You know that we have made it home in one piece (flight cancellations aside) but there is still one last day of our vacation to cover.
Hard to believe it was 8 days ago!
Vacation memories fade quickly when you hit the wall of work.
Our last full day in the Okanagan was a travel day. Basically we were packing up the car in Naramata, heading north along the west side of Lake Okanagan (and through the fire zone) to Kelowna where we would stay the rest of the day, spend the night, and fly home the next morning.
Because we are who we are we were packed and ready to go before we needed to be. We couldn't leave a second before our 10:30 departure time though. We relaxed and enjoyed our last glimpses of this view . . .
SIGH
Unable to stop time, we hopped in the car and headed towards Kelowna.
Traffic was quite light - I suspect because of the fires. When we got to the fire zone the highway was open and there were no delays although it was eerie looking at the blackened earth and the still-smouldering stumps. There were a number of police cars with flashing lights blocking off exits and areas that were still evacuated.
We had lunch reservations for 1:00 - I had built in time since I assumed we would be delayed. Since there was no delay we had plenty of time to spare. We went back to Canoe coffee for one last really, really good coffee from a local, independent coffee spot.
We also decided to pop into the chocolate shop next door. We saw it before we headed south into wine country but never stopped in. A number of wineries featured their chocolates so we decided to stop. Karat chocolate uses single origin chocolate and all natural flavoring and additives - many of them local. For example, the cherry and apricots truffles featured centers made from fruit bought from an area farmer that week. The chocolates are beautiful - almost too good to eat - but the flavour! You'll want to eat them. :-)
We drove through Kelowna on the back roads to Gray Monk Estates. I wanted one last lunch with a view. Other winery restaurants were booked up and a friend had recommended Gray Monk. They were able to accommodate us with a reservation so we were set.
We were still early for our reservations so we did a tasting first. The wines were delicious and reasonable priced so we joined the wine club. Just what we need . . . another wine club membership. :-)
We headed downstairs to the restaurant and were given a table at the edge of the patio with a fabulous view of the lake.
Lunch was excellent.
Bread basked with flavoured butters and cherry spread.
Arancini with crab and Gruyere dip.
Warm poached apple salad.
Bison burger.
Steelhead filet.
One last amazing lunch with a view.
Our next stop was our hotel - a brand new Holiday Inn express. It was nice and well located. Being brand new was also a plus.
We rested up after our HUGE lunch and just hung out. There was a lot more we would have done in Kelowna but frankly after a couple of weeks of being on the go we just wanted to hang out a bit and take it easy.
Later we had dinner in a local brew pub which had excellent beer but only OK food.
We woke up to a happy sight . . .
. . . and we were off on our marathon travel day!
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