Northeast Washington and Okanagan Valley

After our last night in Spokane, we started off back at Sante for some breakfast, 'cause we loved that place so much. Sharon ended up talking to the executive chef for quite some time, who gave us many suggestions for places to check out in Portland later on (which we later forgot).

So we were back to open road:

You'd speed too if you saw this.

 We encountered the unexpected but impressive Grand Coulee Dam:

"One of the world's largest concrete structures"

Crossing the border was surprisingly a breeze, seeing how we had so much crammed into the car. We spent more time chit-chatting with the border agent than being seriously interviewed.

Our immediate first stop in good ol' Canada was at the Burrowing Owl winery. We knew this place had great wine (that is not available in the LCBO), and is also the favourite BC wine of the bride we were about to see get married. (Literary scholars would call the last part of my last sentence "foreshadowing".)

not the actual winery

"OMG! I can't wait! WINE!!!"

While fawning over the wines we tasted, we struck up conversation with the couple next to us, who turned out to be two soon-to-be Torontonians Miles and Susan (or Sarah, or Judy - I never was good with names). They were leaving Vancouver to move to Toronto near our neighbourhood. (Literary scholars may call that "sort of irony"... you know, because we're sort of doing the opposite.) So for our west-end Toronto people: should you ever encounter the Miles/Susan-Sarah-Judy couple in Roncesvalles, say hi to them for us.

Some beautiful shots of the Okanagan, after our departure from the winery:

It was incredibly hard not to stop at any more wineries in the Okanagan, but we had a schedule to keep, and it was worth it. We were meeting a cousin of Sharon's and his wife - a couple we didn't really know.

So onwards we drove, outside of Salmon Arm, where it turned dark before we met up with Gary and Karen.

It was kind of an odd meeting, at the bottom of a country hill in the dark, but it was the only way we could find each other. Gary put out the idea of meeting at a brewpub for dinner. I knew we would get along.

So off we went to the Barley Station Brew Pub in Salmon Arm. Sorry, no pictures of that night - and not because it was wild and crazy. However it was a night of non-stop talking, and any uncomfortableness that accompanies initial encounters was quickly erased.