Remember that episode of "I Love Lucy" where she goes to the vineyard and stomps grapes? (If you don't, here's a clip) That's all we had in our heads when we made our way to the Gulf Islands for the Salt Spring Vineyard annual grape stomp this past Saturday.
But let's back up a bit first.
Because we just didn't get enough time in transit to and from Banff, we decided to drive down to Vancouver on Friday. This was technically my only day in the city, and we spent a good part of it doing Steph's favorite activity, biking the seawall. From there we went out to dinner and then drinks with one of Steph's friends and Eric and one of his friends, who was nice enough to let us crash at her place in the city that night. This was a very good thing because it saved us from having to drive to Chilliwack to sleep and then back to Vancouver in the morning to catch the early ferry.
Though we missed the first ferry we wanted, eventually we made it to Victoria, British Columbia's capital city on Vancouver Island. But this was just to connect us to the next ferry to Salt Spring Island, on of the Gulf Islands, where we then took a bus to get to the vineyard.
The island itself is pretty small, only 70 square miles, and you definitely get a very small town vibe immediately. Aside from the tourists, all of the people on the bus, including the driver, seemed to know each other well. It is also known as being one of the artsier communities, so we passed different shops along the way.
At the vineyard we had a free wine tasting and some snacks as we waited our turn to partake in the grape stomp. We soon discovered that not only would we be stomping grapes, but that it was a competition to see which of the four teams could fill up a large wine bottle first. One person started in the grapes while the other held the bottle and a long stick to unclog the spout from mashed grapes and stems and halfway through we would switch. The stomping part was actually easy; it was getting the stream of juice to flow nicely that we had problems with, meaning that we had a great time, but lost the competition terribly.
We then ferried back to Victoria where we met up again with Eric and another of his friends for dinner and then a walk around the city. Since the sun had gone down already we were able to see the Parliament building all lit up and the harbor at night was just beautiful, if a bit chilly. Though we were only in the city for a few hours, I think it was my favorite city in Canada. It just has a great feel to it, with restaurants and pubs on every street and corner and seemed to be geared to a younger crowd because of the high student population. And of course, it is right on the water.
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