TransCanada Highway. To the north is Edmonton, AB, so as you can see, it really IS the traveller's hub.

Kamloops is the English translation from the Shuswap (First Nations) Tk'emlups, which means "Where the rivers meet", or "meeting of the waters". The North Thompson and South Thompson meet up in Kamloops (I grew up in a small town about two hours north, fittingly called The North Thompson Valley). Kamloops is a city of about 90,000 (funnily, enough, I didn't find this on the COK site...I found it here. I won't bore you with the history of our fair city (though it is exciting!), but if you would like to find out more, you can go here. Also, you can go here to view some stats.

Kamloops is very dry, and arid, and it can get VERY hot in the summer! There are a fair number of orchards around town (apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, to name a few), and it isn't uncommon for your neighbour to have a cherry tree or two in their yard!

Kamloops' claim to fame (among others), is that we call ourselves the Tournament Capital of Canada. Why, you ask? Because a lot of sporting events are here. Swim meets, ball games, soccer games (tournaments); you name it...we probably have had it played here. We are also proud of our Blazers Hockey Team, and a host of other sport teams (JR/Bantam hockey, baseball, as well as our university's Wolfpack Athletics/Sports Team). We also host the only Music in the Park program of its kind in BC (if I am correct). It starts on Canada Day, and continues until the end of August. This is a free event, where people can come (rain or shine), and listen to local (and not so local) talent play in the band stand, and relax on their lawn chairs, or on blankets. We are proud hosts of Western Theatre Canada (which I may or may not have just found out that it is based here). There are a host of other things that happen in our town, the would take ages to mention; Santa Clause parade, Kamloopa Powwow, Cowboy Festival, Famers' Market, Boogie the Bridge, to name a few. I could go on and on about the events, but I think you get the gist. We also have an outdoor summer theatre which runs for about 6 weeks in the summer, called Project X Theatre. We also have three large venues where games are played and plays played and musical acts perform!

We have 82 parks; 3 or 4 water parks, 3 or 4 indoor pools, 1 or 2 outdoor pools, miles of walking/riding trails, and we also have a bike park! We have a few really nice beaches (next to the river), an airport, a Costco, a Walmart, a hospital, two sets of rail road tracks, 1 really good mall, and about 3 other semi-decent malls. We have two movie theatres, 5 rinks (including the one downtown), 8 or 9 Starbucks' (I had to throw that in!!), three of which are not "real", but serves their drinks (like the ones that are in Target), 20 large grocery stores (that doesn't include Walmart and Costco, and small, local grocery stores, of which there are probably 10), and, well, you get the picture! I love our downtown in the summer. It comes alive with the sound of music! Really, it does! I love it when April and May roll around, and people start playing on the street, the patios start opening up, and the merchants put their stuff on the sidewalk to sell. Oh yah, we also have two libraries, and an art gallery, and a museum (including a children's museum, which is actually pretty good!).

We live in the part of town where it is probably the hottest, and the gets the most sunlight, and the least amount of moisture in town. Kamloops is a hilly city (oh, the hills!), but where we live is flat, so that is awesome! I would say that Kamloops is a (mostly!) a friendly city. We love hosting events, and we are pretty community-minded city. Our sister city is Uji, Japan, which I think that means that dignitaries visits each others cities.

What drives our community? We have a university, and I would call us a university town (or city). We have a few mills, 3 mines (including one an hour away, which is a big employer), railways (CP and CN), lots of events are hosted here, as I have stated above, and since we are the largest urban in the area, we serve A LOT of small communities; people don't think twice about coming into town who live 2 or even 3 hours away. The hospital, BCLC (lottery), and the university are the top 3 employers in our town. And of course, tourism. Via Rail comes through here, and every summer, this town becomes a mecca full of tourists :)

So, there you have it! I love our city!!!

Here are a few pictures. I will try to add some more this weekend, but for now, here are just a few!