Two short trips with Veronica

I went with Veronica over the labour day long weekend to Osoyoos in the South Okanagan. You know you are living in an obscure corner of the world when the spell checker does not recognize the name of the town in your Province you just visited. Veronica is my girlfriend, although I am old enough and was married long enough that it still seems strange to use that term. We met three months after my separation. We are a good fit, she is wonderful, I am a lucky guy.

She found a bed and breakfast for us to stay at. She sent me pictures asking what I thought, but I didn't get past the view before saying we should definitely go:

I rented a car to drive us up there. I was a victim of agent up-selling and got a more expensive car than I had originally booked. I am at an early enough stage where I am still trying to impress Veronica, but late enough I can tell her and we can laugh about it. The car was a Ford Mustang convertible. I can't recommend it. It does not handle that well, and the convertible top was wasted on me (I like to talk apparently, and I burn easily). 

 

   

The trip up was on the Crowsnest highway (BC #3). This is beautiful country that goes through Manning Park, with varied terrain leading from the Coast to the desert climate in the South Okanagan.

We ate surprisingly well in Osoyoos, went to the Desert Cultural Centre run by the local native band, that seemed well organized and prosperous, and went swimming in the lake. The fancy bed and breakfast and the culinary opportunities are all there because of the array of vineyards and wineries on the road North of town towards Oliver. We did winery tours one day, and went to the Burrowing Owl and Hester Creek. The view below is from the tower at the Burrowing Owl. You can see the smokey haze from the serious fires in nearby Washington State at that time..

I have to say, tasting wines side by side really does give you a sense of the variety of flavours. I recommend going to those kind of tasting events if you are interested in wine and want to spend more money on it than you do now. I did buy one bottle from each of the two places we visited:

Blogging for me is a writing exercise and I do think of how I will phrase things here as I cycle home from work or am on the bus. I had planned to say that I would save these wines and you would know if you were a special friend if I brought them out for you. But, I already drank them. One was with Veronica, which was a mistake since she had one small glass and I had the rest. 

I did have one other trip with Veronica early in our relationship. We went to Seattle together on the train. At the time, my divorce lawyer had said to keep a low profile on my new relationship. I didn't quite understand this but she had given me good advice so I did not blog about that trip at the time. It was a fun trip. Veronica doesn't like the picture below but I do: we look happy! 

There are many stages to romantic love and this blog is too public a place for me to list them all, but I can say that the trip to the Science Fiction Museum and this image moved me along quite a bit. 

We ate well on this trip, too, and I discovered we had some of the same values and sense of humour.