Niagara-On-The-Lake Weekend!

(David hugging our rented Mustang V8 convertible... needless to say, he loved the car.)

Long time, no blog.

We have been quite busy between work and trying to eat and sleep and have a breather as well as a bit of fun when not at work... and there hasn't been much internet action time. Hohum. But we have engaged in a few fun activities whilst we have been "away" from blogging!

Last weekend, we had two days off instead of our usual one-day-off-per-week scheme of things. David and I took this opportunity to travel to Niagara-on-the-lake, where we spent one night in a lovely hotel, the Harbor House. Niagara-on-the-lake is about a one and a half hour drive outside of Toronto, situated alongside Lake Ontario. The area is known for its wineries as well as for the theater festival that takes place each year, called the Shaw Festival. We have a friend who is a musical supervisor for the Shaw Repertory, who also composed music for one of the plays. The proper weekend seemed the perfect time to take a trip to Niagara-on-the-lake for a bit of wine touring, seeing a show other than our own, and, perhaps more importantly, for a peaceful, relaxing time just the two of us outside of Toronto.

The weekend turned out to be a glorious one. Weather, relaxation, fun and all.

(By the Ontario Lake...)

As our anniversary present, we rented a Mustang GT V8 convertible for David to drive for the weekend. This made David very happy indeed, and even I, who knows very little about cars and even littler about driving (i.e. not at all -- I don't drive), appreciated the "muscle car-i-ness." We had an easy drive into Niagara-on-the-lake, dropped off our stuff at the hotel and hopped onto a half-day wine tour caravan. The tour was perfect, as David did not have to drive and we had an excellent guide as well as group. We tasted numerous Canadian wines, learned a lot, and purchased wines selectively yet abundantly. In the evening, we went to see our friend's show and had a lovely, mellow evening.


We did some more wine touring the next day, and even took a short seminar on wine and food pairings. We had a fantastic lunch at Hildebrand Winery, too -- fresh, beautiful local produce and Canadian flavors (maple syrup and ice wines being utilized). As we started to head back to Toronto, we decided to take advantage of the car and go for a detour drive... this detour took us to the Niagara Falls! The falls turned out to be fairly close to Niagara-on-the-lake. We had a quick look at the falls at dusk (we are going to do a proper tour of the falls on a different tour)... it was a magical experience. Afterwards, drove back to Toronto. It was a warm night, so we drove with the top down. Although my hair was quite tangled at the end of the drive, we had a terrific time and a lovely weekend.



Here are a few more snapshots of our Niagara-on-the-lake weekend:

(At Jackson-Triggs Winery... we loved the Chardonnay here...)

(At Reif, in front of their massive barrels...)

(At the Food & Wine seminar at Pellar's Estate... we took the seminar with a lovely couple, who are shepherds.)

(David by the Niagara-on-the-lake shores of Ontario Lake...)

(Niagara Falls, at dusk... misty and beautiful...)

(David in awe of the majestic Niagara Falls...)

(Driving back to Toronto, top-down...)