Yay! So, we're on the road and massively appreciating the wonderfulness of having a car to explore Canada's vast expanse (well, some (a very little bit) of it!).
Wednesday was a pretty long day for us, and the end of a mini era (erette?), as we moved out of our North Van apartment. Now officially homeless, we packed everything up and had left Vancouver by about 3.30 for a long-ish drive to Kelowna.
Kelowna is one of the 3 main towns in the Okanagan - wine country. Mainly we were stopping there because we wanted to break up the journey, but it's very much a destination in it's own right too - in the winter for Big White and Silver Star ski resorts, in the summer for the lake and the wine. Having arrived fairly late we just took a quick drive around in the evening and then headed back to the (rather cool (see pic), if not a little loud) hostel to sleep.
The next morning presented a minor blip in otherwise faultless weather on the trip. I mean, it was freezing cold and raining, which rather put a damper on a town known for it's outdoor pursuits. However, we made our complimentary pancakes and headed out into town regardless. Mostly we found a bear statue and Nessie's cousin.
The bear is a tribute to the town and it's founding in the region. 'Kelowna' is the English translation of the Okanagan First Nations word for grizzly bear - apparently there are a fair few of the around the lake.
Now, introducing the other landmark in Kelowna, 'Ogopogo' (first cousin to Nessie):
To quote the most reliable of sources on such matters, wikipedia says:
Ogopogo or Naitaka (Salish: n'ha-a-itk, "lake demon") is the name given to a cryptid lake monster reported to live in Okanagan Lake, in British Columbia, Canada. Ogopogo has been allegedly seen by First Nations people since the 19th century. The most common description of Ogopogo is a forty- to fifty-foot-long (12 to 15 m) sea serpent. It has supposedly been photographed and even been caught on tape.So there you go. Nessie, but with a cooler name and potentially interesting anthropological interpretations of colonial contact with locals. Mostly it's a plastic statue to play with.
Proponents of the Ogopogo's existence claim that the first documented sightings of the creature date back to around 1872, and occurred as the area was being colonized by European settlers. Perhaps the earliest mention of the Ogopogo was the story of a man in 1860 leading horses that were swimming across the lake near Rattlesnake Island. They were pulled under by some unseen and unknown force later attributed to the then common native myth of the Ogopogo
We got a bit lost at this point, not really knowing what best to do with our day. Kelowna seemed like the kind of town it would be lovely to spent a summer in, but didn't have much for cold, wet days except a sort of bizarre mid-West chic.
By this point I'd decided that all my pictures would look a lot less gloomy and much more atmoshperic if i took them in B&W or sepia (bear with me...). This new photographic streak, along with a real-life paddle steamer) did help capture the town's ambience as a old style seaside town that hadn't gone past it's hey-day yet.
Anywayz, at this point the both the weather gods and perhaps the travel gods (or maybe just the helpful lady at the tourist info) shined upon us and sorted out the rest of the day. Being known for it's wine, we were determined not to leave until we'd done some wine tasting. The helpful travel-lady gave us various good options, as well as pointing out a couple of views we shouldn't miss while we were there. Meanwhile, the sun fought hard to melt the gloomy clouds, and low and behold by the time we'd had a cup of tea (and seen one of my favourite signs yet:)...
... and got up to the winery on the hill, the sun had moreorless come out and begun to transform Kelwona into a rather stunning little spot :)
Ok, so it hadn't quite cleared by this point, but it was getting there, and yes, that is quite as large as it looks.Like I said, the various gods were smiling on us at this point and we got to the winery only to discover that they had some kind of special thing going on whereby their tours were free that day - never quite understood why, but i wasn't about to complain. Of course, the obligatory tasting would follow as well.
Summerhill Pyramid Winery is an interesting place. Mostly they make wine, but they also age their wine in a pyramid which makes their wine especially yummy, or so they say. Something to do with energy channelling and negative-positive space-time. Not sure whether the owner believes this, or whether he's very good at marketing, but in any case, their wine is rather nice, and they do have a pyramid to look at, which is pretty cool.
I'll let you decide for yourself about the 'science' of it all, in fact, i'll quote them; from their very own website:
The pyramid's effectiveness may also be explained using Einstein's concept of Tachyons and Tardyons. Tachyons are particles of invisible energy that move faster than the speed of light (that means it is faster than 186,282 miles per second). Tardyons behave in the opposite way, moving below or at the speed of light. This brings about a theoretical negative space-time. Negative space-time is 180 degrees from positive space-time. In positive space-time living organisms change from life to deterioration. In negative space-time, life moves from deterioration to rejuvenation.It is said that the pyramid serves as the interface between positive and negative space-time. It serves as a bridge between matter and anti-matter and becomes the gate or the instrument through which two realities meet and interact. In a precise chamber with perfect geometry such as a pyramid, a dome, or a true Roman arch, (many of the finest "champagne" houses of Europe age their bottles today in ancient Roman arch cellars actually built by the Romans), the two energies come together at the same rate of speed!
If the pyramid can serve as the meeting place for positive and negative space-time, then it would not only be the oldest, largest, and most mysterious instrument invented by the mind of man, it would also be the most useful. If the ancient builders could put together an instrument in which matter and antimatter could interact, they did indeed have all the energy they could ever need.
Some scholars have speculated that the builders could not have possibly constructed the large pyramids by moving the huge boulders into place by primitive methods, but that they had some means of levitating stone. (Levitation is said to happen in negative space-time). Other studies on pyramids have claimed that the Great Pyramid was used to elevate human consciousness to other levels of existence.
Sorry, I was going to put just a juicy morsel there, but could decide which bit was my favourite and had to quote the whole passage...
Now don't get me wrong, maybe the pyramid does make better wine, but as soon as you start involving tachyons in your explanation, I'm afraid you've lost me on the science argument...
Do have a look at their website, they're interesting people: http://www.summerhill.bc.ca/Story/The-Pyramid
But never mind science, what we all really want is wine. Very nice wine, mmm. I shall never be mean about Canadian wine (or perhaps pyramids) again - it was fairly delicious. We also got to try the fabled 'ice-wine', which i think is only a Canadian thing, at least, I've never come across it before. Ice wine is like port or madeira, but a bit lighter - it's made from grapes that are left to freeze on the vine and only then are harvested. Not sure what difference that makes, but it's a good gimmick. I would really liked to have bought a bottle, but at $110 a go, it might have to wait until i'm rich.
Aside from the wine, the whole place was rather pretty - including some stained glass that I thought I'd record for you, mum, it was rather pretty:
I imagine it was by some local artist - everything there was local and organic and generally wholesome... Anywayz, I thought it was a lovely effect.Suitably lubricated we decided to head onto the look out point that tourist-lady had suggested earlier, which was a stunning end to a good day out.
(We'll not think too hard about the evening. Having headed back to the hostel to watch the big games - the ice hockey championships are on at the moment - we ended up watching nearly 4 hours of crippling defeat of both the generally supported teams in the hostel (Montreal (vs Boston) and the Vancouver Canucks (vs Chicago))... Oops. However, all is forgiven, because the Canucks have made it through to the semi finals and play their first match of that series tonight!).
I leave you with one of the lovely panoramas of Okanagan Lake and Kelowna. I'll try and get the rest of the week up asap. Coming soon: Road Trip #2 - Kelowna to Banff
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