Penticton

On the Victoria Day long weekend, Michael and I went to Penticton.

Our friend Kevin looked after Unos and Tala (thanks Kevin!) and we took off for wine country.

It was kind of last minute (for booking a location in the summer anyway), but we managed to find a nice condo at a reasonable price.

This is the view from our balcony. We had packed up our bikes and there was a bike trail right outside!

It was in Okanagan Falls, which is a short way from Penticton.

It had 2 rooms, a deck with a BBQ, kitchen, dining room a laundry room and a fireplace.

First thing, we went to the grocery store to make use of that BBQ and picked up some local wine and Coors Light.

Mike was really stoked to have a BBQ. He was quite the king of the Que back east and hadn't been able to grill for almost 2 years.

We got some nice steaks, some lamb kabobs and fresh bread and salads. Yum yum!

I watched tv with my Coors and I have to say that now I 'm a bit addicted to the Slice network and ashamedly "Celebrity Rehab".

There is a Baldwin brother and China from the WWF on there!





Here is Mike very happy in front of the BBQ. It was actually really hot there that weekend.

It was pretty much 30 degrees the whole time we were there.

I didn't realize this but Penticton is kind of has the climate of a desert. There were literally tumbleweeds and these hills that looked like the ones in Nevada.

When I got home and repeated this discovery to Vancouverites, they were like yeah, duh, why do you think they make the wine there?

We stuffed ourselves and then decided to work off our dinner with a little bike ride before bed.

I also wanted a nice bowl of the mint chip ice cream we picked up and that would do nicely after a bike ride.

My goal for the weekend was to go on some of the bike trails the area was famous for, go to at least one winery and maybe tube down the canal.



Here is one of the gorgeous views. Water, mountain, grape vines, what more could you ask for?

So the next day we went downtown to tourist information and found out where to park the car to get on some of these bike trails that would lead us to the wineries.

We parked the car and started off.




What a gorgeous view, we couldn't have had a better day for this if we ordered it!

There were little benches all along the way and even Mike and I had to stop and take in the view.
Usually we just motor past, but we couldn't resist!







Here is Mike in front of one of the many grape orchards.

There were rows and rows of the little trees every where you went.


So we stopped at one of the wineries that was supposed to be quite a nice one, (Hillview Estate I believe), and we did a tasting.

Many of the wineries were right on the bike trail.


Here is Mike in front of the little Bistro that we would have lunch at.

At most of these places there is a slight charge for the tastings, but you get it back when you purchase a bottle so that is what we did.

There was a line up at the Bistro at first so we biked a little further down the trail and then came back when it wasn't so busy.




The food was excellent. I had a nice fresh Caprese salad with fresh bocconcini, tomatoes and basil drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Mike had a seafood salad and we shared a pasta dish.

Deelish!

We also picked a couple of the wines that we had just tasted to go with our lunch.



When we were done we biked back to the hotel and on the way had an icecream cone from the cutest little icecream hut that was on the side of the trail.

We parked our bikes picked out our icecream and sat out on the little patio.








So the only thing we hadn't done that was the thing to do in the city was go tubing.

There are 2 lakes and there is a man-made canal that connects them. It is ridiculously long and you can tube for about 4 or 5 hours down it, or you can pick a shorter stretch.

We picked a stretch that would take us about an hour.

I'd noticed that in our condo in the closet there were 2 deflated dingies. The only thing that would have stopped us from tubing was the fact

that the company that rents the tubes and drives tubers up and down the canal was not operating yet and we would of had to figure out where to alternatively rent, or even buy them but here they were just sitting there with a paddle and all.

So we loaded them into the car went and got some coolers and blew up our tube. We then locked a bike to the end of the tube ride and drove to the beginning of it. Along the canal there are big concrete stairs down to the water at all the natural start and end points so it is easy to get in and out. We floated down the canal in our dingy and soaked up the sun. There were ducks and geese along the way and massive fish that just jump out of the water. We saw one jump out 3 times in a row getting closer and closer to us. I swear it was going to jump right in the boat. After tubing we went home and had some more BBQ and slept really well. The next day I got up and jogged along the trail before we drove home, what a great weekend!

We're going to try to do more little weekends like this throughout the summer. Mike has caught the camping bug and once we get a tent we'll be off.

In other news I've started playing squash at my gym and I quite like it. I play with another girl in my building who is also a beginner and Rain and I have started playing as well. It is an awesome game, great exercise and so much fun. I've also started to go regularly to a Hatha style yoga class once a week and it is sooo relaxing. Great exercise again, but a lot of breathing, stretching and some meditation which has really helped me to even out the other stresses of life. I hightly recommend it! Having a couple of activities a week that I have to go to helps me to leave work at a reasonable time. Mike has started his new job and really enjoys it. He bikes to work every day and this Friday they actually went go-carting for a team building event. We also recently purchased a Roomba. It is a robot vacume cleaner. I was kind of irritated at first as they are a bit pricey but the thing is quite amazing, it vacumes while we are at work and it really cuts down on my cleaning time which is fantastic. Well that is it for no, another gorgeous day out there so I have to get going.