We enjoyed our visit to the Okanagan so much in April that we decided to make a return visit in late August. The trip started off a little shaky with a two hour delay to our flight to Vancouver, due to mechanical problems with the incoming flight.

It was very late when we arrived in Vancouver, but we had built an extra day into our schedule to protect against exactly this sort of thing. And on Friday we drove from Vancouver to Summerland, on Lake Okanagan. It is a full day drive, but not a ridiculous drive – about 5 hours.

Some of the scenery is stunning, though it was cloudy so you couldn’t see all that much at times.

Our first stop today was at Arrowleaf winery. We arrived shortly after they opened at 11am to be sure we could get their legendary cream puffs.

It is a fabulous location with lovely views.

They have a lovely patio where you can eat the cream puffs along with snacks.

And of course, the wine tasting.

And then it was off to Spearhead, which was recently named the top winery in Canada, for our second tasting.

With the recent award, Spearhead is getting a lot more tastings than they have in the past, so we ended up in the overflow tasting room.

When I say “overflow” I really mean it. It was basically the wine storage area.

It was perfect. We love this personal touch when things get complicated and they have to get creative. And we were even treated to an unexpected bonus tasting of an older Chardonnay from the owner’s cellar. It was the perfect end to our first day.