Heart Wine Country

When you travel to beautiful British Columbia, most people will visit Vancouver. You would probably go downtown, visit the sandy beaches, bike ride around the sea wall, walk through Stanley park, cross the Capilano bridge, shop at our large Metrotown shopping mall, take pictures of the Olympic torch but one thing that you must do is take a 3.5 hour drive into the Okanagan.

Fresh fruits, sunny weather, beautiful lake, nice people and most of all, the Wineries!! We take time each year in the summer for a trip into the Okanagan. Whether it's camping, cabin-ing, or just feel like driving for 3 hours to eat, we always find ourselves bringing home some wine. There are 120 wineries in the Okanagan. all ranging from luxurious establishments to small family owned wineries. There are wine routes everywhere its not easy to miss. Even though we've been to the Okanagan so many times, we still haven't visited all the wineries. We've been to Mission Hill, Quail's Gate, Jackson Triggs, Nk'Mip, Dirty Laundry, Rollingdale and Mt. Boucherie. Our most recent trip back to Kelowna as the weekend of Aug 5th. We didn't visit any new wineries, just went back to our 2 favorities; Mission Hill and Rollingdale.

Mission Hill is atop at the highest point of the Mission Hill. It is a luxurious estate winery, beautiful views and a very tall clock tower that can be seen from a far. They have a fantastic wine tour that teaches you the art of enjoying wine, the mission hill facilities and tour which includes a trip down to their wine cellars and a video about how Anthony von Mandl created this beautiful winery.

The winery also has a Terrace restaurant that looks over the beautiful Okanagan lake. Like all wineries, there is a wine shop and a private tasting room. We didn't buy any wines from Mission Hill this year, but they have a 2010 Five Vineyards Rose (70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Shiraz) that I'd like to try.

Rollingdale is a much smaller winery compared to Mission Hill. But this small winery sure stands out to us. Rollingdale is 100% family-owned and operated and is located in West Kelowna (West Bank). Unlike Mission Hill, Rollingdale does not have fancy scenery or educational tours. When you first arrive at the farm-gated winery, you walk in to a giant fridge. Inside you find the wine store manager and wines on shelves. If you are lucky, you may run into the store owner like we did 2 years ago to give us a brief history and walk around of this winery. This trip we bought a 2007 Estate Pinot Grigio and two bottles of the 2007 Pinot Noir icewines (A mix of apricots and strawberries flavours. Creamy texture with zippy acidity// Bronze Medal Winner, 2009 Grand Harvest Awards, Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine). Excellent!

Kelowna Prestige Inn

As you already know, in our last blog we were in West Kelowna (West Bank) at Kelly O Bryans. Our trip was not just lunch, we actually stayed the entire weekend in Kelowna for the Michael Buble Concert.

We stayed at the Prestige Inn in Kelowna which is located in the heart of downtown Kelowna. The location of the Inn  is very convenient. It is about 5 minute walk from the nearby beach, city park, marina, local restaurants, shopping and nightclubs.  It is also a 2 minute drive from the WR Bennett Bridge that connects downtown Kelowna to West Kelowna (West Bank)

 The interior and decor of the Inn was ok. The Inn did not stand out much to us. The staff were nice, rooms are a fair size but the hallways and the elevator was not very pleasing. The Prestige Inn has basic amenities on site, which includes a pool/hot tub, gym, restaurants, nightclub/lounge. The rooms had air conditioning, mini-fridge, and a flat screen TV.  The bed looked clean, sheets were white (that's good), and there were always 6 pillows on the bed. The carpet in the room was kind of dirty looking. I guess previous guests just wore their shoes in the room.

Overall, the stay was pleasant. We loved that the Inn was so close to the
lake. We didn't really find the Inn to have any major issues. We spend most of the day outdoors, only went back at night for sleeping. The prices however were definitely over priced for an Inn. But then again you are in downtown Kelowna during their peak season and with Michael Buble concert in town. We would consider staying at this Inn again but probably not in the next little while since our pockets got eaten by them.

Pachos Much?

We made a trip down to Kelowna last weekend. We were on our way to the Michael Buble Concert that was taking place at Prospera Place at 8pm. Of course, as a fan of Kelly O'Bryan's pachos and emerald isle sauce, we had to make a stop!

After a long drive, it was nice to finally have a drink and sit in the patio and enjoy the sunny Kelowna weather. When we got there friday afternoon, it was about 27 degrees. Vancouver's weather can not compare AT ALL with Kelowna. That is why we love K-town weather.

We had a very nice server, too cheery I would say. But at least she wasn't hot and cranky! Like all Kelly O's in town, she wore a plaid skirt with a black shirt. Oh how I miss Kelly O's. I believe the last time Bunny and Turtle went to Kelly O's was two years ago when we drove for 3.5 hours to go to Kamloops for Pachos! Talk about crazy.

We sat down, looked at the menu for 20 seconds and I already knew what I wanted to eat. Pachos for two with extra cheese, extra emerald isle sauce, Crab and Artichoke dip and a Dad's rootbeer for turtle.

I was a bit greed and asked for a lot of emerald isle sauce. I couldn't even finsh it all. We wanted to buy a bottle of the golden joy but the last time we did that, we never ate it and it went bad in the fridge

Good Food, Good Memories, and Good Friends!

Wish the old crew was there to share it with us.

Vancouver Pride 2011

Vancouver's annual pride parade took place this year on a sunny Sunday July 31st, 2011 at 12:00pm. The parade started on Robson and made its way down Denman Street and finally stopping on Beach Ave at Sunset Beach.

Sunny Sunday as more than 500,000 people made their way down Robson Downtown Vancouver to watch this amazing Pride Parade. Visitors from out of town, locals, and even residents from nearby condos watched as the 3 hour celebrate parade made its way down Downtown Vancouver. 

There were lots of people, streets were crowded everyone showing their pride and proud to be gay. Of course, to those who attended who weren't gay, they definitely showed a lot of positive support to our LGBT community. 

Many participants in the parade this year. We saw Cactus Club Cafe representing, Celebrities Night Club, Global TV  Medicare, Non-Partisan Association, Translink, Trojan, Scotiabank, Sugarbox, and many more support groups in the lower mainland for the LGBT.

It was nice to see families with young children in the crowd. Educating them that it is definitely okay to be whoever they want to be and should be proud.

On the right we have Scotiabank walking down Robson giving out free pins along with their rainbow flags and balloons. They were definitly out to show Vancouver we are more colourful than we think.

 The party did not end after the parade. More festivities were set up on Sunset beach. Bunny and turtle did not attend the later festivities, but from what we heard walking up Davie street, it was for sure an awesome celebration for Vancouver!