So very early Saturday morning on the first Saturday of August, Z was awake like it was Christmas morning!! The alarm didn't even go off! After a quick breakfast at home we set off on our road trip. First stop....Starbucks for a venti flat white which we shared after all that would have been a lot of caffeine for just one person. The drive was pretty non eventful - traffic was pretty good - until a miscalculation of gas to km ratio required doubling back to Merritt to fill up. At least we were only 40km past Merritt at the time this miscalculation was discovered....and we found some pretty cheap gas there! Oh what fun that was!!
We reached Lake Country, our lunch stop, at around 1:30pm. Z had found a winery called Arrowleaf where we enjoyed a very fresh farm to table lunch from their limited, but very tasty food menu. I was pretty hungry by the time we arrived so I opted to do the wine tasting after eating. The setting was very picturesque with a fabulous view of Okanagan Lake in the background. The winery has a great patio and also a large picnic area in which you can enjoy your food. We opted for the patio because it was covered and provided some relief from the blazing hot sun. I had the vegan just like a BLT sandwich and salad....instead of the bacon it came with sun-dried tomato pesto sauce, dried coconut chips, lettuce and tomato. Z had the three cheese grilled cheese sandwich and salad. I found their Riesling the best tasting wine and ended up buying a bottle whereas Z enjoyed the Solstice Reserve and bought one of those. Arrowleaf winery is just up the street from another favourite winery, Grey Monk and we just had to make a quick pit stop there to buy a few bottles of our favourites.
Another 1/2 hour drive and we were in Vernon and checking into our hotel. It was still early enough and extremely hot enough for us to head out to Okanagan Lake for the early evening. We ended up going to Ellison Provincial Park which is on the northeastern shore of Okanagan Lake. We accessed the beach through the the campground and a short hike from the parking lot. It wasn't busy at all when we arrived. The beach is more pebbly and rocky than I would like, but regardless it was a great spot to sit and enjoy the scenery. The water was very refreshing and really provided a much needed cool down from the heat. It was still like 30C at 7pm.
That was the first deer encounter of three on this trip. I've got to say that I've never been this up close and personal with wild deer before in my life.
Not much else could top off that beach experience!!
Sunday was another hot day and it was off to another lake for some R&R. This time we were heading to Kalamalka Lake. But we didn't just want to go to the most popular beach where everyone else would be going. No we wanted to go somewhere a little more secluded. Z found just the spot....and it included having to hike there which bodes well for our desire to be active! Cosens Bay beach cannot be accessed by vehicle. You either have to hike in, ride a bike or horse, or have a boat. The hike was a relatively easy 4km one-way journey (mostly down hill) taking us through some beautiful forest and along the cliffs above Kalamalka Lake. The views were nothing but breathtaking and really make me reflect on how lucky we are.
Vernon is home to Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery. Here we got to sample some locally crafted liqueurs and spirits, and the tasting was free to boot! How sweet is that? It's a pretty cool establishment and worth checking out. They've won quite a few awards for their products.
Our last day we decided we'd spent the day at the popular Kal Beach. It wasn't too busy when we arrived in the morning and with the day being a little more overcast than sunny it didn't really get overly crowded; at least not compared to a previous day when we drove past it and said there was no room on the beach anymore. Z really wanted to SUP and he found a rental place by the beach and ended up renting it for 4 hours....because we could share it. My last SUP experience was OK, but it was in Maui on the ocean which isn't exactly the calmest of waters. Needless to say, I tried it there but couldn't stand up. So on a calm lake one would reason that I shouldn't have too much difficulty. And that's exactly what happened. So after Z enjoyed paddling around for an hour, it was my turn to give it a try. He's so patient with me, gave me a few pointers and helped me get on the board. After that it was pretty smooth paddling. It got easier the longer I did it, but it is tiring, or I'm just a wimp. Either way, I managed to stay out for about a half hour, didn't fall and really enjoyed it. It's a really cool feeling being on top of the water like that. Strangest chance meeting happened one morning while we were having breakfast at our hotel. We bumped into one of our friends and her son while they were also having breakfast. The funny thing about this is they live in the same neighbourhood as we do and we've never bumped into them and it took Vernon to bump into them.
The morning we were leaving we decided to go for one last walk. Z found a trail by Swan Lake and it appeared that we could almost walk there from our hotel. But turns out we were a little incorrect. So after trying to walk there, we turned back and took the car instead. The cool thing about this area is that it's a wetland and is a breeding, nesting haven for many different bird species. We had the awesome pleasure of seeing an owl perched on a pole and it stayed there for quite some time before giving us a flying demonstration before disappearing in the horizon. This is also where we had our third encounter of wild deer. We were coming around a corner and lo and behold there were three deer on the path. They gave us the stare down again and if I could operate my camera a little better I would have gotten some better pictures, but instead they turned out blurry. Talk about frustrating. After a few minutes of trying to figure out whether we were a danger or not, they went on their merry way, bounce hopping away like only deer can do. 
