It had to catch up to us eventually. The prevailing wind finally caught the smoke from the massive California forest fires and carried it all the way to the Okanagan Valley. We spent the day with a dense fog of smoke all around us. It obscured a fair number of the views we would have had, but it also provided nice visual effects from the light as we were driving south.
Our day centred on visiting wineries in the Osoyoos region, near the US border and home to Canada's only desert. We ended up stopping by four vineyards, buying just as many bottles to bring back to the hotel, and shipping them home three times. If you ask me, we’ve probably drunk more wine on this trip than we drink in a year at home. Not sure what we’ll do with so many bottles. Friends of ours are about to either get awesome hosting gifts or dinner invitations. Either way, it’s a good time to be our friends!
Ever since we’ve entered BC, we’ve noticed something shocking. I would have never thought, under the new normal brought to us by the pandemic, what leftist BC would go for. Turns out that, in British Columbia, face masks are mainly at the individual's discretion. Indeed, each establishment can decide whether it requires it. Walking into a coffee shop, restaurant, wine shop, or grocery store and seeing more than two-thirds of people without face masks was jarring at first.
We first noticed this in Revelstoke. None of the restaurants we visited had any patrons wearing masks at their tables or while navigating the restaurant. We observed the same thing in our hotel and the coffee shops we visited. We hardly saw any face masks. We first thought it was a small city thing. After all, calling Revelstoke a city is pushing the definition of city a little. Once we got to Kelowna, we figured there would be a lot more face masks. Boy, were we wrong. Our hotel requires face masks, and staff mostly follow the rule, though I’ve seen a few without one. Guests also seem to follow the rule some of the time, but not always. Still, it’s the place I’ve seen the most face masks. In restaurants, we’ve seen the staff wear masks diligently, but not patrons. We found the same behaviour at wineries. I must admit, we’re enjoying the break from face masks, even if we still feel like we’re doing something wrong every time we go inside without one.
Tomorrow: more wineries!