The November Epic: Prologue

Okay, I'm cheating a bit.

  

This nearly month-long trip is beginning with a short spell in British Columbia. I'm writing this in Kelowna, a sizable city in the Okanagan Valley of south-central B.C.

 

The trip here began, as so often, with a train ride up to Toronto, a connecting UP Express train to Toronto Pearson airport, and a night in an airport hotel. My favourite, when I can get it at a reasonable rate, is the Toronto Airport Hilton -- and here's the biggest reason why.

 

Not only is it a good big pool where you can swim serious laps, but in warmer weather the roof slides back halfway and the sliding glass doors open -- and it becomes effectively outdoor. There are also lounge chairs in the garden courtyard outside. 

The next morning, I was on a flight to Calgary at ten o'clock, and arrived in Calgary four hours later and 20 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) colder. Colder, windier, and snowing heartily. As Queen Victoria was famously (and incorrectly) alleged to have said, "We are not amused."

Another fifty minutes in the air, though, brought me down into the valley airport at Kelowna, and there the weather was much kinder altogether. 

So was the management of the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. Once again my loyalty paid off. Even though I was staying on reward points, I got upgraded from a basic king room to a suite in the "vacation homes" wing. They're not kidding. This two-room suite has ample closet space for a family, with a king bed and sofabed, and a fully equipped kitchen, complete with all cookware, dishes, and utensils.

 

And then there's the view.

 

This resort is in downtown Kelowna, and sits right by the park on the shores of Lake Okanagan. Not just a little postage-stamp balcony, the suite has a sizable outdoor terrace with a couple of chairs, to enjoy the surroundings. In this picture, the tower is part of the Grand Okanagan. The building on the left with the octagonal tower is actually a completely separate hotel in the same complex, the Royal Kelowna by Bellstar Hotels.

 

I had a room at the top floor of the Grand Okanagan's other (south) tower the last time I stayed here, a year ago. Here's the view a year ago from that tower room.

Returning to my current suite, though, I'm very glad I looked out the window again an hour later, as the colour of the sunset really highlighted the view.

On Thursday, the weather was cooler and cloudier, but I still got in two good walks on all the intertwining pathways in the park between the hotel and the lake. Even though autumn is well and truly here, and winter is on the way, there were still plenty of splashes of colour, including a number of flowers which had not yet died in spite of the frost the previous night.

A small artificial hill in the park holds a pipe-fed pool at the top. This drains through a couple of chains of artificial waterfalls down to the lagoon in the centre of the park -- which in turn has small outlets through a boat lock or under a bridge to Lake Okanagan. 

Another intriguing sight along the way was this tree stump, about a metre across and just recently sawn off. I could picture a couple of craftspeople I know making some very interesting furniture or ornamental work out of slabs of wood cut from this tree.

 

This morning, things looked somewhat different. Colder air moved in during the night, with predictable but (to me) lamentable results. Although it does look rather pretty.

 

 

And finally, the reason I have chosen to come to Kelowna at the beginning of November. These two screen shots from the Ballet Kelowna Facebook page show my nephew, Robert, at work in the studio, and a dress rehearsal picture of his newest major ballet work, In the Light of the Waking Sun. This new ballet receives its world premiere tonight from the artists of Ballet Kelowna. The proud uncle will be there!

 

 

And with that, what comes next on my travels? What is the actual main event of this November Epic? Enquiring minds want to know! So here's the situation, in map form. I've flown from Toronto to Calgary, and connected on to Kelowna. Tomorrow, I am flying from Kelowna to Vancouver -- and then? The next connection is to the true starting point of my November Epic. Guesses are welcome, but not from people who already know the answer. All will be revealed in the next post. Stay tuned!

 

 

Base map attribution:  https://freevectormaps.com/canada/CA-EPS-01-0004?ref=atr