Day 2 of Penticton Extravaganza

Day 2 starts out waking up in the back of a car. It takes a bit of time to collect yourself and remember why you are in the back of a car. What? Where am I? Was I actually kidnapped by Captain Crunch and Count Chocula or was that just a dream? Once awake we soon realized that sleeping in the back of our beloved Zoom Z. McGee is just fine, but hanging out in the back...well...it’s not something that I have the desire to do for an extended period of time. This suited us just fine, because after a reasonably long and restful sleep we were eager to arrive in Penticton. With very little to pack up we were soon on our way back to the highway to finish the last leg of our journey. Something that I realized on the drive back was that driving fast along the logging road actually seemed better for the car than driving slow and methodically like I usually do. I had seen a few vehicles bombing down the road last night, but they were all trucks and SUVs. That morning I had seen a few cars, not that much different than ours, driving the same way. I initially thought that they just didn’t care about the possibility of damaging their rides. I do pride myself on being teachable, and open to learning new things, so I decided to test out their way of tackling the pot-hole filled road. Much to my surprise it did seem to work a lot better. How much time had I wasted thinking I was doing the right thing for my car and my passengers? I do believe that my last car (Jean-Claude Grand Am) would have broke into pieces if I had trialled the new approach using it, but it was good knowledge to have going forward.

After a much smoother and quicker drive back, we were once again on route to our destination. We were on the road by 8:00am, a bit early but seeing the early morning sun sliding above the mountainous landscape and spray its glowing rays over the glass-like surface of Okanagan Lake was worth the price of admission. It was a task to keep my eyes on the road, and I might have wandered over the centre lines a few times, as I was drawn toward the spectacularity of the lake much like Monterey Jack to cheese (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGBlSHoaIfg). The roads were not busy and therefore a car creeping over the centre line is not as scary as it would otherwise be. Shannon was kind enough to snap some quality pictures, so I could enjoy the scenery later in a safe environment. Thanks!

Once we arrived in Penticton we did a drive about and headed down towards the lake. We wanted to check out the new digs, even though our friends were still hours away from arriving. The lake was gorgeous, and uncluttered, for the moment, from the inevitable swarm of lake-goers that would soon occupy the shoreline and the strip. It was a pleasant experience to take in the sights hours before you know it will be packed with people. It’s like the few moments after you have everything set up perfectly for a party but the guest don’t arrive for another half an hour. The fleeting moments of perfection that will soon be destroyed once the party gets going. So we took in the sights and the tranquility before our stomachs reminded us that we had yet to feed them any breakfast.

We decided to go the classy route and go with a McDonald’s breakfast....I did have a smoothie there....and a sausage mcmuffin...I think they even each other out. I also decided to go healthy and order it on a wheat muffin. They mixed up the order and gave me the regular one, which was not a big deal but when we went to point out the mistake they took the one they mistakenly gave me and through it directly into the trash. I will admit I had high hopes and ambitions that they would give me both, but greediness aside couldn’t they have saved it somehow, either give it away for free to someone else or eaten it themselves. I don’t know, neither of those might be good options, but throwing it in the trash did not seem like the right answer, that is all that I am saying.

Once breakfast was completed, we did not waste any time lingering around. It was sooo cold! It must have been set to the same temperature that would be needed at the hottest part of the day because it was ice cold in there. I’m talking, teeth-chattering, arm rubbing, distractingly cold. Brrrr!! Not for me, time to leave!

One thing that we did manage to do before we had to vacate our breakfast spot for risk of hypothermia was get on the free WiFi (thanks McDicks!) and find a way to amuse ourselves for the next couple of hours while we wait for our friends to arrive. What better time than 9:00 am to go beer and wine tasting!! The only hitch in our plan was that the first brewery did not open until 9:30 on the weekend. This was a nothing more than a minor detail; we decided to kill some time to hit up the wine shop/tourist center (http://pentictonwineinfo.com/)....this combination made me smile. It really let us know what is important in Penticton J Unfortunately the wine tasting they had planned was not until 2pm that afternoon, which interfered with our plan to taste but on the up side we were still able to buy and we did have a special wine in mind. Last November Shannon and I did some wine tasting in Summerland during the trip we took for our One Year Anniversary. The first stop on our trip was our favorite, a place called Summer Gate Organic Winery (http://www.summergate.ca/) where we tasted an amazing Riesling. This wine compelled me to write “buy Riesling more often” in my tasting notes and has since motivated us to do just that. Riesling is now our wine of choice, but few that we have tasted since have compared to the one we tasted at Summer Gate. It is for this reason that we look for it by name at any specialty shop that we think could be carrying it. So it was a great find during our time killing exercise at the wine shop.

After purchasing a bottle of celebratory wine reserved for our upcoming Two Year Anniversary, we looked at the time and it was a couple minutes short of beer o’clock, the perfect time to make our way over to Cannery Brewing (http://www.cannerybrewing.com/) for a post-breakfast beer tasting. We followed the footstep floor stickers to the entrance (I had a very amusing time hopping from sticker to sticker) and walked into an absolutely packed tasting room! I kid of course; we were most definitely the only other people, besides the workers, it being five minutes after opening and 9:30 am lol. But we did not let this deter us, no judgement here J. Shannon and I decided to share a taster between us. We decided to try the Triathlager (aka the Paddleboat Lager specially renamed for their sponsorship of the upcoming Challenge Penticton Triathlon), Paddles Up Pale Ale, Naramata Nut Brown Ale, and the Blackberry Porter. We also, later in the day, bought a 6 pack of the Antichrist Amber Ale. I think I liked the Nut Brown best, and Shannon liked the Paddles Up best. I would say that Cannery is worth checking out, I would not say they have the best beer that I have tasted but I could see why other people, with a different palate than I, would enjoy the style of beer that they produce. The tasting room in itself was worth the ticket price (well its free to go into, but you know what I mean). I enjoyed the rustic wooden bench at the tasting table. It was not flat like most benches but had to inward sloping planks of wood that made a comfortable butt groove which made sitting on it dramatically more comfortable. They also supply playing cards for each table, something to amuse yourself as you taste. It gave Shannon and I a chance to sharpen our Blackjack playing skills while sipping at our samples. They also have some cool looking stools made out of rice bags on top of kegs. I cannot speak on the comfort but they looked really fun J. Cannery Brewing gets a 7.5/10, fun and visually pleasing atmosphere, pleasant and helpful staff, amusing knick knacks and above average beer, just not the type of flavor I usually expect from craft beer. But I will give them an increase of 0.5 for opening so early on a weekend....so 8/10.

By this time we knew that our friends would be arriving within the next hour and a half so we still had some time to kill. So we decided to check out another brewery/restaurant we saw on our way into town called Bad Tattoo Brewing (https://www.facebook.com/BadTattooBrewing). It turns out that it was a brand new location; it had just opened up a week or two before we arrived. The sign immediately caught our attention; their logo is a tribal looking tramp stamp tattoo of what appears to be an angry hop. I enjoyed that logo for sure! As you might have imagined this place’s employees all had tattoos and it had a bit of a biker theme to it, very Son’s of Anarchy-like. It appeared that beer and pizza were their specialty. We were not very hungry upon arrival but the more we saw the pizza that others were ordering, the more interested we became. They had some pretty out there ideas for their pizza selection. The one that caught my attention the most was the Black and Blue, with apples, blackberry compote and blue cheese, not something I would expect to find on a pizza. We were assured, on several occasions, that all the items on the menu were deliciously well accepted by their customers but this was not enough to entice us to eat a second breakfast a mere two hours after our first. But it did make us curious enough to seek them out for a second time on our next trip to Penticton.

I cannot give my opinion on the food, but I was impressed with the beer....and the story about how the establish got its name. The story is short and simple and rather incomplete but we were told that it was based on a tattoo choice the owner had made years ago. None of the employees know what it is, or have seen it for that matter but I am choosing to believe that it is absolutely horrible and something that the owner regrets on a semi-daily basis. Ok well I guess it is not a great story but I liked the name and enjoyed learning that it is based on a true story J. I think I enjoyed all of the beers equally in their own way. None really stuck out as an absolute favorite and none made me make a mental note to avoid in the future. Our time at Bad Tattoo was enjoyable, the pizza looked and smelled amazing and the beer selection put a smile our faces. I would give it an 8.5/10 and maybe higher if we had tried the food. All around it was a good decision that we made to find it again after our first time through the city, and worth the difficulty that we had trying to find parking. A useful tip for anyone that decides to visit Bad Tattoo in the future, you do not need to hunt out a parking spot like we did. It appears that they had large and, at the time, a very empty private lot for the restaurant, something that is noteworthy considering how tough it is to find parking near the beach. Another thing to look at while trying to find parking is the signs that are up providing the regulations for street parking. Shannon and I spent a fair amount of time looking for a spot without a sign to limit us. It turns out the “residents only” signs are only in effect on weekdays, which seems weird considering when the beach would most likely be at its busiest. So make sure you read the signs carefully and you could be rewarded with a spot missed by the others that are not taking the time to read the small print.

I am going to break this post up into pieces since it was a long and exciting day that we spent in Penticton. I do not want to leave too much time in between posts. Hopefully you enjoy what I have written so far and stay posted throughout the week for what happened on the rest of the trip J