Feb 19thYou know you’re a wine lover when…

You know you’re a wine lover when…

You know you’re a wine lover when you rent a motel room for your wine. While it wasn’t a large room and I wouldn’t give it four stars, it had the two important qualities we were looking for at the time – it was air conditioned and it was in the United States.

A few years ago, we were on a trip to Niagara Falls. As we left Kentucky and drove north, we visited wineries in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York on our way. Of course, we tasted wines and found many too good to pass up. We bought two cases of wine. That’s what caused our dilemma. Our reservations for the night were in Canada, and as we discovered that you were only allowed to take alcoholic beverages that you planned to consume while there. We only planned to stay one night. We’re both wine lovers and have drank a lot; but we were sure the border crossing guards would not believe we planned to drink two cases in twenty four hours. We needed a plan.

It is legal to ship wine to yourself, but it is quite costly and you have to be at home to sign for it when it arrives at your Kentucky home. That wouldn’t work, but what would? After some thought, we realized that the New York side of the falls had an awful lot of inexpensive motels. We found one close to our route, found they had a vacancy, rented the room, unloaded our wine, turned down the air conditioner, locked the room, and headed for the border. Problem solved.

We crossed the border and enjoyed a day and evening exploring the falls on the Canadian side. The views are gorgeous and the visit was an exceptional experience. The next day, we checked out of our Canadian hotel, crossed the border, checked our wine out of its room, and spent an enjoyable day visiting the American falls.

The wine, by the way, was worth the price of the room!