Life in a small town...

Two weekends ago was one of my first in Nelson in a long time, and I really got to experience small town life at it's finest. Saturday I met my sister and a friend for coffee at Oso, Nelson's local roasterie. We then walked down to the farmer's market at Cottonwood Falls to pick up some local produce. As it turns out, it was also the Nelson Road Kings Queen City Cruise that weekend so Baker Street (aka main street Nelson) was shut down from one end to the other for a vintage car show. We spent a couple hours wandering around checking out some beautifully restored vehicles.
On Sunday, I met up with some friends Ben and Vanessa and headed out to Idaho Peak. It's a short and easy hike with a 360 degree view of the Kootenays at the top. You can see Silverton, New Denver, Slocan Lake, the New Denver and Kokanee Glaciers and the Valhalla Mountains at once. It's overwhelming. I've included a few photos here, and have more posted on my flickr site.
From there, we headed down to New Denver for the Hills Garlic Festival. It used to be held in Hills, but has grown in popularity and has had to move to a larger venue the last few years. All things Garlic for sure, including types of garlic I had never heard of! I've heard of Russian garlic, Italian garlic and even Purple garlic but never had I heard of Music garlic - which seemed to be a popular choice at this particular festival. All in all it was a great afternoon that was topped off with dinner at Ben and Vanessa's and you can bet we had garlic bread and garlic mashed potatoes that night.