Friday, July 06, 2007
Holiday Road
Mission Hill Winery, up the street from where we're staying.I'm on vacation for the next week, so you won't see much around here for a bit. What else is new, eh? Seems like half the blogosphere is on vacation at the moment.
I've been working my nuts off the past month, so I feel I've really earned this holiday. Our clan is headed to the wonderful Okanagan Valley. You foreigners probably aren't familiar with it. Nestled amongst the western foothills of the Rockies, the valley is the heart of the Western Canadian wine and fruit country.
A couple of years ago, we discovered a hidden treasure, an economically priced bed-and-breakfast that offers a pure slice of heaven. For no more than economy hotel prices, we get the whole lower level of a split-level (i.e. valley built) house, complete with our own fully stocked kitchen, a private deck, barbecue and - get this - private hot tub. The grape-vine entwined deck looks out over Lake Okanagan and catches the moonlight perfectly at night. Many of Canada's most famous vinyards are literally down (or up) the street. Fruit hangs heavy off of every tree, which is always a sight of wonder for prairie dwellers like us.
I dream about returning to this place every minute I'm away from it. I may retire there.
Of course, getting there is an ordeal. No pain no gain as the cliche goes. A 16 hour haul, much of it over mountains. Kids can say "are we there yet?" a lot of times in 16 hours.
Fortunately, this year I have a new defence against the driving doldrums: a ton of new music. Thanks to all my MP3 blog friends, I now have dozens of hours worth of tunes to while away the miles, as compared to the dozen or so overplayed CDs we typically took on past trips.
So, Rachel, Fil, Tim, Colin, JC, Marcy, Liz, Cindy ... I'm going to be thinking of you all very fondly over the next couple of days. Thanks for sharing your superb tastes in music with the world.
I'll see you all in about a week. When I get back, we'll have serious business to discuss: it's about time for me to re-invent the blog again. Any suggestions or requests?
The Cure - Mint Car
(But I can assure you our mini-van will not smell mint-like after a 16 hour drive ;-)
posted by Mentok @ 9:58 a.m.,
4 Comments:
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At 11:23 a.m.,
Library Mama said...
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Good thing you have all those tunes so you don't have to talk to that boring old wife of yours.
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At 3:42 p.m.,
said...
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you are a brave pair, venturing out for a 16-hour road trip. this place must be really special. : ) enjoy, and see you when you return.
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At 8:57 p.m.,
cchang said...
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Safe travels and may the car fairies be with you.... Gosh, the bed and breakfast place really does sound like a slice of heaven. I have to agree with Marcy, you two are brave parents! With the size of my bladder, it would have driven my parents bezerk needing to stop at least 16 times. :Pfar
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At 5:41 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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librarymama - yes, good thing, eh? My tunes served much the same purpose as those books-on-cd you brought along, right? ;-)
marcy - 16 hrs through mountains! For dyed-in-the-wool flat-land people, that takes extra bravery. But yes its a very special place and well worth it.
cindy - the car fairies did indeed guard us, except for the air conditioning that decided to blow out on a 40 degree centigrade day.
And now that you mention it, I'm amazed how few bladder breaks we had to take. We've trained our kids to be such good travellers that we heard nary a peep on the subject all the way.
