I’ve been in Vancouver more than 10 years and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve never been to Kelowna. I’ve driven through it and have made several trips to the Okanagan, but I’ve always stayed in Summerland or Penticton. Personally, I love camping right on the lake at Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, so Kelowna has never been a priority.

So why visit Kelowna in the middle of winter? A little known fact about me, if you only know me from the internet, is that I absolutely love curling! If you know me in real life, you’re probably well aware. The Brier, which is the National Men’s Curling competition, was held in Kelowna this year in early March. All provinces participate in the tournament and the champion gets to represent Canada the following year at international events. 

I’ve been cheering for Brad Gushue since I was in high school. He’s represented Newfoundland at the Brier for many years, but for the better part of the last decade, he’s been representing Canada, having won 6 Brier titles in 8 years. Team Gushue was representing Team Canada at the Brier this year and I was thrilled to hear it was in Kelowna and bought a set of tickets for the playoffs. After following the round robin all week on TV, me and Seth drove out to Kelowna after work on a Thursday to stay for the weekend.

We ended up staying in Peachland because it was cheaper, but we got to spend a fair bit of time exploring downtown between games. Kelowna is one of the biggest cities in BC outside of the lower mainland, and it’s located in the middle of BC’s lake and wine country. From downtown, you can walk around the edge of the lake and there are tons of wineries within driving distance. We didn’t get a chance to sample the wineries, but we did get to enjoy lots of lake views. 

Overall, downtown Kelowna felt pretty low key. It would not have been busy at all if not for all the curling fans, but I imagine it’s quite different in the summer. There are a few nice shops around downtown and lots of restaurants. The highlights for me were Gather Restaurant, which is a Korean fusion restaurant, and Mosaic Books, which had a great selection of local and bargain books. But overall there’s not really that much to do in Kelowna proper, so I stand by my decision to usually head straight for the lake in the summer.

We did have a great time at the tournament though! Gushue only lost one game in the round robin and made it through to the playoffs. We got to see them play 3 times in total and they won their first game of the playoffs and made it to the semi-final. Unfortunately, they lost the semi-final, but it was such a tight-game and it came down to the very last shot. We’re sad they won’t be representing Canada anymore, but they are already qualified for the Olympic trials, so fingers crossed!