Oh Canada!

So, we went to Ontario on the 22nd of August. It was such fun! Our friends have a cottage on Lake Erie and they invited us to come up for a week.

So, here are Mollie (the lab), Gary (the dh), Fritz (friend) and Steve (friend) on our first day.

We arrived about 3 pm on the 22nd and after a little sightseeing in Buffalo we headed for the Anchor Bar. This is the home of Buffalo Wings. Cool, huh? We had an order of medium and ya gotta have the suicide wings, right? OMG! I only ate one and my lips felt burned, nose was running and eyes watering. Not a pretty sight!

The next day, Thursday, we slept late (as was our usual routine on this trip) and headed for some of the wineries in Ontario. We visited Maleta Estate Winery (awesome wines & super nice people), Coyote's Run (we didn't find a lot that we liked there but the guy who did the tasting was entertaining), Frogpond Farm Organic Estate Winery (our favorite as far as the atmosphere and people...again not so much on the wines), Marynissen Estates (really pretty place and a very good Chardonnay for $22) and Caroline Cellars where we liked the Baca Pinot (I think). After that we drove over to the Niagara College Teaching Winery. This is a really cool culinary college with it's own winery and beautiful gardens. We strolled the gardens and I was amazed that many of the plants and flowers were the same ones we have here. The winery was closed already so we headed in to the restaurant for a wonderful four course fixed price dinner. Two appetizers, an entree and dessert. Oh and 2 glasses of house wine. All that for $48 per person. And it was wonderful! I had the cucumber and dill cold soup, a warm heirloom tomato tart with fresh baby greens (absolutely delicious), grilled salmon and peach tart. It was all great!

The next day was Friday and they have a farmer's market in Port Colborne on Friday. So, off we went. It was amazing! Probably my favorite part of the trip. They had the best strawberries I've ever eaten. We bought corn, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, yummy fresh breads, bell peppers and onion. That night we cooked steaks on the grill with onion and bell peppers and corn on the cob. Oh it was heavenly!

On Saturday we drove to Old Fort Niagara near Youngstown, NY on Lake Ontario. It was really interesting and quite a pleasant day. We got to see an actual musket fired by one of the volunteers dressed in appropriate garb.

Then we drove back into Buffalo to visit with a friend of Steves whose hobby is breeding and collecting reptiles. He lives in an old house that is a basement, two floors and an attic. That house is filled with reptiles of all kinds....snakes, lizards, etc. The tour took about 20 minutes, then we were off to the Founding Fathers Bar. Very cool bar owned by a high school friend of Steves. This friend, Mike, has a great love of American History and knows lots of trivia. We had a really nice evening there. Good sandwiches and beer too!

On Monday we drove up to Welland and I visited The Wool Shop. A very nice owner but rather dissappointing yarns. Mostly acrylics. I managed to find something to purchase though. A 400 gram ball of Aran acrylic/wool blend. The owner was making a cabled sweater with it and it was really pretty. The we visited the Beer Store and a bike shop. And it was off of Niagara Falls.

Niagra Falls is a must see! Wow! Just amazing and such a wonderful force of nature! Can you believe that I took this picture?? I totally cannot believe it!

On Tuesday we drove up to Selkirk Provincial park and had a nice picnic. Then back home fairly early so we could pack and get ready for our flight home.