The Gray Monk Winery and ALMOST losing my wallet

29.07.2008

This morning started out with a breakfast of some delicious cheese from the cheese factory on bagels with roast beef! Ha! You had to be there.

I tried to think about what would be the most "Okanagan" experience today, and decided it would be to bike through the mountains to a winery. Yes? I have two days here, so I could spend all day doing this, and then the next day could be spent doing something else that is very "BC-like". (Fishing and hiking)

The closest winery was 27 km away and KJ said he was up for a bike like that, reluctantly I think. We took his parents' bikes and went up and down some crazy mountain roads. KJ would periodically get off and walk up the hills while I rode beside him in the lowest gear possible. We got there in about two hours, but it was really nice biking and even better scenery. Lake Okanagan is just huge and incredibly crystal clear. I also love the shape of the mountains here, they aren't as craggy looking and uninviting as the Rockies are. Many of them are nicely rolling, with the occasional irregular rock formation, sometimes making them resemble a giant set of child's building blocks.

We finally got to the winery. It was a really beautiful day, not too hot and not too cold. We took the invitable tour of the facilities....Did you know that they throw out their wooden wine casks after making just four batches of red wine? Incredible...haha... Obviously, everyone's just there for the free booze, so after the tour we got to try four different kinds. I liked the Latitude 50 white, and I went to go buy a bottle, but when I looked in my bag, no money! I immediately started freaking out. In case you don't remember, last time I lost my wallet, (in Quebec City) it was a giant ordeal. It didn't ruin my trip, but I lost $200 on the first day I was gone. Well isn't it a coincidence that this is the first day of my trip and I lost my wallet again. I'll have you know my wallet at the moment consists of a ziploc baggie containing a credit card, health card, debit card, ID and cash. (Inspired by Trinette actually) I have to say, it is very convenient for traveling, but not so convenient when you are looking for it at the side of the highway.

So anyway, we cut out visiting the second winery, because I was imagining some hitchhiker living it up on my $2,000 credit limit somewhere in Regina by now. We called up KJ's brother to come and pick us up. KJ had just about had it with biking anyway, and I really wanted to get to the spot where I thought I dropped my wallet too. Kyle was nice enough to come and find us and we stopped at the spot. Nothing was there. When we got back, I ran up to my room, and lo and behold! there was my "wallet" amongst all the other crap that I left on the floor there. I was soooooooo happy, jumping for joy and all that. Now I would have nothing to do for the rest of the day. I was planning out how I would get a new ID and cancel my credit card etc. etc. etc. So this was awesome.

I was so happy, I planned on taking everybody out for dinner. Not just because of that, but KJ and his family had been soooooo hospitable while I'd stayed here, that I wanted to treat them. KJ called his mom and dad and we went to the Blue Heron restaurant on the lake. It was a 30 minute wait for a table on the patio, but we were all starving so we chose to sit inside. KJ owns a pet store with his dad in Vernon, BC so we talked a lot about that. They used to own an A&W among other franchise businesses, but to run this one, required a lot of knowledge and learning about different kinds of pets before they started it. So, that's cool that they just jumped right into something they didn't know much about and now they're making it work.

After dinner, KJ and I went to the drive-in to see Kung Fu Panda and Hell Boy 2...I know I know, boring, but there's really nothing else to do at night in Vernon. On the up side, the Starlight Drive-In boasts the biggest drive-in screen in North America.... I fell asleep during Hell Boy, so that's what that says about that movie, and I thought Kung Fu Panda was pretty cute.

Bottling facilities at Gray Monk Winery