McPlassmann Honeymoon

It's been a while since we blogged about our travels, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot to talk about - there has! Internet is quite expensive in Banff, so we just quickly checked emails while we were there and saved all our travel stories for later.

So leaving Vancouver, we picked up the car from Hertz - a virtually brand new Toyota "Matrix" (yes, I am The One) which ran like a charm - no overheating engines for me this time!!!

The drive from Vancouver to Kelowna was about 4hrs - not a bad run and pretty scenic country. A friendly local advised us to stock up on fuel between Hope and Merritt as there was virtually nothing between there and the advice came in handy. Going over the mountains there's not much around. We planned to get a bite to eat for lunch in Merritt and upon turning off we trawled through this backwater ghost town (I swear the tumbleweeds were literally blowing past us in the wind). The town's claim to fame was "Country Music Capital" so you get the idea. It was a sunday so probably explains the ghost town bit, but we hastily beat a retreat - it was everything I would have expected from a horror movie set with zombies coming to attack you.

(We got a bite for lunch at a roadside "stall" called the "Snack Shack" - that was about as good as it got in Merritt).

I found that driving on the opposite side of the road came back to me pretty quickly after driving so much in Europe a couple of years ago - so no dramas there. Strangely enough, speed limits on most of the highways here are 90km/hr - yet *everybody* travels about 20km/hr over.

On the whole Canadians are so much more friendly in general than Americans we have found. The social diversity is also pretty huge - perhaps even more so than in Australia. There is a massive asian population in Vancouver - walking down the main street at night you could almost think you're in little Tokyo.

Anyway back to our roadtrip. We finally arrived in Kelowna and found our boutiquey little accommodation (eventually - it was sorta outside of town a bit, with a spectacular view of the city centre, but not really on any maps). The little area we were staying looked like where all the richer retiree's had set up shop - some huge, huge houses and the RV's (Recreational Vehicles for those who don't speak North American - they're like campervans) they almost rivalled the houses - they are HUGE! Like bus sized. Ridiculous - I think some of them must have had a spa bath and pool inside or something.

Kelowna is a prime wine producing region in Okanagan country, their weather is fairly constant and steady, not much rain and lots of sunshine. I can only gather their weather is regulated by the mountains around them - apparently lots of "well heeled" retirees move to Okanangan because the weather is so good.

After Kelowna it was on to Banff!