Friday, June 24, 2005

We had intended to get up fairly early, but ended up sleeping in. Oh well, we are on holidays, after all. We started the day with a bracing swim in Okanagan Lake; it had felt fairly warm near the shore, but it’s definitely cold further out! We followed with our first campsite breakfast; it seemed to make sense to try out the stove etc at least once in case we needed to replace something before the actual bike trip. Then we set off for the Mission Hill Estate Winery for a tour of Albert’s favourite wine brand. The estate is incredibly beautiful; we could swear we were in the Mediterranean somewhere. The proprietor has taken great pains to make this a world-class establishment, and hired the right architect to design the building for this jewel-like setting. He also hired a master vintner from New Zealand to manage operations in 1992, who proved his worth within two years by winning at international competitions.

Then we left for Vancouver, via Hwy 97C and the Coquihalla Hwy. This is a toll road, great for driving but with extremely long stretches of down (or up) hill. I was thankful that this is not the route I intended to take back. Little did I know that on Saturday (which is when I’m updating this), a local biker who is experienced in all the various mountain routes recommended that this is indeed the route I should consider taking! I guess Monique and I will have to have a conference.

We arrived in Richmond close to 7:00 p.m., where a delicious BBQ steak dinner awaited us, prepared by Rick and Pat, at whose home we are staying. It was good to see Albert’s two grandsons in their home setting; it’s much easier to get to know them there. After supper we had a bit of a tour of the area; it’s spectacular, with the ocean and Fraser River being within two blocks of their house. Pat and Rick are also going to be very helpful in determining a route from the ferry out of Vancouver, hopefully with as little traffic as possible. They’ve offered to meet us at the ferry and “lead” us out, which will be fantastic.