#Alabama rain this morning... #rain #thunderstorm #water #storm #lightening #meme #deludge #uglyday #stormy #stormyweather #raining #rainy #allwet

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Caesars Head lookout over South Carolina

A short drive from Greenville, SC and you may find yourself up on Caesars Head, a mountain in upstate South Carolina.  The view is amazing.

Greenville, SC

Greenville, SC is a great little city in the Northwest lobe of South Carolina with a great downtown area and revitalization.  I've been experiencing the area as best as possible with just the evenings free.  On Sunday, I checked out the downtown.  There are lots of interesting shops and restaurants.  I ended up at Blue Ridge Brewing with funny faced beer mugs and vats at the entrance.  Monday late afternoon, I visited the BMW museum at the BMW Manufacturing Plant.  Hmm, there wasn't nearly as many BMWs in the employee parking lot as I think there should have been.  That evening, I ended up at Smiley's Acoustic Cafe for open mic night.  Somewhat suprizingly, the artists were good.  Thursday evening, I spent along Reedy River and visited the Falls Park, including the Liberty Bridge.  Then, I had a great dinner at the slightly more expensive Larkins on the River (good view of the river and great ribeye!).

Here's some photos!

Kelowna, BC

Due to a quirk in my planning, I found myself in Kelowna, BC for a couple of days.  Kelowna is in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia on the shores of the Okanagan Lake.  When planning my trip, I had no idea that this is the place from where the stories of the Ogopogo lake monster originate.

A great place to watch the lake for signs of the beast is at Summerhill Pyramid Winery, dinning outside on the deck of the Sunset Organic Bistro.  I wasn't able to spot any lake monsters, but my waitress said with a sly grin that she did indeed have some recently recorded video of something in the water.

View from the deck of the restaurant

It's called the Summerhill Pyramid Winery for a reason.  The wine is made is under this pyramid.

I only discovered that wineries are thing in this region after I arrived.  Had I known ahead of time, I might have planned accordingly.  Another winery I briefly visited was Volcanic Hills Estate Winery.  For tasting, they only offered a few whites and unimpressive blended reds this early in the season.  Had I planned on coming to Volcanic Hills ahead of time for the purpose of wine tasting, I would've been disappointed.

Kelowna has a relatively active downtown area with several restaurants and bars for the diners and revelers alike.  It was here that I finally spotted the lake monster.

This guy was posing for photos all day.

 Wandering around downtown, I ran into this Futurama-esque robot looking machine, who appeared to be a silent sentry guarding a bygone time.

"Halt!  You may go here, but no farther!"

There is a rather nice resort here too.

To commemorate the trip, I got this T-shirt that is all kinds of awesome!

Here's the town and lake from the nearby Knox Mountain.

Recent trip to Vancouver, BC

I recently visited Vancouver, BC.  This photo set on Flickr pretty much tells most of the details of my time off. Here's some views:

Me and Jeff #JeffersonMemorial #WashingtonDC

https://www.instagram.com/p/Yv8XfhhR7x/

Warm evening #WashingtonDC #fdrmemorialpark #fdrmemorial #fdr #monument

https://www.instagram.com/p/Yv5dXZBR3z/

https://www.instagram.com/p/YA2AI3hR0G/

The sun is hiding, but it is still #Florida and still the #beach.

https://www.instagram.com/p/YAwG2EBR8k/

So, there was a slight problem with my room keys at Double Tree yesterday, and this is what I found...

So, there was a slight problem with my room keys at Double Tree yesterday, and this is what I found in my room the afternoon. All #complementary

https://www.instagram.com/p/X8KiP5BR_V/