Santa Barbara, California: Various Walks, 23C, Sunny and Warm:-)

I Must Be Dreaming!

Travelled down to Santa Barbara, Cal. to visit my daughter Erin and her partner Seth for a few days and also to warm up a bit...ya I know, a tough life! The weather cooperated and day time highs were in the 23 range with bright blue skies to match the deep blue waters. Not really complaining, but I do sometimes wish that I lived in a part of the world that was a bit warmer and drier during the winter.  I really like where I live and Canada is a special part of this planet, but I'll freely admit that I could happily do without our winter...any winter. Wouldn't give it a moments thought, but Annemarie would so we of course compromise. Maybe one winter away and the next year one winter month home??

A nice visit to the farmer's market indicated a pretty healthy lifestyle in the area. The tomatoes and grapefruit were so fresh and amazing!!

The past few days we walked quite a bit and of course ate well and sampled lots of wines. I mean, this is California! A nice time of the year to visit a very beautiful, dry part of America. Not saying I'd like to live there, but it's a nice place to have an excuse to visit. So, thanks Erin! 

You can see from the photos that it is a nice place to visit with good walking beaches, nice flowers and a moderate, warm climate. There are turtles in the parks and even in front of a few restaurants...very laid back turtles!

There are also lots of Brown Pelicans out and about and I had a nice afternoon trying to photograph them dive bombing the fish just outside the foreshore surf. 

The price of clothing is half what we spend at home...almost payed for the trip! Well, not quite, but my small carry on contained a few more shirts and pants on the return trip. I needed some proper clothes to get me truly into the retirement "look"...I've been observing old pros at this game for a few months. I day of shopping is about all I can handle and will carry me for a few years...batch shopping.

Travelled out to the university this morning with Erin and Seth, said our goodbyes then I wandered down to walk the foreshore bluffs and beaches outside the inner lagoon. It wasn't a long walk as walks go, but it was beautiful and pretty amazing! Had it all to myself. There were some nice waves and even a few white Egrets walking the beach in search of their breakfast.  All in all, a good walk and a peaceful way to spend my last morning before catching the bus for the short ride to the airport. 

As I write this I'm sitting in a small cafe in San Fran airport wishing I was outside walking in the sun, but alas, this is not to be. But it sure was nice to have a short break to enjoy the warm blue skies again! Happily, just two more months and my winter will be prematurely over as we travel into the Southern Hemisphere to wander, explore, walk and visit new friends Feb until early May. Looking forward to that!!

Time to have a look around at this airport and get ready to fly to Vancouver for a couple of days where I'm promised dinner tonight!! 

Fall Walks: Greater Victoria

The seasons are rapidly changing with the Fall storms beginning to roll in off the Pacific one after another. Another series of storms are expected to begin arriving tonight, but Sunday and today have brought us unexpected sun and warmer than seasonal weather. Still sleeping with just a sheet and light blanket at night with the windows wide open, but I suppose that will change soon enough. Oh well...those who know me understand that winter is not my season, so I'm enjoying the delay probably more than others who will and should remain nameless!

I've been walking distance on fairly flat terrain the past week as I work to rehab an injury. I miss my climbs, but this has been off-set by the amazing fall colours I've found along trails boardering the lakes. The freedom to walk as and when I please has not become routine or taken for granted. It's still pure pleasure.

Pure pleasure...

Osoyoos: Okanagan River Walk, 18kms, 25C, warm autumn day

A Little Bit Like Spain...

Turns out that today the walk was indeed special. It was as close to finding a walk like the Plata as I have come across since returning home. Particularly the return journey when I walked on alone at my preferred pace. Very peaceful and meditative.

We started off in the morning warmth at about 10:30 and continued just over 9kms and into the mid-day heat. Given Annemarie has not been training a whole lot we decided to cross a bridge at that point and walk back on the other side of the river enjoying our own pace and time to ourselves. What follows are simple pictures from the day as we walked through the vineyards and orchards...we essentially had the trail to ourselves.

Migrant workers from Mexico were in some of the fields and orchards as we passed.  At one beautiful orchard as I stopped to photograph the colourful apples one of the workers offered to pick us each an apple and to bring it up to the trail for us...Annemarie commented that it was such a Camino like moment...and she was right.

The fall colors were outstanding, reflecting on the river that was so very calm in many areas.

All too soon it was over, but we decided to return here and walk the entire trail next time. Of course, we saw eagles and hawks and other animals...but no turtles. We consoled ourselves by driving north to Penticton to buy three bottles of the excellent Thornhaven Gewürztraminer that we had sampled the day before and enjoyed in past years...won the Gold last year and a bronze this year...still excellent! We then stopped in to taste some other estate wines and purchased a couple more bottles to put in the cellar:-)

Osoyoos: 24C, Sunshine and a Special Fall Day!

Scorpions, Snakes and Stomping (happily)!

We are visiting the primary wine region in British Columbia, some might say in Canada...except of course those on the Niagra Peninsula, but what do they know? More specifically, the southern Okanagan region just above the border with America...the only official desert in Canada. Beautiful country with lakes and of course dry spots...the desert part. Pretty cool how you can have the two together in one environment. There are rattle snake crossing signs too...I should have taken a picture.

You will just have to trust me on that one. When I was a kid I actually saw a rattler on a trail just north of here.

Anyway, today was spent sampling wines this afternoon at the Festival of Grapes called the 'FOG' for short. We arrived early for the festival as they were expecting about 4,000 souls during the afternoon. To kill the wait we decided to walk 8kms of the northern back end of a 35km route that we plan to tackle tomorrow from the south...probably 20kms. So we headed off along the Okanagan River only to discover large number of spawning salmon...lots of them.

The salmon were jumping too!

The walk was pretty scenic with lots to see and Annemarie even spotted a scorpion! I saw a non-venomous snake...all good training for our upcoming trip to Oz where I understand there is all manner of crawling, slithering things...oh boy. Another thought though, we will be in Oz for their fall which means that we can go to wine festivals and tastings all over again!! Nice.

Fall colors are beginning to show up all over the interior, more so at higher elevations, but it won't be long now before the snow flies...at least up here. Not so much at the coast on our island. 

As we were returning we began to hear the music from the FOG site and as we arrived the activities were just getting underway. There were over 50 wineries represented today, plus lots of food. A very merry afternoon! The large tents were decorated with scarecrows too!

I was the voluntary DD today so I guided my partner to the car...

...and we went touring from there in search of fruit stands which we found...a very nice older couple on a side road who had been orchard farming for over 50 years. The old gent gave me some sound advice about tending my peach and apple trees and his wife brought out the better produce from their cold room for us to select from. It was great.

Oh, and the stomping...there was a grape crushing team competition that was fun to watch.

Yesterday we walked along the lake and out into an area where the Province and First Narions are cooperating on an early burial ground excavation...they have even closed the main camp site where we had hoped to stay until further notice. A fairly exciting undertaking. This forced us into a lake side resort...oh well:-)

We then enjoyed the annual garlic festival that was held at one of the local wine estates and I was given very good advice about looking after my Russian Red garlic that Caitlin and I have planted the past two years. So when I return home this week I will put into effect the new techniques I've learned as its time to plant next years crop.

A good walk planned tomorrow and if of any interest I'll post again, probably the last until we return home Tuesday or Wednesday. Thankfully there have been walks of various lengths most days, not always long walks, but enough to sneak in to this Camino blog.