Mountains covered in evergreen and dotted with snow surround me in a horseshoe. I look away only long enough to cover my Madagascar Vanilla tea bag in boiling hot water, it’s flavor seeping out and swirling into the water. Pulling the cup into both hands, I look up again and just breathe in the view. The clouds darken in the distance and I watch the rain showering the mountain, following it’s arch but not coming close to the house. It stops as suddenly as it started and the sun is pushing through the clouds again.

I am in Creston, B.C.

Our first stop. After 6 very full and wonderful weeks in British Columbia’s lower mainland, we began our road trip. It was a beautiful, windy drive through the mountains. After a full day of driving, we pulled into Creston and I sighed, “Small town Canada.” I guess this excited me more than I realized because the next day panda asked me, “Mom, why do you keep saying that?”

What is it about small towns? I grew up in Goderich, Ontario, which had a population of 7,500 at the time. It has since grown to a booming 8,000 and my dad refers to it as The Urban Center Of Huron County. While a growth of 500 may not be overwhelming, the feel of the town has changed drastically with the arrival of WalMart, Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall. Small family-owned shops that used to supply daily needs have long been replaced by boutique specialty shops.

Life has changed, but my love for small towns remains. After living in a city of 8 million for the past six years, Creston brought me back to this.

I loved experiencing this town. It is quite different from where I grew up. While Goderich is surrounded by dairy farmers, Creston is full of orchards. I would have loved to be there in the summer, to taste fresh cherries, plums and apricots. The orchards are overflowing with fruit in the summer months, I was told. Farmers can’t keep up with the produce, so people from the community pick the excess. They keep some and the rest goes into barrels that are dropped off at the schools and churches. When kids go out for recess, they can grab an apple or a plum.

I think people in Creston would be able to relate to the value of community we see in China. When Chinese farmers harvest their crop they divide it up amongst themselves and their neighbours. Community is family.

We saw this is Creston too. We were going for a meal at Dairy Queen with the couple we stayed with and before we knew it, their neighbours and another man who called the house were joining us. When we arrived our host started chatting with a friend who was coming out of the restaurant as we were going in. They later told us that it was more than just a restaurant. It was an establishment with trusted owners, where most of the kids in the youth group had been welcome to a job.

As guests in this town, we were well taken care of too. Originally we thought we would be on our own for a day, but we soon received an invitation for supper, then another for lunch and an offer to watch the kids while we packed and did laundry.

We stayed in Creston only a few short nights and I was sad to leave. It was a collision of so many of the things that I enjoy: community, friendship, generosity and beauty.