My Kelowna!

June was the month full of lots of trips. After my leg was up and running again, I didn't want to stay in the house. Also, since it was starting to warm up, why should I stay inside? On June 3rd, Dustin and I decided to embark on an adventure to wine country. Let me tell you, it was perfect timing too! We ended up picking the perfect weekend. 100% pure sunshine with a light breeze. Usually BC is a rainforest with slight rainfall, but NOT THIS WEEKEND!

Kelowna is about an 8 hour drive from Calgary through the mountains into BC. We left at about 5pm after work and booked it out of there to try an avoid traffic. Our only pit stop was in Canmore to pick up some Wendy's as grub. Unlike my other road trips, time didn't allow me to go pick up snacks from the grocery store.

So the awesome thing was I also saw a double rainbow, and no...I did not cry. It was pouring rain just outside of Calgary. I also didn't have a good shot of it, so I couldn't take a picture. Driving to Kelowna was amazing. There were mountains, and tons of wildlife. I'm not going to lie, although Dustin drives fast (safely), he didn't stop to allow me to take pictures of the wildlife. LIKE COMMON! I saw a Momma bear with not one but TWO baby cubs by the road! AND a Mountain Goat! All I got were these whispy pictures...*sigh*. I was quite emo shortly after. Like CUBS, seriously!



We also passed some nifty towns and get this, I even passed an ENCHANTED FOREST. No joke! I couldn't take any pictures of it, *shakes fist at Dustin*, but I did quickly see it. Here's a link to see what I'm talking about. (Link)

Here are a few pictures of the drive there.








So we actually made it to Kelowna on "one" tank of gas. Well the reason, it's in quotations is because the yellow light was on and I insisted he give up on this feat because I did not want to be pushing his Toyota car at night. So we filled up about 6km outside of the town. But we probably had enough gas to make that 6km. Anyways, the drive that was supposed to take 8hours took us 6.5. Fast, eh? Also since we gained an hour there, it was only 10pm when we got there and checked into our hotel.

Since it was still early, we went out for a bit and tried to cruise the town, but everything closed down or cleared out by 12:30am. Crazy! On a Friday night too! We took a walk along the harbour board walk and took a few pictures, then just drove back to our hotel in prep for the winery tour the next day :).



We thought we were going to sleep in, but we both woke up early from the sun streaming in our window. We said, oh the heck with it, then got out of bed and drove around Kelowna Lake before our tour. The lake was great! There were also a lot of vineyards, orchards, and ranches around there.




We got back to our hotel just in time to join out tour. For about $97 (incl tax +tip) we were driven around to over 5 different wineries and tried over 31 different wines. Each glass ranging between 1-2 oz, I was quite tipsy by lunch.

First winery was Mission Hill Estates. Gorgeous architecture! Absolutely amazing. Wine...pretty good? I bought a bottle of Rosé (blush) there.






Second stop was Quails Gate winery. This place had a really nice blend of white wine - Chasselas-Pinot Blanc-Pinot Gris (white). Try it, I like it and I don't usually like whites. Surprisingly I started to like more white wines while on this trip.



Third stop where we also had lunch was Little Straw Vineyards. It's my favourite winery. Really great wines there. I spent about $100 on 5 bottles there. I'd recommend the Tapestry, Old Vines Auxerrois (whites), and Merlot-Cabernet-Syrah (red). Really Really good.


Next stop was a winery that looked like a bomb shelter. I can't really remember the name... but it could've been either Mt Boucherie or Rollingdale. Either way, wasn't really my favourite nor worth mentioning.


Beaumont was the last winery we went to. It was pretty good. They have organic wines, so that's pretty cool. Their red "Heritage" wine isn't too bad, and they have a fun white wine. Not sure what it's called...but they called it the "Party wine".


After that we went back to Mission Hill to have dinner. Great atmosphere & food. I took a few more pictures.






We then met up with some Brits we met on the tour to a pub called Whiskey Jacks. We watched the Canucks game (yay, they won), and then headed to the hot tub at our hotel.

Next morning we decided to take the long way back to Calgary. We drove down the Okanagan Valley, southward towards the American boarder. It was a 12 hour drive. As we passed Crowsnest Pass, we saw "The Frank Slide". In 1903, turtle mountain had a giant rock slide. Demolished a town, blocked rivers into lakes, covered rail roads/roads, etc. Frank was home to approximately 600 people in 1903; it is estimated that 90 of the roughly 100 individuals in the path of the slide were killed. Read about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide.

We got in pretty late, like 11:45pm, and we had to work the next morning. BUT overall, a great trip :).

Final Thought: I'd love to have a cottage/house in Kelowna as my getway place. Seriously just amazing.