Staycation - Part 2

There's something quite satisfying about going on vacation in a place you know. There's no stress about it, it's generally quite inexpensive, and it's something we do quite often - sometimes by ourselves and sometimes with our friend Javier and his 11 year old son Adrian. With them, in the past little while we've taken day trips to the zoo, to Hope, to the Britannia Mine Museum. This weekend coming up, we're going somewhere else - not knowing the destination is part of the joy of it.

Day 3 of our staycation was spent in one of our favorite occupations - shopping. We took a trip out to New Westminster, to the outlet mall under the Queensborough Bridge. We'd been there once, a few years ago when it first opened, and weren't impressed. This time we had absolutely no trouble spending the whole day shopping and coming home with a table full of bags.

Days 4 to 6 weren't quite so successful. Yes, we ended up (finally) in the beautiful Okanagan, looking out over the beautiful view below - but it was painful to get there. We got about an hour and a half - just in Abbotsford - out of Vancouver and realized there was something wrong with our car. We stopped, called our mechanic in North Vancouver (almost as far as you can get in the Lower Mainland from Abbotsford), who said bring it to us. We turned around, got stuck in half a dozen typical summer traffic jams, and arrived there around noon. They ordered a couple of parts, we went off for a walk and lunch, and at three-thirty were once again on our way. We arrived in the Okanagan twelve hours after we'd left our house. Ouch.

But we had breakfast with my sister and her husband, laughed a lot, wandered the farmer's market in Summerland and then headed to Penticton for a lovely and very late lunch on the waterfront. See below.

The next day we had a late breakfast with my Aunt Janet (who is always delightfully entertaining), drove around the lake to Naramata and walked the beautiful and peaceful outdoor labryinth.

Then we turned around, stopped at the Black Widow winery and bought some wine, and headed home. Eighteen hours of driving, eighteen hours of vacation. Next time we go, I'm flying!

Days 7-10 will follow on Friday.

Kate