Monday, 24 June 2024

Day 13 West Kelowna

 We are continuing on our journey back to Vancouver today.

We started with the included breakfast at the hotel, before packing our bags and checking out. We did pop in to the Liquor store attached to the hotel and grabbed a bottle of Canadian red wine to hopefully enjoy this evening.  Next stop was in town at a supermarket to grab some pain killers as Keith appears to have picked up a cold and thought they might help.

As we had enjoyed the alpine coaster so much yesterday we thought we'd treat ourselves to another go! We retraced our steps and with tickets purchased, we were soon boarding the gondolas again.  At the top I decided to re-ride the track I did yesterday while Keith chose the other track.  Brilliant, could have kept riding but they weren't cheap and we needed to get on the road.

Dirty screens on the gondolas not rain!

View from the top of the coaster

Views from the car park!

We headed back to the main road and put the audio guide on again. We weren't going the whole route with it this time as we were going to a different town fir the night but it was interesting to listen to the stories until we turned off.  The small town where we turned the audio off was called Sicamous, the audio suggested trying the local ice cream shop which sounded like a nice treat.  60 flavours to choose from, Keith had salted caramel and I had butter pecan, both yummy.  We sat outside in the sunshine, it looks like it was a local dairy farm and they had a shed open to go and see some of their baby cows.

Back in the car and we set of south first towards Vernon.   The scenery had changed a lot since we left Revelstoke and rather than mountains we were traveling through valleys between hills, there were lots of farms and small holdings.  The road took us past a number of large lakes with lovely homes along the edges and up high in the hills. Mthere were also a lot of  people out in boats enjoying the lovely summer day. Temperature today was around 22 degrees. We stopped a couple of times at the lakes and eventually made it to Vernon which is a reasonably sized town although they classed it as a city! 




We drove through the city and at the far end followed signs to a picnic area.  We found ourselves at a little beach on Kalamalka Lake. We ate some bakery items we had purchased from the ice cream shop while we watched people on the beach and small boat pier and even some in the water.

The area around here appears to be well known for its large, beautiful lakes and it was easy to see why. 


We got to Kelowna just before 3.30. This is easily the largest place we have seen since leaving Vancouver, and the main road through was quite busy.  Our next AirBnB was high up on the far side of town at up a steep hill.  It was quite well hidden and we missed it first time round but eventually found it up a very narrow, very steep lane.  As we parked up the owner was just coming out and gave us a lovely greeting and showed us the apartment and where the hot tub etc were.  What a stunning view! Out across the lake and looking towards Kelowna itself. Just gorgeous. The apartment is lovely too with the same views from all the windows.




We made a cup of tea and sat out on the patio.  We booked a table at our new favourite, Earls, which was on the waters edge exactly opposite our patio. 

We parked in the local waterside park and walked across to the restaurant.  It was quite busy and noisy at the bar area, but we soon realised it was the final of the ice hockey big game, the Stanley Cup.  Our table was next to the window looking out over the lake, just stunning. We had our usual chicken wings to start,ntgrn Keith had the ribs and chicken and I had steak with crispy prawn sushi. This looked as good as it tasted! 



Back at the apartment we were keen to make use of the jacuzzi, it just had to be done! We sat soaking in the bubbles watching as the sun went down behind the hill we were on casting shadows across the town.  We had a glass of the red wine we'd got this morning and just relaxed. Just idyllic.

What a wonderful way to while away the evening.


Keith's step count today 6800. 

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