Travels: Penticton, BC's Fruit and Vegetable Stands and a stop at Summerland Sweets and Sleeping Giant Store

We are back from our vacation and pangs of sorrow are kicking in.

It certainly doesn't help that we came home to damp, frigid temperatures. I spent a week, soaking up the heat radiating from the sun rays, with the hot, grainy sand squishing through my toes and curling up with a good book under an umbrella with beautiful scenery surrounding me, without a drip of responsibility calling me. Sounds like paradise, doesn't it? Sure beats my day today, or more correctly, sure beats any day.

We spent an entire week on the beaches of Pentiction. We rented a house that was literally a stone's throw from the beach. I have never, ever been able to just lounge on the beach for an entire day (no, I'm not a Type-A but more a very busy Type-B personality) much less an entire week but I must of really needed to fill my energy tank reserves.



Taking short breaks from the beach, we made excursions to BC's plentiful fruit and vegies stands. Penticton itself didn't have any of these stands (imagine my surprise), instead hosting a farmer's market once a week, thus, we found ourselves driving out to Summerland or Naramata to take in fresh fruit and vegetables.

We filled our baskets with ripe, tart plums and fat, juicy peaches. BBQ grilled corn on the cob and sweet, ruby-red tomatoes paid visits to our dinner plates often this week.

On one trip out, we paid a visit to Brian and Elsa, from our very memorable stay at the Glenoka bed and breakfast last year and left with the most succulent blackberries I have ever eaten in my entire life. I kid you not, if you can imagine what ambrosia from the gods tastes like, then you got a pretty close idea of what these blackberries did for my tastebuds with every pop into my mouth. Heaven. Sweet, tantalizing heaven.

One cannot go through Summerland without paying a visit to Summerland Sweets and the Sleeping Giant Wine Store. Numerous jars of fruit jams, syrups and honey were bought up so to be enjoyed throughout our chilly winters here in Edmonton. Not to mention bottles of fruit wines that were purchased but also imbibed during our week stay too.

Don't you wish you could have an al fresco lunch or dinner in that above orchard? How divine.

The Okanogan is truly a glorious piece of paradise in Canada. I just wished I lived closer to it.