Since the beginning of summer, I've had this almost obsessive need to plan out every free day of our summer to make sure that we actually have a summer, and don't waste it sitting on the couch, and then wonder what the hell happened to summer.
So. A few weekends in July, as you know, were spent at Galiano, plus a bit of mountainbiking: next weekend I'm headed to the Rockies to catch up with friends, and then the week after that, Scott and I are off to Parksville to catch up with Scott's family. In between is the daily grind that is work, sleep, work, sleep, occasionally punctuated by laundry (which is growing more imperative by the day) but at the end of summer we'll certainly not wonder what happened to the season. But I digress.
Last weekend was certainly a highlight on our 'get-out-of-town' programme; we headed out to the Okanagan Valley for a weekend of relaxation & wines, with a general roadtripping frame of mind. The whole weekend seemed a bit luxurious, seeing as we're on an 'austerity' budget and trying to save to buy a place of residence, a bit of a futile effort in a market like Vancouver. But I digress again.
So off we headed to the Okanagan. You'll find all our photos at flickr, but if you want more details, suffice it to say that over about 56 hours, we visited about 10 wineries; we bought 15 bottles of wine, one basket of plums and one of nectarines; two great cheeses, and two giant ice cream cones. We checked out a couple of great restaurants for lunch, but for dinners, we retreated to our fantastic guesthouse for a quiet, slightly salubrious dinner on our patio, overlooking Vaseaux Lake and Oliver. Can't say enough great things about Bighorn Ridge.. if you find yourself in the area, this is where you must stay.
Before returning to the city, we stopped in Kelowna to say hello to Scott's uncle Bob and his wife Loretta, and join the two of them for lunch along with Scott's 94-year old Grandma. Despite a recent fall, she seemed as fiesty as all the stories I've heard have lead me to believe, and we had a great visit in the local pub. We played pull-tabs. And lost. It was great.