At last: Living large and having fun
My partner and I have done more in the last week or two than we’ve done in past months, even years.
Starting with the fun filled evening at New Vintage Theatre. Located in the Black Box Theatre on Water Street, the Black Cat Cabaret presented an evening of amateur theatre with songs and antics set around the boudoir theme. There was more than one soul-felt drama act, especially the one featuring the young lovers on the phone.
New Vintage Theatre offers lots of inspiring theatre experiences for patrons of all ages. I especially applaud the work that encourages play development programs for playwrights and screenwriters.
The songs and dances were high energy and the camraderie among the players bounces off the walls as the performers obviously love one another. These beautiful young stars deserve our support, New Vintage is Kelowna’s only professional, not for profit, charitable year-round theatre company.
We walked away empty handed even though we bought way too many chances on all the silent auction prizes. There were references to sex tips that were new to me, and I would share them, but I can’t remember them.
Valentines Day found us at Hector’s Casa for dinner. This was after Mike recited his favourite poem for me, Auden’s When I Went Out One Evening. Our amigo Hector has built a local following over the years and tourists keep his patio a secret so they can find a seat. We met the new owner, Paco, and heard his story of the family’s exodus from Mexico City. We will be back for enchiladas and anything tequila soon, as well as the pitiful mariachi band, which we love.
For Mike’s 76th birthday I gave him a collection of toy instruments. I was in search of trombones but could only find horns, drums, and xylophones. These will work for the great-grandchildren when they visit next summer. I actually recycled some birthday cards he had received last year. An especially good one reads “0 Things That Do Not Age Well: Milk, Men’s Feet, Women’s hairstyles, Lettuce, Kid Celebrities, Things That Are Dead, Teeth, Cantaloupe, Rock Stars and Hippies.
Open the card to find a big mirror and an inscription that reads, “One Thing That Does”
We are blessed with a Kelowna family that counts us a grandparents-at-large.
We have enjoyed watching the boys grow up, and now they are wonderful young adults who used to dream of inventing computers of their own design and were always creative in works of art and home accessories, like fabric throws for the sofa. They love us and treat us with great affection and respect.
We are so lucky; our own families are not close by. When the Newingtons invited us to celebrate Mike’s birthday dinner, we jumped at the chance. We have picked up some of their vegan lifestyle over the years, but this was the first time we actually arrived early to drink sparkling juice and help with the meal preparation. We sliced, diced, smoothed, and purred. The white bean humus was much like the one I usually make with the addition of roasted red peppers. Jeanette Dunagan sitting in front of an acrylic painting in a hotel lobby in Puerto Vallarta. Below: Oaxacan pottery on display at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta.
The main course was an Ethiopian yam and lentil stew and a leafy salad with dressing made from avocado, cider vinegar and fresh lemon juice. We added one tablespoon of bragg and black pepper to the dressing. I dipped strawberries in melted mini chips that were certified vegan (now I recognize the logo) and free of milk, peanuts, tree nuts and soya. What the mini chips did contain was brown sugar, cocoa mass, and cocoa butter. I noticed all the products we used were from the U.S. We were advised to eat freely, and we did! We played the board game, Mexican Train and finished off with a dish of cashew ice cream. What gift can compare with the gift of friendship?
O yes, we did get our Westjet direct flight to Puerto Vallarta and a week at a five star hotel, the Iberostar. It was all new to us — neither Mike nor I had been to an all-inclusive resort and we have decided we like it!
My first impression flying over the landscape of the Sierra Madre Occidental meeting the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean was one of a true paradise. The population is now 255,725 and the city bustles. We did an intro tour and walked over the cobblestones to the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Church, then along the beachside promenade El Malecon, which features the Boy On A Seahorse and other wonderful contemporary sculptures.
Puerto Vallarta is for tourist who fish, dive, watch for whales and walk along the beach. Definitely not the sleepy fishing village of Night of the Iguana from 1964.
We walked to the hotel buffet all day and night. I figure that counts as 20 city blocks, just getting from the cheese board, which featured Mexican cheese from Oaxaca to the dessert table which was all chocolate and said to be the best in town. We drank a lot of really forgettable wine from Spain. I think the red was UVA Garnacha, but don’t quote me.
I know I was happy to get home and open a bottle of Latitude 50 red, which has that predictable spicy, earthy flavour that reminds me of a picnic. Odyssey White Heritage is a full bodied white that puts Grey Monk Estate Winery on the map, in my opinion.
The Puerto Vallarta city tour includes a drive up the mountain to a Tequila distillery and an authentic family atmosphere dinner.
We stayed at the resort and the eight bars until our last night when we ventured out into Banderas Bay and the beaches of La Coletos on a cruise that was billed as “the ultimate romantic adventure.” That included a real life greeting from a mermaid on the rock, torch lite paths, a seafood banquet, and a native show in an outdoor amphitheater.
The show was staged on a structure designed to resemble an Aztec pyramid and reminded me of a combined Lion King and Cirque de Soleil. Don’t miss Rhythms of the Night.
We will go back. There is so much to see and do, not to mention, learn about the rich Mexican culture. For a laugh, I have the Star friends Entertainment Program in front of me and count pages of activities from early to late every day and night of the week. There is a daily Water Gym I checked out once and enjoyed immensely. The Evening Show Time presented a spectacular program of song and dance from every Mexican State that dazzled us with colour and costumes.
I am in love with pelicans. These huge water birds with long flat yellow bills and great throat pouches fly in orderly lines and were constantly in sight everywhere we went. The reminded me of swans, whooping cranes, Canada Geese. A reminder to put fun and flying first this year.
Jeanette Dunagan is an Okanagan artist who has lived in Kelowna for more than 40 years. Her column appears every second week in the Okanagan Saturday. Email her at jd2399@telus.net.