You never know who you're going to bump into at the Brier.
An Olympic champion; parents, kids and spouses of curlers; aunts and uncles of players; groupies; fans; and looky-loos.
KelownaNow popped by Prospera Place right after Draw 4 on Sunday morning to chat with spectators to see how far they'd travelled to take in the Canadian men's curling championship and what they think of the Okanagan's record-breaking sunny and warm weather.
"It was a bit fresh when we left Winnipeg," said Wayne Askin with a laugh.
"It was around minus 25, so we're loving this Kelowna weather."
Not to brag, but Kelowna set new highs in the sun on Friday and Saturday of 12.3C and 13.3C, respectively, and Sunday was similarly sunny and warm.
By the way, Wayne Askin and his wife, Jane, from Sanford, Manitoba, are the mom and dad of Dawn McEwen, who won an Olympic gold medal at the 2014 Games in Sochi as part of Jennifer Jones' Team Canada.
Dawn's husband is Mike McEwen, the skip of one of the teams from Saskatchewan that's playing at the Brier.
So, KelownaNow just had to get a photo of Dawn, her two daughters, Avalon and Vienna, who sported curling rocks headgear, and the Sanfords.
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Meantime, a little higher up in the stands was Corryn Brown, the skip of Team BC, which just finished 5th at the Scotties Canadian women's curling championship in Thunder Bay.
She's from Kamloops, so she did the two-hour drive from Kamloops to Kelowna to check out Brier action.
"The weather is so much better in Kamloops and Kelowna than it was in Ontario for the Scotties," said Brown.
"On the way to Thunder Bay, we were stuck in Toronto for a day and a half in a snowstorm."
Speaking of snowstorms, Benoit Forget and Marie-Claude Asselin of Montreal endured 80 centimetres of snow before heading out to Kelowna for the Brier.
"We came for the curling, of course, but we're also enjoying the weather," said Asselin.
"We're going to go for a walk on the boardwalk right now and find a place for lunch."
Forget and Asselin's son, Felix Asselin, throws skip rocks for Team Quebec.
Outside the rink, in the sun, we ran into Andrew and Gail Abraham, whose son, Ryan, is the lead on Team Nova Scotia.
"We've been following him around to curling competitions since he was in juniors," said Gail.
"This is my fifth Brier and Andrew's sixth."
Andrew joked that they like the weather in Kelowna so much they might defect here from Halifax.
"We enjoy the weather and the Okanagan wine, we're going on a wine tour tomorrow," added Andrew.
Andrew and Gail were there with Andrew's brother, Jim, and his wife, Andra.
Jim is a retired Environment Canada meteorologist.
"I'm always checking the weather, so we knew we were coming to perfect conditions in Kelowna," he said.
Wendy Needham from Quesnel was also basking in the perfect conditions as she exited Prospera Place on her way to find a place for lunch with her husband and their friends.
"Actually, we had similar sunny and warm weather in Quesnel before we left, so the weather is exceptional all round," she said.
Needham curls at home and is a big fan of the game having travelled to take in a couple of world championships and Scotties tournaments.
But, this is her first Brier.
