Tag Archives: tourist

The wine tour

For quite a few years now, my wife and I have holidayed in Kelowna during our summer break. What has usually happened is that our daughters come and join us for part of the trip, but as it turns out, usually at different times. This year their visit overlapped and I had a special request. I wanted to do a wine tour with them… where I wasn’t the designated driver.

So this morning 5 of us, my wife and I, our two daughters, and one of my daughter’s best friends, walked up to the front entrance of our campground and met a tour van to take us on a full day wine tour.

Six other people joined us: Four from London, Ontario, and two from London, England. It only took one winery to loosen up and then we became one big group on the bus. By the end of the day our 3 parties were sad to have to part ways.

Overall, the day went as I had hoped. I enjoyed my time with my family and new friends. I could fully enjoy the tasting without worrying about transportation. And it was a delight to have this experience with my wife and kids.

I’ve said this before, but it is special to me that my grown kids still enjoy spending time with my wife and I. I really believe that life is about creating special experiences. I don’t need more stuff, but I want more opportunities to spend time with people that I love and care for… and this wine tour is a perfect example of this.

Strangers in a familiar land

My wife’s cousin and her husband are visiting from England. They did a bus tour book-ended with family visits. Listening to their itinerary made me realize just how little of BC I’ve actually seen. I’ve now lived in this province for over 30 years and many tourists have seen more of it than me.

I spend so much time thinking about all the countries I want to visit, in order to explore more of the world… and yet I’m a stranger to where I live.

Graffiti everywhere

In both Barcelona and Madrid there are no pull-down security shutters or blank walls that don’t adorn some graffiti. While a lot of it is just tags and initials, there are also some cute characters as well.

I find myself walking down old neighbourhoods covered in graffiti that would make me nervous to walk down in Vancouver, but that are just a natural part of any neighbourhood here. There is no connection between graffiti and bad areas to walk here, the street art is part of every community.

It’s Christmas Day and we are walking down a crowded outdoor Sunday market in Madrid. I’m surprised to so many people out and about here, tourists and locals alike.

When we reached the bottom of a long hill we took a small detour along a typical side street and in a matter of 5 minutes I took the following photos: