A Life, Lived

Goodbye Kelowna, Hello Vancouver

It is quite common for us to feel a bit melancholy when we leave a place where we have spent some time as tourists. I was not prepared for how strong the feeling was when we left Kelowna after 5 short days. Both Paul and I felt as if it was a place we could call home - post retirement perhaps?

We were a bit shocked at how much wine we had purchased to bring home - by the time it was all in our luggage each bag was overweight and we'd have about $240 in fees. After considerable discussion we put 12 bottles back in an empty case, popped by a packing store on the way to the airport and bought some styrofoam pellets to fill the spaces, taped the box up and had it loaded on the plane as a second bag for Paul. This cost $28 plus the cost of the packing materials.

When we got to Vancouver most of the luggage had arrived on the belt before we arrived. the only thing missing was a wheel from my suitcase (SIGH) and the wine. As we waited we head a voice calling 'Blonski' - it was a airport worker from the fragile/over-sized luggage area with our case of wine. SCORE

After a never ending cap ride to the airport we arrived at the Fairmont. I was able to get a deal on orbitz where a room that would normally go for $500 was $200. We checked in and ended up in lovely four room suite. Now I understand how the better half lives.

We were both exhausted so we didn't do much yesterday other than head out for dinner and explore the shops on Robson Street. Paul wanted to go to a well-reviewed Asian fusion restaurant he saw online called the Noodle Bar.

Some of the reviews were mixed suggesting that the quality of the food was mediocre. All I can say is if the food was mediocre it was better than just about anything at home. It was a smallish restaurant. Most of the tables were full when we arrived and many of the patrons were speaking various Asian dialects. Surely they'd not be at a spot that was mediocre?

Of course we over ordered!

Vietnamese spring rolls

Dry garlic chicken wings

Crispy duck rolls

Chinatown BBQ pork

Kung Pao chicken

Crispy ginger beef

Yes, the food was great. Yes, we had over-ordered. :-)

We both crashed when we got back to the room. Hotel staff had been in for the turn down service - curtains closed, lights on, nightlight on in the bathroom, bottles of water by the bed, a bucket of ice, and a nice note by the bed with a weather forecast for the next day.

I am officially spoiled and not sure I can go back to cheap hotels again.

I have some conference calls for work today and then it is off to explore the city.

Dinner at Quail's Gate

For our last dinner in Kelowna (until we return) we decided to head across the lake to Quail's Gate winery. The winery has one of the most prestigious locations and has incredible views of the lake, and the design and architecture of the location will take your breath away.

Well known in the area as an all seasons culinary destination, Old Vines Restaurant & Wine Bar has an exceptional vineyard-side location on the slopes of the Boucherie Mountain Bench. We were warmly welcomed and seated by the windows with an expansive and picturesque southern view of Lake Okanagan.

The chef is known for using fresh, local ingredients in inventive ways with each dish being matched with one of the winery's wines.

I was not incredibly hungry so I started off with a salad of mixed greens, estate watercress, pickled sprouts, daikon, seed cracker, dressed with apricot vinaigrette.

Paul had the sunchoke and roasted garlic soup with Happy Days goat cheese, bacon, sunchoke chips.

Paul decided on the pork belly for his main. It was served with side striped shrimp - something we had never had before - and green cabbage, kale, miso & shrimp broth.

I enjoyed the herb gnocchi which was served with fresh ricotta, spinach, wild garlic, pine nut butter, nettle puree.

Everything was amazing!

We followed our usual rule - if the dinner has been amazing we must try dessert. We both ordered the salted caramel budino.

It was served with preserved citrus, chocolate streusel, and rosemary snap.

YUM!

After leaving the restaurant we wandered around the estate before heading back to the hotel and a well deserved rest.

A Conference Break

 

When I looked out of the hotel room window on Sunday morning my heart sunk a bit. The weather had cleared and it looked to be a lovely day. You might wonder why that would cause my heart to sink - well, Sunday was also the first day of my conference and I would be stuck inside for 8 hours!

Oh well, Paul would enjoy his day - and he did. It became rather annoying as he sent me texts and posted pictures on facebook of all of the interesting adventures he was having. SIGH

Later in the afternoon I had a longish break in the conference and I went out to explore a bit. It was a bit more cloudy but that didn't stop me form getting out and exploring the area near the hotel some more.

The hotel is located near what is called the cultural area - an area of museums, theatres, galleries, gardens, and art installations. Oh yes, there is also a hockey arena - how Canadian is that?

I discovered this walkway whit an art installation which pays homage to this area's past and present as one of the major fruit growing areas of the country.

Kelowna is twinned with the Japanese city of Kasugai. In behind the city hall is a Japanese garden which pays homage to this connection. This garden offered a tranquil environment featuring traditional elements of a Japanese garden such as stone lanterns, pine trees and a waterfall and pond.

After this brief bit of calm it was back to the conference where I was learning more about the evolving legalities of education - happy stuff indeed!

Exploring the Okanagan

The Okanagan is famous for it's wine industry - many travel guides call it the Napa of the north. Having been to Napa and hating it for it's commercialism and over the top gaudiness I'd say there is no comparison. I hate how a growing wine region feels the need to compare itself to a more established place just to seem legit - in my opinion the Okanagan is unique and wonderful. It doesn't need to be compared to any other wine region.

Rant done.

Saturday was my one free day while I am here. There was a chance of rain in the weather forecast. Hmmmm

You know where this is going, right?

Oh well. As always, we were not going to let some rain interrupt our plans.

After breakfast we headed south to the far end of the lake to explore an area called the Naramata Bench. The vineyards of Penticton and Naramata Bench boast ideal conditions for ripening Merlot and Bordeaux varieties and full-flavoured Pinot Gris and Viognier. With an established (and simple) wine touring route, breathtaking views and several wineries with delicious dining spectacular settings, it’s easy to see why the Naramata Bench is one of the hottest wine regions in the province.

We explored a small, family run winery first - Laughing Stock. We explained that it was our first winery visit in BC so the hostess provided us with plenty of information about the industry and the growing conditions.

Our next winery was the larger Poplar Grove. They had a beautiful tasting room and some amazing wines.

We explored Penticton for the next few hours before heading back up the lake to Summerland. Penticton has a lovely beach at the far end of the lake and we were happy to walk along the beach (the rain having stopped by then). One of the interesting features of the area was a museum dedicated to the various lake boats which used to bring goods, and people back and forth between Penticton and Kelowna prior to the railroads and highways being built.

We headed back the way we came to the town of Summerland. This is some of the major fruit production areas in Canada and the cherry, peach, and apple trees were in full blossom. This is also a growing wine region and we had three wineries selected for our visit: Dirty Laundry, Silkscarf, and the Okanagan Crush Pad.

Dirty Laundry is fun - with a story that starts in the late 1800s when a railway worker decided to open a laundry/bordello and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Dirty Laundry Vineyard, and its jaw-dropping gorgeous scenery that produces outstanding wines, has become a world-class destination. It was the most commercial of the wineries we visited but NOTHING like one would see in Napa (see earlier rant). It was also the place where we least enjoyed the wines - they were good but the wines at our other destinations were GREAT!

Next up was Silkscarf winery. Unlike Dirty Laundry it was quiet and calm. This is one of those wineries that you could drive by and miss if you weren’t paying attention. And if you did see it, you might not even stop because compared with some of the other wineries in the valley, it flies very low under the radar.

And if you did miss it, that would be a total shame because the wine is fantastic!

Our final stop was at the Okanagan Crush Pad. The Okanagan Crush Pad Winery was the first in British Columbia to install concrete eggs in its winery as fermentation and storage vessels. A number of wineries use the facility in order to make world class wines.

Leaving the crush pad, we spotted an interesting stop sign . . .

 . . . and headed back to Kelowna for a nap.

Hello Kelowna

Friday was a travel day much like many travel days - started too early, delays, cramped airplane eats, bad food, bad coffee, rude fellow passengers. SIGH The things we go through to get from place A to place B these days. LOL

From time to time I look at pictures of air travel 50 years ago and wonder if it happened on this planet!

The worst delays happened after we got to Kelowna itself - after we retrieved our luggage we just wanted to get to the hotel and have a shower followed by a nap! Unfortunately the guy who had rented our reserved rental car was late. We had to hang out at the airport for almost an hour. Then when we got to the hotel our room wasn't ready.

There was to be no shower or nap yet for us.

We dropped off our luggage and went out to explore. The weather was crap - cool, cloudy, and wet.

Like I said – the weather was crap. Nonetheless you can get a sense as to how beautiful this city on the edge of a large alpine glacial lake is. The local government has worked to revitalize the waterfront with parks, walkways, art installations, and gardens.

Our bodies were still on Ontario time – back home it would be close to dinner time and we hadn’t eaten much since breakfast. We sniffed interesting smells outside a BBQ restaurant so in we went. Nothing like a cold local beer and a brisket sandwich to quench thirst and hunger!

Afterwards we wandered the downtown a bit. Like so many downtowns it seems to be in transition – the scourge of big box shops on the city outskirts - with some run down spots and areas where shops were staking a claim or revitalization was taking place.

By the time it was close to four we headed back to our hotel to see if our room was ready. It was – yeah!

The view is spectacular – overlooking the lake – and if the clouds ever lift we’ll enjoy it.

We took care of the aforementioned nap and shower to ease some of the travel weariness.

Once we felt somewhat human again we headed to the lobby to meet our friend Valerie for dinner. She had made reservations at a restaurant called Waterfront Wines. It started its existence as a wine bar and morphed into one of the top restaurants in the area – with an amazing wine list!

The restaurant is consistently rated as one of the top in the city and is known for inventive use of local ingredients.

I started with a salad of local asparagus. It came with a hazelnut vinaigrette. On top sat a crispy egg yolk - something I had never experience before. When I cut into the hard shell the liquid yolk ran out and blended with the vinaigrette to dress the salad.

My main course was seared arctic char served on a bed of lentils. Now before you chime - 'You're not in the Arctic how can Arctic Char be local' - the name is a misnomer. Arctic Char is a fish which is common in cold alpine lakes. It had been fished and polluted out of existence in the small nearby lakes but has recently been the subject of attempts to bring it back to a thriving level in the local waters. I was able to taste the results of these efforts.

For dessert I ordered the daily special which was a blueberry mousse served with blueberry, lemon ice cream. The presentation was beautiful and the flavours came together wonderfully.

By the time 9:30 rolled around my body was telling me it was past midnight at home. I could barely keep my eyes open! We hugged Valerie good night, thanked her for the wonderful experience, and walked back to our hotel room. I was so tired that I do not even remember falling asleep!

Photo Hunt - Fix

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'fix'.

I was in Washington DC a number of years ago for a conference. The day we arrived was incredibly windy. The next day crews were out and about fixing the damage.

We're Off!

This is officially the least planned I have been for any trek in my life.

Work has been busier than normal lately and it is all I can do to handle that let alone anything else. Paul has been brilliant - he has done absolutely everything around the house for the past three weeks allowing me to focus solely on my work obligations.

Today we jet to Kelowna where I am scheduled to attend a legal conference.

Kelowna is the heart of the BC wine country. I am sure will enjoy my spare time there.

While I have a list of wineries I wish to visit that is about the extent of my preparation. I have a dinner date with my friend Val for tomorrow night.

I have a wine tasting booked at Laughing Stock Vineyards for Saturday morning.

The conference finished up on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we fly to Vancouver for three days.

It's been 35 years since I have visited the city . . . I have no idea what we'll be doing but awe break will be a joyful thing!

Vacation Timelines

I'm leaving tomorrow for a conference with a few vacation days tacked on. I saw this online the other day and it really rang true . . .

Santa Maria-Style Salsa

On Monday I shared a great recipe for beans we made to serve with a grilled Santa Maria Tri Tip. The classic accompaniment to the slow grilled steak is this salsa. You'll find the tomato and celery-based salsa is not spicy, rather it yields a fresh crunchy counterpoint to the meat.

The salsa takes about 15 minutes of chopping to prepare. You should make it at least an hour before you plan on eating so that the flavours have an opportunity to develop properly.

Santa Maria-Style Salsa

2 large ripe tomatoes, diced (about 2 1/2 cups total)
1 stalk celery, peeled and diced (about 1/2 cup)
4 scallions, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 fresh California green chili (Poblano or Hatch can be substituted), diced (about 1/2 cup
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt

Combine tomatoes, celery, scallions, chili, cilantro, garlic, vinegar, and Worcestershire in a medium bowl and toss. Season to taste with salt. Let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Serve. Refrigerate leftovers in a sealed container for up to 5 days.

Travel Tuesday - the Amalfi Coast

A couple of friends of mine will be heading to the Amalfi coast son. Hearing about their trips has got me thinking it might be time for a return . . .