Labour-Day Weekend in Vernon

The original plan was to depart on Saturday. We even booked the VRBO for Saturday and Sunday night. But ... by the time the weather in the lower mainland cleared up, the weather in Vernon turned to thunderstorms. So we flew to Qualicum beach for a picnic dinner instead.

Sunday morning turned out beautiful at both ends of the trip - and smooth windless air to boot. So at 7 AM we were off ... climbing out over Alouette lake (only way to out-climb the mountains while still staying out of Vancouver Center's hair) and flew the direct route to Vernon. Beautiful flight across Harrison lake, over the Cascades, across the Thompson Plateau, and arriving over Okanogan lake to make the steep descent over Beachcomber bay straight in to Vernon airport. Janine greased it on to Runway 05.

With the early morning pre-flight rush, we hadn't had much breakfast - so the first order of business in Vernon was lunch! Shelly and dad picked us up and we directly to Red Robin.

By the time we had finished lunch, we knew that the weather on Monday may not allow us the return trip. We briefly even considered returning the same day - but that wasn't going to work either. Since we had wasted our Saturday night at the VRBO and only had the 1 night (Sunday) left. But the generous host allowed us to spend Monday night in lieu of the Saturday we missed. Very kind of him.

So we visited Kin beach at the East end of Beachcomber bay. Despite out swimwear being back at the VRBO, Janine and I got into the water - clothes on! Zeus even came in - although not by choice.

We hosted dinner that night at the VRBO - Chinese takeout. Was really nice.

Shelly went to work early, and Dad took us to Denny's for breakfast. Not so nice! But afterwards, we drove up to Armstrong to a short visit. Was a beautiful drive - and we got to see where Shelly grew up. In Armstrong we got out of the car briefly for a walk in a local park. After David took a short nap, we headed back to the beach - walking there this time. Janine sat in a couple of Adirondack chairs that were too big, and David went into the water despite it being too cold. Janine and Zeus wisely watched from a safe distance.

We were now a day behind schedule and needed to get home - we both had work - the holiday ended yesterday! So we set out for the airport at 6:30 AM.

The weather in Vernon was perfect: clear skies, light winds, unlimited visibility. But the lower mainland was under an overcast layer that was also blocking the canyon routes. So we elected to fly as far as Merritt to stop and re-asses the weather options.

Was a beautiful flight to Merritt. After 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get into the pilot lounge for a pee and call to Flight-Service, we worked out the plan: fly along the Nicola valley to Lytton where we could get under the 5000-foot overcast and fly the Fraser Canyon to Pitt Meadows. This roundabout route was necessary because of the overcast and also because of huge areas of airspace that were closed for fire-fighting. In the end, the 1.5 hour trip back to Pitt Meadows turned into a 3-hour roundabout voyage. But smooth the whole way.