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We had such a nice time in Osoyoos last year we decided to rent Julie’s trailer for a whole week this summer. Rosemarie, Scott and I spent the whole week relaxing, and Lauren joined us for a few days as well. IT WAS GREAT.

The week started off HOT, but it cools down so much at night I didn’t find it uncomfortable. Plus whenever we got hot we just walked across the street and swam.

One day we drove up to Penticton to go tubing down a river. The scenery wasn’t as nice as Cowichan River tubing, but the current was a lot quicker so it was easier. Plus instead of shivering we were basking in the sun. I even bailed off my tube on purpose at one point! We brought wine in Rosemarie’s camel pack, which managed to make a $16 bottle of wine taste like a $3 bottle of wine. BLECH. Wine should be enjoyed from a glass, not a tube.

Now that we’ve done the river once we know how to do it better next time. First step: acquire a PARTY ISLAND. Second step: park at the bottom of the river and get a taxi to drive you up the river at the beginning. Third step: bring better drinks and snacks.

On the way back we stopped at Tickleberry’s for ice cream. I asked for a single cone in Nanaimo bar flavour and the guy said “Well our single cones have THREE scoops so you have to pick THREE flavours!”. WAT!! That’s too much ice cream. So we got child size, which still has two scoops and two flavours. (I had Nanaimo Bar and pralines & cream.) We couldn’t even finish our cones. Do they have infant size??

If I went back I would split a waffle bowl with someone else to avoid death by ice cream.

Tickleberry's Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

After an afternoon of wine tastings we stopped at a U-Pick farm. We went in thinking we would just pick a few peaches since it’s cheaper than buying them. But then we found out they had tons of types of fruits and vegetables!! Most of the vegetables were in this massive overgrown patch. We picked a peaches, nectarines, peppers, and zucchini. Since it was already the end of August there wasn’t a whole lot of good stuff left, but it was still awesome. We kept yelling to each other whenever we found something. “JALAPEÑOS!!” And 99 cent/lb heirloom tomatoes?? That’s crazy! I bought all of them.

Side note: haven’t the tomatoes been amazing this summer? I don’t know I can eat winter tomatoes anymore after this incredible summer of cheap and flavourful tomatoes.

Scott hates corn, but we forced him to eat it several times. But that is corn at its best… fresh cob, tender kernels, covered in butter and salt. Om nom nom. I think he secretly enjoyed it…

We have figured out that you can cook corn on the BBQ (in the husk) anywhere from 5-45 minutes and it comes out the same, FYI.

Other stuff we did in Osoyoos:

  • tons and tons of games, especially Carcassonne
  • tons and tons of cross stitch
  • tons and tons of reading
  • tons and tons of wine and margaritas

Julie and Steve came up for the last couple days we were there too so we got to hang out with them a bit too. Julie made Osoyoos bellinis and Calvin took Rosemarie and Lauren out on the boat. We had a nice family dinner outside their cabin.

It was so nice to unwind and just hang out. We had very little things to stress about and it was awesome. SO nice after a summer filled with work.

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One of the nights we were in Osoyoos the four of us decided to go across the border to Oroville, Washington for dinner and gas and groceries. Scott volunteered to be DD so Lauren, Rosemarie and I could go nuts on their obscenely cheap margaritas. This GIANT margarita fish bowl was $14.50!! It was funnnnnn.

Chimichanga del mar. Had (real) crab, scallops, shrimp, onions in a tortilla thing covered with sauce. Scott and I shared this. It was definitely big enough for two people. It was rich and tasty.

I think this was seafood enchilada? Crab something with a lot of cheese (clearly). Lauren said all he could taste was cheese.

Rose ordered prawn fajitas. The onions were nice and caramelized. Quite tasty. Giant. Good thing Lauren is a bottomless pit. ;)

Sopapilla for dessert. I forget what was inside the pastry bit, but it was covered in ice cream and strawberries. Was ok.

Dronk.

Trino's Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Time for a picture dump since I’ve been a lousy blogger and haven’t been keeping up with this great summer we’ve been having.

A pretty sunset. It was like this every night for a good two weeks during the heatwave. I used to think I liked 30ºC weather, but I guess I’ve become a real Vancouverite because that is way too hot!! Now I’m happy when I see the weather report say 22ºC, heh.

We spent Canada Day on Kits beach this year with Ryan and Ryan and others. It was hot. The tide was wayyyy out so I didn’t swim. Random raindrops fell from the sky which weirded people out enough to pack up their beach stuff and leave.

Pre-fireworks sunset with Lauren. Always envious of the people watching from a boat. I need to make friends with someone with a boat. The fireworks were good. It was funny hearing the music coming from the speakers and  people’s radios and phone apps all out of sync.

Scott accidentally broke off a whole branch of his tomato plant. Whoops!! By the way the tally so far is Scott: 17, Katrina 41. WOO!! Our plants still have quite a few flowers and green tomatoes but they are not developing nearly as fast so I think the contest is nearly over.

Free slurpee on 7-11. Perfect timing, it was SUPER hot that day.

I went to the Sunshine Coast with Lesley a few weeks ago. It was Sea Cavalcade and there was a parade and fireworks and other stuff going on. We watched the fireworks from a tugboat. I always have a nice relaxing time while visiting her house, like a cottage getaway.

Rosemarie came over and we played Agricola. We finally tried out the expansion! I liked it, even though Scott won both games as usual. Rosemarie still says it is her least favourite game. Sigh.

The second game took so long the sun went down and it was too dark to see the pieces any more. We reached a new level of nerdiness when we brought out my old desk lamp to light up the games table. How lovely it is to be out on the patio all the time this summer though?! Our patio rules.

Many games of Settlers this summer. We’ve gotten quite a lot of use from the 5-6 player expansion!! Thanks MEP and Paul!

Well that’s all I’ve got.

We have one more week of work and then we’re off to Osoyoos for a week. Both of us are really looking forward to this vacation because we’ve been working hard!! Scott has been doing a ton of overtime and I’ve been working every day too. Can’t wait for white wine and swimming all day in the lake.

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Last weekend Scott, Rosemarie and I headed over to Vancouver Island to camp and go tubing down the Cowichan River. The weather wasn’t great but luckily the water was suuuuuuper warm so we could still tube.

The tubing is pretty neat, it’s about 2.5 hours long of floating. You can bring drinks, they even have floating recycling bins at various points down the river. Most of it was pretty calm but there are a few sections that go a little quicker. It’s definitely a lazy river rather than anything XTREME though. You do kind of have to paddle with your arms sometimes to make sure you go the right direction. I enjoyed myself though and I’m sure it’s a lot more fun when it’s a really hot day out and there are more people.

While it was kinda fun to be camping, it was too cold to swim or lay around and there was a fire ban… so we didn’t have a whole lot to do. Camping is all about the campfire!!! We played some games but it sprinkled rain on and off and the wind kept picking up our cards (and placing them into Scott’s hand). Eventually we just went to bed and read by flashlight.

nanaimo bar cheesecake

We decided to spend the last day in Nanaimo going on a Nanaimo Bar Crawl. They have a brochure that has 34 different places you can get Nanaimo Bar things. Unfortunately because it was Sunday A LOT of the places were closed. :'(((( We must have gone to at least 10 shops that ended up being closed. Bad luck.

But we did enjoy a slice of Nanaimo bar cheesecake that was SUPER YUM at Minnoz Steak & Seafood.

salted caramel nanaimo bar

And a salted caramel Nanaimo bar at Bocca Cafe that was also very good. I kind of want to sprinkle salt on all my Nanaimo bars now. They also had peanut butter, and chili Nanaimo bars and a lot of other really good looking food.

deep fried nanaimo bar

And then a deep fried Nanaimo bar at Pirate Chips. It tasted ok, but not as good as I expected.

All three of us liked the cheesecake one the most.

Then we waited 5+ hours in the line for the ferry back to Vancouver. UGH. It started off fun, we were playing Carcassonne on the ipad.

Then it got more tedious. And we got hungry, so I prepared a charcuterie dinner using a paper bag as a cutting board. SAFETY.

Ugh then we found out that the ferry price was not a return fare (like when you go the Sunshine Coast) and we all cried while we emptied our wallets. Yeesh going to the island is expensive!!!!!! We totally should have smuggled Rosemarie in in the trunk.

Eventually we did get on a ferry and we snagged a good games table to squeeze in a couple more games of Settlers before the weekend was over. I kept my eyes peeled for whales in between turns but didn’t see any.

Soooo in conclusion, tubing was fun-ish, camping was fun-ish, Nanaimo bar was fun-ish, etc. etc. And visiting the island costs A LOT and is terribly annoying on the weekends. Well I’m glad we went, but I’m not in a huge hurry to go back, at least not for just a weekend.

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Rosemarie and I went to the Black Hoof for dinner our last night in Ontario. We were supposed to meet some of my friends but they all work too hard!! So instead Rosemarie and I had a sister-date and gorged ourselves on all sorts of offal. Delicious delicious offal.

Horse tartare. With crunchy sunchoke chips and an egg yolk. A+ WOULD EAT AGAIN. Raw horse tastes a lot better than you might think.

Sweetbread karaage with Japanese mayo and lots of pickled vegetables. This was my first time eating pancreas. It didn’t have a strong taste, but it did have an interesting texture. Not bad, just interesting. Deep frying anything in crunchy karaage batter helps anything taste amazing. I give this dish an A-.

We had some pork carnita tacos. They were awesome, like last time. Grade: A.

And because we are pigs, we ordered tongue on brioche too. The meat was so tender and tasty, I swear you’d never guess you were eating tongue if no one told you. It comes with grainy mustard and pickled celery. This one gets an A+.

I love this restaurant. I’d really like to go back some day with a big group of people so we could order one of everything on the menu. Still so many things I want to try: salmon crudo, liver and onions, beef heart etc etc. If you live in Toronto and haven’t been yet…. why?

The Black Hoof Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato