Holy moly, it’s been a crazy few weeks. I can’t believe we’ve been married 2 weeks already! Time is flying! But as you can imagine, we were really in need of a little getaway after the wedding. Planning a wedding is hectic! Especially that last week leading up to the day. Thank god I was able to get that extra week off beforehand to sort out final details. I was lucky enough to also get a whole week off work after the wedding, so we made sure to take advantage of the time by planning a “mini-moon”. Ken hates it when I call it that because it sounds like we get two honeymoons since we are taking our official honeymoon sometime next year, but I figured since this getaway to the Okanagan wasn’t our actual honeymoon, it would be called our Minimoon! Ok, that’s the last time I’ll say it. Ken is rolling his eyes by now, haha.
We knew when we started to plan this little getaway that we wanted something super relaxing, close to home (it’s about a 4.5 hour drive away) and not too expensive. We had just put on a huge party for 70 people, after all! The Okanagan ticked all the boxes. I spent my summers growing up in the Okanagan so I knew it would make the perfect post-nuptial trip.
We ended up settling on a little spot called Naramata. Just outside of Penticton. It’s known for its wineries, like most towns in the Okanagan, but they are all a quick bike ride away from one another, which is prefect if you plan on tasting a little more than your driving limit would permit 🙂
The place we booked for our 4 nights away was called The Naramata heritage Inn & Spa. We picked right on this one. It’s an adults only, quiet boutique hotel located a stones throw from the water. It was incredibly quiet in this place. Birds chirping, no T.V’s, all on this well kept heritage home.
We spent most mornings on this porch after breakfast (which was delicious and complimentary!), with our coffees in hand. Ken would read a book and I’d listen to the birds (and the very loud town peacock – yes, a wandering peacock!), trying to take it all in and really letting my brain relax for the first time in what felt like months. I tell you, I haven’t slept as well as I did here in a long, long time.
When in wine country, you taste allllll the wine. If wine tasting was a sport, I think we came in 1st place most days, haha. I think we came home with about a case and a half of wine. All of which was carried by Ken in his backpack while riding his bike up and down the hills of Naramata. What are new husbands for? Carrying your tasty wine home for you of course 🙂
One of our most tipsy afternoons took place on Aikens Loop. It’s a small loop of wineries that the locals call “the loop” consisting of about 4 wineries. One of my favourites is called Elephant Island, which makes mostly fruity wines and dessert wines – YUM!
We strategically planned to visit this spot in the photos (called Joie), last because they served fire roasted pizza. We figured by the time we got there, we would be in need of some solid and salty food in our bellies. And we certainly did. The bikes were getting pretty difficult to ride by this point.
When the lakes edge is a just a few minutes from your doorstep, you grab your favourite bottle and head down for a dip as frequently as possible 🙂
The best way to keep the white wines cold.
The Naramata region very quickly stole our hearts on this trip. I can’t wait to get back there. We were so lucky with the weather while visiting as well. Unfortunately, the area is suffering from many, many forest fires at the moment, so the day we arrived, we could hardly see the lake due to smoke that had travelled our direction. Luckily the wind picked up, and blew most of the smoke away from where we were staying within a day or so. The view across the lake is pretty breathtaking, when it isn’t flooded with smoke.
On the Wednesday, Ken had urged me to pay a visit to the Spa in the hotel. I took a quick look through the pamphlet and decided I actually preferred to spend the money on an activity for the both of us. We made a few calls around town to water sport shops and booked ourselves in for 2 seadoos for the afternoon. As usual, we arrived far too early for our appointment, so we made our way over to the local brewery. Leave it to Ken to find the local brew. We had time for a few quick flights and a cheese board before making our way to the sports shop.
We have rented seadoos many times now and it never gets old! I feel like a kid on those things! We made sure to book the fastest ones they had, hopped on and away we went! We made it about half way down the lake before needing a dip in the lake. So we unplugged the power from the seadoos and jumped off the back of them! If you follow my Instagram stories (follow HERE), you would have seen Ken’s terrible dive off the back of his. I have tried to teach him how to properly dive for years with no success, haha!
It’s amazing how time flies when you are on these things. We realized we only had about 15 minutes left to get back to the shop when we were still wayyyyyyyy out on the lake. We were shocked because it felt like we had only been out about 10 minutes! We had to go full throttle all the way back and thankfully made it back with 1 minute to spare in our rental.
Our last night there we decided we would make an effort and put ourselves together. All the other days I was bare faced, in top knot ponytails and in the same clothes over and over again. I actually really loved it. But by the 4th day, I was ready to get some curls in my hair and splash of make up on.
Most mornings at the hotel, we had the dinning room to ourselves. Since we were there Monday to Friday, the hotel was nearly empty. We sat an enjoyed our complimentary breakfast while making plans (or lack there of!) for the day. Most days Ken loaded up on pastries which he had REALLY been missing during his wedding cleanse that he started up about 4 weeks before we said “I do”.
One of our afternoons we had planned to go for a nature hike that the hotel had recommend to us. But just as we were about to enter the trail, a group leaving said there was a brown bear cub just a few minutes walk away. Where there is a cub, a very protective momma bear is near by. I wasn’t exactly dressed in clothing that would allow my the best chance of surviving an angry bear attack, so we decided to hop back in the car and head to the nearest winery instead. We were both pretty bummed we chickened out, but at least I live to see another day!
After our failed attempted of a hike, we ended up at Forgotten Hill Winery. We were the only ones there and took a few extra moments at the end of the tasting to enjoy the view at the top of the hill. It almost looked fake!
One of the wineries we visited had a very unique tasting experience in which we got to go behind the bar and select a glass to drink from! True to our personalities, Ken choose his glass in about 2 seconds and I probably took a full minutes to decide. I think the owner that was giving us the tasting was regretting letting me choose my own glass. But for as long as I can remember, I’ve always had trouble making a decision.
Well, in a nut shell, that was our little getaway after our wedding! The following Monday was back to work and real life! Cue the wedding blues! Big time!
Soon the wedding photos will come flooding in, so stay tuned for those. But I do have a few of them up on my Instagram (HERE) if you want a sneak peak 🙂
Xo, Andrea
That roadtrip must had been an awesome experience!:) I usually don't drink a lot alc' but I use wine for many dishes too (so I cook with it like people in France:) but I'm sure, that it would be a waste to use some of this delicate wines for cooking:)). NIKA
Yes it was beautiful! I don't know why we don't visit more often, it's almost in our own backyard! 🙂