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Being Community Driven means that we invest in and celebrate those individuals

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❂Discover Summer T3www.kelownacapnews.com • June 26, 2015

BY MIKE STRAUSS

Summer in the Okanagan is full of a number of fun commu-nity events, but few are as well attended as the annual Block Party organized by the Down-town Kelowna Association.

This year, the Block Party – scheduled for August 8 from 10 AM to 4 PM – is expected to draw up to 17,000 visitors.

“This is the largest event we put on,” says Events Manager Brittany Hansum. “It’s so much fun. We close down Bernard Avenue from Richter all the way to the sails. We have a climbing wall, a bouncy castle, pedal cars, face painting, and much more.”

The Block Party also fea-tures a variety of other events like a dog agility show, a cheer-leading demonstration, and a monster truck show. And with 150 different vendors lined up along the street, it won’t be hard to pick up a piece of memorabilia or grab a tasty bite to eat.

Even if you’re not a fan of monster trucks or cheerlead-

ing, Downtown Kelowna offers another great event centered around something everyone can enjoy.

“We have a restaurant promotion called Taste of Downtown,” says Communica-tions Manager Ryan Watters. “We encourage as many

restaurants as possible to open their doors and offer a complimentary sample of food to people who have a Taste of Downtown passport. We print 1500 passports, and anyone who has a passport can eat for free at any participating restaurant.”

Watters says that in 2014, twenty-six restaurants partic-ipated in Taste of Downtown. The organization deliberately

plans this event for September when the weather is a bit cool-er, so participants can walk around and explore a whole variety of restaurants. Some restaurants have reported serving 900 people in asingle day.

The Downtown Kelowna

Association organizes two oth-er major events that Kelown-ites can enjoy: First Thursday arts and culture celebrations and the Small Shop At Night event.

First Thursday is a monthly event organized by the City of Kelowna Cultural Services and the Downtown Kelowna Asso-ciation. On the fi rst Thursday of every month from 4 PM to 7 PM, Kelowna’s Cultural District

hosts a variety of free events – including free wine tastings at the VQA and free admission at the Kelowna Art Gallery.

Small Shop At Night sees hundreds of Downtown businesses stay open late and offer exclusive promotions. With live entertainment, free

food samples, and free wine tastings, there’s no shortage of things to enjoy at Small Shop At Night.

“You’d be pretty amazed at everything that happens Down-town,” Watters says. “Kelowna isn’t a big city. People can walk out their door, walk Downtown, and do anything they want.”

But for Watters and Han-sum, the best part of Down-

town isn’t the events or the businesses – it’s the people.

“It’s great to hear the story of each small business, and that’s where satisfaction comes from,” Hansum says. “Some of these businesses are very innovative. We love being able to help them succeed.”

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T4 DISCOVER SUMMER❂ June 26, 2015 • www.kelownacapnews.com

Top Notch local artists and instructors ensure summer art for kids will be

ones to remember

SUMMER CAMP ART ADVENTURES TEAM

Registration is underway for the Kelowna Art Gallery’s summer art camps for children. Art Adventures camps are or-ganized for pre-school children ages 3 to 5, and two separate camps are offered for children ages 6 to 8, and ages 9 to 11. Full-day camps, half-day camps, and morning-only “mini camps” are scheduled Monday through

Friday. Art Adventures begins July 6, and the weekly camp programs run until August 21, 2015.

“Art Adventures is primarily

about creating a fun, and interactive experi-ence for engaging children and youth with art,” says Renée Burgess, Head of Public Pro-gramming at the Kelowna Art Gallery. “We know many of the kids will be tired of classrooms by summer, so we make sure our skilled instructors take the kids out on fun and exciting

off-site trips to inspire their imaginations.”

Leading the art camps and excursions to artists’ studios, Kasugai Gardens, Waterfront Park, the beach, and nearby pri-vate galleries this year are two local artist-instructors, Emerald Holden, and Laura Wyllie.

Holden is thrilled to be returning for a second year. She is a recent graduate from UBCO, having earned her BFA last year. She has lived in Kelowna her entire life and has loved art from a young age. She looks forward to working with children and youth to show them how vast, exciting, and fun art can be. Wyllie graduated from UBCO earning her a BA in Art History and English in 2012. She completed her MA in Art

History at Carleton University in Ottawa and has returned to the Okanagan to start a second MA in Education. She looks forward to combining her passion for teaching with her love of art his-tory and sharing it with children and youth this summer.

During the camps, children can expect to develop skills in drawing, painting, printmaking,

mixed media, and sculpture, while being inspired by the current exhibitions on view at the Gallery. Scheduled guest artists play a pivotal role at each of the camps, as they share their expertise with the children to help them develop a better understanding of art. In addition, the mini camps offered from July 27 to 31 and August 17 to 21 will offer children the opportunity to add on an afternoon at Bum-bershoot Children’s Theatre.

Class sizes for all of the Gal-lery’s camps are limited, allowing for more one-on-one instruction to enrich the experience. All programs highlight skill-building and self-expression, as well as the introduction of new ideas and artistic techniques.

In addition to creative

exploration for participants, Art Adventures offers parents peace of mind that their children will be spending their summer days with their peers in a nurturing and creative environment.

For more information, or to register your child, please con-tact the Gallery at250-762-2226 or online atwww.kelownaartgallery.com.

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mixed media, and sculpture, while being inspired by the current exhibitions on view at the Gallery. Scheduled guest artists play a pivotal role at each of the camps, as they share their expertise with the children to help them develop a better understanding of art. In addition, the mini camps offered from July 27 to 31 and August 17 to 21 will offer children the opportunity to add on an afternoon at Bum-bershoot Children’s Theatre.

Class sizes for all of the Gal-lery’s camps are limited, allowing for more one-on-one instruction to enrich the experience. All programs highlight skill-building and self-expression, as well as the introduction of new ideas and artistic techniques.

In addition to creative

exploration for participants, Art Adventures offers parents peace of mind that their children will be spending their summer days with their peers in a nurturing and creative environment.

For more information, or to register your child, please con-tact the Gallery at250-762-2226 or online atwww.kelownaartgallery.com.

MIKE STRAUSS

For local music afi cionados, summer in the Okanagan means one thing: winery concerts. And this year, CedarCreek Winery in Kelowna and Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in West Kelowna are bringing some of the greatest 1990s and 2000s acts to the Okanagan for an intimate concert series that people of all ages can enjoy.

“We only have 400 seats, which makes these concerts very intimate,” says Anahita Pouget, Marketing Manager at CedarCreek Winery. “It’s rare to fi nd a concert where you can be so close to Jim Cuddy or Sam Roberts Band or The Barenaked Ladies. The concert happens in our rose garden amidst the sloping vineyards, with a beautiful lake in the background. There’s nothing like it.”

CedarCreek has been hosting concerts for the last twelve years, and since 2004, all proceeds from CedarCreek concerts have gone to the Ro-tary Centre for the Arts. It’s this fundraising that prompted the City of Kelowna to name Ce-darCreek Winery one of the top three businesses in Kelowna for charitable giving.

“All of our staff volunteer at the concerts,” says Pouget. “It’s really a gift to the eyes and the ears to hear this music, and it’s about putting something back

into the community.”Pouget notes that every

concert requires the work of thirty-fi ve CedarCreek employ-ees, each of whom donate eight hours of their time to assist with the event. Cedar-Creek is also passionate about supporting the Canadian music industry, and they exclusively host Canadian artists. In the past, CedarCreek has hosted artists like Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Sam Roberts Band, Michelle Wright, and Chantal Kreviazuk.

This year, CedarCreek will be hosting Emerson Drive on July 30 and Tom Cochrane & Red Rider on August 26 and 27 as part of their TELUS Sun-set Concerts at CedarCreek Estate Winery series.

But they’re not the only win-ery in town hosting top musical acts this summer. This year, Mission Hill will be hosting three renowned musical acts throughout the summer.

On July 24, Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Chris Botti will perform at Mis-sion Hill. That same weekend - on July 26 - Mission Hill will host 14-time Grammy Award nominee Martina McBride.

Finally, on August 15, two-time Grammy Award winners The Wallfl owers will bring their American-style roots rock to Mission Hill.

All three Mission Hill con-

certs are sold out, although a few tickets remain forCedarCreek’sconcert series.

Pouget says that tickets for these concerts don’t last long, so music lovers will need to act fast if they want to attend one of these shows.

“We have less than 100 tickets left for Emerson Drive,” she says, “and the Tom Co-

chrane concert on August 26 is already sold out.”

Approximately 50 tickets are still available for the Tom Cochrane concert on August 27. Tickets are available for purchase atwww.cedarcreek.bc.ca/events

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return again this summer, opening on Saturday, June 27, and returning every Saturday until Sept. 12.

The farmers’ market will return to the parking lot of Westridge Shopping Centre, at the corner of Main Street and Elliott Road, where it has been located for the last two years.

Previous to that, the market was sit-uated outside the Lions Hall until that facility had to be rebuilt after a fi re.

“Callahan Properties, who owns Westridge, has been very gracious in letting us set up at the mall following the fi re and our vendors really like the location as well,” said Betty Hersey, the market coordinator.

The 2015 edition of the farmers’ market will feature more than 40 new and returning vendors offering a variety of locally grown produce along with ar-tisans bringing a wide array of unique crafts to showcase.

As well, the market will feature a guest entertainer each week.

The Westbank Farmers’ Market was initially established in 2010, and has grown in the years since to become a summer shopping destination for tourists and local residents.

Hersey said the idea for a farmer’s market began within the Historic West-bank Association, of which she is a member, a group dedicated to preserv-ing the local history associated with the community of Westbank before it fell under the municipal auspices of the District of West Kelowna.

“The vision of mine and others was to come up with an idea that would get people coming back to downtown Westbank and promote it as the cen-tre of our community,” Hersey recalled.

“We all love Westbank and its history, and we thought organizing a farmers’ market is a good way to draw people back from the strip malls along

the highway.”Hersey said people will ask how

Westbank relates to the rest of what will soon be the City of West Kelowna.

“We have a booth at the farmers’ market and we answer that question by saying Westbank was a town established back in 1903, long before the District of West Kelowna came to be. Westbank was never incorporat-ed and remained a rural community within the regional district, but people were still living here and it has its own history.

“We are striving to keep West-bank’s identity alive. I was a school teacher here in Grade 3 and 5, and I used to teach our students about the pioneers of our community, the people who came before them and started this place. It’s really something, our history, that should not be forgotten.”

The Westbank Farmers’ Market is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.


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Quails’ Gate Winery in West Kelowna will host a Summer ‘Harvest Table’ Dinner on Satur-day, July 25, starting at 6 p.m.

Building on the success of its Dinner in the Vineyard series, the winery will host an al fresco long-table dinner that combines locally sourced cuisine and world-class wines at a welcom-ing communal table.

The Stewart family, owners of Quails’ Gate, are pioneers of the Okanagan wine region, and their vision for fi ne dining as part of the winery experience has been actualized during the past decade with the success of their onsite dining facility.

As the profi le of Quails’ Gate wines has risen internationally, the winery’s Old Vines Restau-rant has also attracted attention from food lovers who appreciate the unique synergy of food and wine produced in the same

geographical region. In recent years Old Vines

was named one of the Top 20 Winery Restaurants in the World (dailymeal.com), and one of the Best 100 Restaurants in Canada (opentable.com), as well as repeatedly earning medals from Vancouver Magazine for their popularity.

The upcoming dinner is a great opportunity to experience fi rsthand the restaurant’s cuisine de terroir: each dish on the menu will be designed to complement the diversity and styles of the Quails’ Gate wine pairings.

Tickets for the dinner are $170 per person, includingall wine pairings. Tickets canbe reserved online atwww.quailsgate.com or by calling either 250-769-4451 or 1-800-420-9263 ext 221.

Quails’ Gate Winery is locat-ed at 3303 Boucherie Rd.

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For most people, studying Shakespeare’s work is a dreaded and distasteful memory from school days gone by.

Anne-Marie Holmwood wants to change that.

Holmwood, a theatre teacher at Kelowna Secondary School, is directing this year’s Shakespeare Kelowna play – and she hopes that her production will portray Shakespeare in new and exciting ways.

“When I approached the Board of Direc-tors, I asked if they’d consider doing a play about Shakespeare that Shakespeare didn’t write. That’s a departure from what they’ve always done.”

Holmwood and her production team will be performing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Win-fi eld. Holmwood characterizes the play as

a modern comedic twist of Shake-speare’s classics.

“This play is written for people who hate Shake-speare,” she says. “I’ve been telling people that it’s like Monty Python meets Saturday Night Live meets Shakespeare. This production compresses all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays into a single 90-minute show. It’s fast-paced and side-splittingly hilarious.”

This three-handed show, Holmwood says, uses distinct characters that the audi-ence can easily relate to. An older academic snob and a younger actor debate the merits of Shakespeare, with the older wanting to stay true to tradition and the younger desiring a more interesting kind of Shakespeare. The third character, an improv actor, tries to keep the peace but ends up caught in the middle.

“It’s not very often that you see a three-person play with this intensity of work,” Holmwood says. “These actors have been

a pleasure to work with. Three people are holding our attention easily and beautifully, and absolutely cracking us up. I’ve had lots of people give me a polite ‘oh’ when I tell them I’m directing for Shake-speare Kelowna – but when I tell them what play I’m doing, they really want to go.”

The play kicks off with all the pomp and circumstance befi t-ting a Shakespeare production, but quickly transitions into a shortened Romeo and Juliet and a modern take on Titus Andronicus and Othello. Then, the script veers off-course into a zany free-for-all in which the three actors perform all 16 of Shakespeare’s comedies at the same time. Act One ends with the actors realizing they’ve forgotten just a single play – Hamlet.

The Complete Works of William Shake-speare (Abridged) runs from July 15 to 18 and 22 to 25 at the Okanagan Villa Estate Winery. Tickets are $30 ($25 for students/seniors) and are available at the Kelowna Tickets box offi ce at Orchard Park or online at www.ShakespeareKelowna.org.

The Bardcomes tothe yard

L TO R: THOMAS FOURNIER, COLIN DEBOURCIER, MARK REINELT


The festival is the evolution of the Lille Gard Festival held the previous fi ve years, a festival built on the themes of music, arts and entertainment.

Taking place July 17 and 18, as with its predecessor, the Bottega Festival will be hosted by the Bottega Farm and Studio, a 13-acre working farm that features a herd of alpacas.

The festival will largely be held outdoors on the farm site grounds, with the Bottega Inn itself used for art displays among other activities.

“The event itself is largely geared to be outdoors,” said

Michael Donley, helping organize the festival this year.

“There will be art on display, and artists will be working on site. We have a line-up of differ-ent musical entertainment along with food and beverage vendors Tree Brewing and Streaming Cafe, and the Craisan and Roll-ing Stone food trucks.”

Heading the entertainment

roster will be Neil Osborne, lead singer of 54/40, and Bill Henderson and Claire Lawrence, who were part of the original Chilliwack band and played together for its predecessor, The Collectors. >>

Bringing together a celebration of

music and art,the Bottega Festival promises to be one of the

event highlightsin the Central Okanagan this summer.

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Other performers will include Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Craig Cardiff, Cecile Doo-Kingue, The Small Glories, Jordan Klassen, Sam Weber, The Trips, Andrew Judah, Paperboy and the Mes-sengers, Ari Neufeld, Windmills and Until Red.

Donley explained that Lille Gard’s infancy evolved from a group of artists who knew each other coming together to create the festival, a place for them to come together to celebrate music and art.

The duo leading that organi-zational effort at the time were musician Graham Ord and Nico Voeston, with New Horizons Productions.

“Everyone was kind of pooling their resources together to put on the festival,” Donley said.

The idea of creating a unique community festival that extended beyond a smaller group of en-tertainers and artists sharing the same social circles continued to evolve with each passing year.

He says the Bottega site is a key part of the festival, offer-ing an escape of the senses from Kelowna’s urban hustle and bustle. “It’s only about 10 minutes out of town, but you are surrounded by forest and it is an actual working farm with the presence of the alpacas,” Donley described. “Your blood pressure literally drops when you are there. It’s a relaxing place to be

and an ideal setting for this kind of festival.”

As with most community events, volunteers will have much to do with helping the Bottega Festival take place in it fi rst year under a new identity. “It’s a bit of

an unknown because it will be the fi rst time doing the festival to this extent, but as much as there is a low of organization involved in putting it on, we still want it to be a layed-back vibe for the fes-tival, where people can connect and have a good time.”

As an added benefi t, the charity benefi ciary from the festival will be the New Horizon Romania project, an organiza-tion serving the disadvantaged through education and medical services in the East European country.

“We have picked a different charity every year with the past festivals, and it’s nice to have a festival with a purpose that extends beyond just celebrating arts and culture,” Donley said. “It’s really amazing to have the opportunity to a greater cause

that can help other people.”The Bottega Farm Inn is

located in East Kelowna at 4485 Sallows Rd. For more informa-tion about tickets, check out the Bottega Festival website at bottegafestival.com.

ADRIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

CRAIG CARDIFF SARAH GAGNON


MIKE STRAUSS

Thirty-one different regional parks. Five thousand acres of parkland. Over 120 kilometers of trails ranging from completely fl at to 300 feet of elevation gain. And although you won’t fi nd any lions and tigers, you might see a bear or two.

It’s not hard to see why the Okanagan is Canada’s most enviable summer playground. James Chester, RDCO Parks Services’ community relations liaison, believes that getting outdoors does more than just keep him fi t.

“People love hiking because it gets them out into the open air,” he says. “It helps them stay in touch with nature, with the sights and sounds of the Okana-gan. It’s about slowing down.”

To that end, the RDCO serves the local population with a variety of programs and events that can help residents to enjoy the local parkland.

Explore Your Parks is a monthly 90-minute interpretive hike with rotating themes – bird-ing one month, plant identifi -cation the next, for instance. Chester says Explore Your Parks is a great program for beginning hikers, while intermediate hikers will prefer the RDCO’s more intensive hiking programs.

“We have a program called Take A Hike. It’s a three-hour hike once per month. You get your heart rate up and cover some good distance – about 10 kilometers.”

Both programs are free to join – participants need only reg-ister through the RDCO Parks Department.

The RDCO also offers a variety of children’s outdoor programs, Chester says, in-cluding summer nature camps, story time, and special holiday programming.

“Our summer nature camps run through July and August for children aged 5 to 7,” he says. “These are week-long camps with outdoor activities like pond studies, nature walks, birdhouse building, and gardening. In July and August we run our Summer Story Time program for children

aged 3 to 5. Summer Story Time is on Tuesdays at 10 AM at Mis-sion Creek Regional Park and Thursdays at 10 AM at Gellatly Nut Farm.”

The parks department also offers a variety of family programs. Most recently, the RDCO organized a Father’s Day fi shing trip to Shannon Lake. The department is also planning a Teddy Bear Picnic in Lake Country for July 19, as well as a Welcome Kokanee Festival at Hardy Falls Regional Park for August 30.

But for James Chester, working in the parks department isn’t about the events – it’s about feeling a connection to this city, this landscape, and this community.

“My favourite hike for seeing the Okanagan is the John Stamley Nature Conservancy Regional Park. You have a great view of Okanagan Lake from Peachland all the way to Vernon. The dry ponderosa pine grass-land ecosystem is there as well, and you can see the impact from the 2003 fi re. It’s both a big picture and a small picture of the Okanagan.”

See parks next page.

Go take a hike: Kelowna home to greatlocal parks and trails to explore

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ANGEL SPRINGS • Moderate; 4 km (one way)The trail to Angel Springs is 4 km one way. Though the springs aren’t for bathing, the geological formations and mineral deposits are an interesting sight. The trail-head is located on the east side of Little White Forest Service Road at kilometre four. To reach the trail-head from Kelowna, take K.L.O. Road to McCulloch Road then to June Springs Road follow June Springs Road to Little White Forestry Service Road.

BRANT’S CREEK / GLENMORE VALLEY LINEAR PARK • Easy; 1 km (one way)The park can be entered on Valley Road on the east side of Glenmore Drive, or on the west side of Glenmore Drive on Biggar Road. To enter the park on Valley Road from downtown Kelowna, take Glenmore Drive to Yates; turn right on Yates. There is no parking on Valley Road so you should park on Yates Road and walk around the corner to the bird sanctuary on Valley Road where the park entrance is located. Dogs not allowed

CEDAR MOUNTAIN PARK - KELOWNA CRAGS • Diffi cultHead south from downtown on Pandosy Street, which changes names to Lake-shore Road. Stay straight at the fork on to Chute Lake Road. Once on the gravel road, go about 7 km and watch for an old dirt road on the right. Take this road to an old sawmill site and park. About 1/2 km after you cross the creek past the old cabin, cliffs will come into view on your left. You can hike down to the bottom of the cliffs (about 300 feet high). The trail leads up to the cliff top at the north end. Depending on where you left your car, it’s about a 6.5 km walk. The view from the cliff top is beau-tiful, at about 2,500 feet. This area is very popular for climbing and bouldering.

CRAWFORD FALLS / CANYON FALLS PARK • Diffi cult; 1 - 2 km - Dogs allowed on leashCrawford Falls is located on Bellevue Creek. It can be reached by the follow-ing: Gordon Drive to Dehart Road; Dehart Road to Crawford Road; Crawford road to Westridge Road. Turn on to Canyon Ridge Crescent and fi nally to Canyon Falls Court, which is a dead end. You will see a Kelowna City Parks trail that you can follow to a beautiful waterfall.To get to the lower falls takes about 20 minutes but is quite diffi cult. Once there you will see 20 foot falls. If you continue about 10 more minutes you will see the larger falls (40 feet). *Before you go, be advised that this is a very steep, advanced level hike. Staff are currently working to establish a safer trail to the bottom. Hikers should also be aware that parking is limited in Canyon Falls Court.

Cars parked less than 3 metres from driveways will be ticketed and/or towed. There is additional parking on Westridge Drive and Stewart Road West.

HIGH RIM TRAIL • Diffi cult; 55 km – six trail-headsThere are six different access points for this trail. The main access from Kelowna is Philpott Road and Highway 33. With six different access points along the trail you can easily break it up into much shorter hikes, varying from 6 to 12 km. The fi nal trail-head in the north is at the Cosens Bay parking lot in Kalamalka Provincial Park. There is close to 700 metres in elevation gain.

KETTLE VALLEY RAILWAY • This is an easy hike with a gorgeous view of Myra Canyon. There are several access points:1) Myra: Follow K.L.O. Road to McCulloch Road, which you follow past the pavement. About 2 km after the pavement ends on the right is the Myra Forest Service Road. Follow this road for 8 km to the parking lot. The fi rst trestle is a few hundred metres away.2) June Springs: Follow K.L.O. Road to McCulloch Road and go right onto June Springs Road, which turns into Little White Forest Service Road. The fi rst trestle is 2 km away.3) Chute Lake: Follow Lakeshore Road south from Kelowna and go straight onto Chute Lake Road. Turn left onto Hedeman Road and right onto Gillard Forest Service Road. The KVR crosses but looks like another dirt road. **Please be advised that signage in the area is poor.

MYRA-BELLEVUE PROVINCIAL PARK (CRAWFORD TRAILS) • Moderate to Diffi cult; Various distancesThe main access point is off Stewart Road East. From downtown turn right off Hwy 97 onto Gordon Drive then turn right on Casorso Road, through the round about it turns into Saucier Road, follow this until you turn right on Stewart Road East. Please note that due to the fi re that went through this area we strongly recommend that you stay on the main trails. SCENIC CANYON REGIONAL PARK (LAYER CAKE MOUNTAIN) • Moderate; 4 km - Open in spring, summer, and fall during daylight hours • Dogs permitted on leaseScenic Canyon Regional Park’s parking lot is located at the end of Field Road. Take McCulloch Road to Field Road. The parking lot entrance is just before the Gallaghers Golf Course subdivision entrance. This park has many great features, including geological formations, cultural sites and rock ovens used by Chinese Labourers.


Phone: 250-470-7496

Swim & Play From Surf to Turf

www.WETS.ca

BY MIKE STRAUSS

Captain Al and his wife First Mate Jo-Ann own Go With The Wind Cruises, where for $25 per hour, you can explore the local coves and experience life on the high seas of Okanagan Lake. Al and Jo-Ann specialize in providing educational cruises for couples and small groups.

“These are personal cruises, so I don’t mix groups together,” says Al. “I fi nd out what their interests are. If they’re interest-ed in wildlife, I can show them where to look for eagles and bighorn sheep.”

Al got his fi rst boat in 1975 from a co-worker at Western Star, where he worked for a number of years.

“Another factory worker bought an $800 catamaran,

but he didn’t know how to sail. Took his wife sailing in March and ran with the wind.

They came back in and he was towing the boat along the beach with a rope, and she was scolding him.”

Captain Al says he found his co-worker’s address in the phone book and visited the house. When the man’s wife answered the door, Al bought the boat from her – for half price.

Al and Jo-Ann typically take about 500 to 600 passengers in a given season, most of whom are repeat customers. Cruises range in duration from two to four hours, and Captain Al makes a point of turning journeys into a fun educational experience.

“It’s a quiet, informative cruise. We tell people the area’s history. I’ve been here since 1970. I take a lot of photographs, so everyone gets their choice of souvenir postcard and a DVD slideshow that I’ve made.”

This souvenir DVD shows photos that capture the history and nature of the Okanagan, from the local parks to the business complexes to the

fi res. And although he’s quite a fan of the serenity of sailing, Al isn’t afraid to go on the odd

adventure – especially when there’s a good cause at stake.

“We’ve been doing the Vari-ety Club’s Boat for Hope since it started nine years ago,” he says. “The Yacht Club arrang-es cruises for special needs children and their caregivers. The boats are decorated like pirate ships. A lot of them have water cannons and squirt guns. Everyone dresses like a pirate. The kids all have maps, and they go from one treasure ship to the next.”

Each treasure ship contains bags of “pirate loot” – items that have been generously donated for the children. After the kids are done looting, the pirates and marauders face off in a water gun battle in City Park.

This year, Go With The Wind Cruises is expecting a busy season. Al says the com-pany already has bookings into September, and their summer season hasn’t even started yet. Locals who want to tour the lake with Captain Al and First Mate Jo-Ann will need to act fast, before that ship sails.

Local cruise company lets familiesexperience the lake like never before

GO WITH THE WIND CRUISES OFFERS A

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Rolf and Kathrin von Andrian brought their family to the Okanagan region in 2012 and it was love at fi rst sight.

As an active family, their commitment to the out-doors soon gave them ideas on how they might share this wonderful, natural experience with others.

The end result of that idea search was the cre-ation of the Myra Canyon Adventure Park, 4429 June Springs Rd., situated along the border of the Myra Bellevue Provincial Park.

That location is right at the edge of the Myra Can-yon with its famous trestles is an ideal starting point for many activities. Together with their four kids, they own and operate the park.

Many local Kelowna people might know our location. It was in the media for years with so many nasty stories.

A local group of weirdos kept RCMP busy for years: Shootings, burnt down RVs with a dead wom-an, underground container as grow ops, people hunt-

ing trespassing hikers with heavy guns, threatening neighbours, buried ammunition, underground storages and endless garbage.

But that is all ancient history now. The von Andri-ans have developed a recreational park that includes a variety of activities such as climbing, slack lining and disc golf in a natural environment setting.

The Kinder Course offers a family activity, a series of rope harnessed obstacle challenges attached to trees with safety netting below all the obstacle elements.

These netted courses feature scaled and themed challenges that allow kids and their parents to climb, swing, traverse and zipline without specialized staff-ing or equipment beyond wearing a safety helmet.

For the more adventurous, the ropes and chal-lenge course options looking out over Myra Canyon under the supervision of trained guides and the proper safety equipment.

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BY ROB LINDSAY

When I fi rst talked with Patrick Wilkins – the owner, operator and tour guide from Custom Sidecar Tours in Kelow-na – I immediately liked the guy. His passion for the Okanagan was evident in the way he spoke about the scenic, rolling beauty of the Okanagan wine country.

His passion for motorcycles and sidecars was even more pronounced. Wilkins had been riding motorbikes since he was an 11 year old growing up on the Canadian prairies. The feel-ing of riding on the open road, knees in the breeze, with the wind whistling past his helmet, afforded him a certain sense of freedom he had never before imagined. Little did he know that nearly three decades later he would need to turn to that love of motorcycle riding to help heal from the deep and personal scars of war.

To set the stage for this story, we should fi rst establish that Wilkins served 20 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. He said he joined the army because the circus didn’t come to his town. He was joking of course. His military service actually started with the army and ended several years later fi ghting in Afghanistan with the Royal Canadian Air Force. There, at Kandahar Airbase, he worked as an avionics technician servicing unmanned aerial surveillance drones. He was deployed for a total of 156 days straight, under constant threat of attack,

shelled intermit-tently by a largely unseen enemy force. It was, to say the least, a stressful posting for Wilkins.

When he re-turned back home to Canada, Wilkins quickly realized he wasn’t the same man that left for Kandahar fi ve and a half months earlier. He had developed a serious case of

post- traumatic stress. That diagnosis essentially ended his military career. His wife Dorothy recognized the change in him too, and encouraged him to face the challenges head on. She made sure he got the help he needed, and they mutually decided to move from Edmon-ton to the Okanagan Valley. They made Kelowna their new home.

In September, 2013, a visit from Steve Jack, one of Patrick’s service buddies from the Ca-nadian Forces, changed his life forever.

“At the time I was doing

CUSTOMsidecar tours

A HEALING JOURNEY THROUGH

WINE COUNTRY

SIDECAR ADVENTURE ENTHUSIASTS ROB LINDSAY AND CHRISTY PHILLIPS GEAR UP FOR A SIDECAR WINE TOUR


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photography, and as you know, there are tons of wonderful photographers out here. I didn’t want to compete in that type of market because I suffer from post-traumatic stress,” he said. “I needed to fi nd something where I could work with small groups of people and do something that I love. When Steve came here we were just sitting on the deck drinking wine, like every-one does around here, trying to fi gure out how to make our fortune. All of a sudden Steve said, ‘There’s an Australian guy I saw on PBS who was doing motorcycle wine tours with a sidecar. Why don’t you try that?”

It was like a light bulb of in-spired thought turned on above

Patrick’s head. He realized they had just discovered something he could do that combined three of his loves: photography, motor-cycles and the beauty of the Okanagan Valley. That little gem of inspiration would lead to the birth of one of the Okanagan’s newest adventure compa-nies, Custom Sidecar Tours in Kelowna.

Patrick and Dorothy began researching sidecars and motor-cycles to fi nd the best combi-nation to offer a quiet, stable, comfortable ride. They chose to go with the Honda Gold Wing GL1800 and the Champion Daytona 2X2 convertible soft-top sidecar with enough trunk space for three cases of wine,

to accommodate any bottle purchases along the way. The sidecar itself can accommodate two riders comfortably.

“We chose the quieter Gold Wing because we didn’t want our guests to have the Harley Davidson experience with the rumbling growl of the engine. We wanted our guest to have the Okanagan experience,” he said.

And that Okanagan expe-rience can be anything you want it to be – and at your own pace. From visiting wineries to stopping at quaint breakfast hideaways, art galleries and everything in between, Patrick and Dorothy can help you co-create the vacation adven-ture of your dreams.

Even area residents can get in on the fun and excitement of sidecar adventuring.

“Some of the locals that we’ve taken on tours have said the sidecar adventure

has given them a whole new appreciation for where we live. The same roads they’ve driven countless times begin to take on a whole new meaning,” Dor-othy said. “You look at things in a completely different way. You’re low to the ground with the open air all around you. In the fall you can even smell the ripening apples and the blos-soms. We have so many differ-ent micro-climates you can feel the temperature shift from one spot to another. It’s really quite magical and amazing.”

But perhaps the most magical and amazing aspect of Custom Sidecar Tours is the effect it has had on Patrick Wilkins. For a few hours a day when he’s out riding his motorcycle and sharing the Okanagan with his guests, he’s far removed from the stress he felt serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. He is free.

PATRICK WILKINS


Hours of fun for the whole family!Family Farm Tours run daily

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A MUSICAL TATTOO IS A DEMONSTRATION OF MILITARY DRUMMING, PIPING AND SKILLS

The Delta Police Pipe Band will be one of the headliners at the annual Okanagan Military Tattoo taking place July 25 and 26 at Vernon’s Kal Tire Place.

“The directors of the Okana-gan Military Tattoo Society are very pleased to have a band of this calibre attend the tattoo,” said OMT society president Norm Crerar.

“Following our highly suc-cessful inaugural tattoo in 2014,

we promised the public that we would recruit world class bands and performers to future tattoos. Being able to secure a pipe band like the Delta Police Band means we are keeping that promise.”

The Delta Police Pipe Band was founded in 1971 and consists of 33 pipers and 22 drummers.

The band proudly represents the Delta Police Department and the Corporation of Delta at home

and around the world.The band had the ultimate

honour of sharing the stage with Sir Paul McCartney and his band during their On the Run tour in front of 40,000 fans at Vancou-ver’s BC Place stadium.

The band performed Wings’ classic Mull of Kintyre with Sir Paul as part of his encore.

The Delta Police Pipe Band has performed at events around the world including 11 sold out shows at the 2009 Basel Tattoo in Switzerland, the Netherlands Tattoo in 2007, Virginia in 2006 and Germany in 2013.

The Okanagan Military Tattoo Society is currently in talks with several other regimental bands and both local and international groups, with more announce-ments on the tattoo lineup expected early in the new year.

The Okanagan is home to two kinds of tattoos:

The one your father warned you about, and the one with doz-ens of dancers, drums, bands, bagpipes and kilts all on a single stage.

A musical tattoo is a demon-stration of military drumming, piping and skills. It’s called a ‘tattoo’ because when the British Army was fi ghting in Belgium 300 years ago, soldiers were called in from the pubs each night for curfew, or Doe den tap toe, Dutch for ‘Turn off the tap’.

The expression evolved—to tap-too and then tattoo: an exhilarating showcase of military bands, choirs and skills as well as the sounds and dances of today’s fi nest performers from around the world.

It’s a musical extravaganza of pipers, drummers, musicians, military bands, marching troops, multicultural dancers and sing-ers of all ages brought together in an action packed, non-stop choreographed two-hour event. Featuring over 400 performers from all over North America paying tribute to our military past and present.

Tickets for the July 25 and 26 Okanagan Military Tattoo are now on sale at the Ticket Seller at 250-549-7469, www.tickeseller.ca. The Delta Police Pipe Band will be one of the headliners at the annual Okana-gan Military Tattoo taking place July 25 and 26 at Vernon’s Kal Tire Place.

A musical extravaganza

special features - discover summer 2015

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