Harrison Hot Springs

From Salmon Arm, we headed down to Harrison Hot Springs to attend a wedding - which was the genesis of this road trip. For those of you who don't know, our friend Erin invited us to attend her wedding there, and since the Okanagan is nearby, we thought of making a little wine trip out of it too. And since California isn't too far away, and since Washington and Oregon are up-and-coming wine regions, and so on, and so on...

Back to the drive: surprise, surprise, more scenery was to be taken in:

A minor accident. There are 2 tow trucks in this picture.

We arrived in Harrison in time for dinner, whereby we ate with some of the other wedding guests at the Copper Room - an old school dance hall in the resort, still frequented by dames and gents in ballroom attire and dancing in style. The very same dancers could easily have been there 40 years ago. In fact, the live band that performs there every night has been there for the past 40 years too.

The rest of the night and morning of the next day was spent in the hot-springs-heated pools of the resort.

Even though we had plenty of time to get ready before the wedding ceremony, we still managed to run late... but did make it in time. In time for a cozy, beautiful, fun wedding.

Erin and Matt

Psychedelic baby... yeah!

The evening was full of dancing, dining, and another thing that starts with "d". There was also a photobooth for the guests to play with, which of course provided the hosts with some outrageous pictures. One of which I injured myself for.

Sharon and I are very lucky to have friends who throw the coolest weddings.

More Wine... and some Dairy

The next morning, there was - as expected - daylight. This came in handy for taking pictures while Gary gave us a tour of their little house on the hill. (Actually it is on TOP of the hill, and by hill, I mean MOUNTAIN!)

 

 

 

 

(I did warn our hosts that they may get requests for visits from more relatives after seeing these pictures.)

We headed to another winery, that is on the same hill as their house. It turns out that our hostess for the tasting at Larch Hills Winery is a Dutch ex-pat, so the Booy cousins may have had extra-special treatment, with their spouses getting to reap the rewards. But it was probably their charisma, not their background...

 

Hazel was a great host, and her award-winning wines were quite good, we were surprised at how many there were for such a small winery. We will get some to Ontario somehow...

We continued our journey down the hill, and visited a dairy farm. Yes, a dairy farm, for a tour of a modern facility.  Gary being a passionate dairy farmer and Sharon being a passionate cook, there was much great conversation about food, the source and the farming and farmers that produce it.  So seeing a farm was a great follow-up to those conversations.

This put us in the "moo"-ed for cheese, so we went to a local producer:

Then off to a market/petting-zoo:

Sharon showed off some cooking skills that night, using the ingredients we purchased that day. Much more talking continued late into the night, and we said our good byes the next morning.

This visit was truly a highlight of our trip. While we'll see many cool things, it is more rare to connect with cool people.

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.

Spokane

Back to "big-city" life, we headed to Spokane. It's Washington's 2nd largest (and overlooked) city, and proved to be quite entertaining... at least for us tourists who only spend 2 days there.

First, we had to say goodbye to tax-free Montana, and drive through the "panhandle" of Idaho. Some more beautiful scenes were to be had:

First stop in Spokane: Hotel Lusso. One of 3 boutique hotels, and sweet. It's attached to a happening ale house, which proved to be quite loud during Monday Night Football.

Dinner at a local favourite:

Next day, decided to hang out another day here and lucked out with an upgraded huge room for the same price. Breakfast at Hotel Davenport across the street.

Check out the lobby:

As part of our road trip is to explore some of the many wineries along the way, we started off with Arbor Crest Winery:

On top of a mountain on a sunny day... it doesn't get more scenic than this!

We got a personal tour from the marketing guy, and found out much about the property. Large checkers games, ice rink, pool... all built in the early 1900's.

We of course tried out all of the wines, and took a Pinot Gris with us for the road. (No, we did not drink it while on the road!)

We continued out stressful day in town, trying out more local wines from restaurants and tasting rooms in Spokane.

Wine tasting at Sante...

...and eats!

Ok, not a wine tasting place. But this pic is here for my in-laws.

Back to tasting...

...at Niko's Greek Restaurant & Wine Bar

Things got extra interesting at Niko's, where we met a Spokane newspaperman and his 2 consultants from Ontario. 

After hitting it off with Shaun, John, and Linda, we all headed to the Peacock lounge and enjoyed some more wine, and spoke of politics and boats made of cork. Can't say too much more of this top secret project, which we were promised we'd get to risk our lives for it, sometime in the (possibly distant) future.

Back to our tiny room for the night!