The Peach

Heat is not incidental to a Penticton summer, it is the whole design. The city lies on a narrow strip between Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake, the beaches are within walking distance of downtown at both ends, and through July and August the channel between the two fills with people drifting slowly downstream on anything that floats. Something cold and sweet is less a treat than a requirement in that climate.

Seasonality is the defining fact of this trade in a lake town. The warm months are relentless and the shoulder seasons are quiet, so schedules move with the weather in a way they simply do not for a shop up on Main Street. Checking the website or phoning ahead before making a special trip is genuinely worth the minute outside the peak weeks. The Peach Festival in mid August, a tradition here going back generations, is the busiest stretch of the year along this waterfront, and anyone hoping for a calmer visit would do better on either side of it. Lines in this line of work move quickly, but on a hot afternoon by the lake they can still be long.