Law & Order - 2. L & O Chapter 2

Once we had arrived in Sapporo, we checked in and settled into our hotel family suite, and we spent five wonderful days exploring the city and surrounding areas, and spending time with Ms Keiko and her family. Once again we travelled by bullet train back to Tokyo, where we had one more night stay in the Capital before we boarded our direct flight to Vancouver, BC Canada, which is a 9-hour flight, and once again we were seated in Premium Economy, which gave us a little extra space compared to just economy seating.

When we arrived in Vancouver, we quickly checked into our hotel family suite, and we spent the next three days relaxing, as well as doing a little bit of sightseeing, and getting over the jet lag. Since arriving in British Columbia, I learnt that Uncle Oliver and Tyler live near the city of Penticton, which is located over 248 kilometres east of Vancouver and 56 kilometres north of the USA border and on the far southern shores of the Okanagan Lake, where he owns a luxury lake tours company, with a 24-metre sailing trimaran yacht, that travels a fair amount of the long lake.

They own a lakeside house 11 kilometres north of the city on the western banks of the lake, in Trout Creek, just 800 metres off the main highway, and just 5 kilometres south of the yacht club where their yacht is based. Their rather large home is at the end of a cul-de-sac street, and it has two guest suites separate from the main house, which I was looking forward to seeing when we arrive in a few days when we catch the regional flight to Penticton, which takes just under an hour.

On the day that we travelled from Vancouver to Penticton, I was a little nervous about meeting my uncle and cousin for the first time, I had been shown recent photos of them both, and my cousin – Tyler has completed a degree in Environmental Science at Oxford University, where he had the scholarship to study there, and he was now doing a part-time Masters degree in Zoology while working for the Department of Canadian Parks.

Uncle Oliver collected us from the airport, and it was a 20-minute drive north to where my uncle and cousin live, on the western banks of the lake, where we were stunned at how big the house was, as we drove through the security gates and down the driveway with a large mature garden. “This is pretty amazing brother, how did you manage to get all of this?” my Dad asked Uncle Oliver. “A lot of good luck and being at the right place at the right time, I guess,” Uncle Oliver replied.

“Dad, is that you?” a voice called out from within the house as we walked inside, “Yes son, did you collect the twins from school?” Uncle Oliver responded, “Yes, they are in their room doing homework,” the voice replied, just as a young man appeared. “Mason, Isabelle, Dalton and Brodie, this is my oldest son Tyler August,” Uncle Oliver announced, and I was surprised that he looked very similar to me, as I shook his hand.

“What do you mean oldest?” Dad asked his older brother, “Well it appears that another former girlfriend from the past had twin sons, whom she didn’t tell me about until very recently, when she announced that I was to take over taking care of them from now on,” Uncle Oliver said. “Wow, that must have been a real shock to you?” my Mum replied, “Yes it was, and she produced birth certificates of the twins to prove that I was the father, and the timing was right with when I was with her,” Uncle Oliver replied.

“Laurence and Oliver are 16-year-old almost identical twins, one has a small freckle that distinguishes the difference between them, thank goodness. Although they both often put a bandaid spot over that area, just to confuse everyone, which is bloody annoying,” Tyler informed us. “Wow, this place looks amazing,” Mum commented, as she walked further into the house and was now looking out towards the backyard and the lake beyond.

We were given a tour of the house, before being led out to the two accommodation suites where we would be staying, which are quite luxurious, I would have one of the suites to myself, while Brodie would be sleeping in our parent's suite, and like usual, I would keep an eye on Brodie, when Mum and Dad wanted time to themselves. We spent the rest of the day just settling into our accommodation and enjoying the amazing scenery around us, with Tyler giving us a tour of the 23-metre long Trimaran yacht, which can go at a staggering 42 knots in speed when in full flight, which I was looking forward to experiencing.

“That is my toy, I have a working yacht as well, which is based just north of here,” Uncle Oliver announced when he arrived. “Wow, you do have all the spoils of success don’t you big brother,” my Dad commented, “Yes, I guess I do. I take this out on charter too when requested by some of my regular guests, the main income earner is a 24-metre Lagoon power catamaran yacht, that has two double and two twin guest cabins, plus a captain’s cabin and a twin crew cabin, and that is based at the Summerland Yacht Club just five kilometres from here,” Uncle Oliver said.

“This trimaran yacht can only go as far north as Shelter Bay Marina, which is 46 kilometres north of here, due to the Kelowna Bridge across the lake that is slightly too low for the masts, but the power yacht can go all the way up North to Blue Heron Marina near the lakeside city of Vernon, which is a distance of 45 kilometres past the Kelowna Bridge, and 96 kilometres from home,” Tyler added. “Do you go on any of the charters Tyler?” I asked, “Yes, but mostly on the Trimaran as that is more fun,” my cousin replied smiling. “What else do you do for fun when not working or studying at Uni?” I asked.

Uncle Oliver chuckled when he heard this, “Oh I may go out for a paddle in the kayak if I feel like it,” Tyler responded, “Careful now nephew, he doesn’t do just leisurely kayaking on the lake,” Uncle Oliver said, “Spoil sport Dad. It is true, I do more long-distance kayaking, sometimes overnight camping as well,” Tyler replied, “I think that would be fun if you got the time to take me one day,” I replied, and Tyler smiled broadly, “Awesome, you have a deal there cousin,” he replied happily, and Uncle Oliver just laughed.

“I usually do a 24-kilometre round trip down Skaha Lake, which is the lake just south of Penticton, camping overnight at the Motel & RV Park right on the water's edge, which is very convenient, and the owners of the park know me now that I have stayed there a few times, and I also enjoy the peace of not having Laurel and Hardy around all the time,” Tyler said to me, and this last bit of information had me a little confused at first.

“Who are Laur… oh I get it, you are referring to the twins and the antics they get up to, similar to two famous early screen actors,” Mum said and I burst out laughing when I realised this too. The following day, the whole went out sailing in the Trimaran, which I found I enjoyed very much, with Tyler supervising me at the helm, when it was his time to skipper the yacht, while Uncle Oliver relaxed with my parents and my younger brother.

It took us just under two hours to reach the Kelowna Bridge, where we had a good look around the area, before setting off south again, where we stopped at the Bertram Regional Park, where there is a big enough jetty for the Trimaran to be moored, and we had an enjoyable picnic lunch at the park, with stunning views of the mountains in the area. Once back on the yacht, we headed south again, back towards our uncle's luxury home by the lake.

It was an excellent enjoyable day, and I saw my parents looking very happy and relaxed which made me very happy too, and I had a feeling that this Canadian holiday was going to do us all some good. A few days later as the weekend approached, Tyler offered to take me on a Winter Kayaking trip down to Skaha and back, which would take two full days, and I was up for the challenge.

I was given a spare pup tent and heavy-duty winter sleeping bag to use for this trip, and apart from some snacks, we would buy our meals at shops on the way, I was told that he had friends that lived on the shores, where we could leave his vehicle safe, while out on the lake, and we would be stopping at Pioneer Park near the old Kaledon Park Hotel for lunch and a rest break, and Tyler informed me that it would take us about 4 ½ hours to get to Kaledon and 2 hours to get to our overnight destination.

We left our departure location at Sudbury Beach just at 9 am, after a 16-kilometre drive south from Trout Creek, after spending half an hour double checking our luggage and supplies, which were carefully secured to our two kayaks, and it was about two hours after we left, that we were hit with rough conditions, that made it very difficult to paddle, but we continued. When we finally reached Pioneer Park at Kaledon, it was nearly six hours since we started this trip, as we pulled our kayaks up to the picnic area and shelter, where we rested and ate some food.

With gusty rain looking like it had set in for the rest of the day, we decided to call Uncle Oliver to let him know the situation, Tyler had suggested that we camp the night at the park, where we would be undercover, and there are public bathrooms nearby, so that is what we did, as we set up our pup tents between the undercover picnic tables, which would give us plenty of shelter, with the kayaks providing an additional windbreak for us.

Tyler contacted the motel in Skaha, to let them know that we had stopped for the night at Kalden to wait out the bad weather, and as we settled down for the remainder of the afternoon, preparing for an early night after a full-on day of hard physical activity, Tyler and I discussed our options for tomorrow, depending on the weather conditions. The following morning, Tyler woke up with a nasty cough, and I decided that I needed to go and get some help, as both of our mobile phones had decided to not work properly due to the cold weather.

According to the map that we had with us, there was a community store and post office, located just over one kilometre away. I decided to hike there to get some help to get Tyler to the hospital, and I estimated that it would take me about half an hour to hike there.