Im going to be a bit backward here.
Not in a bad way - in a confusing way. Which is just natural when it comes to me really.
Im a big fan of writing in chronological order. Actually I'm kind of an annoying stickler for it. But today Im going to veer from that a bit because this blog will be much shorter than the blog Im going to write about the march break.
So first of all, it was my 30th this year. Im not sure if this mini getaway was initiaed by my mother in law or hubbie and I, but regardless it was much needed.
I decided that I was going to be particular for once. I asked hubbie if I could be selfish and he said yes. My criteria for a place to stay was as follows:
- A jacuzzi ( or whiirlpool tub? I dont know the difference)
- A Fireplace
- A full english breakfast ( for hubbie mostly)
-A comfortable bed
We talked about a few possibilites and set upon Niagara on the lake.
So I searched and found a B&B that looked awesome ( it has a kitchenette as well!) and comfortable and had all of the musts on the above list. Very excited. It was nice to have that to look forward to as well.
Anyway, my inlaws arrived friday night so that we would be able to leave early on saturday and still get a bit of a visit. We tried to play it like Josh was leaving for a normal school day and I'd slip out after to minimize trauma.
Blessing #1 - There were no tears when we left ( that we heard anyway)
We ended up stopping for lunch at a mall i remember my grandma talking about shopping at back in the day. That was a little weird. I mean, obviously its likely totally completely different than back then but it was still a little weird. A little sad. A little neat though too.
WE had virtually zero traffic and arrived fairly quickly. We decided to go to Queenston because my history loving hubbie wanted to go see the monument.
OKAY
That thing is absolutely huge! Like I cannot believe how massive it is. How did they ever manage that?! If he were on the ground, I swear he'd be about three or four times the size of a real person! We took a picture but it totally did not do it justice. That was basically my entire contribution to that stop.
We also drove into the little town of Queenston where Laura Secords house is ( closed of course, like many things that aren't stores in the area) Seriously creepy experience. The old houses were really cool. Its obviously a lived in town...but there were no people outside, the school ( well one of them) was closed and boarded up and also kind of creepy looking. We saw one other car the whole time we were there, it came from the lake and not the town. It was just plain eerie.
Anyway, we had lots of time to browse the shops and just relax and meander. It was a cold, but beautiful and sunny afternoon.
There are so many cool shops. Honestly, the biggest pull to choosing Niagara on the lake was the scottish loft. My friend Lisa had found the thistle china pattern im in love with ( and discovered on our honeymoon in Scotland nearly 4 years ago) there last summer and told me about it. Ever since Ive been itching to go and get a teapot. During out time there we discovered that these chocolate biscuits I love, called penguins, have been banned from being imported to Canada.
Because the package states that they have added calcium.
But genetically modified, over sugared, over preserved, one ingredient away from being plastic crap we eat on a daily basis is totally acceptable.
Added Calcium. Seriously. Poor Canada.
Anyway, I also discovered there that the set has not been discontinued as I had read a while ago on a website so I can chill and easily collect the tea set I want without having to shell out money when we don't have it. As it was the teapot was 85$ plus tax but I had birthday money so it was perfect timing.
Some other note worthy shops ( Ooooh its like a travel blog!!!)
Taste - ( at least thats what I think it was called)
Excellent shop. They sell a bunch of sauces and specialty oils and etc. You can try absolutely everything they have in the store for free. Most of it is locally made too which is pretty cool. Unfortunately the pear glaze I loved was 15$ for maybe 200 mLs so we skipped that, but it was a really fun experience and the lady was so helpful and nice and when we left without buying anything she was still friendly when we thanked her and told her to have a nice day.
Cheese Secrets - ( this was neat because we both wanted to try to find a cheese shop. We ended up parking in a green P that had we not gone all the way the end to, would not have seen the cheese shop at all because it was tucked in behind the main street. Blessing #.....Ive lost count really)
They didnt have a huge selection but what they did have was varying (cow, sheep, goat milk) and they were generous with taste tests. We got a 2 yr old raw cows milk cheese from PEI and an aged gouda. Both very tasty.
A fudge shop.
I forget the name.
They had lots of homemade fudge, canadian maple syrup and dutch licorice. Unfortunately nothing fun for my mother in law who is half dutch. Im glad I was with Josh because I swore he said she liked dutch licorice candies and he was emphatic that she doesnt. So that was a good thing to avoid. They let us have taste tests as well. We got a chocolate peanut butter and cookies and cream fudge. My only problem with that place was they only sold by half bricks and full bricks when we wanted less, but oh well.
Another shop I forget the name of.
This place was full of sauces, jams, chutneys, dip additives etc etc etc. There were about 12 taste test areas for all sorts of different things. It was really cool. Again we didnt buy anything but it was a fun experience.
We stopped for a snack ( more like a meal) at the Irish tea room.
Oh
My
Gosh.
I had decided last week that I need to go back to avoiding gluten.
This place blew that resolve out of the water.
We had a GIGANTIC scone complete with strawberries, jam and clotted cream. We had to eat it with a fork and knife, very carefully, because it was so so huge.
But so. so. oh so good.
We also had tea of course and a shamrock shortbread cookie. It was a nice atmosphere and the people were really friendly. Our waiter was not Irish. He was from Manchester. But oh well.
After the tea room we went back to get my teapot and to the cheese shop. I began to feel.....funny. Tipsy. Like Id had a couple glasses of wine. Except I didn't. Gluten? Sugar? Hm.......It sort of sucked. I was dizzy for a good 2 hours. Me thinks I should get to a nutritionist or something of the sort.
Anyway, we then checked into our B&B - 627 on King.
Absolutely amazing. Totally blew my expectations out of the water.
The owner was so friendly ( and English interestingly enough) and we had a little kitchenette with a fridge, tons of tea, a kettle, french press ( which hubbie was ecstatic about :D ), snacks, a fruit plate, even dishes and a knife and cutting board ( perfect for our newly purchased cheese). We chilled before dinner since I was all dizzy and had a terrible time figuring out where to eat. Once we finally decided, I was starting to feel a bit better.
We chose a pub. We are so predictable. We had wanted to try some place nicer but any of the places had no selection on the menus and it was mostly things I wouldn't eat, naturally. So we went to the pub. "The Irish Harp" Excellent atmosphere, nice waitress, food was pretty good. The fries were nothing special at all. The Guinness mayo was though.
Oh
My
Gosh
I actually neglected the ketchup completely. I even considered dipping my fish in the Guinness mayo. It tasted nothing like Guinness to me....more like hickory and something else. Regardless it was fantastic. They had a taster beer menu that Josh totally didnt see before ordering his Guinness. Poor guy. I had a glass of a Jackson Triggs chardonay that was ridiculously good. I mention this because it comes in to play later.
After dinner we returned to the B&B and poured over the mitt full of wine tasting vouchers the owner gave us. We tried to pick the most reasonable ones distance wise and leave the rest for other people. He had a drawer full of them though. It was kind of funny. I passed out around 930 as per usual.
I woke up about 6 times before morning, but they were very brief wake ups. It was nice to be in bed for 8 hours straight. I was wide awake by 5 which sucked but at least I got to relax. We had ordered breakfast for 830 so we ate our fruit plate since we were both up by 630. It was so nice to just chill and talk and relax and take our time. Time by the way went by ridiculously slowly which was very nice.
Breakfast was awesome. He serves it in your room ( I forgot to mention the little dinette set). He also serves it on the small placemats that we saw all over the B&B's on our honeymoon which was fun for nostalgic sake. Our first part included porridge wtih maple syrup and cream. I dont think i have ever seen Josh eat so fast. Usually i suck back food like a vacuum and hes not even half finished. Our next course was the english breakfast ( without beans but thats just because whenever he puts them out people usually leave them) So so good. We talked with the owner for a while during breakfast and shortly after, at checkout time. Turns out he teaches part time at the university in York ( England) Apparently they are having issues with the students getting drunk, falling in the river and dying. 3 died last year. Its become a serious part of orientation. Crazy!
After checkout we went to walk around Fort Mississauga. There isnt much there so its open to the public. You have to walk through a golf course to get there. So even though the wind was bitter cold walking there, it was probably better to be there when balls weren't flying around. Honestly, I would have been hit or narrowly missed getting hit, had there been golfers there. Some kids have used parts of it to hang out and do who knows what. I found reading the plaques kind of interesting.
Then began our wine tasting experience.....
First we went to Peller Estates. Absolutely gigantic, beautiful building. Very classy atmosphere. We spent longer there probably than intended. The lady was very helpful and informative about the different wines and etc. I didnt realize how generous they are wtih these wine tastings. We each got to try three types of wine and shared an ice wine and an extra dessert wine.
For free.
The ice wine was....oh man. As was this other oak aged dessert wine that we tried. It was 60$. We left without buying anything, but it was a very enjoyable experience.
Next we went to Jackson Triggs which was in a weird looking warehouse, blasting country music. It felt kind of like going to a huge LCBO with wine tasting. The contrast between the two places was bizarre.
One of the reasons we went to Jackson Triggs was because I wanted to try to find the chardonnay I had had the night before. I tried the only two they had in store ( you see, they save the top stuff to sell at the winery and the rest goes to the LCBO....the lady running the testing guessed that they either had an older version or it was a special restaurant version because they didn't have the one the pub owner said it was.
Or something.
Regardless she didnt include my chardonnay tastings as the free tastes so that was nice. We bought a bottle of gewurztraminer and a small bottle of ice wine that tastes like strawberry jam.
After that we had lunch at swanky McDonalds and checked out a store beside it that sounded a lot more interesting than it was....and then went to a beer making place. I forget the name. its relatively new. They gave us a range of beers to try. A lot of beer. All of which I despised of course. Josh didnt like it too much either so we slipped out, leaving lots of beer behind feeling slightly bad. Friendly people and atmosphere but too bitter and Josh was disappointed that it was only 3 years old. He likes the super old reciped beer. Or something like that.
So anyway, that was our last stop home. We had very little traffic and I slept off and on on the way home. It was a very very nice relaxing weekend.
We got home and the kids exclaimed "daddy!" Mommy was totally an afterthought. But thats ok. :)
Momma G made me an enchillada lasanga of sorts with corn tortillas. Very. Very. Very good. Luckily there was some leftover for supper the next day too. Later on we had yummy carrot cake with cream cheese icing too and got to visit with my inlaws for a bit. They stayed for a bit on monday to babysit while I went to the doctors. Earlier in the day momma G suggested we try to take the girls out for a walk because they had been cooped up forever. It was cold. But Sophia walked the whole way to the park and neither girl wanted to get out of the swings. Can you say tempers? Seriously, in minus "who knows what" weather with freezing wind chill and they STILL want to swing.
They didn't get this from me. I had a scarf wrapped entirely around the majority of my head.
Anyhow, Sophia finally had a good nap for the first time in days.
Come Spring! Fast!!!
This only took me two days to write.
Thank you sesame street for being so entertaining.
xo
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