We pretty much failed at vacation planning this summer. The original plan was to take a big, fancy trip to San Francisco the first week of July, but then Chris was away and then I was away and by the time we came back there was just no time left to arrange anything. To both our employers’ delight, we went and cancelled the vacation days we’d booked.
As the pathetic summer continued to rush by, we still never got around to booking things in SF. Then our second-attempt vacation days in August were suddenly upon us and we still had no plans! So like the responsible, boring adults we are, we spent our first few days off getting stuff done around the house and around town. (At least we got a new mattress out of the deal, yay for a healthy spine!) Then, with half a week plus a weekend to spare, we finally decided to just go online, book a wine tour and a cheap hotel in Kelowna and get the heck out of here!
Day # 1
WINE DISNEYLAND
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
“ALREADY?”
“Yes, already.”
Thus, bathroom break #1 landed us at the adorable tourist information shack in Abbotsford. Chris had to pick up maps (and use the bathroom AS WELL, I might add).
The map said take Highway 3.
The lady in the tourist shack said take Highway 3.
7.5 hours later, we arrived in Kelowna with the entire city shouting,
“Why on earth did you take Highway 3?”
Apparently you can get to Kelowna in 4 hours if you take Highway 5.
Highway 3 has things like rock slides,
Where you have to wait in a lineup of rednecks while they clear the road.
Even the dogs have to just sit and wait and admire Putt Putt.
On the bright side, you can play with some kids by a beautiful lake.
Or watch the dump trucks carry giant hunks of rock away that very well could have fallen on your car... that is, unless you haven’t already been forced off the road by a massive logging truck.
Ok ok, the ride was actually really pretty and for the most part it was quite smooth. No time to check in to our hotel before our late afternoon wine tasting, though! When we finally got to West Kelowna, all we could do was fill up our very empty tank and then change out of our sweaty clothes in the parking lot before rushing in to meet our group of international wine tasters at Mission Hill Family Estate.
The tour started with a little stroll through some of the vines…
Then a trip down to the display cellar…
And finally a very fun visit to the tasting table!
I think I have a nose for this!
I'll show you a nose!
After our tour, we explored the pinnacle of the estate: the wine shop. More tasting ensued, followed by lots of browsing, a little stumbling and giggling, and finally emerging with a Pinot Noir, a Riesling, and a couple of other wine-related trinkets. Fun times!
Now quite on the peckish side, we and our wine wandered over to the estate's restaurant on the terrace overlooking the lake, only to find that tonight was fully booked. Oh well, romantic dinners can also be had elsewhere in the Okanagan, as we were soon to find out.
Before making our final departure, however, we decided to explore the beautiful grounds a little more. As we learned during the course of our $20 tour and wine tasting session, Mission Hill winery was built by the guy who invented Mike’s Hard Lemonade. He happened to also be a wine expert, had a couple of million dollars lying around and decided one day ten years ago that he wanted to build a winery in the Okanagan. So he bought this big hill next to the lake, hired architects, designers, artists, and even soil engineers and constructed this amazing place. I call it Wine Disneyland.
Firstly, the view of the lake by which we would not be eating our dinner.
This bell apparently had a flaw, so they couldn’t hang it in…
…the bell tower. Darn!
These are just… arches, I guess.
Arches. Just because.
Another stunning view of The Arches of Questionable Utility.
One last shot of the two hungry young travellers before continuing on.
Thank goodness for ridiculously long daylight hours because after we made it across the bridge to Kelowna proper, we were still able to have an awesome, meaty, saucy dinner out on the patio at Memphis Blues BBQ. Mmmmmm ribs and lemonade!
The Days Inn was to be our home away from home. Similar to our actual home, it was the cheapest place we could find in the city. It was relatively clean, at least. The TV worked, as did the toilet and shower I am happy to say. The beds were cheap and squeaky, though, and the curtains were hideous and broken and probably infected with who-knows-what. No AC either, and Kelowna was hot! Separate beds, here we come.
Ahh, romantic getaways.
Day #2
Okanagan Dreamin’
We woke on the second day of our Kelowna trip to complimentary coffee, toast and dubious boiled eggs in the hotel lobby, then cruised on out of town once again to our second winery, Gray Monk.
We didn’t really plan on doing wine tours all weekend, but we really didn’t have anything else planned and thought hey – this one is free so why not? Besides, it's the Okanagan experience!
At Gray Monk you can just show up on the hour and they’ll give you a tour. We didn’t have huge expectations and Chris wasn’t a big fan of Gray Monk wines to begin with, but in the end we were totally surprised! This was no Wine Disneyland, of course. It was better. It was the real thing!
The first thing you encounter when you pull up is this adorable, European cottage-type structure with glorious flower baskets hanging all around.
Sniff sniff!
Welcome to the other side of the lake!
Get those sunglasses out, hun! It’s another gorgeous day! And don’t mind my finger in the lens…
Now, when I say it was the real thing, I mean that a single, committed family has operated the winery for over 30 years. The the employees there were knowledgeable and kind, (particularly our lovely tour guide “Marilyn Merlot”), and our free tour took us right down into the rooms where they store the grapes, press the wine, test the wine, stack the barrels, bottle the wine, etc. etc. This is exactly what I wanted to see! Not some manicured lawns, French sculptures and dimly lit “display cellars”.
A very excited me and a real wine barrel (aka my new Twitter avatar)
Once again sticking my nose in things…
This is the wine bottling room. I actually learned how they make champagne. Fascinating!
This is the emergency stop button in the wine bottling room. And me. Getting into a little trouble.
With our minds full of vinification, Ms. Merlot guided our tour group back upstairs and treated us to a FREE tasting of 4 wines (recall: at the other place we only got 3 with the $20 tour). Then, as we shopped around in their busy little store, a charming young salesman treated us to yet another 3 tastings, two of which we ended up buying for our fancy new collection!
A red for you sir…
Hmmm I’m getting hints of rotten apple and hamster cage. Formidubbly.
After our tour and shopping fun, we stumbled and giggled our way over to their own particular restaurant on a terrace overlooking the lake, and thanks to the reservations we made when we first arrived, we were seated and enjoying our delicious appetizers in no time!
Roasted Okanagan gala apples and local goat’s cheese!
Well that didn’t last long…
I had a sausage as my main course. It was great but sausages really aren’t all that photogenic. Chris had the special pork medallions with a fantastic warm summer vegetable salad.
And of course…
We wandered in the vineyards a little before actually leaving.
Farewell adorable wine cottage!
What a nice morning! What next? Well, the beach of course.
There was this thing about not having beach towels, though. So we stopped at the mall for what ended up being an unfortunately long time, and I don’t really know where the afternoon went but by about 4:30 we were finally on the beach and – once again – giving thanks to the tilt of the earth for our extended summertime sun!
This little tent is Chris’s new pride and joy, by the way. Kelowna Zellers, you may have crappy service and no beach towels but you have wicked deals on mini beach tents!
So hot and dry! It’s like the anti-Vancouver.
Hey how did that old lady in a straw hat get ahold of my camera?
A little research into Kelonwa’s food scene pointed me towards RauDZ Regional Table. The chef is the famous Rod Butters, who appears to have tried to name the restaurant after himself. Not sure if that was a good call (Raooodss? RaawDIZZ?). Regardless, the place was hopping and super trendy. Unfortunately it’s also trendy to not take reservations. In the end we waited about an hour and a half at the bar. Boo to air conditioning blasting down my neck for 90 minutes!
Oh well. Eventually we two lazy beach bums got a great little table in the back and had some really tasty, locally sourced food. The jus on Chris’s lamb sirloin was… mmm I could have drank it out of a glass it was so delicious. I had a penne dish and, well once again, Chris had the more photogenic meal.
One other highlight was their liquid desserts – the one we got was a little glass full of dark chocolate and Kahlua and other such tastiness! Mmm toss it back!
After dinner we were oh-my-gosh TIRED.
What a day! Winery, terrace, mall, beach… now that’s what I call a vacation!
Day #3
Cheese Please
Forget complimentary styrofoam bagels and rubbery eggs, let's get some real breakfast! Thank you The Bohemian Café for a breakfast I will remember for a very long time to come. An amazing vegetarian chili and old cheddar wrapped in a perfect omelet with crispy, shaved hash browns on the side!
Still clutching iced coffees, we then wandered around Kelowna’s “downtown” for a little while to satisfy Chris’ inner urban planner and had some fun picking over bargain books at Mosaic. Filled with our tasty power breakfasts, we and Putt Putt then took off for one last wine country adventure: Carmelis – a goat farm and artisan cheese maker! A winding and complicated drive into the burned-out hillsides of the Okanagan Valley brought us with only minor detours into the presence of those precious cheese-providing goats!
Ma-a-a-a-a! We even got to see an adorable, wobbly baby goat!
We got to try a whole bunch of interesting cheeses and:
Goat’s. Milk. Gelato. Oh, where have you been my whole life? So rich and tasty. Salted caramel flavor? Yes, please!
The aged goat’s milk brie that we brought home and was slimy and gross and mouldy? Not so much.
Down at the farm, we fawned over the baby goat some more, but the store and the barn were all you could really see there, and besides it was time to hit the road. As we drove back down to town, we passed beach after beach that we craved to just pull into and pitch the mini-tent on. We resisted, though, not wanting to deal with the mountain roads in the dark or get home too late at night.
And sure enough, Highway 5 only took us 4 hours.
* * *
So much for San Francisco, I guess, but Kelowna was pretty darn fun and relaxing which is exactly what we were looking for. SF can wait. We were probably smart to do the shorter and cheaper trip too, since humongous life and career changes were right around the corner.
Quitting my job to go back to university? Who me? C’mon, only crazy hippies do THAT.
2 comments:
Crazy hippie. This looks like a fun adventure! You guys are such a riot.
Just because the guy has a boat behind his ford pickup with a mut drooling out the window, don't make him a Redneck...... wait, I guess it does!
daddy.
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