What a week!

Hello Hello Hello.

I finally have something exciting to blog about. It has been a few days since Sarah and I got back from a fabulous trip to the Okanagan Valley, but now I finally have time to post.

We left Sunday morning and drove to Osoyoos, which is at the southern tip of the Okanagan Valley. A pit stop to use the washrooms at Manning Park was made special by meeting Manny the Prairie Dog (Sarah named him after the park) and his friends.

We stayed at the Nk'Mip (in-ka-meep) Spirit Ridge Resort and Vineyard. It was by far the nicest place to stay in all of the Okanagan Valley. We had a one bedroom suite with a full kitchen and balcony, on the third floor overlooking the vineyard and Lake Osoyoos. The suite was great, and it was nice to have a homey feeling place to stay rather than some sterile hotel room.

On Monday we slept in later than planned, but since we were on vacation it was no problem. We drove north from Osoyoos and visited some wineries near Summerland, Okanagan Falls, and Oliver. By far our favorite was the Dirty Laundry Vineyard. They had great wine and a gorgeous winery tucked away in the hills outside of Summerland. We had a pleasant surprise of stumbling upon the Summerland Sweets Orchard, where they make some of the best jams and fruit syrups in the world. The real treat was finding out they also have a fruit winery known as Sleeping Giant (named after a local mountain peak).

On Tuesday we made the long trek north to see the Gray Monk Estate Winery. Sarah and I have always enjoyed Gray Monk wines, so they were a must see destination for us. The trip took longer than planned due to the slow traffic through Kelowna. So we skipped some vineyards on our list. We made sure to see a few of the vineyards that Sarah's colleague Craig recommended. The "must see" on Craig's list (ha ha) was definitely worth seeing. Rollingdale Winery was a simple winery housed in a Quonset hut with a dirt road for a driveway. By far the lowest scale of production we had seen. But they had the most amazing organic wines that they generously shared with us. It was also one of the least busy tasting rooms we visited so the tasting with the host was very personal. They were one of the most expensive places we saw, but totally worth the cost per bottle. We will surely be back the next time we tour the Okanagan.

On our way back south we stopped for dinner at The Gasthaus On The Lake in Peachland. It was a very authentic German restaurant that is right on the waterfront. The food was awesome. I highly recommend the pretzel for an appy with a mug of their house lager.

Due to our oversleeping and the long drive north and back, which was full of non-stop spectacular views, we had to fore go visiting some of the wineries we had planned on seeing. But that is fine because we will surely be returning next year.