Okanagan Valley

From Lake Chelan, we continue north up Washington's Okanogan Valley (in BC, it appears to be pretty much the same valley, but they spell it Okanagan Valley - strange as both valleys have similar weather and both are renowned as fruit growing regions).
Both the Washington and BC valleys are surrounded by dry lands irrigated by either river or lake waters. Both grapes and fruit trees grow well in the region's climate of four distinct seasons.

The hwy cuts between dry hills and irrigated vineyards

Fruit crates stacked high for the harvests

These valleys do have a bit of quirkiness to them....

Now there's a sign I can agree with

Statues in front of a Tribe operated gas station

Wall mural in Oroville WA close to the Canadian border

As we move farther up the valley it becomes apparent that it was formed by massive glaciers.

Hills carved by Glaciers

Osoyoos Lake State Park

Finally we reach the Canadian border and even though it's the middle of a week day, we have to wait.

Cheeeeze... that's a long line to cross over the border

The boundary line

Almost there

The border agent asks several questions, some we expect, but others we don't...
Are we carrying any firearms? - no
Are we carrying any personal weapons? - only pepper spray for bears - that's ok
Are we carrying any tobacco products? - no we don't smoke
How much alcohol do we have? - a few beers and 1/2 a bottle of tequila - that's fine
Are we really "Gone for Good" or do we have a permanent address? - we have a home in California
Are we bringing any presents or goods for people in Canada - no (huh? What was that about?)

 ... BUT we weren't asked about bringing in produce, which others had warned us not to. After eating most of our fruits and veggies up, we were disappointed we did.

The beginning of the Canadian Okanagan Valley

We quickly stop at one of the many fruit stands and stock up on CHERRIES

Opps - time to start thinking in metric! We quickly scramble our brains to remember short cut tricks for kilometer and liter conversions before we have the time to download conversion apps on our phones. Good thing the Canadians all speak English, eh?

Oddly this part of the Okanagan has many Sikhs owning and operating the fruit orchards.

Sikh Temple

Sikh with daughter on a motor scooter

Road up the valley

We stop for the night at the Campalong RV Park (build in an old apricot orchard) just outside of Penticton BC which overlooks Lake Okanagan. With our temperature gauge pushing 100 degrees we are glad to jump into the park's swimming pool and crank the air conditioning to high to cool off.

A room with a view

Peter grills up meat for our dinner

Lake Okanagan