Kelowna

On the Canada Day long weekend, we rented a cottage and went to Kelowna. The cottage itself was actually in a little town near Kelowna named Winfield.

Winfield is actually a more rural area where many of the vineyards are located.

We rented this cute little cottage that was very reasonable, allowed dogs and had fire pits, which is a must-have requirement for Mike.



It also had a BBQ which we like because we can't at home and it was close to the beach.

There was also a little patio area where we could eat outside.

One of the fire pits was just below this little patio area. The guy who owned the place seemed to have one of those professional wood cutting machines to make 2x4, etc. and there was scrap wood everywhere to make a fire with.



This is the view that the second fire pit over looked.

That lake is lake Okanagan. It is a massive lake and it was dotted with boats and jet skis going back and forth.









This is a bit of a dark photo, but Mike is in there cheering on his fire.

Quite a big one if you compare the height of it to him.

I think that is the point, the bigger, the better.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows while the dogs watched for the ones that got a little too crispy.


As I mentioned there were a couple of vineyards around us. One was Grey Monk.

One day we decided to have dinner there and do a tasting. It was close to 40 degrees the whole time we were there.

It felt like it does in Vegas. It is very hot, but it is a dry heat with hot wind. You don't really feel that it is as hot as it is...




Here I am goofing around at Grey Monk. Do you think there is enough in there for me?

I had heard the restaurant was fantastic and we were starving, so we went in. The waitress told us that they don't serve dinner there until 5:00 which was about 45 minutes away so we went down the road to another vineyard to do a tasting and pick up some wine.











So we went down the road to Arrowleaf and had a nice tasting and bought a couple of bottles of wine.

We walked around the grounds a bit and then got in the car to come back to Gray Monk.



The scenery is just gorgeous at these places.

They all overlook the lake and the mountains.

But it was hot, hot, hot!
So we went back to Gray Monk for dinner and the girl asked us if we had reservations. So we said no, we were here an hour ago and were told that supper started at 5:00.

So she says that they are booked, but as far as we could tell it didn't seem to look that busy.

We were quite irritated on that one. That is very bad service. We would have bought a couple of bottles of wine too probably, but we just left and had dinner at an Italian place instead. Besides Gray Monk a good place to eat is the Turtle Bay Marina Pub.
The next day we went jet skiing. It was a lot of fun and I hadn't gone since I was about 14 or so. We raced and wake jumped and had a great time, but an hour is more than enough for me. I think a half hour would have been fine..
Then we took the dogs down to the beach of Okanagan lake and I just let my feet in.

The dogs had a great time chasing stones and sticks, but it started to get really dark and cloudy and then there were a few first drops, so we loaded everything into the back of the Matrix and started to go back .

There was a huge downpour with big pea-sized hail stones. It must have been from the days of unusually hot temperatures.


So we got back, made some dinner and left the next day. Very nice little vacation, I recommend it.