Alice and I decided to get away for the Labor Day weekend and turn it into a 5-day mini vacation. We flew into Kelowna, British Columbia and stayed at Sparkling Hills Wellness Resort. This was a fabulously relaxing place with a great outlook over Okanagan Lake and full of amenities including indoor and outdoor pools and spa, saunas (rose, steam, salt, freezing room and more), a foot pool / walking trail with alternating hot and cold water sections, restaurant, wine bar, fitness room, serenity room and tea room.
We also managed to get out and do some wine tasting – we had great recommendations from an Aussie waitress (there are a lot of young Australians who work in the area). We visited wineries in Lake Country, West Kelowna, Naramatta and Penticton. These included Quails Gate, Mission Hill, Indigenous, Tantalus, La Frenz and Ex Nihilo. The scenery from many of these was simply spectacular with great views over the lake.
We had tremendous food for every meal including at the bistros operated within a number of the wineries. It seems the food scene is very well developed in the Okanagan area.
Alice was very excited when she heard about Ogopogo – basically it seems the Okanagan equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster and of course we had to get a souvenir.
It was more than a little hard to go back to the realties of work life!