Penticton with Friends and Family

We've had my family in Canada for two weeks and O'Hara did an amazing job of host for the first week. They arrived after a long journey and thinking they were going to have a chance to rest a bit... but no chance of that. The first three days while I was at work they went hiking, downhill biking at Sun Peaks and canoeing down the river. None of those activities are restful!

Extreme downhill biking and kayaking

For the weekend we went to Penticton for a wine tour and channel float. Another item on the bucket list all checked off. Win! We also visited the farmers markets in Penticton and I had my first PROPER Aussie pie in about 18 months! You probably can't understand how good that was. It has since lead to the discovery that there is a pie truck in Vancouver by a different Australian. The bastards cost $8 a pop there but it's worth it.

MEAT PIES!!!

For our wine tour we toured again with Grape Escapes which was again amazing. We went to Naramata bench and visited 5 wineries and well and truly worked out our credit card. Our wine rack is stocked up for summer which is always good. Hopefully we get more guests to drink it with us!

On Sunday we braved the cloudy skies and floated down the channel. The original plan was to only do a half float, but the water was moving quickly so we decided to go the whole way. This. Was. FUN! We finally got to get out our giant floating Havs, luckily the water wasn't too cold as these bad boys are not really designed to keep you dry. O'Hara was nicknamed Señor Froggy as he wore a sombrero and pulled us around by frog kicking on his thong. It worked a treat!

Finny is a float dog with Señor Froggy 

Floaty float and now a floating eski dog

I love our weekends in Penticton, they're always a blast and it was great to see it in summer.

Birthday Beer Weekend in Penticton

Do you know what the best part about celebrating holidays/birthdays in Canada? Because we are so far behind (time wise) we generally get to celebrate twice. This works particularly well for birthdays, as you technically age the required number of years the day before your actual birth date. I worked it hard over those two days!

So on Friday in Canada, it was my birthday in Australia and my lovely colleagues bought me cake and sung to me. I also got a huge smiley balloon that is still sitting in my office.

So happy. My balloon and I match!

Unfortunately O'Hara had to work the weekend of my birthday (sometimes a 7/7 schedule blows!), but luckily for me Alexis and Hal invited me to Penticton for the weekend for Fest of Ale. They also took me out for brunch, bought me brilliant "birthday princess" attire and Alexis' parents cooked me an awesome BBQ for birthday dinner.

Now you're probably starting to judge me, as this is the third "alcohol tasting" event I've been to in 3 months, but don't. Fest of Ale is a beer tasting festival that is held every year. They include international beers but the majority are from breweries in BC. Tastings were $2 each, but tickets to the event were only $20. I think in the end I paid about the same as a wine festival. Apparently tastings used to be free, but it turned into such right off that they had to start charging.

There was a kilt... and a princess

Fest of Ale was a bunch of fun. I've decided it's much harder to drink beer for 6 hours than wine. I was suffering from a 6pm hangover for sure.

Again lucky me, I got a THIRD birthday celebration last weekend. We had chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I'm just going to let that one sink in... I really am so spoilt!