A little sojourn to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Thank you Barb, your anniversary post inspired JT and I to make our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) this past Christmas for a quick holiday. We stayed at Harbour House a relatively new boutique hotel just off the beaten path in NOTL.  We stayed at this place shortly after it first opened 8-10 years ago and it was lovely, this time was no different. JT booked us into a gorgeous room with a fireplace and we were upgraded to a suite — now that’s sweet!

The living room with fireplace

Very spacious

A festive touch in our room

The bedroom

A large jacuzzi tub, separate shower, double sink, what more could you want? Heated floors.

We arrived on Boxing day (December 26) with no weather issues at all, which was a little surprising since they had predicted a bad storm to come through and dump 30cm (12 inches) of snow in the area. We waited and waited and eventually it did snow, but not nearly as much as predicted. NOTL is a picturesque village with nice restaurants, quaint shops and lovely homes, some of which have been converted to B&Bs. It is also very close to Ontario’s Wine Country.

We ate lunch at the Oban Inn, which is always a treat with lovely views of their manicured gardens. We shared the Dungeness Crab Cakes with Micro Greens, Horseradish Espresso Remoulade, Grilled Pineapple Salsa ($16). For my main I enjoyed Icewine Salmon Gravlax, Carrot Slaw, Citrus Creme Fraiche ($12) it was delicious. JT had the quiche with field greens. I would recommend this restaurant highly. Service was also excellent.

Dinner our first night was at Zee’s a restaurant in The Shaw Club a sister hotel. We shared the Cheese and Charcuterie platter with 5 items for $25. On it was TIGER BLUE rich, aromatic with an intense blue flavour, in the style of stilton, ROARING 40’S BLUE cow’s milk, full flavoured blue with a honeyed, slightly nutty quality, rindless, smooth and creamy and a cheddar which they had to substitute. The Charuterie portion was made up of HOT SOPRESATTA from the Calabria Region, red wine, chili spices and salt, texture of prosciutto, robust and spicy and CHORIZO blend of pork, pork fat, smoked dried paprika, distinct smoke flavour, cured and smoked and neither of these impressed us either, not spicy or smokey tasting. JT had the Nova Scotia Lobster Poutine which included house cut fries, a generous serving of butter poached lobster, white cheddar cheese curds, red wine veal jus and a home made hollandaise sauce. JT’s meal was excellent, although it would not have been something I would order. I had the Warm Mushroom & Smoked Bacon Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese, Sautéed Mushrooms & Smoked Bacon, Parsnip Chips & Apple Cider Vinaigrette ($10) and sadly it was neither warm nor did it have many mushrooms, so even at the low price of $10 it was disappointing.

Our hotel included a wonderful breakfast both days, made of a hot egg dish, pastries, cheeses, meats, scones, preserves, yogurt and fruit. There was also cereal, but who eats cereal on their vacation? Let’s just say we didn’t leave hungry! Our first full day we decided to brave the weather and head down to Niagara Falls, NY to do a little shopping at Walden Galleria which turned out to be nothing special. Lunch was at Bravo Italian Cucina which I suspect is a chain. We both had the soup and salad combo; I had the Italian Wedding soup but was lacking in flavour and JT had the Lobster Bisque which had good lobster flavour but was too creamy for my taste. Our waiter was very talkative and we enjoyed the interaction. Would I go back? Doubt it, nothing special. We returned to NOTL by way of the Rainbow bridge and although we both now have Nexus, I prefer to go the human route when we buy things outside of the allowances. With both cases you must declare what you bring in, but at least the human factor gives us the possibility of not having to pay the taxes and duty on the items (free trade my foot). And this time the lady clearing us in chastised me for not buying enough! Go figure.

That night we ate at the Cannery another sister hotel/restaurant. This is a slightly larger hotel catering to more family style stays. Most of the restaurants in NOTL are casual, so for the most part people don’t really dress up but JT and I always do! I started with Sea Scallops which were Seared Sea Scallops, Petite Village Salad, Seedlings, Smoked Paprika Oil  ($18) it was delicious (I didn’t take photos because it was too dark), JT had the caesar salad. My main course was an appetizer portion of Spicy Udon Noodles which were Tapioca Noodles, Spicy Yuzu Sesame Sauce, Pork Dumplings, Shiitake Mushrooms Prawns, Matchstick Vegetables ($15) again, delicious and a perfect portion for me! JT had the appetizer portion of the Tagliatelle Pasta which was Semolina Broad Noodles, Pulled Braised Lamb, Wild Mushrooms, Truffle Paste, Asiago Shards ($15); we both enjoyed our meals. Having said that, the overall impression is kind of Cracker Barrel style decor, bright lighting and not much cozy ambiance.

Our final lunch was at an old favourite at On the Twenty in Jordan, Ontario a short drive from NOTL and an exceptional restaurant which is connected to Cave Spring Cellars an award winning winery. We ate a lovely table overlooking their perennial gardens which were romantically blanketed with snow. I started with Heirloom Beet Salad of smoked goat cheese, Dave Irish’s breakfast radish, pickled red onion, pistachio brittle, honey mandarin vinaigrette ($12) and JT had the butternut squash soup ($10) and both were exceptional. I then had the Vintner’s Platter in-house smoked salmon, pâté en croute, house-made mustard, pickles, charcuterie, artisanal cheese ($19) which could have easily been shared and JT had the Grilled Venison Burger with Juniper berry-infused tomato relish, feta cheese aioli, baby arugula, fresh-cut fries, house-made ketchup ($17) which was OUTSTANDING. We each had an espresso for dessert. Service is always exceptional and the ambiance is lovely. If you ever come up to this area, you must dine at On the Twenty.

View from our room.

It’s these friendly touches that make this hotel

A delicious cookie for each of us.

It’s all in the details

Each evening between 4-5:30 wine and cheese were served in the lobby. We gathered to meet the other lovely guests, most of whom were Americans, as far away as Philly.

Our first lunch was at Oban Inn, these are most delicious crab cakes.

This was my second course at the Oban, a wonderful Gravlox Salmon, home cured. Most delicious combination of flavours and textures.

Our last lunch at Inn on the 20, a beet and goats cheese salad with pistachio brittle. Very tasty.

We made our way back home to find our driveway and walkways had been cleared of the massive dump of snow we got while we were away. We really do have the loveliest neighbours.

The snow in our backyard

The front yard, still snowing

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New York City! Woohoo!

We flew off to NYC this fine morning. Toronto is hot and humid, Manhattan is slightly cooler but with higher humidity. As long as it’s not cold, I’ll be ok, I think I packed enough ! Okay, don’t ask!
I’d like to apologize if I’m not commenting on your lovely blogs, I will surely catch up on my return. Please forgive me
We flew United and had to pay $28 per checked bag! Really? Since when? We don’t pay with Canadian airlines. I’m already rethinking my wardrobe for Europe, although we are flying Air Canada! I’m sure they will catch on by the fall. For Manhattan I brought 6 pairs of shoes, 7 if you count the foldy/rolly ones!
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, and thank goodness as we were ‘flagged’ by Nexus. We had to go to a special room and drop off our credentials and wait. JT has a common name and we were tagged! Lucky us. This has happened before and we discovered that there are a lot of criminals who have the same name as JT. Our kind US agent marked our info on their system so we are never tagged again, at least that is what he told us. We’ll see if the let us back in!
Our plane was a small Boeing turbo prop, at gate 91 out of 99; of course it was! I wore appropriate traveling shoes so the walk was a breeze (7 minutes, the sign said!)

The first part of the flight was rough and we were tossed around like a plastic bag in the wind. Then it calmed fortunately. I’m reading 50 Shades of Grey on the iPad, for all the reasons. It’s an easy read; I’m on page 70, when do we get to the good parts? (and by that, the ladies will know what I mean!)
We pay $57 + 17 for tolls for a cab into Manhattan from Newark. Expensive, yes but it gets us to our hotel in about 40 minutes!
Our hotel is the Eventi, a Kimpton. Thank you Karen, Back Road Journal, for mentioning about joining loyalty programs. We were upgraded to a higher floor AND the concierge sent up fruit and bottle if wine for our anniversary!

Free WIFI too! So great. View from our room, if you look far left you’ll see the Empire State Building (not in the photo):

I’ll blog about lunch tomorrow.

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May 2-4 (we say two-four) weekend

Saturday was our 26th wedding anniversary; what’s even scarier is the other number, the number of years together! I won’t even bother to say it, you wouldn’t believe me anyway! I’m really not that old, really. No really!!!!
This past weekend was also very special because it was Canada’s first ‘summer’ long weekend: the May ’2-4′, also known as Queen Victoria’s birthday; it is a national holiday in Canada (I don’t think it even ranks in the UK!) it is the first weekend of cottage season for most and JT and I are fortunate to be in this crowd. The drive up north could be treacherous, the normal 3.5 hours could take in excess of 4 or 5 hours with the traffic, but we planned to leave early on Saturday so we beat it.
Our cottage is remote; it was remote in the late 1800′s when JT’s grandfather purchased the land (it took him three days to get there using three forms of transport: train, horse and buggy and finally a row boat), and it’s still remote; no fancy grocery stores, one has to plan everything — everything. There are three family cottages on the land (100+ acres); JT’s sister, known as Sid (because her iPhone always auto corrects ‘Sis’), used to occupy the old log cabin, they renovated about 20 years ago but they prefer something less rustic than the electric toilet (don’t ask) as they are now using the main cottage that used to be JT’s parents place (Dad is just too frail to come up). We use the boathouse, a small 400 square foot place, two bedrooms. It’s small enough to clean top to toe in an hour and it’s large enough to have our closest friends over. But the absolute best (the best Jerry, the Best) part is the porch—it’s right on the water, we overlook the Bay and it’s perfect.
Part of the menu planning is having little munches for cocktails, and I couldn’t help but want to make my friend Charles’ (Five Euro Food) and Jessica’s (kitchenbelleicious) Roasted Chick Peas and of course, my friend Barb’s (Profiteroles and Ponytails’ version), and there was also Betsy (Bits and Breadcrumbs who also did a take on them! Absolutely wonderful, although because we did not use the allotted oil, we had to roast a wee bit longer, but well worth it. I really liked the texture, JT was so so! I may have lied, I didn’t make them! JT made them whilst I was at the salon getting my roots hair done! We had them for cocktails on Sunday night. Very tasty indeed. Plus they are a protein and we reduced the oil a bit to limit the fat. Still calories but at least they are good calories! Because they are a protein, they will fill you up a lot faster than potato chips, which is fine by me! I changed up the flavouring since Sid doesn’t eat too hot foods (also added a touch of sugar to help calm the heat)

Crunchy and just slightly hot, perfect with that martini. May I get you one?

Roasted Garlic Cumin Chick Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 large can of Chick Peas (~500g)
• A quick spray of non stick spray
• 2-3 tsps Cumin
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp light brown sugar
• A handful of garlic cloves, minced finely

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Add all the spices to the drained and dried chick peas. Mix well.
3. Give the pan a good spray and lay the chick peas out to an even layer.
4. As Charles so eloquently put it: roast for about an hour until the peas are shrunken and crispy, and a rich golden brown in colour. We found that because we did not add the oil, we had to roast for about 1.5 hours to get them crispy. And we even let them sit in the oven as the oven cooled down (tasting throughout, of course, the insides had to crisp up)
5. Allow to cool and enjoy with your flavourite cocktail (our’s was the traditional Vodka Martini, stirred, not shaken!)
6. Cheers!

I know you want to just dig in, but it’s so much more civilized with that wonderful wooden scoop!

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The Garden in Bloom

Spring is my favourite time of year. It’s a time of rebirth and renewal. It’s a time to shed the heavy coats and gloves and socks and boots and dawn lighter, airier garments. It’s a time to enjoy the greenery and the burst of colour the garden has to offer.

The beautiful crab apple tree in full bloom. She is just so happy we got rid of that towering shady elm!

We live in the city, and so our lot is not huge, but it’s a decent size for some interesting landscaping. Last fall, as many of you already know, we hard-scaped the back yard and removed all the grass. It never really grew well anyway. Our big huge Elm made sure of that. We also had a smaller elm removed from in front of the kitchen window. We knew the crab apple would be very happy because we did.

The Azalea in full bloom.

My friend Norma has beautiful Azaleas in her rural garden. She is even lucky enough to get deer from time to time! Our back yard faces east, so we really only get the morning sun. It’s still a little cool to sit outside, but I’m hoping that by next weekend we will be able to.

The hostas and ferns are shooting up like crazy beside my little ‘thinker’

I’m finding that the garden takes turns on allowing a different variety to flourish each year; the periwinkle is flowering so much this year, more than I can recall in the past. The violets are not doing as well. Perhaps next year it will be their time again. Or the Lily of the Valley.

A surprise in the back 40!

And so, I’ll leave you with a little surprise down by the back shed: our very own Trillium. The Trillium is Ontario’s official flower and it is illegal to pick them, or even uproot them; you can get fined if you are caught. They supposedly flower every seven years! We noticed this little gem about 5 years ago, when it flowered last (OK, so maybe Trilliums weren’t good at math). We don’t know how it got here, but we sure feel lucky that it is here! And flowering so beautifully. See you Miss Trillium, hopefully in another 5 years!

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A Little Sojourn to Niagara Falls, Ontario

Did you miss me? We were away and we did not have free wifi. I figured at $200 a night, they could have thrown it in…it was a matter of principal.

Of course, it has to snow on our driving day.

Snow, snow, GO AWAY.

We like to get away from time to time, even if it’s just a couple of hours away. This weekend is our relatively new Family Day holiday in Ontario; it was an election promise by our current Premier Dalton McGuinty (one that he actually kept!) creating a statutory holiday to help bridge the gap from Christmas to Easter, and to beef up tourism in Ontario. We took a little trip to Niagara Falls Ontario.

Niagara is a wonderful combination of culture, food, natural wonder and of course, shopping, and it’s only an hour and a half from our home! We’ve stayed in several different places over the years but this time we’re staying at the Gateway Fallsview Marriott which is reasonably close to Casino Niagara where on Sunday night we will see Band from TV. Here is an adorable little clip of Teri Hatcher singing Kerry Underwood’s Before he Cheats. (Kerry is married to Canadian Mike Fisher, who comes from Peterborough, my nephew (Brian) and niece (Laura) went to school with his siblings…cool eh? 6 degrees of separation!)

Now you are well aware that I bumped into Flat Ruthie the other day at the Toronto Courthouse (not sure what she was doing down there, and perhaps I don’t want to know). Anyway, she finagled her way into coming with us this weekend…I think we’re in trouble…

Oh my, Ruthie, we're ONLY gone 2 nights!

We dropped our luggage at the hotel and then took the Whirlpool Bridge across which is ONLY for Nexus users — we breezed through (the Rainbow Bridge had at least an hour long lineup! Yay Nexus). We went to Walden Galleria to shop where I only got a few things…we declared everything and didn’t have to pay anything! We’re lucky that way. That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to jinx it! In Canada anything less than 24 hours away and you’re really not supposed to buy anything and bring it back, or you should pay 13% taxes and then about 10-15% duties; but it’s really up to the crossing agent – they determine if you pay. After 48 hours I believe you are allowed $300 plus a litre of booze each. But it’s not worth staying in Niagara Falls New York, believe me, it’s such a dump.

We ate lunch at Gordon Biersch; it was a very nice, pub like establishment, but what really drew us to it was that they make everything from scratch right there. And they brew their own beer. A lot of the menu had beer ingredients, which is always quite cool. I ordered the Ahi tuna salad which was quite tasty (Ahi Tuna, blackened and seared rare, with Märzen Balsamic, Vinaigrette and Cajun remoulade) but as usual they really over dressed the greens…enough already! JT had half roast turkey and swiss sandwich and a beer and cheddar soup – the soup was so rich he couldn’t/wouldn’t finish it. For Buffalo, it exceeded my expectations (I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to dine at burger king).

JT had the beer, I had a glass of wine. I usually find beer too filling.

This is the view from our room:

This is a panoramic view from our room using Photosynth - a photo stitch ap on the iPhone

I told her I wouldn't be able to get a good shot, but she insisted.

We stayed at the Fallsview Gateway Marriott which is apparently a different hotel than the Fallsview Marriott. We thought we were in the other one. It wasn’t bad, it was just unexpected. We had a very nice view of the falls. There were no bedbugs. Thank goodness. It’s also a little ironic that we had free wifi in Morrocco, yet, in Niagara Falls Ontario, it’s about $12.75 plus taxes a day. I didn’t get it. Hence my absence this weekend.

King-size bed. There, I said it.

The bathroom had a glass wall facing the bed…I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The fancy tub (can you imagine the bacteria-fest in the pipes? YUCK!)

I’ll review the restaurants and the entertainment in the coming days.

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Thanksgiving at my Brother’s Cottage

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada, and we made our yearly treck to my brother’s cottage. It should only be a little over a two hour drive, but as the years move on it’s gotten worse and worse. Over three hours!
We stopped to a world famous burger joint on Hwy 11, called Webers. I’ve never been. JT and I shared a burger and fries.

Click here for photo source.
To be honest, it’s not the best burger I’ve ever had! Which is surprising because there is a lot of hype around it. It was nice to stretch our legs and eat it at a picnic table outside. This a good segway to the incredible weather we’re having…26C! Two years ago it snowed!
Here is a photo from 2009.

We’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with my brother since our Mom passed away six years ago; it’s always a little crazy (2 kids and a giant dog) and this year is no different!
BTW, last night, we polished off most of the donkey ear cookies, cheese sticks and Tuppkaka!
JT and I usually take care of one dinner and one breakfast! JT made his famous Boeuff Bourgignon, I made dumplings, and we had the Tuppkaka for dessert.

This morning we are having Flower Power Eggs from Donna’s Tasty Kitchen and Croissants (tomorrow’s post).

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Au Revoir La Belle Provence

It’s our last day in Montreal; our flight is with Porter at 2:30 so we have most of the morning to enjoy this gorgeous city.
We ordered breakfast in our room, some hot coffee, flaky croissants, some salami and three types of cheese…my ultimate breakfast.
Here are a couple of pictures of our room at the Nelligan ,JT took with his iPhone4!

The bathroom had a separate glass shower, and a gigantic jacuzzi tub! Very extravagant.
We did a little shopping in the morning, but left enough time for a decent lunch in the old part (priorities!)
We ate at La Jardin Nelson, again. Normally I like to experience new places, but the inner courtyard was so wonderful and the live jazz was stupendous, we had to do it. I had the Caprese again, so good, and JT had a Pork loin salad with watermelon, feta and grapes – very tasty.
This is the live jazz band:

These are the beautiful flowers draping the walls:

We arrived at Pierre Trudeau airport, now I’m just sitting around blogging! Love free WiFi!

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October 2, 2010 Nuit Blanche Toronto

What a night! We took advantage of the TTC day pass so we didn’t have to worry about parking. Nuit Blanche had some definite winners for me and some, not so much. JT and I mapped our routes independently (coincidentally we chose the same one’s!) and began our journey arriving at 7pm to the new Oliver & Bonacini restaurant on Front Street (where Shopsie’s used to be). They sat us quickly (we had a reservation through Open Table). The décor is great, kind of contemporary and historic farm-housie at the same time; cool use of tin, gigantic upside-down tin bucket lights, and cool tables with cloth napkins but no table cloths. It made for very hard surfaces, which made it excessively noisy when we first arrived (it was packed!). As the evening progressed and people left around us, the noise became much more acceptable.
Service was exceptional without a doubt. We dropped a fork and it was immediately whisked away and replaced (I didn’t even notice!). Our waiter was friendly, attentive and available when needed. We ordered three small courses, all were very sharable and brought to our table at a reasonable rate without being rushed or having to wait. The portions are not huge, but do make good sharing plates. Our dinner was as follows: #1: grilled calamari in brown butter with anchovies, black olives and capers (no, not quite heathy but it sure was Yum!); #2: tuna lettuce wraps, a little round disk of iceberg lettuce with raw chunks of tuna, a dollop of creamy avocado, sesame oil, sesame seeds, a droplet of soy, a paper thin slice of radish and garnished with a single cilantro leaf and some very tasty taro threads. There were five on the plate. They were amazing! And last but not least, #3: Wellington County Beef Sliders, Monterrey Jack Cheese and Chipotle Mayo, Yum Yum Yum!
This place hit the spot for us both. Which was a pleasant surprise as I’ve been to the other O&Bs and they were not so hot! I would definitely reco this one, it was a great experience.
O&B Overall rating (in my opinion): decor 4/5, service 4.5/5, food 4.5/5, Value 3.5/5, Noise: 2/5 at the start and 3/5 at the end (1 being very noisy, and 5 being quiet.

Nuit Blanche. Our journey began down on Front Street and we selected venues we can drop by on our way north meandering a bit east and west until we reached Bloor street. We did not stand in line, nor did we select venues that were indoors, as they were far too crowded. There were three highlights for me: The Pine Cone Colony – giant metal pine cones placed unexpectedly around the grounds. A large pine cone was on fire. I absolutely loved these pine cones. At Yonge Dundas Square there was the Just because you can feel it doesn’t mean it’s there, which was cool because it was a rather large bonfire set in the middle of the city. Unexpected and welcome, because it was a might chilly. I also loved the exhibit up at Holt Renfrew, the Monument to Smile – this was a large scale projection on the façade of Holts of people smiling. It was truly heart warming. Honourable mentions should go to Autolamp, a lace inspired old van and Light up the Night, Swans’s Lake – this was a motorized wedge (group) of swans dancing to Tchaikovsky – it just made me smile. The Night Market was way too crowded, the Light bugs were disappointing (green lights going off and on in a very predictable way, not at all like light bugs).

It was a mildly chilly night, but not unbearable. We dressed for it, so we were reasonably comfortable (I even wore reasonable shoes, for me, that is). There are estimates flying the net that there were over a million people in the city to celebrate, which is significantly more than our first year in 2008. I don’t love crowds and some parts became very uncomfortable, even though the city closed down many streets (way cool to walk in the middle of Bloor street). We ended our evening around mid-night (we old geezers need our beauty sleep!) with a glass of vino and a chat about our adventure.

I am so grateful to live in such a vibrant and wonderful city. I can hardly wait for next year’s Nuit Blanche.

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A quiet retreat at Niagara Falls

Note that the majority of these photos are taken on my bran-spankin’ new iPhone!!!

Niagara Falls in winter

On December 29th we drove down to Niagara Falls for a couple of days of R&R (click here for photo album). We stopped off in Jordan to one of our favourite little shops Beauty Safari to pick up JTs favourite cologne. Then we headed out to Port Dalhousie for lunch at one of our old favourites, Treadwells – a wonderful farm to table restaurant. Front of the house is mastered by Sommelier James Treadwell and the back of the house is by his father, Chef Stephen Treadwell. Food was amazing, as usual. The lovely thing about this visit was that James recalled our last visit with the Doran’s from Illinois AND that JT loves the Viongier grape. I had the Hoisin Glazed Pulled Pork Shoulder on “Fred’s” Brioche Bun with Asian Slaw (actually, only half, JT had the other half) and JT had the Housemade Tagliatelle “alla Carbonara” with Double Smoked Bacon and “Pingue’s” Free Range Egg. Food was wonderful.

We stopped at Henry of Pelham winery to pick up some old favourites. And the trip wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t stop at Picard’s Peanuts for some snacks!

En route we stopped in Niagara on the Lake and walked around a bit. Of course, 4 o’clock rolled along and we stopped at the Prince of Wales bar for cocktails.

Cocktails at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara on the Lake

Cocktails at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara on the Lake

We then proceeded to Niagara Falls to our newest boutique hotel fav – The Sterling Inn, an old converted dairy. They messed up our reservation due to an inconsistency with the web, so they kindly upgraded us to a suite. How sweet is that? Two rooms, a bathtub that could house 10, and a shower for 6! Wow.  We had dinner reservations at AG (silver in the periodic table of elements!). Another stellar meal. I started with the Truffled Jerusalem Artichoke veloute (which is a creamed soup with little to no cream!), JT had green salad. For mains, I had an appi portion flank steak and JT had the venison. All were wonderful. Service was also excellent. This is by far the best restaurant in the Niagara Falls area.

The fireplace in our suite

Cocktails

Day 2: we had a reasonably early start down to Buffalo for some shopping and of course, wings at the Anchor Bar (famous for developing Buffalo wings).

Anchor Bar, Buffalo New York

We shopped at some premium outlets, which were OK. Not much shopping to be had, believe it or not — even the board guard was surprised! Oh well, maybe next time. We returned to our hotel to do some walking around Niagara Falls.

The highlight of the walking around was the SkyWheel, which was reasonably priced at $9.98 per person! Afterward we hopped in the car to explore the festival of lights, but unfortunately, everyone else in the world had the same idea so the lineup into the drive was ridiculous, so we passed. Dinner was at The Keg; we had appi’s and wine.

The SkyWheel

JT in the SkyWheel

Eva in the SkyWheel

View of the falls from the SkyWheel

The next day we checked out and drove to Inniskillin winery and had lunch at Tony DeLucca’s Old Winery restaurant. We both had one of the stone oven pizza’s which were delicious (I had the Jimmy Hendrix and JT had the Jerry Garcia)! Then we headed home for new year’s eve!

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Thanksgiving at Rosseau

We made our traditional trek up to my brother Gus’s cottage at Lake Rosseau. Last year JT went golfing, this year it snowed!

Sudden snow storm across the lake.

Of course, I am bundled up like a snowman, and the kids barely have a sweater on! It was quite chilly, no really!

A nice afternoon walk. No, we didn’t bump into Martin Short, but I think he was there – his gate was open!

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