Playing in Penticton

Skaha Lake

We've just gotten home after spending three nights in Penticton with our very good friends, what a blast!  The first thing we did was go to Skaha Lake where we all spent time when we were young and so it was fun to reminisce.  Gary and Gina's summer place is a few short blocks to the beach and it took no time at all to pack up the vehicles with floaties and set up our beach camp.

It's nice to have a friend who'll tow you in...

The sky was quite smoky but the water was still beautiful

Seniors football on the beach??

After spending time at the beach we decided to go home and have lunch, rest out of the heat for a while and then go float down the Canal.  About an hour down the canal Gina's floatie started to leak so she was slowly going under water!  Quite the experience - and little did we know that the water level was so low that it took twice as long as it should to go from one end to the other.  After 2 1/2 hours of pretty slow travel along the water we saw some steps up out of the canal so we took the opportunity to bail, and we walked back to the parking lot carrying our floaties!  It was fun though while it lasted, Ken even got off his tube and towed us for a while - although it was pretty hard for him to get back onto it.  :)

Wine Tasting

A trip up to wine country wouldn't be complete without sampling the wares of at least a few of the local wineries.  We split up for the tour, guys in one vehicle and gals in the other.  The guys had the itinerary and we followed them, that made for an interesting drive...  We did manage to hit a couple of the ones we were planning on stopping at though so that was good.

Here at the Serendipity Winery Gina was even able to purchase a wine barrel (an empty one!)  Between our various winery stops we managed to fill a few boxes with our favourites, we are all quite diverse in our tastes.

Kettle Valley Train

Gary mentioned that there's a 90 minute round trip ride on the Kettle Valley Steam Train that's just north of Summerland, so we decided to try it out.  Yesterday morning we packed up and headed there for a ride in one of the three open-air cars, I'm so glad we went.

The open air car is the only way to go in summer

The views of Prairie Valley farms were amazing

Trout Creek Trestle Bridge

The trainmen are all volunteers and you can tell they love what they're doing.

Dirty Laundry Winery & Bistro

On our train trip we went by the Dirty Laundry vineyards and bistro high up on the hill, it's Gina and Gary's favourite spot and once we got there we understood why.  The bistro area is beautiful; the trellis ceiling with grape vines growing overhead and baskets of flowers everywhere were amazing.

Entrance garden to Dirty Laundry Bistro

We're so grateful to be able to spend time with great friends in beautiful places like this!  It's exactly six months until we're all in Hawaii with more fun and adventures to be had....