And you thought Bermuda buildings were colourful

Finally another summer vacation! The summer seemed to take forever (not usually a bad thing, I suppose) while waiting to head out on this year’s summer trip to Canada. We planned a similar vacation to last year, just in a different area of the Okanagan, so we knew what to look forward to!

The first few days were spent in Vancouver; Jenn’s sister Wendy kept us busy as always for our few days there! We spend the majority of the first day on Grouse Mountain, which is normally a ski hill. In the summer, they apparently have lots of things happening up there – our favourite was the lumberjack show! The ride up in the giant gondola is pretty cool, too – though Josh, Tim, and I all took the long way and hiked up the mountain on a popular trail dubbed the “Grouse Grind“… which I’m pretty sure filled my exercise quota for the entire year! Josh and his young legs just ate it up, he did great.

Other highlights of our Vancouver leg of the trip included a fun walk to see a bunch of really cool / huge murals in their area of the city, taking in the solar eclipse with a few hundred fellow science nerds outside the Space Center, a few great meals, and a trip to the American Girl store (yay)! Cousin Ruby enjoyed having Josh and Ryley (and her doll, Alexis) around for the few days. Plus, the weather was ideal while we were there (no smoke!), so thanks to Wendy for ordering that in for us. 😉

We flew back to Lake Country near Kelowna to spend the next three or so days at a rental apartment, about a stone’s throw from a few wineries and our little chunk of dirt by the lake. The idea was to gain a little more familiarity with the lay of the land up there, which we did somewhat. We took some time to visit friends Bob & Susy (formerly of Bermuda fame) and Bryn & Amber in Kelowna, while fitting in some shopping (new bike for Josh, school supplies). And of course, we couldn’t be that close to the Lake Club without going for a dip! One thing we didn’t do during these few days was visit any of the nearby wineries, as Jenn was preparing for her upcoming big race!

Room with a view

Which leads us to the next few days of our trip, which took us (in our packed-to-the-roof-with-bikes-and-luggage mini-van) to the super summery city of Penticton! Part of the timing of this year’s trip was to coincide with the ITU Multisport Championships being held there, in which Jenn was participating in the Long Course triathlon. The kids got in on the action, too, doing a kids’ race before the main event – otherwise our time in Penticton was spent mostly hanging out while Jenn prepared for / decompressed from the race. We also were happy to be able to spend some time with my sister and the kids’ cousin Cameron, as well as have a little reunion with my bio Dad and grandparents (hadn’t seen them for years)! Penticton is a really cool city, I hadn’t been there since I was a kid (boo, the waterslides are gone!), we had a good time and enjoyed the nice hot (but not too hot) weather while in town.

Speaking of weather, we hadn’t had a single drop of rain during our trip thus far – which apparently had been the case for most of the province for the last several months! As a result of the hot and dry conditions, there were numerous forest fires burning all over BC. So far, we hadn’t experienced much smoke, just a little haze from time to time. We had heard that prior to our arrival there were days here and there when you could hardly see 100 yards in front of you in areas of Vancouver as well as Kelowna! We did see the start of a fire just east of Kelowna (could see thick smoke coming over a nearby hill) on the day before we left for Penticton, which was the closest we’d get to an actual fire. Apparently this summer had been the worst year for forest fires in recorded history, we caught a bit of a break and had some fairly clear days due to wind shifts etc. Thankfully there was little to no smoke on Jenn’s race day!

Look, I’m pointing over there

It’s a little smoky today

Anyway, our last destination this holiday was just north of Penticton, in Summerland. As is becoming tradition, we met up with Jenn’s folks as well as Tim & Wendy in a rental home on the lake for the week, Jenn’s brother Andrew & gf Sarah were there to hang out as well. Ruby’s birthday just happened to be the day after we arrived, we were happy to celebrate the big 0-4 with her! Besides the birthday party, R&R was mostly the name of the game. We passed the time taking in a winery or 5, went hiking at nearby Giant’s Head mountain (Josh naturally found another “Grind” to take), and of course the lake beckoned to the family swimmers and kayakers.

There were a few smoky days while in Summerland – one day in particular it was a very brown, smoky day (the sun was orange all day!) – but for the most part it was typically just more or less hazy. The clearer days were our more adventurous days so we could get out and enjoy the beautiful valleys and lake vistas all around us; we rented a pontoon boat for a day (I tried and tried to go fast enough to knock uncle Andrew off the tube but we just didn’t have enough juice!), we went zip-lining at Zip Zone (the kids’ first time ever, they had a blast!), and Jenn and I took the kids to Loco Landing in nearby Penticton for an afternoon.

As with our summer holiday last year, we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation in the Okanagan. We’ll certainly be looking to do it again next year!