Penticton, BC

July 1 was a holiday in Canada (Canada Day!) and my boss told me not to come to work on Monday so Stacy and I headed to Penticton, in southern BC with her boyfriend Jaime and his roommate John. We ended up renting a house in the village of Naramata, just northeast of Penticton and site of many of the South Okanagan wineries. Since we drove down Saturday, Sunday was our first real day of doing anything. Stacy and I took off on our road bikes and the boys went mountain biking. I originally wanted to ride the Ironman course, but the forecast for the whole weekend was 40 degrees C (100F) and Stacy didn't feel like she was trained up for that distance so we modified the plan a bit. To avoid the heat I started riding at 5:30am and rode 40 miles to Keremeos. Stacy drove out there with two of her friends who live in Penticton and from there we rode another 30 miles. I really had wanted to ride at least 100 miles, but even before I got to Keremeos the heat and the hills started to get to me. After the girls met up with me I started to fade pretty fast and it was only our 2 stops to jump in a river, fully in our bike clothes, that kept me going. We finally made it back to the house around 2:30 (needless to say I rode back with them in the car) and everyone crashed until dinner. We had a lovely dinner that evening at the Hillside Estate winery. We were surprised (and a bit flattered!!) when they asked us if we would be willing to model during dinner for a professional photographer who was taking pictures for their new website! Dinner was great and we had a lot of fun =)
Monday was a bit more relaxed. Everyone else slept in while I got in a quick morning bike ride, followed by a dip in the lake. We spend a lot of the day at a great coffee shop in Naramata doing the crossword and then headed to the beach for a while. We hit up three wineries later in the day to do some tastings and stock up on some wines, and then headed back to our house for a BBQ dinner. Tuesday we had to unfortunately head back to Edmonton. I worked all of one day yesterday, and now I'm sitting in the Seattle airport on my way to Anchorage!


I took this picture at 5:30 in the morning on my bike ride, looking out over the vineyards and Lake Okanagan


The girls after our first dip in the river!


Our view of the sunset across Lake Okanagan at dinner at Hillside Estate


The smoked salmon appetizer at Hillside Estate!


Enjoying wine with my dinner =)


Sculpture and vineyards outside Red Rooster Winery

The photographer from our dinner at Hillside Estate said he would email some photos, so when I get those I'll put them up.