tourism Archives - Curiously Carmen

Travel Diaries: Horseback riding in Kelowna (Pegasus Riding School & Trail Rides)

May 21, 2015

Greetings everyone!

I’m continuing my travel journal today, with what I did during my second day in the beautiful city of Kelowna!

One of the top things that we wanted to do in Kelowna was horseback riding. Prior to the trip, I had done some research and narrowed it down to a small, horseback riding company due to the significantly lower price they offered.

We went with Pegasus Riding School & Trail Rides, which was about a 30 minute drive from the main part of Kelowna, on the other side of Okanagan Lake. You have to take some small, windy roads up a mountain to get there, but the reward is that the view is a bit nicer from up top.

A one hour ride was $40, compared to most places in central Kelowna that were around $60-80 a hour. So much cheaper! To some people, it may be a bit out of the way but we didn’t mind driving a bit extra. The only thing we didn’t like was that we weren’t able to book a reservation, so our plans were up in the air until the day before.

They also only take requests through the traditional telephone (no text or online booking), so you’ll have to call the owner and let them know which day you want and time. Even if you tell them, they can’t guarantee that time for you and tell you to wait and see if other customers call. If others call for the same time, they’ll open the spot up but if not, unfortunately you’ll have to find another time.

This got a bit tedious but oh well, we were able to save money!
After giving you a helmet and riding boots, you’re on your way! One person from Pegasus leads the way, I really liked our guide that day.

Monkey was the slowest horse in the entire group, so we were pretty behind most of the time. He also has to stay in the back because our guide told us that one of their white horses loved to bite Monkey in the back during trail rides. Now, Monkey does not like white horses or behind in front of any other horses – poor guy! Nonetheless, I really liked him – he was a very sweet, shy, and gentle horsey =)
After around 30 minutes of riding, we reached the view point! I’m glad that the weather was cooperating with us, so we had a nice clear view of West Kelowna and Okanagan lake.

Some tips I would give to others would be to wear comfortable, stretchy pants. Your legs may be sore as they get stretched out due to how wide the horse’s body is. Also, as the horse trots along, your body bounces up and down a bit so you may end up with a sore lower back as you try to balance. Personally, I was okay though!

Afterwards, we went to explore West Kelowna’s winery region, the Westside wine trail. The most popular one there is the famous Mission Hill winery, but we didn’t really have a great experience. It was too busy and staff weren’t that friendly.

Our personal favourite from the Westside region was Quail’s Gate. It wasn’t as busy as Mission Hill but had fantastic service, and one of their wines was served with chocolate – yum!!! My favourite part was the view though. They have a big, grassy hill for visitors to relax in and soak in the beautiful Okanagan view, which is what I certainly did.

Have you been horseback riding before? How did you like it?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Travel Diaries: Winetasting & Hiking in Kelowna

May 20, 2015

I just came back from a nice little getaway to the beautiful city of Kelowna and had the idea to attempt travel blogging. I’ve never really done this before but I do follow my awesome friend’s travel blog, so I figured I would give this a try.

For those who don’t know, Kelowna is a small city located around 4 hours away from Vancouver, in the same province (British Columbia). It is a pretty easy drive up as you just follow the highway. This city is situated in the interior region of BC, otherwise known as the Okanagan Valley.

The Okanagan Valley is very well known for the beautiful Okanagan Lake which I couldn’t take my eyes off of and the beautiful summer weather, which in turns produces their famous fresh and delicious fruits. In particular, Kelowna is well known for their tremendous amount of wineries and outdoor activities! It is the perfect place to come and enjoy the great outdoors!
I don’t normally go hiking, but one of my best friends who lived here for 4 years recommended that we hike up to Knox Mountain. I’m glad that we went in the early afternoon, because by the time we were done the hike, the sun was directly on top of us and it was getting really hot. The hike up to the first viewpoint took around 15 minutes, and was pretty easy. There was some slight uphill, but nothing that bad.

From there, we saw signs leading to the Paul’s Tomb hike, and decided to follow that instead of going to the second viewpoint at Knox Mountain. The hike to Paul’s Tomb was a lot easier because there wasn’t much uphill, and a lot of gradual downhill! It took us around 30 minutes at a leisurely pace to get to Paul’s Tomb.

When we got to Paul’s Tomb, I was in awe at how beautiful the view was. The trail was pretty quiet, and we were the only ones there which was something I really appreciated about a smaller city like Kelowna.

We sat here for awhile, absorbing the beautiful view that was Okanagan Lake and the surrounding mountains. Waves gently brushing over the rocks, a gentle cool lake breeze gave us a break from the hot sun, and clear water.

The walk back took more effort than the getting there, but it was so worth it! We took shelter and cooled off whenever the sun would get hidden behind the fluffy white clouds. There was slight uphill as the walk there is downhill, so you do get a bit of a workout. As someone who doesn’t hike often, I certainly felt it in my calves and hamstrings after finishing the hike.

After a quick lunch, we were off to our first wine tasting! There are five main winery regions in Kelowna, which can be found on the online pamphlet or in the wineries themselves. We decided to go to the Lake Country region first. I recommend having a car in Kelowna, as many of the wineries are in secluded, hidden areas. Also, a map – we got lost a few times with all the winding off-roads!

Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of all the wineries as I hadn’t thought of blogging about this trip until afterwards =( My favourite winery in Lake Country was Arrowleaf! The inside had a nice, modern, clean design and had floor to ceiling windows. They also had a nice grassy area for a picnic or a patio where you can enjoy their wine.
This is the view from Grey Monk winery. All the wineries that we went to had breathtaking views of Okanagan Lake! The Lake Country region had around 6 different wineries, we went to 3 of the wineries. At most, wineries in the same region are no more than a 15 minutes drive away from each other but usually less than 7 minutes.

Never been wine tasting?

Worry not! When you arrive at the winery, one of the workers will approach you and ask if you’re interested in sampling some wine. Some wineries charge a small fee (I remember the ones we went to ranged from $3-$8), but sometimes they waive the fee if you purchase a bottle of wine from them. Others offer complementary tasting.

Then, they give you a small menu with all the different types of wine that is available for sampling, it can vary from day to day. Most places limit you to four samples. You will start with the lighest wines (typically the whites and rose) and move on to the heavier wines. This method works better for your taste palette.

Wine tasting goes by pretty fast! In each winery, we completed the wine tasting in under ten minutes and spent the rest of the time walking outside, enjoying the view, or checking out the products on sale.

Where did we stay?

We found a nice, comfortable place on AirBNB! It was very centrally located and convenient. Our host was wonderful and the place was readily stocked with all the necessities plus minor little details. We chose to go with AirBNB instead of a hotel mainly because Kelowna hotels cost significantly more in the summer due to the influx of tourists and were all sold out already, and because we wanted a full kitchen in case we decided to cook.

Thanks for reading! Stay posted on more wine tastings, horseback riding, and an outdoor high ropes/obstacle course!

-Carmen

Bon Macaron Patisserie

February 11, 2015

Hi everyone!

Maki hopped on a ferry to Victoria over the long weekend, and surprised me with a box of macarons from Bon Macaron Patisserie! I’ve never heard of them as I’ve only been to Victoria once for a high school field trip, and also because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I also don’t understand the crazy macaron phase that everyone obsesses about but to each their own =)

But enough of me rambling on, I’ll get to what you are all here for =)

First off, can we talk about how cute their mascot is?! It’s a French sir macaron hehehe! After browsing through their site, I learned that Bon Macaron is owned by two good pals who were born, raised, and educated in France, before settling down and opening their store in downtown Victoria.
Inside the mini box were six assorted flavours! They looked so cute and dainty. Maki picked out random flavours for me, but avoided their savoury macaron section. At first, I was a bit disappointed hearing that because I’m sure you all know how much I love my savoury foods over sweets! But she told me they were pretty disappointing and some were really gross, so I guess savoury macaron flavours don’t go well together.
They were all so cute that I couldn’t help putting them all on a plate and making it look nice. Macarons unite! Since we both didn’t know what all the flavours were in the box, I was left to taste test each one and figuring out which flavour it was based on their website. I think I did pretty well, there were only two that I couldn’t figure out exactly but good thing my friend remembered.
The first one I tried was the tangerine chili, it even had sparkles on it if you look closely or open the image in a separate window! I hope that the sparkles are safe for consumption LOL! I loved how this wasn’t too sweet and had a custard filling inside, there also wasn’t much of a chili taste which I preferred. Yum!

When I first bit into the second macaron, my thoughts and taste buds went from weird -> yummy -> weird -> yummy -> I’m not sure how I feel about this anymore. Originally, there was a strong spicy cinnamon and chai taste to it. Then, it started to taste like bananas. I really enjoyed the banana part, but I wasn’t a fan of the strong cinnamon taste. This was either the chai or banana flambe macaron, it seemed like it was a mix of both flavours.
Up next was the chocolate pear, I didn’t see this on the menu but my friend remembered the flavour. I didn’t taste the pear, only the chocolate. They use a dark chocolate filling, so it wasn’t super sweet. I enjoyed this one as well =)

The light pink one was the raspberry. Compared to all the other fillings I had tried so far, this one was a lot sweeter. The raspberry tasted like the candy flavour, instead of the raspberry fruit. I also noticed that the amount of filling that they give here is a lot less than at Theirry’s or Soirette, but that doesn’t bother me!

One of the classic flavours, good ol’ chocolate. If you’re looking for something original and want to keep it safe, this one is the way to go. Just like the pear chocolate above, this chocolate macaron wasn’t too sweet and tasted like it was made with dark chocolate. I liked the lightly dusted cocoa powder on top as well!

Last but not least! I had no idea what flavour this was. I wrote down mini notes on each of these because I figured I’d probably forget and all I wrote for this one was ??? LOL! However, I asked my friend and she said it was the bubble gum flavour. Now that I think of it, there was a slight hint of bubble gum, but it tasted more like a plain macaron except hot pink.

4665958_orig — Picture from EatDrinkVictoria.com

Overall, I really enjoyed the macarons and was left with a happy tummy. Each of the macarons were made with great quality and tasted great even though it had been a couple of days since my friend bought them. The outside shell was slightly hard but when you bite into them, they are soft and a bit moist and chewy. A bad macaron would be super hard, crumble, and crack, leaving you with nothing but a mess and a macaron corpse.

I only had a few small bites of each since I was planning on going to bed soon, but wanted to try them since they were still relatively fresh! I’ll finish the rest of it off today >=). It is recommended that the sweet macarons (ones that I received) should be consumed within three days, and the savoury ones to be consumed within one day.

Special thanks to my wonderful friend Pauline for being thoughtful and surprising me with these treats! =)

What are your favourite macaron places?

-Carmen

Mio Sushi, Seattle

November 9, 2014

A lazy Sunday calls for staying at home in cozy blankets, PJs, and watching Netflix while eating a disgusting amount of corn nuts. Oh, and catching up on blogging too of course. Apart from Toulouse, we also stopped by and tried Mio sushi on a whim. Our result to Mio was a result of indecisiveness, hunger, and convenience.

It was quite sad that after arriving in Seattle for a mere 28 hours, I was already missing and craving Asian noodles. In particular, I was craving udon soup as well so we set out on what would be a thirty minute indecisiveness, constant scrolling on Urbanspoon until we found Mio. There were other places as well, but we didn’t want to drive and we also didn’t want to spend a lot of money in the downtown core.

We were pleasantly surprised at how fast of a walk Mio was from our hotel! I was a bit iffy on walking there because the streets were pretty dark and we had to pass a big dark, unlit park which has probably seen better days… but I was assured that it would be safe to walk, turns out it was a pretty nice day for a brief stroll.

This location of Mio was located right outside of the downtown core, in the South Lake Union neighbourhood. The area looked pretty new, nice, and trendy. Kind of reminded us a bit of Yaletown but more commercial. We were the only customers when we came in around 8:30 pm.
As mentioned, I knew what I was going to order before stepping in. They had a seafood and nabeyaki udon. I got the nabeyaki udon ($9 usd) since it was cheaper than the seafood udon, and all I really wanted was just udon. It came in a cute stone bowl with a handle, and I was warned the bowl was very hot. I would have liked the tempura on the side because it got really soggy, but it was good nonetheless.

There were also some pan fried string beans, but it got pretty soggy and didn’t taste super fresh. Apart from those two very minor hiccups, this bowl of udon was exactly what I wanted, and was delicious. The broth was very flavourful, and a tad salty. It came with perfectly cooked and a decent amount of udon noodles, and imitation crab meat. I liked how there was a lot of seafood as well, it was a good addition as well as the fresh green onion garnishes.
The boyfriend ordered the Gyu ramen. The ramen was really disappointing. It lacked flavour, depth, and was very plain. Perhaps we were just used to amazing ramen in Vancouver, but this bowl was not appetizing. He also mentioned that the ramen noodles tasted like instant noodles… yikes.

To split, we ordered the salmon and yellowtail roll. Yellowtail roll is the same as negitoro roll, it confused us at first. Both rolls were very fresh and flavourful, pretty decent. The price was a bit steeper than we were used to for a casual Japanese joint at $4.75 USD per roll, but we did enjoy the freshness of it so we didn’t mind.

The rolls and udon were satisfying and delicious, but I wish we could say the same about the ramen. Service was pretty attentive, fast, and nice (well then again, we were the only customers in the restaurant!). Mio looked very clean, new, and had hints of pink accents throughout the restaurant. This looked like a place that would be really busy during lunch hours on the weekdays, but it was very quiet that night and they closed early after we finished eating. It was a good and convenient place to grab a quite bite since we were in the neighbourhood.

Toulouse Petite Kitchen Lounge (Seattle)

November 6, 2014

I was also down in the States last weekend, and although I was hoping to have some quiet time to relax in my hotel room and blog, it didn’t quite happen. This time around, we decided that we wanted to try different restaurants that Seattle had to offer other than just the restaurant chains we were used to (I’m looking at you, Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs). Yes, they are delicious and reputable restaurants, but I wanted to try places that were only offered in Seattle.

One of the places that we wanted to try on our visit here last month was Toulouse, but we didn’t get the chance to. This time, we made sure that we would check this place out! We were also quite fortunate, as our hotel was a mere 10 minute walk away (if we didn’t get lost, that is.. but in my defense, we didn’t have a physical map or data on our cell phones to find it).

After walking around the Queen Anne neighbourhood for a bit, I knew that we had reached the restaurant when I saw tons of late brunchers waiting outside a dark/lime green-ish building. I braved the crowd and asked for a table of two. We were told that the wait was going to be 35-40 minutes. WHAT?! Since we were set on trying this place and we wanted a seemingly delicious lunch, we sucked it up and walked around Queen Anne a bit before coming back to wait in line.

After 35 minutes of waiting, we were seated at a big and high communal table, with 4-6 other brunchers sharing the space with us. The colouring and decor of the wall gave it a very rustic and homey feeling, despite the high ceilings. The liquor cabinet was definitely something to be marveled at though, look at how extensive their collection was!

But it was too early for alcohol and I had already bought a smoothie while waiting in line earlier. The boyfriend was very impressed with the intricate detailing of our tables, known as wood inlay. With his carpentry background, he knew and appreciated the about of labour and effort that went into what (to me, at least) looked like a seemingly basic painted wood design on the table. Needless to say, we were very impressed with the decor and ambiance.
Another thing to note about Toulouse is that it has won numerous awards and was featured a couple of times on The Food Network (!!!!!). We had absolutely no idea until we were reading the menu. That explains the long waits and high ratings!

Toulouse is rated one of the Top 5 Restaurants in America by Trip Advisor. That is crazy, I had noo idea and it just made our restaurant trip even better. At that point, the boyfriend decided to order two entrees because he couldn’t decide, and it wasn’t often that we ate in one of the “top” restaurants in USA LOL.
Snake River Farms Kurobota Ham Egg Benedict ($14). I thoroughly enjoyed the smoky flavour of the ham, which was a bit salty as well. The ham was very light and carved really thin. The yolk oozed perfectly onto the ham and english muffin. The hash was seasoned very well and very filling. I’m not a huge hollandaise fanatic, but I do appreciate a delicious hollandaise sauce, this one was no different. It went very well with the smoky and thin texture of the ham. This dish takes second place out of the three entrees.

This was the entree that I finally decided on, the Spicy Creole Andouille Hash ($14). First off, my eggs were perfect and ahhhhh-maaazing. It was cooked perfectly in the way that the yolk slowly oozed out, encompassing all of the hash, sausages, and veggies underneath. I was very impressed and happy at how perfect it went. As for the hash, tasso, housemade andouille sausage, peppers and tomato confit underneath, I enjoyed it as well but found the taste of the red pepper taste to be a bit overpowering. It was my first time trying andouille sausage, a Southern classic. I wouldn’t mind trying it again. There was a lot going on in this dish, but every ingredient complemented each other perfectly, bringing together a very dynamic Creole dish. The fresh green onions on top was the cherry on top of a great dish.

My favourite plate, hands down, of the day. We found ourselves constantly thinking about this dish even after we had finished it on our stroll back. Cured Pork Cheeks Confit Hash ($15), featured on The Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” TV show. Was it the best thing I ever ate? It certainly came close. The cured pork cheeks was SO GOOD, it was very tender and melted in your mouth, packed with flavour. Mixing in the ooey yolk, hash, arugula, and other vegetables, it was love at first bite.

I love my hearty Southern food because of how savoury and comforting it is. Would I wait 35 minutes again in line? Yes. From the friendly service, intricate decor, and delicious southern food, I am very glad we made the stop here on our trip.