Jennifer Jiang

Happy 4th of July everyone!

The past weekend has been quite a busy one for me. One of my best friends got married on Saturday and I had the honour of being one of his groomsperson. It was a beautiful wedding and I couldn’t be happier for both him and his new bride. The day after the wedding my good friend Tammy (tofutamz.wordpress.com) and I took a short two day trip up to Kelowna, BC for the Canada Day long weekend. This is where the adventure begins…

Tammy and I started our trip on Sunday in the early morning, thankfully she was driving since I was feeling quite tired from the wedding the day before. We made a pit stop in Chilliwack to grab some breakfast and continued on our trip. Everything was going smoothly until I heard Tammy say, “uh oh”. Turns out we were almost out of gas, to the point where the gas light had already come on. The closest gas station was about 40kms away, we didn’t have a choice but to pray that we will somehow make it there before the car stops in the middle of the highway. By that time both of us were wide awake, slightly panicking, and I was getting ready to get out and walk a few kms to the nearest gas station. Thankfully we managed to make it to the gas station in Merritt with only about 0.2km worth of gas left. Talk about a close call. We learned our lesson to always fill up before setting out on a road trip. After the gas break the rest of the drive was smooth sailings. It took approximately 4 hours or so to get to Kelowna from Vancouver.

Upon arrival, we decided to check out the information centre to see which wineries we should visit first. We grabbed a map and was recommended by the information desk person to try the restaurant at Little Straw Vineyards,  though when we got there the restaurant was unfortunately already fully reserved. If you plan to visit here be sure to make a reservation ahead of time. We ended up going to Volcanic Hills Estate Winery instead, which was just across the street from Little Straw. They had a new restaurant that was only opened a couple weeks ago. We sat on the patio as the inside was full. It was a pleasant lunch with a lovely view, sadly it ended with rain. Was not expecting the weather to change so quickly in Kelowna but thankfully the rain came just as we were finished our meals.

After lunch we headed out to Arlo’s Honey Farm and the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm. We stocked up on a lot of all natural honey but the lavender farm was just a bit too much for me. Not the biggest fan of the smell of lavender. We still had a bit of time to kill prior to checking into our accommodations so we checked out a few more wineries that were along the way, Mission Hills Winery and Quails Gate Winery. All of the wineries that we saw had amazing views of the water and mountains. Finally we headed to our accommodations that we had booked through Airbnb. It was a nice house located in West Kelowna that overlooked the city. The host was very friendly and got us settled in and gave us some advice on where to go and what to see. We spent the rest of the evening heading to Downtown for dinner at Soban Korean Bistro and then taking a walk along the water. We were both tired from the long day so we headed back, watched some TV and went to sleep.

The next day we started off our morning by grabbing breakfast at De Dutch Pannekoek House and then making our way to Carmelis Goat Cheese Artisan. You can try the various goat cheese samples for only $2 and if you buy any of the cheese then the fee is waved. The cheese farm is located quite high up so the view was quite spectacular. Not to mention there were also a bunch of goats happily running around the farm. At times like these I wish I was one of those goats. Fresh mountain air, breath taking views, all the grass you can eat, and not a care in the world. But then again, if I were a goat I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to visit all the other wineries so we decided to head out.

On the way down from Carmelis we spotted another winery and decided to make a stop at CedarCreek Estate Winery. The wine tour was just starting so we joined in. For $8 dollars you get a tour of the winery as well as a tasting for four different wines, two reds and two whites. Right after the tour we headed to Summerhill Winery to do another wine tasting session. Once we had our fill of wine it was finally time to do some exercise and work off all that alcohol.

We made our way to Mrya Canyon and rented some bikes. The trail is about 12km one direction so round trip was 24km. The trail is pretty high up so you are presented with wide mountain views all around. The weather was perfect and the bike path was an easy ride so even if you aren’t physically fit, this shouldn’t be a problem. After the bike ride we headed to Downtown Kelowna for a bite to eat and then back to our accommodations. We were going to go out again at night to check out the night scene but was too tired and ended up staying in all night.

The next morning, which was our last day in Kelowna as well as Canada Day, we packed up our stuff and got it ready for when we come back in the afternoon to just grab and go. We headed back to Downtown Kelowna as they had some Canada Day celebrations going on. Best part of the festivities, free watermelon! It was really warm that day so the fresh cold watermelon slices definitely made it so much better. After we left the festival we thought it might be a good idea to go for a swim since the weather was so hot. We went to Gyro Beach, picked a nice spot and did some tanning/swimming. Both of somehow fell asleep for a hour on the beach and ended up looking like lobsters afterwards. I still feel the pain on my skin but no regrets, it was a “moolaxing” afternoon and I can’t complain. After that we grabbed our stuff from the house and started heading back to Vancouver. Kelowna is a great weekend getaway spot to help you relax and catch some sunshine. Definitely would recommend it to anyone looking for a mini vacation.