More Travels

The summer of 2017 is pretty much officially over. Just for the record, I did want to add some information about a few trips we took after we returned from Europe. This time I, John Pratt, will be the narrator. So, there’ll be lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes along with historic and geographic errors, not to mention some exaggeration.

On Saturday, August 5th we flew to Vancouver, British Columbia and then took a small plane to Kelowna, British Columbia. I’ll spare you the details of the torturous flight on Canadian Air. Let’s just say they don’t have any competition and it shows. We came here because John was participating in an EFM training. Kelowna is in the southern center of the province. It sits in a major agricultural valley bordered by the Cascades on one side and the Rocky Mountains on the other. There is a large natural lake. If it weren’t for the lake it would basically be Fresno. We arrived a day early so we couldn’t get into the conference center. John booked us into a bed-and-breakfast which was kind of a hoot. Scenic Canyon Ranch bills itself as a meditation, yoga retreat center. We had a guest suite that looked like it had been decorated by Liberace and the Property Brothers. We had arrived late so, we checked out the rest of the property in the morning and had breakfast with the other guests. It was a good choice. Friendly – Clean — Spacious.

 

Kelowna is supposedly the driest and warmest place in Canada. For this reason it is sometimes called Palm Springs of Canada. I’m sure if you were here in January you would never mistake this place for Palm Springs except perhaps for the large number of retirees. Retirement condos are popping up in the middle of cornfields, which is an interesting look and probably makes for some nice views. Unfortunately, while we were there huge grass and forest fires were taking place nearby. The retreat center that we were staying at usually has a wonderful lake views, but we only occasionally could see the lake through the smoke. I, always a good sport, pretended I was on the Mendocino Coast. This worked as long as I was in my car and had the air-conditioning on. The temperature was in the 90s.

 

 

 

The only other nonparticipant spouse who was staying at the retreat center and not part of the retreat was Carleton, the husband of one of our favorite EFM people, Elsa. Elsa, Carleton and Virginia were the only other Americans at the retreat. Elsa and Carleton are from Virginia which has some sort of odd logic. Carleton and I wangled some very high-end mountain bikes to ride some very flat trails into town to eat at a highly regarded restaurant, Krafty, which was closed. We did find somewhere else to eat.

John had one morning off when the Canadians were doing Canadian things. We went to a place where you could ride bicycles on old train trestles. The trestles had burnt down a few years ago but have been rebuilt.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we went into town for lunch at Krafty. It was closed. We found another restaurant with a lovely view of the smoky lake.

The week actually passed quite quickly.I was made to feel very welcome by the other participants. The second to last evening we all watched Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It seemed odd, but fun to be watching this film with the group of Canadian priests. David was inspired to decorate his broken foot. (I told you to expect exaggeration.)

 The last evening a grand celebration was held at the local Episcopal Church. Pictures were taken. The three American participants were forced to have their pictures taken alone.

 

Pictures were taken.

 

 

 

The three American participants were forced to have their picture taken alone.

 

We flew to Vancouver but instead of just changing planes we spent the night at the Fairmont Hotel. Our Fairmont was located at the airport. It was convenient and even though some attempts had been made to make it look like the one in downtown Vancouver we weren’t fooled.

 

 

 

 John and I rented invisible bikes and rode around Stanley Park. 

 It was very dry.

We, of course, stopped at the local Episcopal Church. We like it because so much local wood was used inthe building. We suspect it is held together with maple syrup.

We had lunch at a highly recommended dim sum restaurant. At lunch I received this picture of Elsa texted to me by Carlton.

                                               At lunch I received this picture if Elsa texted to me by Carlton.

 Just two weeks later we flew to Portland for another EFM training. This time John was the trainer and not being trained. There was some confusion about whether his sister would be there or not. Not at the training, but at their new tiny house that Mike had built in the back yard of their old big house. They had spent the summer in Portland, but it was time for Ellen to return and start teaching in riot central, Charlottesville, Virginia. There was some confusion about making our schedules coincide, but it all worked out.

We had a lovely dinner with Jill and Loren. Bill and Allen joined us for dessert. We saw the finished abode and met the new puppy, Abby.

Next weekend we go to Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare festival.