Maybe the pack of motorcyclists was a sign of the next couple of weeks to come. On the other side of the Kootenay Lake we drove off the ferry into the town of Balfour, and just a few minutes down the road to Bill and Alice’s house. A gorgeous home right on the lake. They had lots of good info for us on our upcoming trip into the Okanagan. We boated into Nelson for lunch and after dinner for a sunset cruise – what a treat. It was fun to see the variety of homes along the huge and very cold lake. Bob dipped in very quickly! Things felt almost like old times when we used to hang with friends and do social things! Except always remembering to stay distanced. .
We were so fortunate to have friends including Bill and Alice, who were able to provide us with a room and bathroom separate enough to stay distanced while in their home. We love the van but were ready to have a break. And what a treat to throw things in the washing machine and have a real shower. SOOOO nice to have fresh linens and clothes.
From Balfour we drove through Nelson on our way to Pentiction, passing through Castlegar, Greenwood, Midway, Osoyoos and Oliver. All the drives are beautiful and the landscape always changing. The little town of Greenwood is like driving into a western town movie set, They even have an old style saloon. Midway has a little railway museum. It was closed but we ate lunch at their picnic shelter and had a little peak around.
Penticton is a small city sandwiched between two lakes and everything revolves around water, or the fruit farms and wineries galore. Lorne and Maria (our former Toronto neighbours) were wonderful hosts, driving us all over the hills of the area to see some beautiful lookout points and gorgeous residential areas.
It was lovely to meet their kids and grandkids outside for a bbq. I was gobsmacked when I spotted a hawk overhead carrying a fish that it dropped, landing on Lorne’s truck just a few feet from the BBQ – a good-sized carp. We are still laughing about that.
We also loved walking around their neighbourhood, just two blocks from the beach on Lake Okanagan
From Pentiction we drove just a half hour to Peachland, also on the shore of Lake Okanagan . It’s a lovely small town, very nice for walking or swimming. Philippa and Eric arranged a great waterfront AirBNB house for the four of us. We set up camp along the waterfront while waiting for them to arrive. The lake is very ‘refreshing’, it was so hot, we swam several times!
There are restaurants walking distance from the house, but we made most of our own meals in the house and enjoyed dinner with a lake view from ‘home’ . After days of visiting wineries, we were quite happy to have light and relaxing evening meals. Visiting wineries all day is exhausting. 😉
We stopped into visit a local wooden boat restorer who is a childhood friend of Eric’s. We had a tour of the boats in the shop in various stages of restoration including the ‘twin’ of our family ChrisCraft – a 1939, 19′ runabout. Ours is one of only 2 of that model that were imported that year from the US to Canada. What a coincidence that we should get to see the other!
Winery visits are different this year and actually better. You don’t have to squeeze into a tasting area with a bunch of strangers. Most wineries have online tasting bookings, some have walk up only. They all escort you to a private tasting area and we did not feel rushed. They charge between $0 and $15 for tasting and usually the charge is applied to your purchase if you do so.They’ve all done an excellent job of making the staff and customers feel safe.
We visited and recommend:
- Quail’s Gate
- Grey Monk (has a lovely picnic area, you can bring your own food)
- Arrowleaf
- Desert Culture centre and Nk’mip winery- A beautiful indigenous development. The cultural centre is in a beautiful and very interesting poured concrete and multi-coloured building, reflecting the colours of the landscape. The 18-min film and exhibits (indoors and outdoors) tell the story of the area as well as the flora and fauna, and the significance to the indigenous people.The development includes a full resort with water park, lots of families there, a golf course, winery with a terrace dining room
- Hester (beautiful outdoor dining terrace where you can enjoy your own picnic. The host even offered to mind our cooler bag while we went inside for the no reservation/free tasting)
- Burrowing Oak (beautiful property with a small resort on site – would be a perfect spot for a special getaway)
Social week continued into a second week with a few gatherings: an outdoor family gathering back at Phil & Eric’s house; afternoon tea in the garden with Tim and Rowena in downtown Vancouver, dinner with Nangsal and Ankur in Richmond; overnight in the driveway of the house Harry and his de Jong cousins were renting in Parksville and a lovley eveing with Nancy in Qualicum Beach. That was a lot of visiting but it was all done at a safe distance with care and respect for protocols and what people are comfortable with. We did not expect our travel in the time of covid to include so many social visits but clearly many people were so happy for the rare chance to visit that the effort to do it safely was well worth it. We enjoyed it while we could, we knew the next stage of our travel would be more introverted.
Your days here sound lovely. Was the weather good most of these days? I see lots of blue skies. And there’s is something poetic about carp falling from the sky… did you carpe diem? My journey with you has tired me out. I’m hanging in watching the Gophers football game. In an empty stadium. Will look forward to your next days as they come.
Good one Sandy! Yes, we carpe diem’d a lot! We were blessed with wonderful weather for the most part. To be honest, there are very few days that I don’t consider to be good weather. Weather is pretty much always manageable, you just have to dress for it. The extreme heat days are the ones I’d be happy without. A rainy day is a gift – if we don’t need to be anywhere, I love sitting in the van and listening to rain while reading or writing – it’s so cozy and cocoony in the van.
I am definitely bookmarking this entry. Those wineries sound awesome and well worth visiting. I think I can live without the falling carp though.