Saturday/Sunday in the Okanagan

Saturday was our fruitless quest to find postcards in Vernon and area, and Sunday we drove back to Vancouver.  There's your TL:DR.  😜

 OK, fine, sorry.  Let's start off with the morning walk - sans Van, of course! - on a lovely Saturday, sunnier than the day before.  We walked through a different part of the resort area

and eventually found ourselves on a residential street looking across at two deer calmly grazing, paying us no mind. 

We saw a lot of deer in the Okanagan, perhaps as many as 15 over a few days.  No other wildlife, however, save for birds.

When everyone was up and at 'em, we set out on the day.  Yes, we did drive into Vernon to browse shops along one of the main streets, and we found postcards only in a coffee shop.  As nice as they were, they were also over $4 each, and artistic more than capturing photographic views.  I liked them, and I almost bought a few, but ultimately, we passed on them, finished our wandering and headed to lunch.  The jaunt into Vernon, however, did bring us past a view point for Kalamalka Lake, and on such a sunny day, the waters were especially beautiful.  So then, I present you with a photodump of the group of us admiring the lake and capturing its beauty.  And our own!

For lunch we headed back down to Lake Country.  The woman who served us the tastings at Monte Creek had recommended the restaurant at Gray Monk,

and so we took her up on her recommendation.  I'd had the wines before, but I'd not been to the winery.  Its setting on Okanagan Lake was handsome,

and we had a slightly late but tasty lunch.  A bottle of their Pinot Gris for us to share,

and a chilled cucumber soup

and some truffle fries for my own lunch. 

That was enjoyable.  All of us had a good meal,

and then it was on the road north to go back to 50th Parallel where we had reservations for tastings.  We had enough time to stop at a little regional park

and dip a hand in the lake waters (pleasant in the shallows, for sure)

and see a couple more deer.

I had honestly never heard of 50th Parallel before making the dinner booking for the night before.  I had no idea about their wines.  And, to be frank, the Pinot noir we'd had the night before struck me as thin and too tart and light to stand up to the steak.  The others, however, enjoyed it.   I did like the tasting room

and experience, though, and I came away with a few souvenir books.  Four of us tasted, Conrad was our driver. 

We came away with a few bottles, including the Pinot for Conrad.  I was disappointed to learn that, because of an early thaw followed by some further winter, they lost most of the 2024 harvest and had to use grapes brought up from the US.  Sorry, I know they're a business and need to survive, but when I taste BC wines, I want them to be made from BC grapes.  Ah well.

Dinner that night was at The Range, the restaurant/bar at Predator Ridge.  The food was food - my burger was fine, not noteworthy.  The setting outside was loud - I wished we had sat inside, especially as the gold bros on the patio got drunker and louder.  But the meal was nice for the opportunity to catch up with an old friend, Aaron. 

I hadn't seen him since his Dad's 80th birthday celebration last August, and that was the first time since our 30th high school reunion back in 2018.  So, it's been a while.  He permanently relocated to Lake Country after his partner, Lorna, died last year.  I was glad to see him, get some time with him alone at the bar before dinner, and have his company again.

And that, friends, was Saturday. 

Sunday really was the drive back to Vancouver.  Oh, there was morning walking on other lovely day. 

We stopped at Starbucks in Kelowna and then at Valley Graze Box in Merritt (good egg salad sandwich, but no, I did not try the dill pickle lemonade!). 

Another gas station stop in Abbotsford, and then we were at our hotel in Vancouver in time for dinner.

Vancouver, however, will wait for other blog entries.... 

Happy birthday, Dick!

The main reason for our trip to Victoria last week was to celebrate a friend, Dick, as he turned 80.  On a Wednesday afternoon, his actual birthday, family and friends gathered together in Goldstream Provincial Park north of Victoria to fete him.

Dick and his wife, Annalee, owned Don Diego's restaurant in Terrace as well as Cow Bay Cafe in Prince Rupert.  I started work waiting tables at Don Diego's in the summer of 1990, and after I finished by undergrad in 1992, I began work at the restaurant full time, learning to cook.  I did any job, really, though mostly I was in the kitchen.  I also spent much of one summer going down to Prince Rupert to work with Dick at the newer restaurant there.  Their eldest son, Aaron,

and I met in grade 8 and graduated high school together.  Their middle son, Andy, was a year behind us.  Neil, the youngest, I've known since he was in grade school.  I've known the eldest grand-daughter, Nerissa, pretty much since her birth.  No, I am not related, but Dick and Annalee are family.

Don Diego's was a family as well.  No, I don't keep in touch with everyone I used to work with, but oh, how awesome to see folks again.  Laura,

Chiron,

Renetta

- it was a mini-reunion for the restaurant.  And there were longtime customers/friends, like Glen (and hooray for meeting his husband Casey after hearing so many lovely - and true! - things about him over the years). 

And there was even my fifth grade teacher! 

That was a trip, meeting up after over forty years.

Conrad and I spent a handful of hours at the event, then headed back to the city before it got dark.  He was a little peckish, so we headed to Marilena, across from the hotel and sat at their remarkable bar. 

We had some raw bar items - oysters

and tuna tartare

- and cocktails (two each, both delicious). 

And then went to bed.

It was great to be in Victoria, however briefly, after all these years, and I'm sorry it took a major event to get us there.  But ah, how terrific to celebrate!  Happy birthday, Dick.  I hope there are many more to come!