Finally, BC made it to Phase 3 of re-opening, and we were allowed to travel again! Esther, who I met from work, has a place at Walnut Beach Resort and invited us to use it for a marriage maintenance weekend!
My parents offered to watch the kids for all three nights, so we brought them over on Saturday morning. Sherlock went there too, until Adam picked him up later in the day to spend some time as a real city dog in Vancouver.
Our drive up was relatively uneventful. We stopped in Hope because I had to pee of course, and we figured we'd get a bite to eat. We ordered, and waited at A&W for our food for over 25 minutes for our food. The staff were moving like snails, until eventually the manager came out and everyone put their masks back on and got back to work. It took all my strength to be graceful during that wait and not lose patience. The two bacon and egger english muffins were NOT worth that wait! Yeesh.
Anyway, back on the road and off to the Hope-Princeton. As soon as we got to the top of the hill at the start, it got SO FOGGY! It was hard not to panic and feel claustrophobic. I'm very grateful we know those roads so well or it would have been extra stressful. We saw 5 car accidents on our way between home and Princeton, too. Bad weekend for it!
Just past Keremeos and Cawston, we stopped at Vanessa Vineyards for a quick wine tasting. They supplied wine for a work event back in January, so I'd been intending to pay them a visit. Their COVID policies were the best/strictest we saw the whole trip. Our somellier got ready for us and invited us in. They are making their own hand sanitizer using grapes that were tainted with smoke a couple years ago, so we used some of that, and then went to our "table". Our wines were pre-poured for us, to keep distance with the staff. She was newer and wasn't overly abundant in the charisma department, but it was nice to stop and taste anyway, and we did buy a bottle of the viognier. So many wineries charge for tastings now! It's effective and I get it, but I do miss the days of free tastings at most places.
Back on the road to Osoyoos! We got to Osoyoos around 2pm, but our hotel room wouldn't be ready for a couple hours, so we took a drive up to Nk'mip for lunch. The weather was unsettled and we heard thunder rumbling over the mountains, but it never materialized into much more than wind and some sprinkles for us. We got a couple glasses of wine, and shared the bison sandwich. Oh my heavens it was so delicious and we could easily have each crushed our own.
Finally we got the call that our room was ready, so we went to the resort to get settled in. We had a second floor lakeview over the pool deck which was so beautiful! Couldn't have asked for better! We noticed right away that there was a swallow nest on our patio with three little babies in it. All weekend we hung out with the babies, mommy (we named Alice), and the daddy bird. Took us a while to realize there were two adults though. Apparently swallows don't necessarily mate for life, but they do parent for life. Occasionally the female may be impregnated (is that the right word even though they lay eggs??) by a different male, but their partner still helps raise the babies as their own. Cute.
For our first full day, we had a busy morning planned! After breakfast, we walked over to Rattlesnake Canyon for some mini-golf. It had been many years, but it was fun! They have little wheels at the start of some holes to make things more difficult for you. I lost mini-golf, and I largely blame it on that.
These sparkling waters tasted suspiciously like margarita ;)
David so graciously humoured me with all the selfies
Seriously... I got this handicap, and another one where I had to use only my foot to hit the ball. On this hole I was grateful that Dave wasn't allowed to talk or get a stroke penalty. I always seemed to get the harder ones. Another one David got was that he had to complete the entire hole in 10 seconds or get a stroke penalty. It was a fun way to spice it up a little!
After mini-golf Dave wanted to do go-karting. I wasn't quite ready, so we walked across the street to the distillery and tasting room, where we tasted 5 hard liquors. Vodka, Rye, Cinnamon whiskey, and moonshine. Okay, NOW I'm ready to go-kart! I'm a closet competitive person, and enjoyed the friendly competition racing against Dave and a bunch of 12 year olds.
Oh this... *face palm*
You can't really go to Rattlesnake Canyon without also getting ice cream at the windmill. A single scoop for each of us, and we sat and watched another go-kart race. Then it was back to the hotel for more margarita, guacamole and a nap!
For dinner we wanted to do one nice meal out, and we found Convivia Bistro Cuisine in town had great reviews. It's a french restaurant, and very authentic as every employee we came across had a thick french accent. Oh man that food! A french onion soup to start, and then I got chicken breast in florentine sauce, while Dave got the lamb shank. Deeeelicious! We also shared a half-litre of Hester Creek cab-merlot. We consumed a lot of alcohol this weekend and purchased a lot too...
I'd been struggling all weekend to properly relax for some reason. I felt like I had to relax in a certain way. No technology, make the most of this weekend away! Enjoy yourself! I think I put so much pressure on myself to enjoy the weekend that it made it hard so relax. Does that make sense? That evening we went for a walk to the beach and walked down the dock. I sat and stared out at the lake and had a sudden realization of how lucky we are to have had the cabin to go to every summer for our whole lives. It's so private and quiet. I think part of the struggle to relax at the resort is that it was busy and noisy. There was constantly something going on, and my brain couldn't turn off. Once I realized this it got a little easier. Sitting on that dock was the most relaxed I'd been on the trip at that point.
Once Dave was up and at 'em, and we'd both eaten, we set off for an activity that was much more me than go-karting. My influence brought us to wine tasting! A lot of places are reservation only, or closed still, but I had a plan. Since Dave hasn't been wine tasting in that area before, I picked a couple favorites. First was Moon Cursor, which was actually new to me, but it was quite nice! We bought a couple bottles, one we plan to cellar for a while... maybe to open on our 15th anniversary? (Most likely sooner because who has that kind of self-control?).
We hung out in the garden for a bit since Dave still had to drive. had to make sure we were all good to go after trying all 12(?) wines at Silver Sage, some of which were 20%+.
Our final wine stop on Monday was Hester Creek. Their customer service is through the roof right now. As you walk up, they pour you a generous taster of the Character White, and then you go inside to the main tasting room. We tried 5 more wines at no charge. I even tried a $56 bottle of wine at no extra charge (which there normally is). We bought some cheese, baguettes, fig spread, and a glass of merlot and went out to the patio. The Hester Creek patio is like my vision of an ideal day in Osoyoos. That little lunch is the highlight every time for me. This was no exception. So quiet, a beautiful view, and delicious food and wine!
Back to the hotel then to have a beer and another nap. Ahhh naps! So nice. When we got up we went down to the beach with some sneaky-booze in my coffee mug. There's a mommy duck with 7 or 8 babies that hung out on the beach all weekend. SO cute! And docile/used to people. We played some ladder-ball in the garden we didn't know existed beside the hotel and went back to the room to make some BLT wraps for dinner.
After dinner we went for a walk to the Osoyoos Regional park, where we could see the pond we always walk to from the cabin. I got sad thinking about how close we are to the cabin and how we can't go there! Hopefully sooner or later we'll be able to again visit that beautiful place I've taken for granted!
This picture means nothing to most people, but this is looking across the bay. That big house you see is the one right by the pond.
David had been wanting to do a time-lapse of a sunset for a while, so we spent a long time at the beach in the evening (of course with more sneaky drinks) which was super peaceful. The private beach is much quieter than the pool deck.
Once Dave has had a chance to put the time-lapse together I'll post it.
Tuesday morning rolled around and I was up early for yoga and coffee again. We checked out of the hotel at 10, and drove up to a viewpoint on Hwy 3 for a quick photo, and then headed on home!
From what I hear, the kid were great over the weekend, but my parents were tired! They deserve a good rest now! That's a lot to take on suddenly for 3.5 days!
Also sounds like Sherlock and Adam had a fun weekend! Adam gave Sherlock the Vancouver experience. He walked him to work Monday and Tuesday, and Sherlock became quite the celebrity in the office apparently. He IS pretty handsome!! One of Adam's coworkers was having a snack and Sherlock caught the scent. He ran up behind her and through her legs and put his feet on her feet, which caught her off guard haha! It's a common trick we have at home, but I didn't know he'd just do it with anyone he saw who had food! Stinker! He's exhausted now too, and will probably sleep much of the next couple days away.
Settled in at their place just fine!
What a great office dog! <3
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