Kelowna/Okanaga bound - new sights and experiences

Thursday July 30,to Tuesday August 4, 2009 : With the successful swallow test behind us, Tesfaye and I were looking forward to flying up to Kelowna to join my wife Nanci and son Justin, who had driven up there on the previous Monday. As I had basically only seen Justin for half a day in the last seven weeks I was looking forward to finally spending some time with him. After our nice and short Thursday afternoon flight Nanci was there to pick us up and take us to our place at The Cove, around a half hour drive to West Kelowna. Walking out of the airport we were met with a blast of very hot air, a taste of what we were going to feel over the next five days.

Over the period of our stay Tesfaye got to experience summer life at the lake in the beautiful Okanagan. The nature of such getaways is that much of the time is spent relaxing on our patio or down by the little beach area, eating (and drinking) well, wandering around the grounds (I have learned that Tesfaye appreciates flowers), and going for the odd boat outing if the opportunity presents itself. Here is a summary of Tesfaye's Kelowna experience with us:

Boating: Our friends the Zlotniks and Glotmans, who have neighbouring units to us, were up there at the same time and had rented a boat. First I went on a preliminary test outing to watch my son Justin and his friends wakeboard and for the purpose of also determining if it may be too jarring for Tesfaye's back for him to go on a boat ride. It was great to watch the wakeboarding skills of Justin and his friends, and being on the water was also welcome relief from the extremely hot weather. That outing did convince me that Tesfaye's back could handle it, so the next day (Friday July 31) Tesfaye had a totally new experience - his first boat ride! With Garry Zlotnik, Nanci and me accompanying him. Tesfaye clearly loved the whole experience of cruising the lake on a motor boat and it was fun for us to be part of it.



Calling Tesfaye's mother in Ethiopia:
First attempt, July 31, midnight: This was a disappointing and frustrating experience. As in the past, two weeks earlier we set up a pre-arranged appointment for his mother Yeshi to make the two hour walk to the town near their village to receive our telephone call at shop owner Meheret's store, at midnight our time, Friday July 31. We called a little early and managed to get through on our first try, a rare event, but were told that his mother had not arrrived yet. By the time we could get through again after a number of failed attempts, we were told that Tesfaye's brother had shown up, but eventually left after Tesfaye's call did not come through. There was nothing we could do but set up another time, which we did for midnight Sunday August 2nd. In the meantime, perhaps to bolster our spirits, Justin proceeded to amuse us with his singing and dancing escapades and managed to get Tesfaye involved in the antics.

Second attempt, August 2nd,midnight: After meeting up with my daughter Stephanie and Brandon, Brandon's parents and friends for a lovely dinner Sunday evening at Quails Gate Winery, we got back to our place just in time for calling Ethiopia. I made countless attempts over the course of an hour before finally giving up at the insistence of Tesfaye. The frustrating part was that we succesfully got through on the mobile phone number at least four times but neither party appeared to be able to hear each other, and the couple of times the shop land line was not busy the telephone did not get answered. With both of us feeling very disappointed and my own dialing finger feeling very numb, it was time for bed.

Miniature Golf: On Saturday, August 1st, since the boat was not available, Justin, Tesfaye and me decided to go on a little (you could say miniature) outing to Kelowna to play Miniature Golf, in spite of the scorching hot temperature. This was also a first time experience for Tesfaye and it actually was quite an amusing experience for us. Tesfaye had no trouble getting the hang of it, and afterwards we also took the time to play some arcade games as a nice break from the outside heat.
Heat, Fires and Smoke: While driving to the golf place my car indicated that the outside temperature reading was a sizzling 41 degrees Celsius. I know how I commented a few weeks ago how warm and dry the weather in Vancouver had been since Tesfaye's arrival on May 20, but as they say "sometimes you can have too much of a good thing" and "be careful what you wish for". We are paying the price for the extreme heat and lack of rain in our province of BC by way of the many dangerous forest fires that have ignited and spread, causing destruction, evacuations, and huge fire fighting expenses. Approximately two weeks ago Stephanie was forced to evacuate our place at the Cove as a large fire was spreading rapidly nearby. This weekend new fires had broken out and as a result there was a definite smokey smell in the air and haze in the sky the last three days of our stay.
Flight cancellation Monday, August 3, 2009: Tesfaye and I were ready to return home on our 8 pm flight back to Vancouver and were all checked in and through security, waiting to board in a few minutes. While killing some time at Whitespot restaurant with Lis Z who was on the same flight, we thought we heard an announcement that our flight was cancelled. Sure enough, it had been cancelled due to the need to keep the flight corridors free for waterbombers battling the fires in the area. Some confusion and pandemonium broke out as people scrambled to find alternate flight arrangements; we in fact had been put on an indirect flight through Edmonton the next afternoon, which I really did not want to do and would cause extra hardship for Tesfaye. Though it was a lengthy and annoying process, in the end I managed to get both Tesfaye and I out on a direct flight to Vancouver late the next morning.