Kelowna asian-invasion

On Friday afternoon Chicky, Nick, Julie, Aiden, KA, Michael and I headed out for the Kelowna Dragon Boat Festival. KA and Michael decided to go at the last moment (they booked into the motel the night before). I was actually happy that they came because Nick ended up renting a PT Cruiser (which the company said was their "full size" category) and that car had no room for the 5 of us. Julie's son (Aiden) is only 4 years old so his car seat took up most of the room in the back. I went in Michael's courtesy car. It took us nearly 5 hours to get to Kelowna as we had to have frequent pee-breaks for Aiden and couldn't drive relectlessly because of him. On the way there KA volunteered to drive a portion of the trip, Michael and I cringed, so he let her. We traveled for about 5km when she decided to press the buttons in the car. She disengaged the trunk hood while driving at highway speeds. That freaked me right out and we had to pull over - thus causing our entourage to wait for us to catch up.

We got to Kelowna at nearly 8pm. The team had booked rooms at the Kelowna Motor Inn. It's not exactly a 5 star hotel but it's clean. For some reason Chicky and I ended up with the smallest room out of the 3 couples. Our bathroom door banged against the tub each time you opened it! KA's room was like a mansion compared to ours - and they got a cheaper deal. Lol - I told Chicky that his team must have gotten the "corporate" rate.

That night we went to Kelsey's restaurant for dinner. The wait was horrendous and when we finally were able to get a seat (we had to break apart into 2 groups so that they would seat us faster) - the food took nearly 2 hours to get to our table. This was the beginning of a trend for the rest of the weekend. Darn those dragonboaters!!! They really put a damper on getting good food/service.

On Saturday we got up early, joined the obnoxious line up at MacDonalds to get our breakfast of champions before heading over to the park to check in with the rest of the team. The weather was cloudy and windy. I had to bundle up in 3 layers just to keep warm. I watched the Ritchie Bros. Auctionauts race. KA and Michael cheered on their own friends, on team "SGL" (So Good Looking) and "Dragon Hearts". Their teams are competitive teams so it was fun watching them as well (see what a good team looks like). I took some pictures of the festival - when don't I take pictures! Though I did grumble the whole time about lack of zoom! Chicky and I did our own thing most of the weekend. I was being a bit anti-social and not wanting to converse with his co-workers too much. I'm not very fond of what they remind me of - plus one of the girls made a snide comment to me which made me totally not want to hang out with his girlfriends at work. Yes - I insecurity issues that stem from experiences in the past. Saturday night - while waiting for Milestones - I bought a book at Chapters. The store was so nice - much bigger and had different stuff then the one near my house. It was fun to kill time in the bookstore. I wish books were cheaper. There were lots of photography books that I wanted to buy if only they were below $50!!!