Lazy, Hazy Days in Kelowna

Maryse and I just got back from 10 days in beautiful Kelowna visiting with her mom, brother and nephew. The weather was great, the company fantastic, the food fabulous, the weather great, the wine-tasting tingling, the sights exquisite and - did I mention the weather was great? It was sunny and well into the 30s when we left - a far cry from the wet, cool conditions we left behind - and returned home to - in Aylmer.

But it didn't look too promising as we sat on the tarmac in Vancouver...

Kelowna's down there somewhere...

Anyone for a swim? This is the pool in Jean-Marc's backyard where we spent most of our afternoons... Evenings were taken up playing golf on Pierce's Playstation and shooting pool.

The first trip we took was to the Myra Canyon trestles in the mountains above Kelowna, formerly a railway and now a winding hiking and biking pathway. The trestles where destroyed in the 2003 forest fires and have recently been restored and reconstructed...

Maryse and I drove to Osoyoos one day and visited the Nk'Mip First Nation's winery, resort and cutlrual center. It was a somewhat breathtaking sight to see a golf course in the center of what's basically a desert. Their cultural center included both indoor and outdoor exhibits...

And later in the week Jean-Marc took us out on his boat for a trip on Okanagan Lake, south towards Penticton...

Here's Pierce doing a little archeology work in his backyard...
About half a kilometre up the road from Jean-Marc's is the Summerhill Pyramid Winery. Maryse and I walked up, had lunch, did the tour, did some tasting and bought some wine...

Near the end of our visist we celebrated Jean-Marc's birthday at Bouchons, a French bistro. The meal was to die for. Pierce was sure pleased with the food...

Book: What Happened - Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan

Music: Harps and Angels by Randy Newman

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Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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