Kelowna was on our itinerary for the road trip we did in the USA and Canada a few years ago. We spent five days here visiting my very good friend Lynn. It had been a few years since we had all seen each other.

Kelowna is a city in British Columbia and is situated in the Okanagan Valley which is known for its pine forests, vineyards and orchards.

We travelled from Vancouver in a hire car, which foolishly we had left until the last minute thinking that we could do it the day before! Also we wanted the car to drive onto the Rockies after and to drop it off in Calgary. We found out that this wasn’t something every car hire place did. So we spent a fair bit of time trying to find somewhere that did this, paying quite a bit for the one way route.

The journey takes around seven hours plus stopping time, we arrived in time for dinner!

Some of the photos I took along the way

Over the next few days we explored all around Kelowna. One thing that surprised me here were the amount of homeless people around. At first I thought they were backpackers but then wondered why they would take a dog with them! I found out that they collected more money if they had a dog with them. We would always keep loose change in our pockets to add to their caps and tins. Anthony would always have a word or two with them to find out their story, most of them were homeless involuntarily but we came across the odd few who chose this way of life.

From our walk up Knox Mountain, I didn’t manage it to the top but Anthony did. Views over Okanagan Lake and the town of Kelowna.

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O’Keefe Ranch

We spent a fun day at O’Keefe Ranch with Lynn’s parents one day, a drive not too far from Kelowna. The ranch was founded in 1867 by Cornelius O’Keefe. Everything here has been very well preserved and there is a lovely restaurant for lunch.

All too soon our trip to Kelowna was over but not the road trip! After this we drove onto The Rockies.

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