I cannot go so far as to say with Dickens that this was “the best of times…the worst of times,” but it was a day which was at once deeply frustrating and quite satisfying. Traveling is often like that.
We had a lovely breakfast at our B & B. We had some time for a good chat with Kris, our innkeeper. Since I knew she had run for election as a Liberal candidate in the last federal election, I was curious to get her take on the political situation. Not surprisingly, she had complete disdain for Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party government. But then, when this topic had been pretty thoroughly discussed, John asked her about what she was doing when she was not running an inn. She told us that she is in the private medical imaging business. This seemed rather odd to me because selling medical care to rich people who wish to bypass the national health care system seems at odds with what I would think a Liberal would believe. But I hardly challenged her on it. Instead, I enjoyed that wonderful homemade bread and the lovely patio by Mill Creek.
After we finished, I went off to the Anglican cathedral for Sunday mass. John did not join me this time. This was a pretty standard service with an unexceptional sermon provided by the bishop. What was exceptional was how friendly everybody was. I talked to many people after the service, and all of them were curious how a Californian had found his way to the Okanagan Valley.
John, meanwhile, had gone off to look for a place he never found, so he was already feeling a bit frustrated. Unfortunately, our frustration had just begun. Since the valley is dominated by this magnificent, huge lake, I thought it would be a lot of fun to rent a powerboat and do some exploring. We have done things like this many times before, and it’s always been a lot of fun. There are a number of places that rent boats here, but most of them want to rent them for a half day or a full day, more than we wanted to spend. There was one place, however, that had a reasonable price for one hour, all we really needed. But when we arrived there, shortly after taking the picture below, the young lady at the desk told us that she could not rent us a boat because of the dogs. “People have allergies, you know,” she said. We have rented boats with the dogs many times before, and it is almost impossible to understand how a fiberglass and vinyl boat open to the air could possibly retain anything which could cause an allergy. But there was no point in arguing with her.
After this, the dogs were hot and we figured we would at least take them down to the water. We had noticed on the map that there was a dog beach in West Kalowna, on the other side of the lake. After twenty minutes of driving, however, we found that there wasn’t even really a beach there, and certainly no dogs to be seen. So we figured we would have to backtrack to the beach we went to yesterday. This meant about another 40 minutes stuck in traffic crossing the bridge and going through Kalowna. By this time, both of us were in a bad mood and the dogs were looking mournfully at us from the back of the car. each. When we finally made it to dog beach, we had a good time with Eli. We thought we might entice Edie into the water if both of us were in the lake, but she would have none of it. She sat on the bank barking for us to come to dry land.
With at least one dog nicely exhausted from swimming, we left them in the cottage while we did some exploring in the late afternoon. The Okanagan valley is famous for its wineries. John does not drink but he thinks that I should enjoy wine tasting. Unfortunately, my sense of taste is sensitive enough only to tell the difference between apple juice and battery acid, so that fine distinctions I am supposed to get from swishing tiny sips of wine are completely lost on me. But I do think that vineyards are pretty, and the ones in the Okanagan, overlooking the lake, are particularly lovely.
The most beautiful of all of these is the Mission Hill Winery. Like most of the its competition, is has a great location.
What distinguishes Mission Hill, though, is its stunning architecture. After you drive up to the top of the hill, you park in a secluded space. You enter the winery through this modern archway.
This leads you into a courtyard domination by bell tower. You can see this tower from all over the valley. The owners of the vineyard are art collectors, and the building on the right is not a chapel but a gallery. We were too late to take the tour so we did not see their Picassos.
Instead, we posed in the loggia which provided stellar views of Kelowna and the valley.
Like the wineries in Napa and Sonoma, many of these vineyards have restaurants which are run by famous chefs. You can see the restaurant at Mission Hill below.
Although we knew it was far more than we wanted to spend, we did inquire if they happened to have an open table. They told us that they did not. So instead we went into town to find the best meal we could since we for once did not have to worry about accommodating the animals.
I chose RauDZ. In case you’re confused, that’s pronounced “Rod’s” after the celebrity chef Rod Butters. We had not heard of it before coming to Kelowna, but it is apparently one of Canada’s hottest restaurants. We had to wait close to an 45 minutes before we could get a table, but it was worth it. The food was outstanding and reasonably-priced in comparison to the winery offerings. Like so many of the disciples of Alice Waters, the culinary team here focuses on seasonal, local, organic ingredients cooked lightly to preserve to flavors. John had their famous oat-crusted arctic char. It was prettier than the picture below, but there’s only so much art you can do when you are trying to unobtrusively take a picture of your plate in a crowded restaurant.
I had a rigatoni with wild boar meat. It was unusual and good.
The dogs were happy to see us when we came back. Tomorrow, we head into the Canadian Rockies to the town of Revelstoke.
