The Fun Continues in Penticton!

After our trip down The Channel and our almost door to door bus service we made our way back to the hotel. At this point we still had some time to kill before our dinner plans....what to do, what to do? We decided to get a few more “supplies” and headed down to the beach. After the exhausting walk across a full two lanes of traffic to the beach, we settled in and relaxed our way through what was left of the afternoon.

After a healthy block of lounging time on the beach we realized that we should start to make eating dinner a priority. We had consumed a number of beverages throughout the afternoon but had eaten nothing since breakfast. We thought it to be a smart idea to put something in our stomachs since we wanted to make it through the night.  We decided to give Salty’s Beach House (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/85/1435282/restaurant/British-Columbia/Saltys-Beach-House-Penticton) a whirl, mostly because of its Pirate theme and partly because of dinner guest’s recommendation. I once claimed that I would be willing to sacrifice a limb if I was guaranteed a lucrative, life-long career as a Pirate. Fortunately I have never been made that offer because I have professed my desire to be a Pirate if the presence of too many people to all of a sudden say I changed my mind when solicited by a Pirate Crew. Why do I love Pirates so much you ask? Because we share a key area of interest. We are both “all about the booty”!!

Pirate ambitions aside, we made the decision to have our evening meal at Salty’s. While we were getting ready at the hotel, 3 out of the 4 of us were ready and were just waiting outside on the patio chairs for the fourth member of our gang. We had left the door open and two boys in their early teens decided to take the opportunity to peek inside and see if they could see something they could brag about to their friends later. Shannon saw exactly what they were doing and scared them half to death when she yelled at them labelling them as “little perverts” much like Uncle Frank did to Kevin in Home Alone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_LiqjMfOi8). Lucky for our friend and unlucky for the “little perverts” no one saw anything that they were not supposed to see.

Following all the excitement at the hotel we headed a few doors down to have us some dins. Unfortunately we were accompanied by a large number of other patrons who shared our thought on when was a good time to eat. There was nothing more that we could do than wait. Fortunately we were able to go back to our hotel and wait for our names to be called. This allowed us to wet our whistles and sit comfortably on our patio chairs basking in the sun, which had finally burst through the clouds to shine in all its glory. It was a fine way to “wait in line”. Shannon volunteered to be our go between to make sure that we didn’t miss our names when they were called.

The second trip back and forth she came to us with a celebrity spotting. She claimed that the hostess at the restaurant was a dead ringer for Daenerys Targaryen called Stormborn, the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi of the Dothraki, Trueborn Queen of the Andals, Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, or just Dany for short J. She also came back with news that our name was about to be called so we better get our asses over to the restaurant or be forced to the back on the line.

Before we were seated we were greeted by none other than the Daenerys look alike. There was no mistaking who my wife was talking about because she was definitely the Doppelganger. She even obliged to pose for a picture with me and my creepy mustache…bless her heart. The reason why I was rocking a mustache on this occasion was because we had decided that our baseball team would grow play-off mustaches. It turns out that, once again, I was almost the only one. At least one other person did it this time. Not like on my team in the past that had let me down with the mustaches and another team of mine that decided to dye our hair blond since we were not old enough to grow facial hair at that time. The mustache is not a big deal because you can just shave it the next day….you can do the same with hair but that takes a long time to grow back. Needless to say I have yet to learn my lesson, I still have too much faith in other people participating in fun little events like that. Plus as much as I might say that I feel stupid being the only one, it still has an appeal to do it even if I’m the only one.

Once seated, it did not take us long to order another round of drinks from our server, who sadly was just another ordinary person. No more Game of Thrones look-alikes to get excited about. We ordered a round of beer-garitas. A margarita with and upside down Corona shoved into it, how fun! That was the beginning of the end of us that night.

Once the drinks started flowing again, the details of the night started to get a bit hazy lol. After our meals and drinks at Salty’s we made our way down the beach to the casino. The casino was not our destination for any gambling purposes, in fact I don’t remember even seeing any games. We were there for the dance club, and dance we did. It still being early in the night we decided to find a table to sit and ordered another round of drinks. It was at this point that our one friend, eager for an epic night, started to order shots. I will be the voice of reason and say I do not think any of us NEEDED any shots but who is gonna say no?! Be careful what you get yourself into, because once the shots started they just kept coming. Our friend was very generous! She kept ordering round after round even though we told her not to. She was too much of a Yes-Man (Yes-Woman??) that night.

Then we danced and danced and danced some more. Our moves were no doubt devastatingly awful but we didn’t seem to care, even to the point of going up on stage to show off our moves to the whole club. We didn’t get booed off stage, or at least if we did we were not able to here the boos, and that is how we spent the remainder of our time at the casino.

As the night changed to early morning my one friend told our other friend (his girlfriend) it was time to call it a night. She did not take kindly to that, she instead insisted that we go to the other hot spot The Mule (http://clubzone.com/places/the-mule-night-club-kelowna/). Luckily for us once we arrived she was content with ordering hot dogs from the vendor outside and heading home, rather than paying the cover for one more hour of fun. The hot dogs were an amazing snack to occupy us on our walk home. Mmm Mmm Mmm!!

By the time we got home it was close to 3:00am and I had to struggle to set my alarm on my watch for 7:00am the next morning. Not usually the amount of sleep I plan to have before a big baseball game, but hey nothing I could do about it at that point. We also had the task of trying to pack all our stuff that night so we had less to do in the morning. Not a fun task to be doing when all you want to do is pass out on the pull out sofa bed, but we struggled through it best we could and that was the end of our one day in Penticton!!

"The Channel"

After we spent some quality time at Bad Tattoo we got the message that our friends had arrived in town and were ready to party. We let them know that we were 110% on board as we had actually already started without them lol. So we hopped in the car and headed into town. This was probably for the best because if we stayed any longer at the brewery I would have had to stop drinking (drinking more than you should and driving is not something anyone should be doing) and would have had to take up the spectator role as Shannon continued to sample the fine tastes of Bad Tattoo beer. So we were ready to leave and take this party to the next level. Crank it up to 11 and rip off the volume knob!!

There was one more stop before we met our friends and that was the Liquor Store. We cannot just show up empty handed to a hotel that we were invited to stay at as non-paying guests. So we loaded up on supplies and a promotional model airplane that sadly did not ever get a chance to go airborne. There was an accident during the assembly that saw to that. It was not meant to be L

So we arrived to find our friends with a packed cooler, a number of empties, and big smiles on their faces, just the sight we were looking to find as we settled in. After some catching up and a number of plans thrown back and forth, Shannon and I were informed just how close we were to “The Channel.” This is something that we have wanted to do for years. I had the experience of going down The Channel on a yearly basis when my parents would take me and my two sisters up to the Interior during our summer vacation. We have many great memories from those trips but few as great as the time that we spent floating down The Channel. As I got older and the family vacation traditions changed it was an event that was not readily brought back to mind until a few years ago when I overheard another friend mentioning what they did on their road trip to Penticton. When I heard that, the gate in my mind was lifted and all the memories can flowing back to me....very similar to the way that the water flows down The Channel J.

From that point on I kept telling Shannon every summer “we have to go down The Channel! You will love it!” One thing that is worth mentioning is that as fun as it was to float down The Channel when I was young, appreciation for such events seems to evolve to something a little bit different once you pass the age of 19....the age you can legally drink in BC. It has often been said, and even more often been thought; how great is it to do (blank)? But how great is it to do (blank) while drinking?! The same rule applied for me and The Channel. Floating down The Channel is awesome! But how much more awesome would it be if we were doing it while drinking?! The answer....way more awesome! Unfortunately the suggestions were heard but never followed through on. Up to this point we have never had the chance BUT today was the day!

We were actually very lucky because Shannon and I had decided to bring up our inflatable air mattress “just in case.” We were not planning on using while sleeping in the car, and we were 90% sure that the hotel would have a pull out couch for us but we thought, it doesn’t take up too much room so why not bring it “just in case.” We didn’t end up needing it for anything else but it was a great way to navigate The Channel!

So it was decided. Our friends started pumping up their two person tube with a cooler in the middle (genius idea!) and we pumped up our two person air mattress. What was even better was that the starting point for The Channel was only a five minute walk away! So we changed into our suits, loaded up our “supplies”, grabbed our floatation devices and off we went. Once we got close to the starting point, we decided it was best to try and keep a low profile, didn’t want our “supplies” getting any unwanted attention. We all agreed that was probably for the best. At that very moment another group walked by us with a flat of Cariboo Buck Shots (beer) right out in the open, not even the slightest attempt to conceal them. When no one seemed to bat an eye at their very public display we realized that maybe we didn’t need to be as discreet as we once thought.

Once in the water we had a plan to tether ourselves together so we didn’t separate on our way down. Their device had a rope that we could use but our mattress didn’t have much to tie it to. We tried the first idea that came to mind, which was to hook it up to the plug that holds the air in our mattress. I realize that sounds like a terrible idea but it was not as simple as that. The plug is a bit more of a complex system than they used to be, so it did have some safety mechanisms so the air would not leak out immediately if the plug was pulled but it still was not a great plan and we found that out almost immediately. The new system we came up with after that was simply holding onto the rope to make sure we didn’t get separated, and that worked as well as it needed to.

After that it was smooth sailing for the next couple hours. The time went by so quickly that we bailed on our initial plan of only going have way, and did the entire channel. It was a fabulous decision except for one factor. The brilliant two person tube that our friends were using had a leak. We knew this was an issue going in, and so we tried to fill it up as much as we could before we unmoored and started the journey, but we did not think that it would get too much worse as the trip went on. So things started to look rather meek near the end, and one of our friends had to come and join us on the mattress for the final 5-10 minutes. This was perfectly ok for us, there was plenty of room, but he did not enjoy it too much. He was perfectly content sitting in his tube out of the water except for his feet. It was not so much that the water was cold but they weather was overcast and warm but not hot. This was to say that if you were out of the water it was not heating you up enough to justify a plunge into the water for any other reason than to “relieve oneself” lol. Once you were in the water it did not take long to acclimatize but his initial reaction was amusing.

There was one upside to the epic meltdown of the tube. At the beginning of the trip our friends had debated whether or not there tube was going to be able to make it through the summer. They had vowed to buy a new one next year but thought they could squeeze a few more trips out of “Old Faithful” to get them through this season. After having to abandon ship a kilometer before the destination it was not a hard decision to donate it to the garbage can beside the bus that was waiting to take us back to the top (a lovely feature for those who are seeking a way to avoid needing a designated driver).

A few worthy mentions for our trip down The Channel. One was the dudes that we saw with a set up that included a cooler twice the size of ours and a radio. The radio was a nice feature, a little outdated and out of tune (no wait it was just country music) but still a welcome add-on. Another was when Shannon had pulled herself out of the water and completely onto the mattress. Then when she was in mid story she fell over backward into the water. Hilariously funny, though I don’t think we ever heard the end of the story since we were laughing too hard. The final one was the awkwardness of arriving with rows and rows of empty cans lining the mattress as we pulled into shore. Environmentally responsible but incriminating lol. Luckily there was a guy that floats around at the end and collects the cans from the other floaters. He must make a killing...not a bad gig I would say. Get to hang out in the sun all day, floating around and checking out the girls in their bikinis *wolf whistle*. I bet he also gets free drinks from people that have extras that they don’t want to bring on the bus home with them. Not too bad at all.

So that was our trip down “The Channel.” It was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon in Penticton! That is also it for this part of my post. I will continue with our jam packed day in my next post. Check in with me again soon J!!

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

Penticton On A Whim

I should preface this by saying that our trip was not necessarily on a whim. We had been invited by some friends to visit them for a weekend at the hotel that they booked in Penticton. They had given us ample time to accept the offer and make proper arrangements. Why I refer to this as a trip on a whim is because up until a week before the weekend of departure I was unable to make solid plans as a result of the uncertainty of the evolving playoff baseball schedule. It took right up to the last day of the season to know what place my team was going to finish (we came in second place, thank you very much) and who we would be matched up with for our opening game. By Monday I got the news that it would be on Sunday at noon. This would have been our last choice, if it was up to us. This meant that we would have to be on the road back home no later than 7:00am Sunday morning. That is early even if you went to bed at a decent time the night before, and I had a vague idea of how we were most likely going to spend our Saturday night, and I imagined it would be significantly more difficult to be up by 7:00. Throughout the week we flip-flopped a number of times questioning whether it would be worth it to drive such a distance for really only one day of fun. In the end we decided that it was 110% worth it and had solid plans for an amazing weekend!

Another thing that I believe is worth mentioning is that our friends were only planning on arriving early Saturday afternoon. So we could either leave Saturday morning, like they were planning on doing, or we could go up Friday night and find out own place to crash for the night. Ultimately we decided that to maximize the limited time that we already had, that we would head to the interior after work on Friday night. The sleeping arrangements that we made were simple. No need to book a hotel, why pay for something you would be using as nothing more than a glorified flop house? No need to book a campsite, why pay for the opportunity to fumble around in the pitch black to set up a site that you just plan on taking down the very next morning? So what did we decide to do instead? Well hatchbacks are fantastic at carrying large amounts of cargo and large pieces of cargo, and....well....let’s face it in this situation Shannon and I were not much more than large pieces of cargo. So packed a few sleeping bags and pillows, folded down the seats and there you have it! You got yourself safe, efficient, and cheap accommodations for the evening. The only real question was where can we park the car for the night? A short Google search later (http://freecampsites.net/#!penticton) we had our answer, Brenda Lake it was!

So once again Shannon and I struggled our way through another Friday at work. Fridays are so full of anticipation, which is usually a great feeling. But anticipation can also grind away at your patience. It takes no small amount of will power to delay your gratification and concentrate at the tasks at hand. This is nothing new, and is not specific to any one industry. Everyone should have felt the feeling that I am describing, and if you haven’t you either really love your job, in which case I will stand up and give you a much deserved standing ovation, or you do not have very good weekend plans. If you love your job that much you are truly the exception, rather than the rule, and I could not be happier for you. You are living the way most people only dream of. If you do not have any exciting weekend plans, than I ask, why not? Life is for enjoying, and being happy. If you cannot find a way to do this, I would strongly recommend finding a way to fix that. That is not the way anyone should be living their lives, everyone deserves to be happy and I personally invite anyone who is not to email me and I would love to work with you to find a way to fix this for you. I am by no means an expert on this subject. I do not have any qualifications other than my life experience. I have put a lot of effort into finding the best way to be happy and have spent an exaggerated amount of time in the past few months educating myself on all the best way to do this. I am nothing more than a person who loves to help others and loves to be happy J and I am very willing to share with anyone that is interested in learning.

I apologize for getting side tracked. It is just a topic that I am very passionate about, and would be interested in sharing my knowledge and experience to anyone who is looking for change and is interested and open to hearing my opinion on the subject. Ok back to the trip. So I admit I once again I skipped out of work a little bit earlier than I usually would. I do not feel guilty about it though, I was one of the few people in the office that stuck around as long as I did....come on, Friday before the long weekend? Anyone that knows they won’t be fired for it is going to be skipping out as soon as they can. Plus I still had a bit of packing to do. When I say a little, that is based on my assumption of the situation, not the reality. The reality was that it was not too much more packing than I thought, but it took more time than I had allotted for. So my departure was more rushed than I had intended or preferred. I did arrive on time to pick up Shannon, I thank the re-opening of Powell street for that *mini bow*. Much appreciated!

No sooner had I arrived outside her occupational establishment, when I was so pleasantly graced with her presence. Perfect timing! It’s Penticton time! Fist pump like no one’s watching....or like everyone is!! Two super-psyched weekend vacationers in the car? Check! Plans to avoid traffic, non-existent....But we were nicely surprised much like we were on our Portland trip. Special order for no traffic, was, once-again, delivered right on time. The type of delivery that you would tip a piece of gum AND a wad of cash for the service.

Kevin McCallister: I`m sorry. You wanted a tip.
Cedrick the Bellman: Umn, that won`t be necessary, sir. I still have some
(Shows him wad of gum)
Cedrick the Bellman: tip left over.
Kevin McCallister: (pulls out a wad of cash) No tip? Okay.
Cedrick the Bellman: Uh, wait wait wait wait. Wait, wait.

(Kevin closes door)

So traffic was a breeze, well, such few stops that it might as well be referred to as a breeze. This trip was not catered by Big Lou’s in the same way the last one was so we had to decide where we wanted to stop. We decided that Hope would be the place.

Our original idea was to try and find a bar and grill type place for some classic pub-grub and a nice relaxing beer to push us down the last couple of steps to full relaxation mode. Nothing washes away the last little bit of anxiousness still hanging around from the work week like and ice cold brew. After an unintentional tour of downtown Hope we found a place that seemed to fit the bill. It was definitely a hole in the wall, but we had high expectations that what it lacked it in eye pleasing décor it made up for in food flavor. The food did look promising but the prospect of finding a place to be seated did not. At this point we sached (actually we just walked lol) our way across the parking lot to a place called Homes Restaurant (http://www.homerestaurants.ca/). Our one and only experience with Homes in the past had been quite pleasant. Humongous breakfast portions, overwhelmingly delicious (and similarly humongous) pie and the wifi to post pictures of the food to make your friends jealous. Can you really expect anything more? So we decided that Homes was an excellent alternative, and so did a large number of other people. It appears that reservations are needed for a Friday night out on the town in Hope. We later found a place called Rolly’s Pancake House (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/85/1490950/restaurant/British-Columbia/Rollys-Pancake-House-Hope). Not much to look at….we actually drove by it our first time through the city, and it caught our eye as a restaurant but did not look all that impressive. The inside is not much better, to look at that is. The service and food were by no means a reflection of how it looked. We were seated by a very pleasant gentleman (I have a hunch it might have been Rolly himself…looked a lot like the caricature on the restaurant sign) and served by a surprisingly attentive waiter. I will admit that he looked more like a participant in the X-Games than he did a waiter but his service was impeccable. We especially took to his off-the-menu suggestion to exchange our fries for poutine. Let’s be honest, there is nothing healthy about restaurant food, especially fries, especially fries covered in gravy, especially fries covered in gravy and cheese curds but they are delicious and a worthwhile look-the-other-way-while-I-feast indulgence from time to time. It was an appreciated suggestion and we enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Rolly’s you put a smile on our faces and plenty of food in our bellies! And thanks to the waiter for his pleasant demeanor and noteworthy service. You are a breath of fresh air to all of those people that are way too eager to jump to conclusions based on how someone looks. Respect!

With our minds no longer focused on where our next meal was going to come from, we shifted our attention back to the road. We were roughly at the halfway point and the sunlight was beginning to fade, it was time to get back behind the wheels and make our way to our destination. So we drove, and drove and then drove some more. Nothing worth mentioning other than a minor difficulty around Merritt. In the past Merritt has been the epicenter for a number of obstacles we have faced along out journeys. The two that come to mind are the speeding ticket I got while “seeing how fast my car could go” and the time I decided it was too much of a hassle to stop in for gas. I was able to avoid having my car impounded, and I was able to roll into West Kelowna on nothing more than fumes, so not tragic events, but worth mentioning. This time it was some minor confusion with the GPS. It told me to go one way, and I was very confident it was the other way. In this case I was correct J take that technology!

From that point it was a quick jaunt to our destination just outside of Kelowna. We found the exit we needed, found the road we wanted and were in good shape to arrive at our place of interest. From that point on we were driving along a logging road, so our progress slowed to a snail’s pace, switching back and forth with the high beams so as not to drive off the road and over a cliff lol. After about 15 minutes on the logging road we started to question how important it actually was to get to the campsite. It was late and the road was deserted, so our minds wandered toward the possibility of just pulling off the road and making camp. Of course by camp I meant move our luggage to the front and ourselves to the back, unroll the sleeping bags and go to sleep. So that is exactly what we ended up doing. We found a perfect little turn off….I was only mildly concerned that I would be blocking what appeared to be another (lesser used) driving path. But we were far enough off the main road that we were confident we should be fine.

We learned out first lesson of caution very early in our car sleeping experience. Make sure that you disable the alarm before exiting the locked vehicle. This was a lesson that we learned soon after I almost gave myself a heart attack getting out to “use the washroom”. In the midst of panic mode I was able to find the keys and put an end to the temporary chaos that I was solely responsible for, waking up the entire wilderness…..my bad *shrugs and smiles*. That is one way to try and be discreet lol. Once all the excitement died down we were ready to settle in for the night. Shannon was concerned about bears and I was concerned about people calling the cops thinking we were in some kind of accident. But settling in for the night was more important and was soon the only concern left. We attempted to watch a movie on the tablet, we were not successful in watching it in its entirety but it did a great job of putting us to sleep, a great way to end the first day of our trip J. Not your typical Friday night but one that I very much enjoyed and will have fond memories of.