Mid-spring 2021, the eleventh wave of coronavirus and the associated severe restrictions on travel in the province with roadblocks and the cancellation of ferries (this was not even in 2020) found us in the Northern Okanagan - having traveled pretty much the south of the valley, I suddenly realized that I had a very vague idea about her north. And here, for a minute, is the town of Vernon, which has been repeatedly named one of the most desirable places to live in retirement in Canada. Taking into account how everything is now unfolding in the world, in big cities, as they say, many have nothing to catch: work is remote, you can't go anywhere, figs gather dust in tiny apartments. In this regard, housing in the suburbs is sold like hot cakes. So, for example, since I wrote my post about buying a home in Canada, prices have doubled, and again demand significantly exceeds supply. And yet, not everyone is ready to leave too far from the city, so in the same Vernon or Kelona, for example, the situation, although similar, is a little more sane. So what kind of city is this - or a village? Let's try to figure it out. Peachland, BC
We got to Peachland last year, we were not very lucky with the weather, so the local wineries were lucky.
Remote work on the patio with this view came in so well that I even extended our AirBnB.
Peachland is a nice village, but so small that there is not even a high school here - when we were here, the only gas station in the city was not working.
But here is a very quiet and cozy embankment.
And a couple of small beaches on the Okanagan.
Real cacti grow on the slopes.
And if you know what to look for, then you can find fossils no worse than in Republic (from the same, in fact, deposits). There is nothing much to do in the town itself - there are only 5 thousand people here, and the center is separated from the residential area by a busy highway, so getting there is not so easy, except to go to neighboring Kelona and the surrounding wineries.
Everywhere you spit of this good, you can always buy your own for 4 million.
Over the past 8 years, Kelona has grown a little (literally, in height) and has become even more touristy, while, it seemed to me, less comfortable.
By the way, here on the east coast in the Galagher Canyon area someone came up with an ingenious idea to build a golf course in the gardens: if you are fond of this sport, I think it will be very unusual to play here, especially if you guess with the season of flowering trees ...
But this time we will skip Kelona, my goal this time was to see what kind of town Vernon is. To anyone interested in the current Kelona, I recommend a fresh review on the Redhairtravel blog. Vernon, BC To be honest, I didn't quite know what to expect from Vernon - a village or a city, a cesspool or a small Silicon Valley.
It turned out that this is a fairly old (by the standards of the west coast) town with a hundred-year-old brick building, not overloaded with outdoor advertising and pleasant to walk in every way.
A little reminded of the American Port Townsend or the more tourist Astoria, only without the sea, but with three large lakes at once, including the Okanagan.
And the city is surrounded on three sides by mountains - not as high as even in Vancouver, but here in any direction where you look - mountains.
Vernon could easily have passed for Vancouver with his gateways.
There are a lot of murals in the city.
The trouble with faces is of course, but the plane is about to leave the wall.
Bank. I don't know why the cowboy is crying, maybe he just got a mortgage in his eye.
Many murals have been recreated from historical photographs of the city.
Like this fire brigade, for example.
Taras Grigorievich, better known here as Axel Elbring, is a potter of the early 20th century of Swedish origin.
So that you understand, here even in the dead-end gateway there is a mural ... through the gateway.
One of the most impressive places - the back side of small restaurants and shops, overlooking the memorial park - everything is literally "rewritten" in the theme of wartime (mainly the First World War).
All Vernon's murals with descriptions can be viewed on the map here. Another unexpected discovery is that Vernon turned out to be a very cycling city, although far from Amsterdam, of course. Less than 30 minutes from town is Silver Star Ski Resort - not too big, not too small, not too crowded. The locals like it. In the summer - mountain bikes, again.
Lake Kalamalka Lake
(Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park)
The city of Vernon is located between three large lakes - Okanagan, Swan Lake (hardly worth the title of a big one) and Kalamalka. There is a provincial park on the bank of Kalamlka - an absolutely wonderful oasis within the city (and, by the way, one of its best areas in terms of schools and neighbors).
After Vancouver, you expect a catch from a beach that resembles Lake Sasamat to everyone except the number of people. But no, the crowds never arrived. Locals say that such obscurantism as we have is going on even in the eastern Harisson, where 25 km to shake on the gravel, even on the sunniest weekend.
Of the local inhabitants, there are quite a few yellow-bellied marmots and snakes.
Like some birds, this is the northernmost border of their habitat, which goes far south to Nevada itself, but they are not found anywhere else in Canada. Read, those that sit on Whistler are slightly different, probably a little less yellow-bellied.
On this trip, we spent the first night in a mobile home. In principle, you can live and work. True, everything is so small - the kitchen, the shower - that you feel like nothing more than an astronaut on a space station.
It is especially good if every morning does not start with the woodpecker starting to pound the roof.
Well, there must be a view, a view, otherwise what is all this for?
What do you think about Vernon? Could you live there? Is there anything else to do there?
