Blogs from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, North America

Monday morning, same routine as the others. All of the kids and I were going to do a lesson. We got outside and were greater by about -7 degrees, no wind and almost blue-bird clear skis. The best day of the season so far. We canned the idea of lessons as it was too nice a day. Thomas went off to his lesson, Tanya was going to practice on the Gondola run through town, and the rest of us headed out to do as much new stuff as possible. We did the Blue runs down the middle of the Ridge Rocket area. Paradise, Exhibition, Perfection. Amazing runs with some big drop offs and then long areas to noon at full tilt. We picked up Thomas in the afternoon and then headed out for more. We had ... read more

Saturday the 22 nd saw everyone up between 700 and 730. I took Tanya, Aimee and Thomas into the hire/ticket shop to all get fitted out. Yes, that's right, all of them including Tanya! Thomas was booked into a morning snow rangers class, Tanya was booked for a Never Ever class and Aimee joined the rest of us on the slopes for a glide. Conditions where moderately foggy on the top third of the mountain so started out on SERWAS which is a lovely long green run that goes for about 3 Kms and has a few patches to test you. The light was flat and combined with the fog, made it a bit challenging. Lunch at Beanos after all the lessons had finished. The Mountian is getting busier. I took the kids out with some ... read more

Day 2 saw me up at 7.15am and Jordan followed shortly after. The Italianos woke at similar times. Breakfast and then Paul took us up to the village for a quick show and tell. Jordan and I headed into the hire and ticket shop and got fitted out with 7 of 8 day ski passes and then headed out with Paul for a couple of hours. We headed into Beanos coffee shop at about 11ish. We had some lunch(sandwiches and they do excellent soup!) and coffee. It got to 12 and it was agreed that the others back home needed to get up and start acclimatizing or they would never. I headed in and woke them and they were able to join us shortly after 12. Tanya, Aimee and Thomas then wandered around the village with ... read more

Kelowna’s great climate, sparkling lake & mountain views offer visitors an array of activities, alongside discovering their numerous wineries & orchards. Our farmhouse was an old ancestral 19th century wooden mansion amidst vast expanse of farm land, and our gracious host Mark & his wife looked after us nicely with tours of his farm & some farm fresh eggs for breakfast. Once known as the mecca for ‘peaches & beaches’, the Okanagan Valley is now being recognized as the destination for the wine tourist. Kelowna offers you miles of sandy beaches hugging the shores of Okanagan Lake, North America’s longest floating bridge & its home to dozens of wineries, ranging in size from cottage-style to large mansion-style. The entire day we spent exploring these wineries, one after the other. After we had enough of wine-tours & ... read more

http://youtu.be/4r8nkcrGtNM If you want to watch 5 minutes of me explaining my trip, here you go!!... read more

Today we started our trip towards and through the Rockies. We set off with Shaun ( Dave's nephew) and Carol his wife in a beautiful Chrysler "people mover". It was like driving in a jumbo jet. Switches open doors automatically, reading lights for all passanges, and TV screens for back passangers, very comfortable. We spent most of the day driving from Vancouver to Kelowna with stops along the way. We visited the site of a moutain side collapse in 1965, but could not see the mountain as it was our first overcast day since arrival. We drove through beautiful scenery of green forests and green and blue water lakes. We then experienced a huge thunder and lightning storm, the likes of which we had not seen since we left SA. We have discovered Tim Hortens, which ... read more

Next day was colder, but still dry. Another delicious FREE breakfast in our log cabin hotel to start. Then off to see the most spectacular sights in the rockies. We left the Bow River behind for the Kicking Horse River, sighting an Osprey's nest in the process. Near Castle Mountain, we alighted from the bus to walk up a ravine to some waterfalls. I struck out on my own to get up to the furthest waterfall in the short time available, whistling to ward off any bears in the vicinity. ( We met some canoeists walking up the path alongside the raging river! They planned to canoe down the river. Over the waterfalls?) Later, we stopped for lunch at a Ski Resort where we found lots of Ground Squirrels, standing erect outside their dens and chorusing ... read more