#19 Back in the US, in the US, in the US of A
Driving, driving and finally arriving, we ended our road trip with a beautiful evening and dinner on the Columbia River just over the boarder between Washington and Oregon. Tomorrow - home.
Columbia River
#18 Walkabout - Vancouver style
We decided to see what we could see on foot. So, on a beautiful, clear morning we headed out to the Granville Public Market on Granville Island. Well, we at least walked to the ferry landing where for a few bucks, you are taken there. What an amazing shopping area. It's like a huge Farmer's Market and then some. After that we walked to China Town and then back to our hotel with the intention of getting over to Stanley Park. But after almost 6 hours of walking we decided to have our own little spa day in our hotel room. Rested up, we again walked to China Town and had our last meal in Vancouver at Bao-Bei, a Chinese Brassiere. What a treat! Tomorrow we start back to real life. Living in this travel fantasy-land has been fun, but tomorrow, the "horse is headed for the barn."
#17 I can see clearly now
We woke up to clear, blue skies in Kelowna. The drive to Vancouver was beautiful with good visibility the whole way. We finished up our audiobook, Canada by Mike Myers, just as we got to the outskirts of the city. The book really added to our knowledge of Canada and Mike Myers was an excellent story teller. His comedic style gave us some really good laughs, too. After checking into our hotel we walked the waterfront, enjoying the balmy evening with a raft of international tourists and locals.
Click for more pictures >#16a Later that night (Kelowna style)
With the smoke starting to clear a little, we decided to take a long walk along the public waterfront boardwalk and join the throngs of people enjoying the evening outside. There were bands playing, kids having a ball, a large dog obedience school making their dogs heel and best of all, a large concrete space for roller skating with a DJ playing the music and giving out prizes for best whatever.
Click for more pictures >#16 Kelowna - it's smokin'
Kelowna, BC is the 'capital' of the wine country in the Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan Lake is gigantic with communities surrounding it on the hills. I'm sure we would be exclaiming of it's beauty if only we could see it. We're told that the smoke is coming from CA, OR and WA, but there are fires here in BC also. There are over 300 wineries in the region and some are architecturally stunning. Most have full restaurants with views overlooking the lake. We toured a few and had lunch at The Gray Monk Winery - really good. The picture above was taken at The Mission Hills Winery with lots of impressive outdoor art.
Click for more pictures >