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I had a nice lunch at Clubhouse, then got into the car and drove to Kelowna. I haven't been to Kelowna since I was a kid, and all I remember was there was a beach. The drive out was nice and uneventful. Traffic leaving Vancouver wasn't bad (it being a sunny Tuesday afternoon) and once I got off the super highways, I was often the only car on the road. Ideal for just setting the cruise control and relaxing.
The only bad news was discovering that I'd thrown my back out loading the AC unit into the car. Ugh. I could still function, but it meant taking things slow and creaky. Also, sitting in a car 5 hours didn't help.
Still, I got into Kelowna in the early evening, checked in to my hotel and managed to find the last spot in the Royal Anne's parking lot. After much farting around with the garage's card reader. Then it was time for a wander to find supper.
I settled on BNA Brewing, which is one of Kelowna's craft breweries, and also a gastropub, so right up my alley. I sampled their wares (best beer: 76 Wolverines), had a really nice supper and dessert. The venue was really nice. A full restaurant on two levels, with lots of comfortable furniture and rich wood accents. The sort of place that would be great to hang out with friends at after skiing (assuming I skied).
The bad/funny news is that I ended up sitting at a table next to a couple on a blind date. Him: a pretentious dude-bro mansplaining religion to his date, and how Trump had some good ideas. Her: politely listening, and strangely not silently escaping through the back door with the help of the servers, or murdering him. I especially liked how he told her he was more open-minded than any atheist because he accepts the possibility of Intelligent Design. I may have eye-rolled so hard I got a Charlie horse of the Superior Oblique muscles.
I found a casino in town, and I was going to go in and do my usual buy-a-one-dollar-chip-by-gambling-forty-dollars, but there was a picket line. Management was screwing the casino workers, so they were on strike. I hope they got what they wanted (spoiler from the future - they did, mostly, as these things go). The only other brewery open was Tree Brewing (the others were closed, as is usual for craft shops on a Tuesday night). There beers were all decent but nothing special (best brew: Helles Lager). I finished off the night with a nice walk along the beach. It was dark but still warm, other people were wandering about, and it was just a nice evening.
Wednesday, I woke up, checked out of my room, and went for a wander. The restaurants that were open weren't blowing my kilt up, and the ones I wanted weren't open yet. Hence the wander. Around 11 I sat down on the patio of a nice Italian joint and had a pizza. Then I walked over to Kettle River Brewing and enjoyed a sleeve (only beer I tried: Under the Weather). Since I wanted to be sober for my ride out of town - given it was three hours before I got underway, I think I was all right. This didn't stop me from buying a six pack of Kolsch from Red Bird brewing. It was... OK.
On the way out of town though, I went well out of my way to visit Boundary Brewing. They are well out of the way in an industrial park (so like a lot of the craft breweries in the big cities), and their tap room was a bar, a few tables, and right off the shop floor. Again, like I've seen in a lot of the big city craft breweries. What makes them special is that they got into the news for being Antifa - and that's why I knew I had to buy some of their wares, because that shit needs to be encouraged. When I was there, the Antifa flag was hanging proudly on one wall. I was also the only one there, so had the tender's undivided attention. I grabbed a howler of something on tap, a sixpack of the Sunshine Hefeweizen (the best of the bunch) and grabbed a couple bottles of the Not For Nazi's Nut Brown Ale (some for me, some for like-minded folk in Calgary). Finally, I was back out on the road and heading for Nelson. Another fine day for a relaxing drive.
Quick aside: Antifa should be everyone's default position. You're supposed to be against fascism.
I arrived in Nelson in the evening and checked into the Hume Hotel, which is my go-to place to spend the night. Expensive, but worth it - if only because it has the only elevator in a city that is in desperate need of elevators and escalators. I had a nice quiet supper at the Library Lounge, reading a book and listening to a local musician play a medley of classic rock songs on an acoustic guitar. No singing, no other instrument, just the guitar. He was really good too - he did the whole thing without sheet music, and blended each song into the next seamlessly! I kinda wish he had a CD for me to buy. Playlist included: Don't You Want Me Baby, Behind Blue Eyes, Bohemian Rhapsody, Star Wars theme, Superman theme, Space Oddity, I Won't Back Down, Fields of Gold, Logjammer's Waltz, Something, Don't Dream it's Over. It sucks that it was a Wednesday night and there were only six people in the lounge.
Thursday I went on a hike/self-guided beer tour. First thing I wanted to accomplish was reaching the top of Nelson. So I started climbing.
To the best of my ability to tell, the top of Nelson is the end of Falls Street (hmm). Given that Nelson is actually (mostly) on a grid, that meant basically picking a road and walking all the way up it without switchbacks. Woof!
Once there, I found a pathway, that turns out to be a loop through Nelson Memorial Park. I had no idea how long the path went (not far as it turns out when I looked on a map later), so I opted not to try it. Also, there could be bears, or worse, wizards!
I explored around the top streets and found a little waterfall and lots of expensive houses.
Heading back down, I decided to aim for the tap room of the Nelson Brewing Company. This is that rare craft brewery that predated the current trend, so the tap room was a bit of an afterthought and not large. I sat at the bar and enjoyed a flight (best beer: Guava Jelly Kettle Sour) and a big glass of water because it was stinking hot out, and I'd just climbed a big hill. It was only 1.5 Km long, but it was also 150m up, so a 10% grade the whole way.
They had two more beers that I wanted to try, and even though they sell the taster-size individually, they wouldn't sell them to me. Apparently the tap room exists in some kind of no-fun zone such that no one can have more than a pint of beer (and my tasting flight totalled a pint). Weird, but I guess they are in the middle of a residential area.
I also got to see assorted Roxanne-related landmarks.
Reaching downtown, I went to Backroads Brewing, which was busy, and also had a fairly rude clientele. Some asshole basically walked in front of me in line to get his beer. Sadly, he was also a biker who was significantly larger than I was, so I just imagined teleporting him a few hundred feet up in the air. The beer was so-so, but that might have been the sour taste in my mouth. Best beer was a low-point tie between the saison and the golden ale.
I wandered through some back alleys and got pictures of the many murals:
One of them was by my friend Kelly:
It was now early evening, and I'd been out since before noon. I was getting hungry, so I went to the Savoy Hotel, home of the Savoy brewery. They don't have a tasting room, but they are sistered with the Falls Music Lounge. I had a pair of too-large appys and another flight of beers (best beer: Toasted Coconut Porter).
After supper I went to the Civic Theatre and enjoyed an evening showing of Mission Impossible: Fallout. It's funny - I don't really remember anything that's happened in any MI movie (except in general terms, like Tom Cruise climbing something dangerous), but I do remember always enjoying them. Therefore, they are an excellent example of a popcorn movie. Tasty, but not in any way filling.
After the movie it was still relatively early (for vacation), and I wanted to try one more taproom. Leaving the theatre it was dark out, which is significant, because even though Nelson is a city, it doesn't generate anything like the light pollution that Calgary does - street-lamps produced little oasis of light swallowed up by the dark. I found my way to Torchlight Brewing which is in Nelson's equivalent to the industrial part of town. At this time it was also behind a giant construction pit that had the entire street closed off. You could still get there on foot if you risked the winding maze along the side of the pit, but no one was parking back there. Entering the taproom, everything became well-lit and civilized once again. Another flight was had; best beers: a tie between the Rasaweizen (a raspberry hefe) and the Hazy Hefeweizen. I went back to my room and had a good night's sleep.
The next morning I checked out of the Hume, left Nelson and had a soak at the Ainsworth hot springs, followed by a nice little artisan lunch and a pleasant drive to Invermere via the Balfour ferry.
My B&B in Invermere was huge, a two-bedroom basement suite. It was also in the middle of nowhere - a near rural part of Invermere (or is the whole town like that?) with no sidewalks. It was getting light when I showed up, so I checked in, and then walked to the nearest venue for a meal - a joint called Peppi's Pizza about a kilometre away - I was tired of driving.
I wasn't expecting much from a small-town pizza joint that was chosen solely because of proximity. But they made one of the best pizzas I've ever had. I had a Hawaiian pizza with banana peppers and coconut, named the Costa Rican. Yum. After the meal it was once again pitch dark out, with only the occasional street lights. If I thought Nelson was dark, it had nothing like Invermere. My solo walk back to my suite was like the opening scene from a movie where I demonstrate to the audience that this small town is lethally dangerous. Sometimes my imagination is a curse, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
After a breakfast of left-over pizza (just as good as the night before), I stopped off at Arrowhead Brewing to pick up some samples (no tasting though). I'd love to spend an evening here since the venue is gorgeous. Alas, it was the afternoon and I wanted to get home. Best beer (as determined by later consumption): Berries of the Night Raspberry Wheat Ale.
I stopped in Radium for a soak, had lunch at a little Mexican joint called Leo Burrito, then drove home. I didn't stop in Banff this time since I just wanted to get home.
1700km to get to Vancouver, 1400Km to get home. Aside from the occasional visit from my jerk brain, it was a good trip. Lots of visiting with good friends and exploring when solo. I'm already looking forward to the next trip.
The only bad news was discovering that I'd thrown my back out loading the AC unit into the car. Ugh. I could still function, but it meant taking things slow and creaky. Also, sitting in a car 5 hours didn't help.
Still, I got into Kelowna in the early evening, checked in to my hotel and managed to find the last spot in the Royal Anne's parking lot. After much farting around with the garage's card reader. Then it was time for a wander to find supper.
I settled on BNA Brewing, which is one of Kelowna's craft breweries, and also a gastropub, so right up my alley. I sampled their wares (best beer: 76 Wolverines), had a really nice supper and dessert. The venue was really nice. A full restaurant on two levels, with lots of comfortable furniture and rich wood accents. The sort of place that would be great to hang out with friends at after skiing (assuming I skied).
The bad/funny news is that I ended up sitting at a table next to a couple on a blind date. Him: a pretentious dude-bro mansplaining religion to his date, and how Trump had some good ideas. Her: politely listening, and strangely not silently escaping through the back door with the help of the servers, or murdering him. I especially liked how he told her he was more open-minded than any atheist because he accepts the possibility of Intelligent Design. I may have eye-rolled so hard I got a Charlie horse of the Superior Oblique muscles.
I found a casino in town, and I was going to go in and do my usual buy-a-one-dollar-chip-by-gambling-forty-dollars, but there was a picket line. Management was screwing the casino workers, so they were on strike. I hope they got what they wanted (spoiler from the future - they did, mostly, as these things go). The only other brewery open was Tree Brewing (the others were closed, as is usual for craft shops on a Tuesday night). There beers were all decent but nothing special (best brew: Helles Lager). I finished off the night with a nice walk along the beach. It was dark but still warm, other people were wandering about, and it was just a nice evening.
Wednesday, I woke up, checked out of my room, and went for a wander. The restaurants that were open weren't blowing my kilt up, and the ones I wanted weren't open yet. Hence the wander. Around 11 I sat down on the patio of a nice Italian joint and had a pizza. Then I walked over to Kettle River Brewing and enjoyed a sleeve (only beer I tried: Under the Weather). Since I wanted to be sober for my ride out of town - given it was three hours before I got underway, I think I was all right. This didn't stop me from buying a six pack of Kolsch from Red Bird brewing. It was... OK.
On the way out of town though, I went well out of my way to visit Boundary Brewing. They are well out of the way in an industrial park (so like a lot of the craft breweries in the big cities), and their tap room was a bar, a few tables, and right off the shop floor. Again, like I've seen in a lot of the big city craft breweries. What makes them special is that they got into the news for being Antifa - and that's why I knew I had to buy some of their wares, because that shit needs to be encouraged. When I was there, the Antifa flag was hanging proudly on one wall. I was also the only one there, so had the tender's undivided attention. I grabbed a howler of something on tap, a sixpack of the Sunshine Hefeweizen (the best of the bunch) and grabbed a couple bottles of the Not For Nazi's Nut Brown Ale (some for me, some for like-minded folk in Calgary). Finally, I was back out on the road and heading for Nelson. Another fine day for a relaxing drive.Quick aside: Antifa should be everyone's default position. You're supposed to be against fascism.
I arrived in Nelson in the evening and checked into the Hume Hotel, which is my go-to place to spend the night. Expensive, but worth it - if only because it has the only elevator in a city that is in desperate need of elevators and escalators. I had a nice quiet supper at the Library Lounge, reading a book and listening to a local musician play a medley of classic rock songs on an acoustic guitar. No singing, no other instrument, just the guitar. He was really good too - he did the whole thing without sheet music, and blended each song into the next seamlessly! I kinda wish he had a CD for me to buy. Playlist included: Don't You Want Me Baby, Behind Blue Eyes, Bohemian Rhapsody, Star Wars theme, Superman theme, Space Oddity, I Won't Back Down, Fields of Gold, Logjammer's Waltz, Something, Don't Dream it's Over. It sucks that it was a Wednesday night and there were only six people in the lounge.
Thursday I went on a hike/self-guided beer tour. First thing I wanted to accomplish was reaching the top of Nelson. So I started climbing.
To the best of my ability to tell, the top of Nelson is the end of Falls Street (hmm). Given that Nelson is actually (mostly) on a grid, that meant basically picking a road and walking all the way up it without switchbacks. Woof!
Once there, I found a pathway, that turns out to be a loop through Nelson Memorial Park. I had no idea how long the path went (not far as it turns out when I looked on a map later), so I opted not to try it. Also, there could be bears, or worse, wizards!
I explored around the top streets and found a little waterfall and lots of expensive houses.
Heading back down, I decided to aim for the tap room of the Nelson Brewing Company. This is that rare craft brewery that predated the current trend, so the tap room was a bit of an afterthought and not large. I sat at the bar and enjoyed a flight (best beer: Guava Jelly Kettle Sour) and a big glass of water because it was stinking hot out, and I'd just climbed a big hill. It was only 1.5 Km long, but it was also 150m up, so a 10% grade the whole way.
They had two more beers that I wanted to try, and even though they sell the taster-size individually, they wouldn't sell them to me. Apparently the tap room exists in some kind of no-fun zone such that no one can have more than a pint of beer (and my tasting flight totalled a pint). Weird, but I guess they are in the middle of a residential area.
I also got to see assorted Roxanne-related landmarks.
Reaching downtown, I went to Backroads Brewing, which was busy, and also had a fairly rude clientele. Some asshole basically walked in front of me in line to get his beer. Sadly, he was also a biker who was significantly larger than I was, so I just imagined teleporting him a few hundred feet up in the air. The beer was so-so, but that might have been the sour taste in my mouth. Best beer was a low-point tie between the saison and the golden ale.
I wandered through some back alleys and got pictures of the many murals:
One of them was by my friend Kelly:
It was now early evening, and I'd been out since before noon. I was getting hungry, so I went to the Savoy Hotel, home of the Savoy brewery. They don't have a tasting room, but they are sistered with the Falls Music Lounge. I had a pair of too-large appys and another flight of beers (best beer: Toasted Coconut Porter).
After supper I went to the Civic Theatre and enjoyed an evening showing of Mission Impossible: Fallout. It's funny - I don't really remember anything that's happened in any MI movie (except in general terms, like Tom Cruise climbing something dangerous), but I do remember always enjoying them. Therefore, they are an excellent example of a popcorn movie. Tasty, but not in any way filling.
After the movie it was still relatively early (for vacation), and I wanted to try one more taproom. Leaving the theatre it was dark out, which is significant, because even though Nelson is a city, it doesn't generate anything like the light pollution that Calgary does - street-lamps produced little oasis of light swallowed up by the dark. I found my way to Torchlight Brewing which is in Nelson's equivalent to the industrial part of town. At this time it was also behind a giant construction pit that had the entire street closed off. You could still get there on foot if you risked the winding maze along the side of the pit, but no one was parking back there. Entering the taproom, everything became well-lit and civilized once again. Another flight was had; best beers: a tie between the Rasaweizen (a raspberry hefe) and the Hazy Hefeweizen. I went back to my room and had a good night's sleep.
The next morning I checked out of the Hume, left Nelson and had a soak at the Ainsworth hot springs, followed by a nice little artisan lunch and a pleasant drive to Invermere via the Balfour ferry.
My B&B in Invermere was huge, a two-bedroom basement suite. It was also in the middle of nowhere - a near rural part of Invermere (or is the whole town like that?) with no sidewalks. It was getting light when I showed up, so I checked in, and then walked to the nearest venue for a meal - a joint called Peppi's Pizza about a kilometre away - I was tired of driving.
I wasn't expecting much from a small-town pizza joint that was chosen solely because of proximity. But they made one of the best pizzas I've ever had. I had a Hawaiian pizza with banana peppers and coconut, named the Costa Rican. Yum. After the meal it was once again pitch dark out, with only the occasional street lights. If I thought Nelson was dark, it had nothing like Invermere. My solo walk back to my suite was like the opening scene from a movie where I demonstrate to the audience that this small town is lethally dangerous. Sometimes my imagination is a curse, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
After a breakfast of left-over pizza (just as good as the night before), I stopped off at Arrowhead Brewing to pick up some samples (no tasting though). I'd love to spend an evening here since the venue is gorgeous. Alas, it was the afternoon and I wanted to get home. Best beer (as determined by later consumption): Berries of the Night Raspberry Wheat Ale.
I stopped in Radium for a soak, had lunch at a little Mexican joint called Leo Burrito, then drove home. I didn't stop in Banff this time since I just wanted to get home.
1700km to get to Vancouver, 1400Km to get home. Aside from the occasional visit from my jerk brain, it was a good trip. Lots of visiting with good friends and exploring when solo. I'm already looking forward to the next trip.
