Light Up the Vines

I'm a big fan of Christmas light displays. Not the actual assembling of them...I think I've made it clear that I have no talent at all when it comes to putting the Christmas lights up...but I love looking at the houses that go all out to drain their local power grid and ensure that nobody on their block sleeps before midnight. That's probably why the event "Light up the Vines" appealed to me. The concept, at least as I understood it, was that all the wineries along Bottleneck Drive in Summerland (about 20 minutes south of Kelowna), were going to string Christmas lights around their vineyards, and for two nights the public would be welcome to make the rounds among the wineries to see the displays and, of course, to visit the gift shops for some late night wine tasting and Christmas shopping. It sounded like a fun evening out.

The Trek to Layer Cake Mountain

We have something unique to the world here in Kelowna. Other than being the birth place for two of the three MKTS children, an event which the city still hasn't managed to find funds to commemorate, Kelowna is the home of Layer Cake Mountain. This mountain was formed from lava flows a long time ago, but what makes it unique is the even layers in which the lava hardened. Scientists used to think that it was the result of numerous separate lava flows over time, but now the popular theory is that it was just one big lava flow. As for why it hardened in equal layers...well that's a good God question. If you prefer though, and you understand a lot of big words, there's a sort of explanation here.

The Quails' Gate Sugar Plum Fair

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads

That's always the point that throws me. I've never known a single child who fell asleep on Christmas Eve with a vision of a sugar-plum in their head. In fact, I don't even know what a sugar-plum is. I like sugar, but I'm not a big fan of plums. How do you know if combining the two is a good idea? Googling doesn't seem to help, as a search for images of "sugar plum" brings results ranging from dusted up flowers to a picture of a naked man on a couch.

...I'm pausing for a minute while half my readers finish Googling "sugar plum".

Last weekend though, I had the chance to figure out once and for all just what a sugar-plum is. One of our local wineries was hosting a "Sugar Plum Fair", and although I don't spend a lot of time at wineries, this became a must-do event in our day. In fact, we decided that it should be a family outing, although we did give the kids an out. Anyone who could convince me that they already knew what a sugar-plum was, didn't have to come.

How Not to Act Natural at a Bus Stop

It's one of the benefits of living in a town built around a lake. Everywhere you go in Kelowna, there are fantastic views. Even from places like an everyday bus stop.

Hockey - It's Not For Preschool Teachers

A few days ago I was complaining about needing a date with my wife. This weekend we got that chance, and after a quick dinner it was decided that our evening out was going to be spent at a Westside Warriors game. The Warriors are our local Junior A hockey team, one tier level (but two price levels) below the Kelowna Rockets, and with the NHL still in lockout, I saw it as an easy way to get in a little live sporting action without spending a whole lot of money.

The Scary Part of Being An Author

While I enjoy writing this blog for you guys, I kind of have this picture in my mind of one day writing a book. I don't know what the book would be about, as I really only know how to write about our family, and since I cover that here it seems a little redundant, but I think I'd like to see my name in print on a bookstore shelf one day. Of course, I'm not really in to that whole "starving writer" thing. I see myself being more of a Richard Castle type, living a life of fame and glamour, regretting the day I gave Oprah's people my number because now they won't quit calling. "I'm sorry I'm holding up the book club, but I'll finish the book when I get to it!"

Replacing the Twinkies

There's a bit of a hole in my travel world this week with the news that Hostess is shutting down and stopping production of Twinkies. Everywhere we've gone Twinkies have been one of our go-to snacks, filling our need for both golden spongy cake and delicious vanilla cream filling, but since I'm not willing to tap into our emergency stash that we keep hidden in the basement (gotta be ready for the zombie apocalypse you know) I'm now faced with the task of finding another snack that we can take on the road with us. Fortunately one of my friends, probably tired of hearing me whine about the loss of my favorite breakfast food, pointed out to me that there was a snack expo on at the Kelowna rec center this weekend, and suggested that I could probably find a replacement for my beloved Twinkies there.  

Waiting for the Four Points Kelowna

As much as I love living in Kelowna, one of the things that drives me a little nuts is the absence of any of my favorite hotel chains up here. We don't have a Hyatt...we don't have a Hilton...we certainly don't have a Fairmont...it's kind of a veritable wasteland of promotional opportunities when it comes to hotel chains. Fortunately, we're making our first breakthrough soon with the arrival of the new Four Points Kelowna.

BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops

Since we needed a one night stay at the Four Points hotel in Kamloops, we thought that we'd take the opportunity to visit the BC Wildlife Park. Opened in 1966, the idea of the park was to become a tourist attraction that would help turn Kamloops into more than a one night stop for most people. I'm not sure how successful they've been in that goal (we still only spent one night), but what the park has been successful in doing is becoming a wonderful sanctuary for injured and orphaned wildlife. 

There's all sorts of ways that animals end up here. Injured animals are brought here to work with rehab experts in an attempt to get them returned to the wild. Orphaned animals can find themselves here when humans bring them in, although the park stresses that unless you're 100% sure the animal is orphaned, the best plan is usually to leave the animal alone. There are also some captive breeding programs in place here, such as the burrowing owls, who have been bred and released into the wild for over 20 years from the park.

We really enjoyed getting a chance to see animals that, while native to the area we live in, are usually hard to get more than a glimpse of. My girls in particular were thrilled with the variety of animals to see, and they quickly discovered an important lesson about the animals they were observing. The stronger the caging, the more dangerous the animal. For example, this wolf had walls, but nothing too restrictive...

...While the black bears found themselves behind fairly tall steel cages.

The bison were given fairly free range in their area...

...but then again, so was the moose, despite the sign mentioning that when threatened moose have been known to charge people, cars, horses, and locomotives. I'm not going anywhere near an animal who charges a train.

The birds of course were fully caged, although most of them were there because of injury and unable to fly anymore...

...While the strongest cage (thank goodness) belonged to the two Grizzly bears that call the park home.

Surprisingly though, the Grizzlies weren't the most securely guarded animals on display. I'm not sure what he did to deserve such heavy lockdown, but I promise you this little guy wasn't going anywhere.

Of course, some of the animals didn't take a whole lot of securing. Sometimes a comfortable environment is all it takes to keep an animal from wandering, no matter how tight the containment.

We spent about a half day at the park, which was enough time to visit most of the animals. Admission in the summer months was $13.95 per adult and $9.95 per child. If you visit from September - April it's $3 cheaper (Children under 2 are free). There are animal encounters run throughout the day which are included with your admission. The park is over 100 acres, so it may seem a little large for youngsters, but it's very stroller friendly. There is also a miniature train that does a route throughout the park which only costs 50 cents per child and $1 per adult.

Just remember if you ride the train to not upset the moose. That guy's a little crazy when it comes to trains.

Written by Steve Pratt

Four Points Hotel in Kamloops

It's hard to believe, but in all my years of chasing hotel promos and status benefits, I've never found a reason to stay at a Starwood property. You'd figure that a Sheraton or a Westin somewhere would have had a deal that I found irresistible, but it just never happened. Finally, this summer, they came up with something good enough to tempt me into trying their product.

Well, technically they tempted Lori. I don't know if I did something to annoy Starwood or if they just really understand how decisions are made in our house, but while ignoring me they decided to offer Lori a free night in the future if she spent one night at one of their properties. I never got a great offer like that, but I suppose offering it to Lori is just as good. We had the entire summer to pick a Starwood property anywhere in the world for a one night stay. Possibly the easiest promotion we'd ever have to complete.

Fast forward to the last possible minute. Our summer ended up being a little more hectic than usual, so as the final weekend rolled around we decided that we absolutely had to get this stay in and claim our prize. Unfortunately, in Kelowna, we're still seven or eight months away from getting our own Starwood hotel, so the nearest place we could find a qualifying hotel was Kamloops. Not my dream destination, but at least it was only an hour and a half away. The girls decided to join us for a Saturday night journey, and off we went to try out our first Starwood property.

Now as I always do before going to a hotel, I checked out Trip Advisor. There were a few mixed reviews on this hotel, so instead of writing my own description of the room, I'm going to answer some of the Trip Advisor comments for this hotel. Some people are picky (complaining because you didn't get an upgrade isn't a valid complaint), but some issues were raised over and over again. Happily we encountered very few of those, but the most repeated problem still is an issue:

Parking

Parking if you arrive in the day

There's probably plenty of parking here for hotel patrons, but they have a very popular restaurant on site as well (Ric's Grill) and on the Saturday night we stayed, the restaurant patrons kept the lot full until well past midnight. If you're arriving late to the Four Points, you might find yourself searching out some of the street parking that is available behind the hotel.

Parking if you arrive around dinner

Have to Ask for a Remodeled Room

A common theme in the reviews was that you should ask for a remodeled room, as the older rooms were a little sub-par. Fortunately, the interior renovation is now completely finished, and all of the rooms have been remodeled. Quite nicely too I might add. They all have large flat screen TVs, a safe, coffee maker, and a mini-fridge. I don't know what they looked like before, but the new rooms are great.

Poor Views

You're definitely not going to get great views if you're looking out the back of this hotel, but out the front there's a nice view of the Kamloops valley....if your eyesight is good. While this picture looks like a pretty nice view, it's taken with the zoom engaged on my camera. Take the zoom off...

...and the view isn't quite as engaging. If you view your life with 20x zoom, you'll love the views from the front of this hotel.

Bathroom Was Dirty

I saw a couple of complaints that their bathroom was dirty, but ours was absolutely spotless, and blindingly white. I'm sensing that the message about dirty bathrooms has been passed on to the housekeeping staff however, as they even went to the trouble of labeling the room as "clean" for us.

Noisy

We were given the room directly above Ric's Grill, so if anybody was going to have a noisy room it should have been us, but we didn't hear a single noise from below. On the other hand, if we opened our window, the smell of the great food from the patio at the restaurant was totally unfair to people who just had pizza for dinner.

Pool Small / Crowded Fitness Room

OK, the pool is a little small, but most people are only in it for a few minutes then they go to play on the waterslide. If you're looking to swim laps for fitness, this probably isn't the ideal pool for you. As for the crowded fitness room, I guess it's possible that you might have to wait a little bit for a machine. It's hard to argue when there's finely tuned athletes perfecting their technique ahead of you.

Written by Steve Pratt

The Soaring Snowbirds

We were fortunate enough yesterday to have Canada's Snowbirds Demonstration Team do a performance in Kelowna. The Snowbirds are a group of pilots from Canada's Royal Canadian Air Force (yes, we have one) who perform high precision stunts in their planes. Their show consists of steep climbs and dives, near misses, and planes flying within mere inches of each other at high speeds. Kind of like catching a commercial flight into Atlanta at Christmastime.

The Snowbirds always draw huge crowds to see their performance, and yesterday was no exception. Space was at a premium around the lake, but then again it usually is during the summer months in the Okanagan.

Fortunately, crowds aren't much of a problem when it comes to watching aerial shows. The only issue really is how to deal with all that staring into the sky.

My youngest daughter decided to go with the "flat on your back" method...

...While my older daughter resorted to craning her neck...

As usual though, my son found the most comfortable way to watch the show...

He watched the live stream on his iPhone. *Sigh* At least it wasn't Angry Birds.


This post is a part of Travel Photo Thursday over at Budget Travelers Sandbox. If you didn't get here from there, you should really head on over and check out some of the amazing travel pictures that get posted on Thursdays. I'll bet some of them would even look up if nine fighter jets roared over them at supersonic speeds. At least long enough to take a picture.  


Written by Steve Pratt

The Top Five (or Ten) Things I Learned While Camping

Two nights. That was it. In all I spent just over 48 hours at camp last week, barely enough time to fall behind on my chores at home or lose track of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. For my first time at camp though, the learning curve was steep.

See, I'm not much of an outdoorsman. I knew going into this trip that I would be solidly out of my element, but I looked at it as a chance to experience something different...learn something new if you will. In that aspect, I certainly wasn't disappointed. I came home from this trip having learned far more than I ever did in any 48 hour span of sitting in a classroom. I'm just not sure that I have any real-life uses for these lessons, so I'm going to put them down here in the hopes that they might be helpful to some of you. Do with these teachings as you will, but please, remember the sacrifices made to share this knowledge.

(If you're wondering why it says "or Ten" in the title, I learned way too much to fit into one post, so lessons 6-10 are posted on the More Kids Than Suitcases Facebook page. Don't miss valuable tips about brownie eating wildlife, collapsing canoe seats, and the dishwashing shift you want to avoid.)

#5 - There's Cell Service in the Strangest Places.

I was warned that there was no cell service at the camp we would be staying at, but about half way through our first hike of the trip, we came upon a clearing and my phone started beeping from incoming messages. Yes, I'm that guy who has his cell phone along on the hike. I also had my wallet and car keys with me. I told you, I'm not an outdoorsman. A quick bit of shuffling around (thus forcing everybody else to hike off the trail to get around me) led to my finding a place in the middle of nowhere that had five bar cell reception. Of course that exact spot involved straddling a pile of moose droppings, but that seemed like a small price to pay for the ability to check Facebook. I did feel a little bad about holding the hike up while I tweeted out some pictures though.

#4 - Don't Lean Into Corners in a Canoe.

It works everywhere else in life. If you're riding your bike and you want to turn right, you lean right. Same thing with a skateboard, a scooter, or even a jet-ski. Canoes however, seem to have their own set of rules. It would have been nice if somebody had shared these rules with me, although since everybody else seemed to know these rules, I can only assume that they covered them while I was on Facebook in the middle of the wilderness.

#3 - It DOESN'T matter how cold the lake is. It DOES matter how cold the shower is.

I don't really understand this one. The same kids who happily spend hours in a lake that is being fed by water from a glacier, to the point of losing feeling in their extremities, will complain bitterly when they're the last people to the showers in the morning and the bathroom water has dipped below 80°F. Personally, I found the shower temperature to be too hot, but then again I wasn't crazy enough to go swimming in melted snow. I'll confess that the water trampoline did look tempting though. If there'd been a hot tub joining land and the trampoline, I might have given it a go.

#2 - Campfire songs have actions, which apparently everybody knows except me.

I didn't expect to know the songs. I spend as little time as possible around campfires, so being clueless when it came to the lyrics was an expected condition to find myself in. Still, I wasn't expecting to spend my time listening to songs about a moose named Fred who drinks juice in bed (at least it rhymes). Apparently he's pretty clumsy too because he gets a lot of it in his hair. Equally surprising was finding out that there's actions to go along with the juice-spilling activities of said moose. I'm getting the feeling that people who frequent campfires have a lot of spare time on their hands. Time they could be spending making me S'mores.

#1 - If you're tired enough, the comfort level of the bed isn't really important.

I'll be honest...the bed didn't look promising. I got the bottom bunk beside the door, furthest away from the fireplace. When I dropped my bag on the bed for the first time, I was greeted with a "Whack" as opposed to a nice, soft bouncing sound. Mix in the 11 boys who were sharing the cabin with me, and the signs weren't really pointing towards me getting a decent amount of sleep. What I didn't factor in though, was the complete exhaustion that comes from trying to keep up with teenagers for 16 hours a day. In my youth I'm sure I would have played all day and then come back to the cabin and complained about the hardness of the mattress. At my age however, I don't even remember my head hitting the bed, never mind whether or not the mattress was missing a pillow top. As a chaperone this probably wasn't the ideal situation since traffic could flow freely through the door without my supervision, but really as long as the kids sneaking out or the squirrels sneaking in didn't wake me up, I was perfectly fine with it.

Written by Steve Pratt

Crazy Camp Conversations

I'm back! I've officially survived being at camp with 55 Grade 6 kids and I've returned with only a few bruises, a little less ego, and a whole new perspective on what my daughter's day to day life involves. Surprisingly, it's an improved perspective. The complete chaos that I expected from taking that many pre-teens into the wilderness was certainly there, but as a group of kids I was immensely impressed with how funny, supportive, and genuine they all were.

Most of all though, I was blown away by how inclusive they were. I'm grateful that my daughter goes to a school where socializing outside of your normal circle of friends isn't a hard thing to do, and it's a great credit to her classmates that pairing one of the cool kids with a straight A student for an activity was never a cause for any conflict or concern. Pairing my daughter with a boy on a canoe trip however, was a cause for great concern, especially when they insisted on paddling more than 20 yards from shore. I really need to get a better zoom on my camera.

Trying to stay out of Dad's camera range

Now it's all behind us though, and everybody can relax and look back. My daughter will remember the trip as a fantastic time spent with her classmates before they all move to a new, bigger campus next year. The teachers will remember the trip as a chance to say goodbye to their students, many of whom they've known since they started school there several years ago.

And me? I think the proper answer is that I'm going to remember the experience as a chance to watch my daughter interact with her peers in a natural setting. That's what I probably should say, and I'm sure it is something that I really will look back on with great fondness. Truthfully though, the moments I'm going to remember most from camp are a little bit stranger than that. It may have been wonderful to see everybody getting along so well, but I was still in charge of a cabin of Grade 6 boys. The mind works in very mysterious ways, but sometimes you have to wonder if it's working at all...

The Canoe Question:

We had a little bit of bad weather on our second day at camp, and for a little while they had to limit us to indoor activities. Inevitably, a group of boys came up to me and the conversation went like this:
"Can we use the canoes?"
"Nope. It's still raining."
"Why does that matter?"
"Well when it rains, the canoes fill up with water, and eventually they'll sink."
"If we turn them over can we use them?"
It took a lot of willpower to not send them out onto the lake on upside down canoes.

The Release Request:
We were playing a game where the kids would try and sneak across the camp in the dark without being captured in a beam of light from a flashlight that the parents were wielding. One of the boys that I captured in my light pleaded with me not to send him all the way back to the start and made an offer for his freedom:
Boy: "Will you let me go if I can name all the provinces?"
Me: "Sure, I'm a reasonable man. Go ahead and list them."
Boy: "OK, B.C...Alberta...umm...Winnipeg...umm...you know what, never mind. You got me."

Snap, Crackle, Pop:
I'm sure this doesn't come as a secret, but in a cabin full of pre-teen boys, flatulence is the highest form of humor. One morning a particularly long emission came from one of the boys in a top bunk and before the complaints could drown it out a lone voice came forth; "Dude! That's the sound Rice Krispies make when you pour milk on them." Breakfast was ruined for a lot of us that morning.

Head-ing to the Zipline

At one point during the week I found myself as the assigned parent supervisor of the zipline. I assure you that my only qualifications for supervising this apparatus are my age and my ability to follow directions, so when child after child came up to me and asked if it was really important that they wear the helmet, I knew that the required response was "Yes". One child however, had further questions.
"Do we have to wear the helmet to use the zipline?"
"Yes, it's important."
"Why?"
"You're ziplining through a forest. What happens if you hit a tree?"
"I won't. What if I promise not to hit a tree with my head?"
"Oh, well if you promise, that's OK then."
Side note: Grade 6 girls have no appreciation for sarcasm, but have a remarkable ability to squirm past you once they feel permission has been given. Only my death grip on the back of her sweater kept the girl from zipping down the course sans helmet.

I Don't Want to Know
Sometimes only hearing part of the conversation, is WAY to much information. I left the cabin early one morning to beat the rush to the bathrooms. On my return, I walked into the cabin just in time to hear one boy explaining to another "I didn't mean to pee on the floor. I meant to pee on you!". I'm not sure how many years of grown-up experience you need under your belt to have the proper answer to such a comment ready to go, but I assure you I haven't reached that number yet.

This post is a part of Friday Daydreamin at R We There Yet Mom. If you didn't get here from there, you should really go check them out. There's people there who might actually know what to say when walking into the cabin half way through a conversation. I kinda doubt it though.

Written by Steve Pratt

Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos

It had to happen eventually. As our kids have grown up, we've given them more freedom in choosing which adventures they want to go on with us. We discourage them from opting out simply because they're feeling lazy, but as they've gotten older, the demands of schoolwork and extra-curricular activities have increased as well. Sometimes life is just too busy to escape, yet it still came as a shock last week when I announced that we would be spending Saturday night at the Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos and all three kids had good reasons not to come along. That meant that it would just be Lori and I on an overnight trip!

I think I remember how to do this.

It's been a while since I got an overnight date with my wife, but fortunately, anything I didn't remember, the front desk agent was more than willing to explain to me. I've never had such a thorough explanation of how a hotel works as I was treated to at check-in. I guess there's some people who have never stayed in a hotel before, but I like to think that Lori and I present ourselves as at least somewhat seasoned travelers. Apparently not though, as we were treated to explanations of why we had to give a security deposit, how the key to the room worked, and the nearest three locations that we could buy alcohol. We may not seem like we know what we're doing as far as hotels go, but we obviously look like we know our way around a bar.

Once the explanations stopped, we made our way up to the room. The Watermark Beach Resort consists of 1, 2, or 3 bedroom apartment style rentals, complete with a full kitchen. Ours was a basic 1 bedroom with a mountain view, although they did manage to get us into a room with at least a partial view of the lake (and a great view of the grocery store next door). The room was far too large for us as we hadn't brought much stuff considering we were only staying the one night. I did my best to spread out as far as possible on the couch, and Lori made more cups of coffee than any one person could possibly consume in 24 hours, but despite our best efforts, the size of the room was pretty much wasted on us during our short time at the resort. Over the course of a week, I imagine that the room would be about the perfect size.

What really struck me about the room though, is how great it would have been if we had brought the kids with us. All that room to stretch out in would have been perfect for them, but it wasn't the only thing in the resort that had us thinking about the ones we'd left behind. The pool had lots of seating and a medium-sized water slide. Our kids would have loved that. The lake was smaller than ours at home, but it was also a lot less crowded and mere steps from the hotel. Another huge plus for our children. Finally, the very large number of dogs chasing balls and running along the beach would have thrilled my girls, even if I would have personally preferred to see some of the larger breeds leashed.

Partial Lake View from our deck

That's the good. Here comes the bad. The Watermark Resort has possibly the worst internet connection that I've ever tried to use. It was absolutely brutal, and eventually I just gave up and used my cellphone. Not only was the connection slow, but every five minutes it would kick you off and you'd have to restart from scratch, including entering the password again. Fortunately I didn't have too much work that had to get done (or at least not much work that my wife was willing to let me do on a date night) so it wasn't that big a deal, but while the large rooms might scream out for a longer stay, the internet connection would probably prevent me from spending anything longer than a night here. I've tried the whole "unplugged" thing before, and I hated it. I guarantee you my kids wouldn't be fans of it either.

The Watermark Resort has great rooms, a pleasant (and very thorough) staff, and a perfect lakeside location. It just has a terrible internet connection. If that's not a big deal to you, and your goal is to simply relax and enjoy yourself, then you'll probably love the Watermark. If you're the kind of person who absolutely has to have an internet connection, even on date night, then this place probably isn't for you. More importantly though, if you're one of those people who needs the internet on date night, and your wife actually lets you get away with that, then please leave me a few tips in a comment below. I'd love to hear how you get away with that.