Dirty Laundry on the Bottleneck Trail

It rained off and on during our week in the Okanagan Valley but we have no problem with a bit of down time.  Howard plays with his cute little magnetized chess set purchased in Port Townsend, practicing strategies from the The Mammoth Book of Chess.  He then tries them out with a game against the computer. 


I go through photos, editing and playing with Picasa, my program of choice.  Their Orton-ish feature allows you to create a painting/postcard effect that works great with landscapes.  We have lots of books downloaded to our Kindles and just finished James Lee Burke’s Light of the World, an edgy thriller set in rural Montana appropriately described by the heading of Good and Evil by a Library of Congress cataloger.


In between showers we went for short drives and hiked along the park’s trails, all the way to the south campground and back.  This involves a distance of 3 miles or so with a lot of up and down.  The sun did come out for the weekend so we decided to check out a few of the wine trails.  Yes, there is Dirty Laundry involved.


The Bottleneck Wine Trail is a peaceful meander off the busy highway near Summerland and offers spectacular scenery overlooking vineyards and orchards high above Lake Okanagan.  The Dirty Laundry Winery is a destination in itself.  Named after a laundry years ago which had a brothel at the back, this theme runs through everything from the laundry pins at the gate to the old laundry equipment in the garden. You even pass a clothes line hung with underwear to get into the shop!  You can bring your own basket of goodies or purchase from the menu on the Terrace patio and admire the gorgeous view.  You can’t go wrong with a sip of Bordello, an exotic swirl of cabernet sauvignon and merlot with a dash of cab franc!








That was the scene at Dirty Laundry!  We ended our day back at Bonitas Winery for an early tapas-style dinner by the lake and near our campground, sharing the very best crab and goat cheese dip on flat bread, Asian-style ribs, and white chocolate cheesecake topped with fresh berry compote for dessert.



For some reason, in our minds, we were leaving on Tuesday.  Not so once I re-checked the reservation receipt.  We must leave on Monday by 11 a.m, which means one less day to see the Myra Canyon Trestles trail or the Naramata Bench wineries near Penticton. There is always next time!  The Okanagan is a fabulous destination, though I will say during a busy holiday week the traffic, especially around Kelowna, was  hectic.  More from along the road…..

The Lands of Fruit and Vines

The towns of Peachland and Summerland invoke scenes of orchards and vineyards, summertime fun, ripe and bountiful produce, wineries, parks and farmers markets… and situated by the shores of Lake Okanagan, framed by mountains often covered in clouds.  There you have the picture exactly as it is!  We are parked for 9 days at Okanagan Lake Provincial Park about equal distance to both towns.  At this time of year reservations would be necessary.

Summerland roadside market

Peaches in Peachland

Apple orchard

Vineyards galore

Sunflowers on a cloudy day

Our drive and border crossing were uneventful and, yes, the insurance cards arrived as promised.  I wish I could say as much for my dealings with Verizon.  As soon as we crossed the border the Verizon Jetpack started beeping data warnings.  I called a number on the message to obtain global assistance and was sadly informed that the previous service rep had misinformed us on the data coverage though the phone and text were as stated.  We are now paying $25 for every 100 MB we use on each device, not the 4 GB we thought we were getting.  I am therefore on a data diet and cannot browse my favorite blogs as often as I would like.

Our site at Okanagan Lake Provincial Park

Lakeside at the park

Sheep grazing

Summerland fun

Lakeside in Peachland

Peachland Museum

Anglican church in Summerland

Since our arrival the weather has been a combination of bright and sunny, cloudy and overcast with intermittent showers and temps in the mid 70s F.  We have barely scratched the surface of this huge approx. 100 mile-long lake and valley, thus far concentrating our outings on Peachland, Summerland, and briefly to Penticton.  We did venture to the Walmart in Westbank for a DVD series (season one of Breaking Bad) to replace our Direct TV  that does not work in Canada.

At Bonitas Winery

Afternoon tapas at Greata Winery

Lavender and vineyards

Day use park in Summerland

The days "catch"...Okra??

I am using Windows Live Writer to save on internet time so will be interesting to see how this appears on the blog.  Today is Wednesday, August 28th.  We depart on Tuesday, September 3.  Though it is currently raining cats and dogs, I’m hoping by later this afternoon we can get outside for more exploring.  Time is running out!

We're hanging out in Coulee City...

....at a cool City Park Campground & Marina near the very large and famous Grand Coulee Dam.  We have a few days before crossing the border into British Columbia and this area provides sightseeing options and a nice place to organize our junk, subject to inspection and close scrutiny by border agents, as well as fairly close proximity for a day's drive to our next destination, Okanagan Lake Provincial Park.  We're pretty excited about this as we haven't visited this area in several years.

Banks Lake created by the Grand Coulee Dam

By the mighty Columbia, up-river from the dam

History lesson

We've gone through our to-do list many times:  yes, I remembered to renew my 10 year old passport in time, we broke the bank buying 4 new tires and 5 new batteries, we remembered not to stock up on wine and liquor, we don't carry guns, and questionable produce will be tossed.  

We've crossed a few borders in our 18 years and our Canadian friends often do this at least twice a year, many going on into Mexico.  We would never consider going to Mexico without checking with our insurance company (GMAC) so how in heaven's name did we forget to call re our trip to Canada; until yesterday, that is!  Our insurance covers both vehicles but our broker informed us we need insurance cards showing Canadian coverage, and no, they can't fax them to us, they must be the original.  No, they cannot FedEx but will send two-day Priority mail to a general delivery address.  So, we are at the mercy of the USPS.  Why do I not feel comfortable with this.

I remembered to call Verizon to see what our calling and data options are and ended up talking to 3 different customer service representatives, each one giving me a different plan and cost. The last person actually started making sense and we settled on the Canada/Mexico coverage for one month which gives us 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 4 GB of shared data between our two devices; the smart phone and Jetpack Mifi.  The 4 gig limit might be a problem but we'll hopefully pick up stray wifi from time to time.  The cost was only $15 more than we pay now for 450 minutes and 1000 texts, plus 7 combined GB of data, which we never use (except when the Garmin map updater goes crazy during the night when you forget to turn the computer off, dummy!). Wow, I say, that is pretty reasonable and then I am informed that my current plan is very outdated and a quick analysis would yield much greater savings.  Why, I asked, didn't Verizon inform me when a cheaper plan became available.  Oh no, we don't do that, our customers prefer not to be bothered.....Seriously!  I am frustrated at this point....

So let's go do fun things and see sights, dammit!  We've been driving alongside the mighty Columbia River and our campground is located at the south end of Banks Lake, created by the Grand Coulee Dam.  Following the lakeshore north we pass lots of day use sites, more campgrounds and state parks with boating, jet-skiing, and fishing in abundance.  We drive through Electric City where there is a great Safeway Market and into the very cute Town of Coulee Dam.  The dam looms large ahead and we pull off at an overlook.  We meet nice folks from Cape Cod who take our picture and tell us about places to visit with names like Provincetown and Falmouth, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  Our non-existent itinerary for going east this fall takes on more potential non-destinations.

Grand Coulee Dam overlook

One of the largest concrete structures in the world!

Great interactive exhibits in the Visitor Center

The visitor's center is very impressive with rooms of interactive exhibits and lots of information. There are dam tours hourly, and laser light shows at night, and a large, grassy day use picnic area.  Grand Coulee is one of the largest concrete structures in the world, and the largest power-producing facility in the US.  It is an impressive work of engineering.

Now, let's hope our insurance cards arrive tomorrow!

Follow us to Canada!