Back from vacation


Oh we got a new computer but it’s quite a disappointment


‘Cause it always gave this same insane advice:


“Oh you need
Little Teeny Eyes for reading little teeny print


like you need little teeny hands for milking mice.”

Tom Digby

We’ve been back from vacation for a week now, but I haven’t successfully
caught up with life, including the chance to update my blog. I have
many, many pictures to edit, some of which may actually be worth the
effort, but haven’t gotten the round tuit yet — someday….

Vacation words

The Murky Nooz was actually to blame for our choice of vacation destination. Back on April 1, they ran an article in the Travel section whose first sentence really caught my eye: “Have you ever spent six hours at a fruit stand?” The fruit stand in question was
Gatzke’s Fruit Stand in Oyama, British Columbia, but the article was more about the whole Okanagan Valley, and it sounded like it’d be a nice change of pace from our usual urban vacations. And we thought it’d be nice to vacation with Diane’s brother and his wife somewhere other than their place or ours, so we suggested it to them. And they agreed.

We found decent fares to Seattle and decided to drive from there — and also decided that an all-relaxing vacation would be too much of a shock, so we also booked time in Vancouver and Victoria.

Time passed, and suddenly we found ourselves at SFO, waiting for our Shuttle flight to Seattle. And trying to change our seat assignments — United had kindly put us in an exit row, which is slightly illegal if you’re under 15, as Jeffrey is. But they were very disorganized and couldn’t figure out any way to get us out of the exit row and yet keep us together, so Jeffrey wound up a couple of rows ahead of us. He survived, as did we.

I made the mistake of trusting Microsoft’s computer routing from Seattle to Kelowna (a big city in the Okanagan, and the one where we were staying, at the
St. Andrews Bed and Breakfast) and got off of I-5 at least one exit early, so we had an interesting time finding our way, but we eventually persevered. But between arriving in Seattle a couple of hours late (thanks, United!) and getting slightly delayed on the road, we didn’t get to the B&B until 11pm, well after our hosts would normally have been asleep. But we were greeted warmly and shown to our rooms, which were quite comfortable.

The next morning, we set off for the fruit stand, to see if it lived up to its billing. But first, we wanted to see the
O’Keefe Ranch in Vernon, where they just happened to be having the Cowboy Festival and Wild West Show — an interesting experience, at least for us California tenderfeet.

So how was the fruit stand? Well, we didn’t spend six hours there. But we did spend an hour poking around, wandering through the orchard, and enjoying the atmosphere.