Saturday, May 17, 2008
Wine O's
As previously mentioned, our neighbor to the south (yes, south), Windsor, Ontario has a wine tour. In fact, this area is famous for icewine. Allen and Alicia came up from Indiana for a visit and took the tour with us.
Apparently, the border crossing agents don't like it when a mother and child try to come across without documentation. We were told to enter the enhanced screen area for further investigation. We pulled in, and a female officer snapped on a latex glove and asked us to exit the vehicle, and stand in front facing the windshield. She said we could leave Miles in his car seat. All four of us made faces at Miles in the car while she searched every compartment in the vehicle (presumably to prevent any influx of weak American dollars) as well as the trunk. Welcome to Canada, eh!
Ah well, just remember to have proper documentation in the cabin with you (not in the trunk, Julie) and you'll be cruising right past the mounties, and on to your first taste...
Miles seemed to be having a good time with everything, while I mostly abstained since I was driving. Everyone else got to taste wines from several wineries. We even took a tour of one of the wineries to see where the wine was aged:
The tour took us a few hours. In transit between the second and third, we got stopped by the Canadian authorities again at a road block checking for "drinkin' n' drivin'".
Officer: "Have you had anything to drink today, sir?"
Jason: (recalls two sips of wine at a winery, considers lying about it) "I had a couple sips of wine."
Officer: (scrutinizing car further, escalating tension in voice) "Where are you from?"
Jason: (nervous) "The States"
Officer 2: (to Officer 1) "They're from Michigan!"
Officer 1: "Oh!..... You're Americans on the wine tour! Move along now, we just didn't see a plate on the front of your vehicle."
Geez, it took them a little longer than I thought it should to figure out that we were from Michigan, and that's why we don't have a plate on the front bumper. Anyway, the speed that he switched off the "cop tone" was amazing, and I got the impression that I could have been stone drunk and he would have let me by since I was an American on the wine tour. Way to make me soil my pants, Canada.
The trip was really cool though, and not very far from our house. So, next time anyone wants to take a little low cost trip out of the country, just let us know, we're ready to go back and get some more wine.
By the way, there is more than icewine on the trip. We came back with several bottles of tasty dry reds and light whites. Julie and I were both surprised at the variety of native Canadian wines we found. We promise we won't take you to Sir Cedrics for Fish n' Chips.
After the tour, Miles picked up a cute date in his favorite pickup truck...
And check me out owning Allen on the swings...
Apparently, the border crossing agents don't like it when a mother and child try to come across without documentation. We were told to enter the enhanced screen area for further investigation. We pulled in, and a female officer snapped on a latex glove and asked us to exit the vehicle, and stand in front facing the windshield. She said we could leave Miles in his car seat. All four of us made faces at Miles in the car while she searched every compartment in the vehicle (presumably to prevent any influx of weak American dollars) as well as the trunk. Welcome to Canada, eh!
Ah well, just remember to have proper documentation in the cabin with you (not in the trunk, Julie) and you'll be cruising right past the mounties, and on to your first taste...
Miles seemed to be having a good time with everything, while I mostly abstained since I was driving. Everyone else got to taste wines from several wineries. We even took a tour of one of the wineries to see where the wine was aged:
The tour took us a few hours. In transit between the second and third, we got stopped by the Canadian authorities again at a road block checking for "drinkin' n' drivin'".
Officer: "Have you had anything to drink today, sir?"
Jason: (recalls two sips of wine at a winery, considers lying about it) "I had a couple sips of wine."
Officer: (scrutinizing car further, escalating tension in voice) "Where are you from?"
Jason: (nervous) "The States"
Officer 2: (to Officer 1) "They're from Michigan!"
Officer 1: "Oh!..... You're Americans on the wine tour! Move along now, we just didn't see a plate on the front of your vehicle."
Geez, it took them a little longer than I thought it should to figure out that we were from Michigan, and that's why we don't have a plate on the front bumper. Anyway, the speed that he switched off the "cop tone" was amazing, and I got the impression that I could have been stone drunk and he would have let me by since I was an American on the wine tour. Way to make me soil my pants, Canada.
The trip was really cool though, and not very far from our house. So, next time anyone wants to take a little low cost trip out of the country, just let us know, we're ready to go back and get some more wine.
By the way, there is more than icewine on the trip. We came back with several bottles of tasty dry reds and light whites. Julie and I were both surprised at the variety of native Canadian wines we found. We promise we won't take you to Sir Cedrics for Fish n' Chips.
After the tour, Miles picked up a cute date in his favorite pickup truck...
And check me out owning Allen on the swings...
# posted by Jason Weida @ 6:00 PM 
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