Before and Almost After ~ To New Beginnings

A few weeks before Christmas there was a huge fire a few blocks away. It destroyed several old buildings, all of which housed restaurants, funky coffee shops and hip clothing. Read about it here.

It was several more weeks before I could take these photos of what was left behind from the fire.

The photo below is where the Mexican restaurant, Zocalo used to be. I never had a chance to try it.

Just the other side of Zocalo was a funky coffee shop called Lugz. It had a long and loyal following.

The photos below show the remains of two long standing restaurants: Slickity Jim's Chat n Chew and the wonderful, Kishu (Japanese restaurant). The Kishu is a chain of japanese restaurants in the City and this particular one did not have a website of it's own.

Somewhere along the line I did take some photos of food I ate at the Kishu. The food there was always tasty and also good for the budget.


Yesterday, as I was on an errand, I saw these scenes ...

A lot of clearing has gone on since Christmas. I am eager for the rebuilding to take place and I do hope the previous owners are able to continue with business though I see that Slickity Jim's Chat n Chew is now permanently closed.

The hip clothing store was affected by smoke damage but was able to re-open within days at a location just a few doors down. I am not sure what all the others owners and staff have ended up doing but whatever it is, I know it must be trying times and I send out positive thoughts and prayers for their rebuilding efforts in these recessionary times.

I also send out my best wishes and prayers for each of you my blogging friends and your families. May God hold you close in the palm of His great hand in 2010. May He give you a blessed New Year despite whatever raging circumstances there may be around you, as you keep your heart and mind focussed on Him; the great and sovereign Creator God.

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

Crooked Paths Made Straight

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight:

Isaiah 45:2

Every year at Christmas when we journey northward into the snow and ice, I ask for prayer for travel mercies and of course, I pray myself. God has never failed us yet.

Look at the first photo. To the left of the snapshot you see the road is being widened. The road widening project goes on for hours and hours of our drive. Unfortunately the road widening is needed because the traffic has increased so much over the past several decades.

The highway is being widened on both sides in some places.

Here we are about an hour and some minutes north into our journey. We are in Chilliwack; farming country.
Several hours into our journey we start our climb into the mountains. You will see how cold it has been by the icicles down the side of the mountain to the left. Even though we are high up in the mountains, the transport trucks are still dwarfed by the mountains above us.

You can see the fresh snow falling in the photo below. Fortunately for us, it stayed off the highway.Here we are at what we call the Summit, the very highest point of the Coquihalla Highway. We are making a pit stop to use the toilet facilities.

I take a photo outside of my window to show how high the snow is piled...

and we carry on with our journey.

Caffeine helps to keep the driver alert.

Arriving into Merritt, just one hour south of our destination.

As we approach Kamloops, our destination, we see the smoke of the local pulp mill. It looks frozen in space.
The city of Kamloops always looks lovely in the night when all the city lights are sparkling.

Have a look at the short video clip below as we drive into the city.

These are a few snapshots of our drive back to home.
The sun was shining for part of our journey. You can see what a lovely afternoon it was!

This is cattle country under a bit of snow.

At one point of our journey I captured what I thought was the moon. It looks very dark in the sky but this was only a small part of the sky to my right. I thought this snapshot was absolutely stunning.
Here we are for another pit stop at the Summit.

Here we are on the highway just past Hope and on our way to Chilliwack.

Watch my short movie as we enter Chilliwack, another hour and some minutes from home.

I end my tour here as I got too tired to take photos of the entry into Vancouver.
I leave you with one photo from our trip at this time last year so you can see just how different and heavy the winter was in 2008. I truly believe in the power of prayer to make the crooked (and hard paths, both literal and figurative) straight in life.