Before the wet stuff cometh

As the spousal unit and I had to work during the Canadian Thanksgiving, we took Friday off in lieu and spent a long relaxing weekend in Kelowna, in the Okanagan Valley, South Central British Columbia. Although fairly close to home we hadn't been here in years.

We drove the slow route along Crowsnest Highway, and enjoyed the sunshine, with temperatures in the high teens (>60F) we wouldn't have to worry about the 'carry chains beyond this point' signs just yet.

Hope Slide, the largest ever recorded landslide in Canada

 Somewhere past Princeton

 Changing colours

 Thompson-Okanagan Valley

We had booked ourselves a roomy suite in a nice waterfront resort overlooking the Okanagan Lake. At the Bonfire restaurant we enjoyed salad and lasagne with a great local wine (a Quails' Gate Chasselas). Sorry, no food porn, too hungry...

A room with a view: Sunrise at the lake

The Okanagan is famous for its orchards and vineyards, and offers year round outdoor activities. Lazy as we are we didn't come for the latter, but we surely did get our taste of various wines, and good food.

 Excellent breakfast at the Bohemian Cafe

The chef's special: Cinnamon Crepes filled with pineapple and organic maple syrup yogurt. fresh fuit, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and a London Fog (breakfast tea with foamed milk).

 Reflections

 Kettle River

 

We strolled around in the Kettle River Provincial Park, following an old railway track which was converted to a hiking/cycling path.

 Nobody around to do it for us, so we had to do it ourselves...

 

Fall colours galore. Mostly yellowish, still... it makes a nice contrast against the blue skies.

At one of the countless fruit stands in the area we discovered pumpkins and squash in various sizes, shapes and colours, and multi-coloured corn.

The culinary highlight of our little sojourn was the Indian Nepalese Restaurant Everest in West Kelowna, located in a low-key building, equipped with sparse interior. The food however was delicious.

I picked a Vegetarian three-piece-dinner with Mutter Paneer, Aloo Gobi and Eggplant Bharta, while hubby went with butter chicken, lamb curry and chicken tandoori.

Sunday morning we checked out at 8AM and made it home by lunch-time. Note to self: We need to do this more often while the weather plays along.