August 25, 2013 Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada

The border is only 4 miles north of Oroville so we decided to run up for some wine tasting and lunch.

The border station. We must look shifty, they pulled us over and did background checks on us, searched our pockets, my purse, and the whole car. They were probably sorry they had to search the car, it is crammed with boating, biking , hiking gear, bikes, boats, hiking boots, dirty sox,water bottles, trash and assorted other junk. Two young  ladies spent some time on it and we had to remain inside. We were delayed an hour at the border, but we must have passed we were allowed in.

Across the border we were met  with kilometers per hour. John changed our GPS to kilometers so it would tell us if we were speeding or not since we only know miles per hour. Petro was sold by the liter, $1.35 a liter, which is over $5 a gallon. The night before at dinner in Oroville we met Derrick, who owns a hotel in Osoyoos right across the border.  He asked us to stop by and he gave us a map of the wineries and recommendations. Much nicer than the border patrol. The Okanogan Valley has 29 wineries at the southern end. It is like the Napa/Sonoma valley in California of Canada.

The first winery we went to was the Burrowing Owl. It was very fancy. This is their restaurant, tasting room and pool. They had a guest house. They have 200 acres of grapes. The Okanogan valley is considered the desert of Canada. It is very dry where it is not irrigated. Since it is desert they have lots of southwestern desert buildings.

These grapes are growing at the Burrowing Owl right off the parking lot.  The Okanogan Valley in Canada much like the same valley in USA is agricultural- with fruit orchards and vineyards. The Canadian side is wider, much greener and has Osoyoos  lake running down the middle. Doesn’t look like any desert I have ever seen.

At the Tinhorn Creek Winery Joyce is pouring us tastes of ice wine in chocolate cups. Ice wine is made  from grapes that are left on the vine to freeze in the winter. That desiccates the grapes so the juice is syrupy and very sweet. I love ice wine. It is very expensive and much too dangerous for me. Joyce took our photo with our ice wines. I am such a cheap drunk that I get a buzz from tasting wine. Wine tasting is kind of a waste on us, neither of us can really taste the differences. But it is fun.

At Tinhorn Creek they have a special garden with all the varieties of grapes labeled and you can taste the grapes. They don’t taste like wine, the skins are very chewy and they have big seeds. The Tinhorn Creek 1,000 barrel room where they age the wine in oak barrels.

John having lunch at the Tinhorn Creek Restaurant. You can see the valley spread out behind him. We split an Italian bacon, smoked mozzarella and garlic pizza. We stopped at the Firehouse Brewery so John could taste beer. A place made for an ex fireman who loves beer, but it was closed.

After having enough fun we returned to the USA. It took all of 2 minutes to get across the border, we must not look shifty to the Americans. We then went riding on the Similkameen river trail. John looking at the river from the old railroad bridge.

The trail ends at the Enloe dam. They no longer use the dam for electricity, it is scheduled for demolition some undetermined time in the future. Much to the delight of the river runners. The waterfall right below the waterfall off the dam is called Coyote Falls. It is rated a class V rapid. John says it looks very runnable. Maybe to him . . .