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....
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