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Kelowna is About Wine, Goats and a Pyramid

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My first full day in Kelowna was jam packed with a lot more than wine. I got to spend some time with a few goats and step inside a pyramid for a piano recital among the barrels! After breakfast at the Delta Grand Okanagan , we were me t by Catherine Freschette, Media Relations Manager for Tourism Kelowna. She was our guide and chauffeur for the day. We learned quite a bit, including the fact that this area only gets about 12 inches of rain each year, making it a great vacation destination for those in the wetter areas of Victoria and Vancouver. It was easy to see how this area could attract visitors with the beautiful lake and picturesque mountains, providing skiing in the winter and watersports spring through fall. Kelowna, which means “grizzly bear” (and, yes, there are bears in this area) has five separate wine trails for a total of 25 wineries. We were spending the day on the Lake Trail, but our first stop was not about wine. Carmelis is a dairy owned by a couple who just cam

Canadian Welcome in Kelowna

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It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Canada and I’ve never been to British Columbia , so when I had the chance to spend a week here in conjunction with my Celebrity Cruise , I jumped at the opportunity. I have to admit that since I just returned from Washington and was clearing up work and packing for 17 days I did not spend much time researching my new destination. That has its good and bad points. On the one hand, I was pretty ignorant to the basics (such as the wine varieties and climate), but on the other hand it gave me a clean slate to soak up information everywhere. My flights have never gone smoother. While the South was getting rain soaked and hit by tornadoes, my section of the Midwest was smooth sailing (actually, flying). I left Champaign in the morning, had a quick change in Chicago and though I didn’t get the upgrade I was hoping for, I did have two seats to myself on my American Airlines flight. I met my friend Susan Krowitz in Seattle airport and we caught up f