Mar 31 - April 7 Penticton Week #2

Mar 31
We started our day pretty slow today. I worked on some blog updates and Leslie is working on cleaning up some pics for me to use. We're going to do some more driving tours today for me to show Leslie more places I used to hang out at when I lived here.
The sun is shining and it should be a really nice day outside again. We have been really weather lucky.
Our first destination is a small town/village called Naramata on the northeast side of Okanagan Lake. The road has many bends and a low speed limit and there are wineries everywhere along this bench.

We have sampled these excellent wines a few times!

It's a really good grape growing area with the western exposure and access to plenty of water for irrigation from the lake. We stopped at Three Mile Beach for a quick look around and let Margaret out for a bit. I rented a house close to here with two other fellas that worked at the same nightclub as me back in the early 80's. As teenagers we would come out here with beer and spend the day at the beach. No police this far out of town. Some fun memories. Now there are houses built right down to the gate at the beach!!

Lots of good memories here.

From above the beach, always a gravel beach not sand.

We continued the drive on the windy road passing more wineries and a distillery. Some were open but many are closed to the public as it is too early in the season. We soon started down the main street into Naramata. We spotted a brew pub that we will come back to for lunch. I bet they have Naramata Nut Brown on tap! We drove right down to the beach and stopped for pics of this beautiful old hotel.

Naramata Heritage Inn.

We turned left and went a little ways into the residential area to admire the houses on the beach. There are some amazing properties down here. None of which we can afford I'm sure lol. We turned around and drove over to the park we spotted from the corner. Naramata Wharf Park.

The sign is beat up but has some good info.

Looking west across the lake.

A selfie on the wharf.

Properties to the north of the park.

What a beautiful spot to hang out for a bit. We walked around for a little while enjoying the sun and the water. Had to hang on tight to Margaret so she didn't run off the boards. She's not too smart sometimes. We drove a little ways north of the wharf to look at the properties in the above pic and then turned around to head to the pub for lunch. All this sight seeing makes you hungry!

Nice pub for lunch, we sat in the sun on the patio. Awesome!

Yes, they have Naramata Nut Brown on tap!!

It was a really nice stop for lunch even with the few bees that found the patio. Beauty place inside too but our pics didn't turn out so you'll have to trust us on that one. 

We drove back towards Penticton. The trip is a little faster going back without all the stops. We found the turn to a small park on the east bench above the city called Munson Mountain Scenic Lookout. A short hike takes you to the top of the "mountain" (it's a hill really). There is a huge "PENTICTON" sign in white rocks on the hill and the view from up here is spectacular! We walked around on the paths in the park for a bit enjoying the amazing scenery. It is a beautiful place but I'll never live here again. Enjoy visiting though.

The sign heading up to the park.

The white rocks to my right spell the name.

I was standing by the "N"

Nice to own these places!

We left Munson Mt. and headed to the north side of the city and Okanagan Lake Park, just past city hall. They have really nice wide cement paths and plenty of grass right beside the lake. This is where we took the picture of the Pentiction sign. We toured Margaret around the park a little and I told Leslie a few of my old stories about the "good ol days" hanging out at the beach here. I was a little, umm "wild" in my younger days. I think she's heard enough of my stories lol, but it's a nice day for a walk.

Cool wood sculpture along the path.

We thought this might be a nice rig for Leslie's sister!

We have walked around quite a bit today and we're both pretty much done. We drove back to the rig and relaxed before supper and some evening TV. It was good day.

April 1

April Fools!! Leslie is too smart for my pranks so we didn't do anything "foolish" ;)

Leslie wants to play pickleball this morning so we did our usual routine and headed to the rec center for 10:30 start. It's $4.00 for a drop in for two hours and they have six courts to work with. It's all in the gym and there are quite a few players so it's a good time. Leslie only sat out for a couple games in two hours. 

It's close together but it works. 

Action pic! Look at the form.

She's got it....

My leg is feeling not bad so I did a three km run and then came back and watched/cheered her on. They constantly rotate partners so it doesn't get stupid competitive but they have a great time.

We headed back to the rig for showers and then to Safeway for shopping and sandwiches for lunch. Their deli makes a good soup and sandwich lunch. 

I had texted my buddy Mark's daughter, Sam, earlier and we are going to meet up with her and her boyfriend, Dave, at his parents house in town. It's super close to our RV park so it makes it easy to visit. They are working there. Dave is a super talented wood carver. Maybe you remember the Viking carving from our October blog?

It's being raffled off by a club in Alberta.

Sam is also carving now and she's getting pretty good too. Sorry pal ! We didn't get a pic of your owl carving. We visited for a bit and had a beer and then another fellow showed up that Dave is working with to make slabs. Dave got his hands on some really old white oak that a person had to remove from their yard and this fella is going to cut slabs from the sections of tree that they have. They worked a trade deal for slabs if he cuts them. Interesting. Well the saw that he pulled from his truck made me do a double take! His saw has a 54 inch bar on it powered by a massive Husqvarna engine. Very cool!

Ya don't see this everyday.

So Dave and this fella set up a tarp and haul one of the massive pieces of white oak over and use an aluminum ladder to set up for cutting. Ingenious setup that is easily transportable but definitely a young man's rig. My knees and back started aching just watching. Oh yeah. I stood there with my mouth open just watching. How freakin' cool is this ??

Another log to slab out.

Only takes a couple minutes to do a slab.

We watched for a couple slabs and then it was time to go. They're working here and we aren't making things any faster. With hugs and handshakes we said see ya later to Sam & Dave until we meet up later this week. That was a fun visit right there!

If anyone is interested in purchasing a carving or getting a custom piece done we can forward the contact info for Dave & Sam. They do some amazing stuff with wood.

Leslie and I drove back home and she made an awesome turkey chilli for supper. I ate way too much and then relaxed in my chair. C'mon we exercised today :)

April 2

I have an 8:00 am appointment at a tire shop to check alignment on the front of my truck and rotate the front tires. It's super busy at every tire shop in town right now because they are legally able to swap back to summer tires in BC as of April 1. Tons of mountain driving here so winter tires are mandatory from October to April. The shop got my truck in right away and I was out in about an hour. I'm grabbing breakfast at McDonalds on the way home. Leslie's back and hip are a little sore today after all the touring yesterday plus the pickleball maybe. She's not moving as fast today at least. We took Margaret for a walk on the KVR trail for a little ways which helped Leslie loosen up too. Good for all of us. We want to grab a couple grocery items so today we stopped at Save-On Foods, they have a big deli section with all kinds of good stuff for lunch and take out type dinners. It's really good actually. We ate lunch at the store and picked up what we needed plus a couple bottles of wine. It's fairly new here that you can buy wine in a grocery store, unlike the US unfortunately. Super handy to be able to do all that shopping in one place. 

We drove to my sister's house for coffee and a visit for a couple hours and then back home for supper. We bought some tuna steaks to have for supper. They turned out really good! Then just watch TV for the night.

Tuna steaks and a shrimp salad with red wine, nice!

April 3

A bit of a sad start to our day today. This would have been my sister Margie's 59th birthday. She was feeling so good when we left last October that we said we would celebrate her birthday together but as you know that didn't happen. She was way too young to be taken away but cancer doesn't care about that. 

Happy Birthday Margie.... we'll cheers you this afternoon and I'll eat a bunch of cake for you. 

I needed to get outside and Leslie is going to pickleball again so while she played I did a run along the river channel between the 2 lakes. There is a paved path for the entire channel for about 5miles/8km's along the river. It's just what I need this morning.  Unfortunately I only made it a total of 4kms out and back and had to walk some of it. My calf is bugging me and motivation is low this morning.

I watched Leslie play again and she is really enjoying the level of play with this group. She found the right caliber of players amongst the crowd and they are enjoying some good games. I hate standing and watching but whatever, my leg is slowly getting better. 

We drove home for showers and lunch and then to a chiropractor appointment for Leslie. She's feeling good right now but maybe he can help the pain be less later on. Les has been having a rough time with her back for a while now. She says it feels like a rib is out kind at mid spine. Hopefully this fella can help. She got the usual twist and crack treatment with some heated massage and we headed to Save-On again to grab some burgers for supper. Sam & Dave are coming over for supper. We bought some pre-formed bacon cheese burgers and some turkey burgers at their meat counter all fresh prepped that day They look like they will be good.

Sam & Dave got to our place about 5:30 and we enjoyed a couple beers before supper with some great conversation. I grilled the burgers and Leslie got all the salad and fixin's together. It turned out as good as we hoped it would. I also threw on some hot Italian sausages that I picked up at the grocery and both Dave and I added one of those after our burgers. So good!

A Sam between two Daves haha.

Big hugs and handshakes because we may not see them again before we leave. So good seeing these two and hopefully we see them this summer because they are planning a trip to Alberta.

April 4

It's a chore day. We worked together to clean the rig front to back and Leslie got laundry going. I pulled out the air compressor and checked all the tires on the truck and the trailer for our departure Monday. I also gave the black tank a good flush and organized the basement with our stuff except the chairs. My last thing is to clean the barbecue. It's a little greasy after burgers and sausages. Leslie is multi-tasking the laundry and the rest of the organizing/cleaning inside the rig. She even fit in a nice haircut for Margaret.

How nice does she look now??

We relaxed a bit in the afternoon and then we got cleaned up for our dinner plans. Donna & Dennis have been so good about opening up their home and feeding everyone while we are here. We want to say thanks by taking them out for dinner to a Greek restaurant that is well known here in town for great food. I actually went to grade 7 with the owner of the restaurant. His father ran it then and now Nikko is the owner. The restaurant is named "Theo's" which is the start of their last name... Theosadakis, I think that's how it's spelt?? We had reservations for 5:30 and we all rode down in their van, so much easier to park than the dually. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner and some wine. Theo's did not disappoint. Leslie and I shared a Greek platter for two. Everything was fantastic and our server was great as well. Made for a really nice dinner and thank you to Donna & Dennis for all the hospitality at their house.

Theo's has been in this location in Penticton as long as I can remember.

I think it opened in the mid 70's.

Everyone stuffed full !

We drove back to their house and declined their offer to watch hockey with coffee. We're full and tired and I want my sweat pants and my lazy boy. We thanked them again and drove home to relax.

April 5

This will be Leslie's last chance for pickleball here so we got in a good breakfast and headed to the rec center for 10:15. She went to play and I drove to Penticton Plaza for a walk in haircut at Super Cuts. That didn't take long of course and I went back and watched her play for a bit. Home for showers and then to Save-On again for lunch. It's not fancy but it's delicious and we both get what we want. Leslie is trying a second chiropractor appointment at 1:30 and then we are driving to Gallagher Lake to a distillery for some fancy Gin that we like. We drove down there, about 15kms/9miles only to find a sign on the door that they were closed today! That wasn't on the website. Oh well. I decided to drop into a little village on the way back called Kaleden. I have ridden the bike down the KVR trail to Kaleden this week and wanted to show Leslie the park and an old building that used to be a French restaurant back in the 80's. 

Used to be a fancy French restaurant.

This building was never finished, no idea what it was??

We drove down to the park and had a quick look but it was quite windy and cool so we didn't stay out much. We drove back to Wrights Beach and relaxed a bit before supper. We played a couple games of crib and I actually won a game! I thought I would write that in here. It doesn't happen often.

April 6

We started the day with some blog stuff and picture editing and then took Margaret for a walk on the trail. We cleaned up after the walk and Donna & Dennis picked us up in their van to go check out an RV show at the Convention Center. We walked around the show for a bit but it was a little disappointing really. They only had small weekender type rigs inside and the bigger stuff was outside. It was cloudy and really windy so being outside wasn't a great idea. We wandered around inside and Dennis got his shoes cleaned and polished by a guy selling leather products. We stopped at the concession for a hot dog and a Pepsi and had a good look at the power bicycles they had in the main entrance. Didn't buy anything but a hot dog and Pepsi at an RV show.... wow. Leslie likes the power bikes though, they were really nice but have a $2k price tag on them!

We aren't the only ones that like the fancy gin that they sell at Gallagher Lake. Kevin, Lisa and Kerry, D & D's kids like it too. We decided to take the van down to Dubh Glas (pronounced Doug-las) distillery to grab some to take to Alberta. Yes, they sell it at specialty stores in Alberta but we're getting the fresh stuff lol. distillery website link  It's really good and it's a nice treat.

Got it, Noteworthy Gin.

Right next door is a nice little pub that opened last fall. We'll have a quick look and maybe a pint. We pulled into "Ye Olde Welcome Inn Pub" about 200 yards away.

Old building that was very nicely renovated. Dave, the carver,

has some carvings in the large wooden bar inside.

We enjoyed a pint and had a look around inside. Very nicely done on the reno and good beer!

Nice interior too.

We went back to Donna & Dennis's place for a little while and then back to our rig for a light dinner and watch the Edmonton Oilers hockey game. One of their last of the season :(

Apr 7

I'm working on the blog this morning while Leslie goes to Super Store for some travel groceries and tonights supper. Terryn and her son Graydon are coming over for supper tonight after Terryn gets back from Vancouver. She was at her brothers place watching their 2 girls while Bryon & Niki went to a Pink concert with Kevin & Lisa (Donna's son) on Saturday night. 

I finished up a blog post and Leslie did some prep for supper tonight and then we drove over to Donna's for coffee. We got back to the rig in plenty of time to get supper ready before Terryn and Graydon get here. We had enough time for some final travel prep too like putting in the chairs and flushing tanks again. Terryn and Graydon pulled up at about 5 pm. We had a nice visit before dinner and then I grilled some chicken and Leslie made a huge salad for all of us.

Greek salad plus plus !

We sat in the comfy chairs after dinner and chatted for a while but Terryn needs to get home and get some chores done before work tomorrow. She has been out of town for over a week so she has a busy evening ahead. With big hugs and handshakes we said good bye to Terryn and Graydon because tomorrow we leave. We're going to miss her and we're so glad we got to spend some time with her. Love you Terryn!

Tomorrow is a travel day and the end of our time here in Penticton. We've had a ton of fun but we are excited to get back to Alberta also. I checked the weather and it's not supposed to snow for a few days!! Enough with the snow forecasts guys!! C'mon. Not much we can do about the weather and we want to get back to do our taxes plus there is an Alberta government election we both want to be part of so we gotta go! Cheers everybody!