Out to the Mountains and Back # 1: The Beauty of Life in Kelowna

It's a natural fit. I've loved being around and near mountains for as long as I can remember. Kelowna is a modern city, surrounded by mountains, on the shores of Lake Okanagan in southern British Columbia. When my nephew, Robert Stephen, tells me he's got another commission to create a new work for Ballet Kelowna, that gives me all the reason I need to pack my bags. I had no part at all in making Robert the wonderful artist he is. I'm just extravagantly proud of him, and go to see any of his work whenever I can manage it. Call me a "Robert Stephen groupie."

 

So this trip began with an overnight stay in a hotel at Toronto airport, followed by a morning flight to Calgary and an early afternoon connection to Kelowna. On the main flight to Calgary, I had put in a request for upgrade using my credits, not with much hope, but at boarding time I got the upgrade to the last available seat in the Premium Economy cabin. On Air Canada, this means that the flight is being operated by a wide bodied aircraft, normally dedicated to overseas service. The Business Class cabin has individual pods with lie-flat seats that turn into beds. Premium Economy is not unlike the Business Class on a narrow-bodied aircraft: wider seats (seven across instead of nine), much better legroom, with the same or similar meal offering as Business Class, and free alcoholic beverages. 

That certainly made the flight much easier! The breakfast and coffee were delicious. And then, I walked off the plane in Calgary and my connecting flight was at the gate directly across the hall -- barely fifty steps' walking. Was I getting the breaks that day, or what? The 1-hour flight to Kelowna was on a commuter turboprop with 72 seats, so there was only a simplified beverage service, but that was fine.

I was soon checked into my go-to hotel in Kelowna, the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. It has a splendid view over the waterfront park to the waters of the lake, especially so when you get an upgrade to a higher floor with the view. The view to the south from my room takes in the huge marina and waterfront promenade. You can also see the outdoor portion of the hotel's pool, the hot tub, and the covered outdoor pool which will be opened and surrounded with lounge chairs  when the warmer weather comes.

 

 

To the east, you see more mountains with snow.

 

The view to the southwest gives a clear sight of the bridge across the narrows of Lake Okanagan. This vital link not only continues the highway southbound down the valley to Penticton and on to the U.S.border, but also leads to the freeway which runs west through the mountains to the Coquihalla Highway, the main route of the Trans Canada Highway towards Vancouver.

The resort has a lovely indoor-outdoor pool, plus a sizable outdoor-only pool which will open in warmer weather. There are indoor and outdoor hot tubs, although the indoor one was out of order. I'm not surprised. So many hotels are pulling the things out altogether. They're a royal pain in the you-know-where to keep running because people keep dumping drinks and food into them, "by accident" of course, and clogging the jet pumps. Nor does it help when people decide to bring the shampoo and wash their flipping hair in the hot tub! Yes, it happens.

 

As soon as you step out the door of the hotel, you see this view across the lagoon towards the mountains on the far shore of Lake Okanagan.

 

 

The hotel also looks impressive when looking backwards from across the lagoon in the park.

 

 

I did a lot of walking in that park, and along the waterfront walking path as a whole. Yes, the weather was a bit chilly, but with hardly any wind, the outdoor walking was a delight. Here are a few pictures of the outdoor park area north of the hotel. 

 

On top of a small hill in the park is this artificial spring, which feeds two small streams tumbling downhill over rocky beds into the lagoon. 

 

 

 

A panorama of the lake and mountains from the slopes of that small hill. 

The trees show fascinating sculptural silhouettes in winter when stripped of vegetation.

 

 

What looks like clear, calm water at a first glance proves to be a very thin skin of new ice with an equally thin layer of liquid water lying on top of it. The true open water is riffled by the breeze.

At noon on my first full day, I walked north a bit from the resort, and at the first bend in the road found this impressive and evocative sculpture.

 

In another couple of blocks, I came to the Train Station Pub. I ate there twice, and highly recommend it as both meals were fantastic. So was the service. Here's the exterior of the old station.

Here's a better view of the delightful statue of an old-school train conductor standing on the corner outside the pub.

 

 The interior of the pub shows a thoughtful mix of the old and the new.

In the area south of the resort, there are some further striking public art sculpture installations.

 

 

One of them actually appears as a location on Google Maps. "Ogopogo" is the name of the mysterious water beast which lives in the lake. Ogopogo is quite likely a first cousin of the Loch Ness Monster, and like Nessie is lengthy, serpentine in form, and shy to the point of being reclusive. The map label, "Ogopogo Statue", sounds impressive, but the result is better described as whimsical and user friendly.  Parents are always coming to perch their little ones on Ogopogo's back or head for pictures.

 

There's also a sizable outdoor skating rink, and a sunny weekend day like this with the high temperature just below freezing was perfect for skating. 

Just inland from the promenade lies the Kelowna Community Theatre, and here it is from the outside, with the advertising sign for the ballet's production plainly visible on the right. 

Here's a picture from Ballet Kelowna's social media of the cast after the performance of Robert's new work, Mustard, inspired by the play of the same name by Kat Sandler. Robert is standing second from left in the back row. The entire show was fantastic, both Mustard and the other premiere, Delicate Fire, by the company's Artistic Director, Simone Orlando.

Ballet Kelowna photo.

 

The afternoon after the final performance, I flew down to Vancouver. The takeoff from Kelowna's airport showed both an intriguing cloud pattern in the sky and a clear and detailed view of the city centre on the shore of the lake.  

 

 

I spent a relaxing night at the Westin Wall Centre hotel near the airport, another location I recommend highly. A top floor room gave a spectacular view over the industrial district near the airport to the majestic mountains on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, including the two angular peaks of the Lions of Vancouver.

 

The next day, I rode the hotel's free shuttle back to the airport and then took the Skytrain downtown, changing trains at the Waterfront station to get out to the Main Street station. From there, it was a short one-block walk to the Pacific Central Station on Terminal Avenue, the point of departure for my trip home.

 

Desperately Seeking Sunshine # 2: A Floating Arts Centre

Due to unexpected technical difficulties, I was unable to carry on blogging while I was on the ship. I landed at Fort Lauderdale yesterday and am now back in Canada, so the blogging begins now and will continue until I’m all caught up.

 

Since this was my first-ever cruise on Holland America Line, I think a detailed look around the ship would certainly be in order. As I’d previously mentioned, the M.S. Nieuw Statendam is one of three ships in the Pinnacle Class, the largest ships of the Holland America fleet, shown here at dockside in Nassau.

 

With 12 passenger decks, Nieuw Statendam can carry over 2600 passengers. I know this may sound like a lot of humanity, and it is, but in cruise ship terms this is a mid-size ship. Unusual technical note: this ship uses diesel generators to produce electricity, which is fed to two 19,000 hp electrical motors that drive the propulsion system. One significant result is that there’s less ongoing engine vibration at the stern compared to traditional diesel engine propulsion. The ship entered service in 2018.

 

Enough technical stuff. What did I mean by calling this ship a “floating arts centre?” 

 

Commissioning works of art from contemporary artists is a long-standing tradition at Holland America. Their ships have for decades exhibited the work of multiple artists and designers. With this vessel, the trend goes to extraordinary lengths. No matter how much I walked around the different decks, I never caught the same piece appearing twice in different locations. With that, here’s a gallery of just some of my favourites, from the sculptures in the elevator lobbies…

 

 

 ...to pictures on stair landings…

 

 

…and from tall, narrow pieces placed at the zig-zag bends in the corridors…

 

 

…to the biggest single piece, the extraordinary stainless-steel sculptural creation which takes up most of the atrium and, ironically, prevents it from feeling to me like an atrium at all. 

 

 

A key centre of daily life is the Dining Room (that's actually it's proper name), with huge panoramic windows over the stern. The room's whole look gives a nod to the elegant two-deck design used on so many of the old classic ocean liners before the jet age. Sadly, the staircase in this room didn’t get used for people to make grand entrances as in the olden days, since the upper level was reserved for diners using the same table at the same time with the same table-mates throughout the cruise, while the larger lower level was for those who wished to treat it like a normal restaurant and “come when you wish.” 

 

 

Note: there were very few tables for two on that lower level, and there was an especially long wait for them on Tuesday night, which happened to be Valentine’s Day. Hmm. Shortage of smaller tables was also an issue for many people in the buffet. Overall, the buffet was much more cramped for space.

 

Aside from the artworks, Holland America’s other new signature piece is the Music Walk, the main passage from midships to forward on Deck 2. This cruise line has gone wholesale into promoting music, with four different types of music in three different venues along the Music Walk available to music lovers every day. Lincoln Center Stage promotes classical music, both full-scale and light classics (my favourite venue, as anyone who knows me could guess). 

 

It's no accident that the stage backdrop and the starburst chandeliers both hint at the spectacular architecture of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York. B. B. King’s Blues Club, with its own in-house blues band, uses the same space later in the evening. 

 

Billboard on Board features assorted popular music and quizzes, “ask for your favourites,” and such, all performed by two pianists who also sing. 

 

 

Finally, there’s the Rolling Stone Rock Room, with its own in-house rock band.

 

All of these are free-flowing open spaces, but conflicts are avoided by some nippy scheduling, with performances in each space lasting no more than 45 minutes. Here’s a schedule from one night to give you the idea.

 

There’s also a traditional large theatre spanning decks 2 and 3 at the bow, but with an additional and very sophisticated multi-screen audio-visual setup. Here, most nights featured the Step One Dance Company in assorted performances – something quite different from the usual Broadway shows and show tunes which many lines feature in such a space.

 

The music wasn’t confined to the Music Walk either. Several of the decks were named after famous composers: Beethoven, Gershwin, Mozart, and mine: Schubert. On the Schubert Deck, even the corridor carpets reflected the musical theme!

 

 

Outdoors, the ship includes a feature which has been thrown out, like the baby with the bath water, on many modern ships: a full-length promenade on Deck 3, circling the entire ship except the tip of the sharply raked bow. I had some excellent walking time there.

 

 

Also outdoors: two good-sized pools with adjacent hot tubs, one midships with the now-compulsory large movie screen above it. I didn’t actually go there at all, because I was too taken with the large open pool deck at the stern, the Sea View Pool. With ample sun and fresh air, what nicer place to spend a day on the Caribbean? By the way, that's a Celebrity Cruises ship towering over us. The glass windows above the end of the pool belong to Tamarind, an Asian-fusion gourmet experience which is the absolute showstopper among the ship’s five premium restaurants. Some of my best pictures of the trip were taken from the open-air outer end of this deck, with its magnificent view all around the ship’s stern.

 

 

Even here by the pool, there were a couple of pieces of shipboard art glowering down at us!

Note: the starboard side of the Sea View Pool is the home of the Sea View Bar, and also of the ship’s quite sizable smoking section, adjacent to the bar. If you don’t like the smell of smoke, you would have to stick to the port side or go out farther towards the stern. 

 

Finally, as some of you have read in my previous post, I decided to try an inside cabin for this cruise as a test run, to see if I could stand it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could. Even though the cabin was very compact (that’s putting it tactfully), there was no shortage of storage spaces for my things, and plenty more that I didn’t use. There were North American and European plug sockets and USB ports on the desk, and on both bed tables. The bed was comfortable, the air exchange was every bit as thorough and rapid as the advertising states (a complete exchange every 4 minutes), and I was satisfied. 

 

A real bonus was a large, almost bathtub-sized, shower stall.

 

 

My only question would be to wonder if every cabin has different art works. On such a beautiful ship, so strongly geared towards the arts, somehow that seems far from unlikely!