I had the pleasure of visiting Amber in Kamloops over Labor Day weekend. I don't have words to describe how fun and awesome the weekend was! It combined all of my favorite things: being active, being outdoors, spending time with a great friend, drinking delicious wine, and eating yummy food! I have a lot of pictures to share, so this will be a picture-heavy recap!
On Thursday afternoon, I flew into Kelowna, which is about 2 hours away from Kamloops. It wasn't ideal to fly into Kelowna but I just couldn't find a flight option that got me into Kamloops at a reasonable price with a reasonable number of stopovers... so I owed Amber a huge thank you for driving to get me! We took our time getting back and stopped in Salmon Arm to check out the view and stretch our legs.
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| The beautiful view in Salmon Arm |
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| Our first selfie at the end of a long day of travel! |
When we got to Amber's home, I was greeted by her pets, Webster and Chloe. Webster was particularly interested in me and proceeded to kind of stare me down for the rest of the weekend which was pretty hilarious.
On Friday morning, we were up early for a sunrise run with Chloe. Amber usually does this run with some other ladies but they all bailed! We were already up, though, so we still went and I am so glad we did as the view at sunrise was gorgeous and it such a peaceful way to start the day!
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| Amber and Chloe on the run |
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| We were rewarded with a beautiful view! |
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| Taking a selfie by the waterfall we ran to. |
After breakfast + coffee, we headed up to a ski area called Sun Peaks which is about 45 minutes from Amber. I marveled over how the landscape changed from the desert to an area with lots of pine trees in just a matter of miles. We took the chairlift up to mid-mountain and did a 7.5 mile hike which was beautiful!
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| We were at cloud-level at the peak of the summit! |
On Friday night, Eric joined us for a yummy dinner at a local restaurant. I definitely indulged by having a lettuce-wrapped burger, fries and wine, but we had earned an indulgent meal!
On Saturday morning, we went to a great hot yoga class at Amber's studio. It was such an awesome class which left me feeling like I got a great workout! After class, we hit up the farmer's market and then met up with Amber's mom and a friend for a delicious Mexican lunch.
We had talked about going kayaking that afternoon but after all the activity the day before, I really needed a low key day. So we got some cool refreshments at Starbucks and headed down to the river area where we sat on a park bench and chatted.
On Saturday night, we got take-out pizza from a great local place that had GF pizza and I got Amber hooked on my favorite show, Parenthood!
On Sunday morning, Amber, Eric and I ran an 18 km trail race. The race didn't start until 11 am so we had a low key morning at home. The race was on a beautiful trail system in Kamloops. The course was so challenging as we had quite a few climbs but we had a great time!
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| Stopping for a selfie along the way! |
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| Stopping for the photo towards the top of a never-ending climb! The views were incredible! |
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| I was SO dirty afterwards! Ignore my disgusting blistered feet/black toe nail. My poor feet! |
After the race, we ate a delicious post-race meal of grilled burgers and brats and lots of other snacky things like hummus and veggies. That's the best post-race meal I've ever seen at a race!
We headed home after the race, showered, and headed out to a local winery that was about 25 minutes from Kamloops. I did a wine tasting and then we settled on a nice bottle of white wine. We shared a charcuterie plate and each had a glass of wine on the patio which had a beautiful view! The weather was absolutely perfect!
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| Cheersing to having another race behind us! |
On Sunday evening, we made dinner, watched more Parenthood and went to bed tired and happy! On Monday, we took our time getting ready and then Amber drove me back to Kelowna for my afternoon flight back home. I was sad to say goodbye to Amber but grateful that I got to spend 5 full days with her exploring her beautiful area of British Columbia!! Hopefully we will rendezvous again in 2016 for another running adventure!
How did you spend your long weekend?
20 comments:
Sounds like a super fun trip! I'm jealous because I'd love to visit both of you in the beautiful places you live!
Oh my, what a fun, fun girls' weekend! It sounds perfect all around.... too bad time always flies when you're having fun!
Looks like you had an awesome time and what a lovely place Amber lives in. You two sure know how to pack in a lot of fun activities!
I went to the ballet on Saturday. It was A Midsummer Nights Dream and it was very entertaining, we had a great time.
You guys sure fit in a lot of things while you were there! Kamloops is a beautiful city and so glad you got to experience it and spend time with Amber :)
Great pics Lisa! Hope you're doing well. Sorry I haven't been around for awhile, but I was cleaning out my blog roll, making sure my links work and are worthy. This one's staying.
You guys really were active on that trip. I don't know how you even fit all that in! Must have been a lovely get-away, though. I love having friends in cool places :)
Miss you lots already! That was such an awesome awesome visit and I had SO MUCH FUN with you! I am always in awe that we never run out of things to talk about. I am actually watching Parenthood as I type this comment so you completely got me hooked. Can't wait to see you again in 2016, no way will we miss our yearly rendezvous now, five years and counting!!
What a beautiful trip (and beautiful girls, too). Love that she's hooked on Parenthood and that you both had such a great time together. I'm impressed by all your running/hiking. I'm pretty sure my legs would have fallen off :)
Lisa, it sounds like a perfect vacation and terrific trip. I noticed that Webster bears a distinct resemblance to another cat (or two) I am familiar with that look a lot like him! And your running and hiking is overwhelming to me but terrific. All that plus a winery and time with a good friend. I'm not sure it gets much better than that!
Such an active trip! I'm glad you had a wonderful time with Amber! :)
And 5 years of running vacations together? Wow, that's so impressive!
That was an awesome trip! You were really active, I must say, and sounds like the food was great, too! Loved the pictures!
What a fun time! So totally jealous you got to go hang out with Amber in Camloops. It's such a beautiful place.
What an amazing trip!!! Loved all the views, so gorgeous!!! I always wanted to visit Margs when she was in Kelowna! I'm super thankful she lives so much closer now though!!! Reading about all the food has definitely made me hungry!!!
You guys did a lot of moving! Looks like fun!
What an awesome trip! You guys did such fun stuff and were busy!!!
Wow! What an amazing trip!!! Full of all the things you love!!!! :) Kamloops looks absolutely incredible. She is so blessed to live there!
11 am race start - I love!! That's my kind of race start time on a weekend!
Glad you got to do this!!
What a fun trip, and so many nice views. BC is gorgeous! I'd love to retire there one day. The hubby loves Salmon Arm ... so maybe there :-)
The wine tasting sounds fun!
We spent the long weekend in Edmonton, Alberta for a music festival.
Your poor toenail! (That happens to me all the time. Soccer!) Love all of your pictures -- what a fun trip!
What a great weekend! (She says...three weeks later!)
Haha Webster is such a jerk! So glad you got to visit her and what gorgeous photos you took! Love you both!
It looks like you guys had a blast, although I'm a little jealous that I wasn't there and haven't been able to ever join in one of your meet-ups! And I can't believe that Amber hadn't watched Parenthood! You definitely did a good service by introducing her to it!
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