One of the highlights of my trip included spending a day and night with my middle daughter at their time share near Kelowna. Kelowna is in the center of the Okanagan Valley. There are large lakes nestled in almost dessert like hills that are excellent at producing fruit. The entire area is covered with orchards with a huge variety of pears, peaches, apples, cherries, nectarines, plums, and so on. Market gardens provide veggies of every imaginable sort. The area is a hugely popular destination for tourists and retirees. Property is unbelievably expensive.
Because of the Valley being so fruit productive it is an excellent location to raise grapes and there are innumberable winery estates throughout the region. One of the highlights of the stay was a winery tour including a lesson in wine tasting and several delightful samples. Of course several bottles followed me home.
After the wine tour we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up ingredients for a salad then off to the fish market to score a beautiful wild salmon just waiting to be stuffed, wrapped in foil and cooked on the BBQ. We popped in at the bakery to purchase some freshly made crusty buns and nabbed some olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. Back at the condo we prepped our evening meal, placed it in the fridge to rest and gathered ourselves together to take a leisurely stroll through the condo complex including a bit of wading on the beach where the trout, much to the delight of the grandchildren, would swim right up to us and slither against our bare legs.
Next we went up the hillside in the compound to enjoy a dip in the heated pool while admiring the vista. That would be followed by a brief soak in the hot tub. My undoing came right after we prepared our meal. Since we planned a stroll and a swim I put on a bathing suit with deep pockets to house my car keys and of course my camera. Pockets should not be allowed in bathing suits for old people is my conclusion.
Having obtained a variety of pictures of the grandchildren and the scenery I deposited my camera back in my pocket and nonchallantly went for a swim. The remote for the car wasn't damaged but the camera didnt take to swimming. All the pictures I took along the way from Calgary to Vancouver including the pictures at our family gathering and some of Vancouvers' sights were in the camera. In a few minutes I'm going to Wallmart with the memory card I was using and hopefully the pics on the card will be in a state that they can be moved to a cd and thus to my computer.
The faithful little camera has been both baptised and buried.
