There's quite a few lakes around Kelowna, so we did a few road trips to take a look around. The drive north follows some fantasic lakes, some were frozen, some were not and some were frozen to the half way point.

Very bizarre.

 

The most boring sport in the world, ice fishing.

Kids playing hockey

Ice on the right, water on the left!

The flat in Kelowna is awesome, it's ultra modern with two bedrooms, a balcony and BBQ.

Very quiet, relaxing and just what the doctor ordered.

Nice

Kim found us a flat in Kelowna to stay at for a month, even though Kelowna is a summer destination it is only 30 minutes from Big White ski resort and a sizeable town.

The trip was one that I will never forget. We didn't have any problems until, ironically, we hit a town called Hope. After this, (beyond Hope?), the main highway was closed due to a mudslide and we were advised to stay in Hope and wait for the road to be cleared. But we're the adventurour types and decided that a detour was in order over a mountain pass that was advised as being in "bad condition".

We'll be alright, we have snow tires right?

We drove for about 4 hours at 40kmh over the most amazing terrain, occasionally encountering lorries with enormous tire chains and repair crews trying to fix the downed power lines.

Finally, the other side of the mountain was beset with blizzards and icy highways, at one point Kim had to get out of the car in the middle of the highway, to scrape the windshield free of ice as the wipers just couldn't cope.

9 hours later we arrived in Kelowna, taking 5 hours longer than expected.

Simply, the most amazing drive ever and something I won't forget quickly.

Molly Moose and Peter Rabbit at the start of our journey. No snow!

The "Mountain Pass"

 

The side of the road, we stopped by a bunch of truckers putting on snow chains to ask what they knew of the conditions ahead. "You'll be fine" was the optimistic reply.

Night driving on the highway through snow.

James was gracious enough to take me up to Cypress mountain for some snowboarding action, I was a bit apprehensive as I know James is fanatical and I was worried I'd be spoiling his day. Luckily James was good enough to find some areas that we both enjoyed, the runs we were doing were generally thick with powder so I did feel that I could crash all day and not worry about it. In fact I was the source of some amusement at the lift queues as I looked like a living abominable snowman!

We ran into James' friend Mark towards the end of the morning, he uses telemark skis and is simply amazing to watch. He's a naturally modest guy, very easy going and fun to be with, so this was a fantastic day!

Mark and James

Powder! Powder!

About to run into half a dozen trees.....

 

Well, we woke up to a fantastic white Christmas, my first ever in fact.

We drove over to Jac's house for some yummy Christmas lunch with the Bateman family, followed by plenty of wine and beers before crashing out. George was on form and ridiculously excited over so many present arriving at once, he didn't seem to know what to do with himself. :)

George by the tree

 

Father and son making George's new toy

A White Christmas

Well we had plenty of snow overnight, so Jac and I decided to hit Grouse Mountain for a bit of sister-brother time. Jackie was an amazingly good snowboarder of course, despite not hitting the slopes for a couple of years, so it was up to me to try and keep up.

The snow was amazing and we were flying high all day, a great intro to a snowboarding season!

Some snow

Jac get's ready to throw some moves

Grouse just has some amazing views!

Well, the snow has fallen but the local longboarding crew doesn't stop just because it's a bit cold. With temperatures hitting negative figures, we bombed a local hill until our fingers were numb and our feet were tingling.

I finally felt confident enough to hit the hills with the big boys, although I trashed my shorts and put my gloves to good use. Of course, no one else was dumb enough to wear shorts, I was just trying to blend in :)

Another fun, if mental, day.

 

As I said in an earlier post, the local Longboarding scene is huge in Vancouver and the locals are big on organised events. Striker, I don't know his real name, likes to organise a toy rally every Christmas for the local kids. The toys are deposited at the local t.v. station headquarters, and every longboarder is asked to bring along a $5 gift.

I turned up with a couple of water pistols, not expecting much, but Striker and a few others turned up in Santa costumes and we skated through the middle of Vancouver! 40 skaters, going through red lights, overtaking cars, stopping traffic and generally having a whale of a time. Luckily Canadians are very easy going, so even the cops were simply laughing along. I can't imagine what would happen if we tried this through the city of London!

We finished off with a cruise around the seawall, Stanly park. A fun filled and exhausting day.

 

 

CTV headquarters, delivering our presents.

Striker

 

Downtown

Stanley Park

 

 

Striker, exhausted after a long day.

The Sunshine Coast is really a summer destination, but we took in a few of the local sites (secretly hoping not to run into a grumpy bear that had forgotten to hibernate)

 

Secret Beach, not so secret with a great big signpost.

 

 

 

 

West Canada is the home of longboarding, so I figured that I had to partake whilst in the homeland.  So I picked up a board from the Landyachtz factory and practiced standing upright.

In Vancouver, the longboard community is very strong and they have a great number of organised events. For the winter, this is a weekly "Saturday Session" where they bomb hills and slide corners. I was lucky enough to be around for the first one of the winter so popped along only to find out that I was the oldest by a good ten years and seriously lacking in the ability department. (The first person I talked to was "Scoot", the current world downhill champion)
So I took out my camera and watched the carnage.

We "bombed" about 4 hills, spending around 30-45 minutes at each spot before it became too "hot". Combined with the amount of weed being smoked made this feel like a bit of a dodgy endevour, but it was worth it for the good laugh I had.

I also found my dream car, "The Eh Team" van. Awesome.