And how do you end the week of free time before the hockey school starts?

Well, as you may know from the news feeds, BC is experiencing a mammoth heat wave which in part has helped fuel a series of wildfires in our forests. As a result the boys and I awoke on Saturday to a smog filled Okanagan Valley. Even though the temperature was already into the high 20’s we decided to head out on one last bike trek into the mountains on the KVR.

The first leg was relatively benign as biking in the canyon through which Penticton Creek runs rather concealed how extensive the smoke really was. As we got to the Trail itself it was obvious that the weather & air quality warnings of the Weather Network were not “fake news”. Nevertheless we started out and did reasonably well till the Hillside Winery station. From then on, as the grade became a little steeper, it became obvious that this ride was not necessarily the best idea for either young or old lungs — especially those intending on embarking on a fairly grueling six days of hockey camp. A couple of kms beyond the stop it was decided to call it a day — the smog was thick enough to smell and coughing was more frequent. So reluctantly the boys agreed it was best to head back. We we got home we had covered 19.83 kms, burned off 1,156 calories, averaged 14.9 km/hr and had hit a maximum speed of 27.7… all in all not a bad effort and a great starting point for the next time they all are here.

After a morning completing their homework (their school system has pre-semester reading assignments which I think is a very smart approach — gets the kids into brain activation without it being too onerous as the reading is very interesting), we had a solid lunch on the deck where at we finished any remaining bits of birthday cake as well as some corn-on-the-cob!! Then it was off to Skaha Lake Park for a long afternoon of beach, water, throwing the football and frisbee, relaxing and enjoying the sun… After making sure everyone was tired we returned home and had a great pasta dinner topped off with some CFL football (half the house cheered for Ottawa and the other half for Toronto — the one group got to feel good throughout most of the game, the other group was victorious!!).

And then, because of the pending hockey school, bedtime came early… and now we shall see how this new week unfolds…

g.w.