Penticton

Upon returning home from five days in the Okanagan I wondered to myself “why haven’t I visited here before?” My wife and I have traveled to some very interesting wine areas in the world – Sonoma and Napa in California, Champagne and Burgundy earlier this year even – so there really isn’t an excuse why we waited this long to visit the premier wine region in our own country. Making up for lost time, one of the first wineries we visited in the Okanagan was Summerhill Pyramid Winery, just outside of Kelowna.

This visit was as much for the view from their winery over Okanagan Lake and to have lunch at their restaurant. Luckily for us, we had a beautiful day to sit outside on their patio to have our meal.

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For a long time, a bit subconsciously, I’ve focused my travels on places far away. I don’t think I ascribed a particular value to distance, but when planning trips I have had a tendency to think foreign, and with that, usually came a long flight or two. There’s still a lot of the world I want to see, but over the last year plus living in western Canada, I’m realizing that a lot of the world I haven’t yet laid eyes on and want to experience is actually within the borders of my own country.

My wife and I planned and just returned from a relatively short journey to the Okanagan Valley, in British Columbia, two provinces over. We’ve been married four years, and to celebrate our anniversary, we take an annual honeymoon. This one, honeymoon #5, smacked me in the face and reminded me how enormous, varied and downright beautiful and fun Canada is. Lush valleys, mountains, lakes and rivers were the backdrop. Wine tastings, outstanding food, craft beer (for me at least), two animal parks and a couple of days of road trips were the activities. Throughout it all, this trip satisfied the need within me to explore while also comforting me. During an internationally turbulent week politically (aren’t they all these days), it was good to be away, yet still be at home.

I’ll write a lot more about our Okanagan experiences but know I loved every minute of it. The sights, tastes and experiences were new, and in an inexplicable way, familiar too.