Things to do in Kelowna

One of the event-organized outings at GI 2009 was this three-hour boat tour of the lake. The boat itself was a bit of a rip-off in that they were charging fairly high prices for dinner plates. A friend of mine had the right idea in running across the street for a cheap but filling pita before the cruise, thereby omitting the need to pay larger sums for food. I suppose there was potential for more fun than actually experienced (the boat sported a hottub as well as a dance floor) but us computer conference people are a somewhat sedate crowd. Still, some of the lake views were quite nice. There were really rich-looking houses at one end, complete with boat docks and boat floats. Some of the houses had a funny feature: as they were positioned high up on a steep cliff, their way down to their boat dock was via a really, really long staircase, or elevator that some had put up. I thought our hill that we have to transcend to get to our powerboat slip was a hassle, it's peanuts compared to those cliffs. I should have taken a picture... On the other end of the lake we saw a yacht race. Lake winds got pretty high towards the end, I was suprised how windy it could get there.

The next evening there was no organized outing so it was up to conference goers to self-assemble. Two factions split with one group leaving early in search of dinner. I was in that group and we found a Keg with very good steaks and tasty beer. The first group then split again with a few having to leave to catch flights and the rest off in search of the second group. They were found at Memphis Blues, a kind of BBQ place with lots of meaty plates. Some of the menu entrees' descriptions read "more meat", "still more meat", and so on. The group then went off in search of music. I like live music and asked the Memphis server where it could be found. It was to be found at The Blue Gator, with this lone guitarist being the sole entry on the bill. I usually dislike the lone guitarist because they always seem to degenerate to playing sappy ballads, like Sweet Caroline. This guy was better. He had his laptop churning out the drum and bass tracks to which he played along. He started with some Stevie Ray Vaughan and also some Knopfler, playing Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing. He managed to pull off the latter very well although the ending is tough to play (so I hear, I personally don't play guitar). He then degenerated into some kind of metal stuff, but it was still enjoyable. This is where the computer conference people monicker originated. After some heavy metal tune he'd yell out "Computer conference people, yeaaaaaaaa!" and raise the index-pinky rock-n-roll salute. I thought that would make an excellent t-shirt: picture the arm raised in the background with the text "computer conference person" in the foreground. I dunno, I think it's funny.