Month: March 2017

by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara-on-the-lake – Day 3

I woke up early again to go to the gym and get my workout in before starting the day’s events. This was again followed by the morning coffee routine.

Breakfast

As we’re almost ready to leave the hotel and get started with the wine tasting, my mother-in-law discovers her wallet is missing. We take apart the room and can’t find it. We double check the car and it’s not there either. At this point we begin to retrace steps to see where she had it last. I start calling places beginning with where we were last. I was on phone duty since my mother-in-laws phone wasn’t working in Canada for some reason.

While all of this was going on Maura was trying to get her Integrity Toys convention reservations for our October trip to Florida. This was all another hassle going on at the same time. The hotel internet wasn’t working fast enough and we later found out that someone in Russian had accidentally crashed the servers.

Everything ended up working out though as Maura got her reservations and we located the wallet. After calling Creekside, and being remembered by the lady that answered the phone, I called Conversations cafe where she had dropped her purse. They fortunately had it and had tried to call to alert her. However, since her phone wasn’t working, we didn’t get the messages.

So back to Conversations Cafe to reclaim the wallet. This cut into our day a bit as it was about an hour’s drive there and back.

Once back in the Niagara-on-the-lake region we decided to try a new winery that had opened up. Big Head wines has a huge facility and you might miss the entrance trying to find the parking lot. Once in we were offered two types of tastings. We could go with a an a la carte method or we could sit through their pairing that takes about an hour and costs $60. We had other wineries to try so we went with the a la carte method. We didn’t end up buying anything but we’ll definitely make a stop in the future.

From there we found ourselves at Frog pond. They are an all organic winery that we’ve never seen before but we were off our typically beaten path by this point. In the parking lot you can see some of the farm animals they keep including a rooster and some goats.

By this point we figured it was time to have my mother-in-law actually taste some ice wine. The nearest place with the best rating was Ice house. That’s all they make is ice wine and they have some very unique flavors. We did a tasting there but didn’t hang around for long as there wasn’t really any seating and ice wine is too sweet to drink a lot of.

Continuing on the road we were on took us to Coyotes run. This place I liked and will need to stop back at some point. They have the same wine made from two different types of soil for you to sample so you can see what a difference it can make.

We wanted to stop by one of the most impressive looking wineries and one of the first ones Maura and stopped at on our first trip. Southbrook is hard to miss as you’re driving by. The main building has a long wall that extends almost to the road. The whole complex is built to be environmentally friendly. The offer an amazing view of the vineyards and they have some great wines.

Maura bought the last bottle of a wine made with orange peels.

We had one more wine stop left in us and that was one of my favorites as well.

Jackson triggs has a an impressive entrance from the road that looks a little like barbed wire until you realize that it is just the grape vines. We did a tasting of course and bought a bottle.

By now we were in the mood for some lunch. We decided on The Pie Plate. It was another new place for us and we weren’t sure what to expect. We missed it the first time we drove by but eventually found it. The food was good and I was able to grab a beer. Something I was craving after so much wine.

Then we headed back to the hotel to take a break. We had dinner plans in Buffalo. My mother-in-law’s birthday was coming up so we wanted to do something special. What she didn’t know was that two of her friends from Pittsburgh were going to drive up and meet us in Niagara but there was an issue with their passports so they couldn’t cross the border. Maura, in her sneaky, behind-the-scenes way, worked to find and reserve a new spot.

The place she chose has a good reputation apparently as the border guard knew of it when I told her where we were going.

Buffalo Proper is like a lot of places we like. They have a unique atmosphere and are a combination of restaurant and great bar. We all had a great time and my mother-in-law was greatly surprised to see her friends. The food was great and we ended the trip on a high note before driving back across the border and resting up for our return trip in the morning.

 
by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara-on-the-lake – Day 2

We got a little bit of a late start this morning. I got up early and went to the gym. Then on my way back I stopped and grabbed three coffees from the lobby. Getting them into the room is always tricky since the doors are usually pretty heavy. I have to stack three hot coffees while sliding a key card and not getting knocked out by a door.

Once we were all up and about it was too late for the hotel breakfast so we decided to get something near our destinations for the day. Since we were starting with the bench we decided to eat at a place in Beamsville. The place chosen was Conversations cafe. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. More like a coffee shop than a brunch place. They have some sandwiches and other dishes.

At one point my mother-in-law dropped her purse on the floor under the table and spilled all of its contents. I had to crawl under and collect all the spilled change and Canadian money. What we didn’t know at the time was that her wallet had also fallen out of the purse. This we didn’t discover until much later.

After our ok breakfast, we started at one of our favorites. Fielding estates is an amazing winery with a great view. Maura and I each purchased a bottle. We bought Chardonnay and another Gamay.

Where to next?

We decided to do Thirty Bench as I don’t recall us having been there before. The tasting room was really nice and they had it set up for another event that was happening this weekend. They are bit on the pricey side but good wines.

I bought their small lot benchmark red.

Then we went to another favorite of ours Kew Vineyards.

We got seated in the large dining room which is more to our liking than the high tables in the main room. We were getting a little hungry again so this time we got the cheese plate with our samples.

I bought the Malivoire and picked up a bottle of the Rose for my coworker Steve. Maura bought a Pinot.

Our last stop for the day was Creekside Estate. It was getting close to closing time but we got there right as a large wedding party was leaving and with enough time to sample.

There was a delightful lady that waited on us. I purchased a bottle of the Laura’s red for my coworker Laura.

We finished the day with a mediocre dinner at Grill on King. A place we’ve never been before. It was a little surprising that the dinner wasn’t that great considering the reviews it’s gotten.

 
by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara-on-the-lake – Day 1

For my mother-in-law’s birthday, this year, we decided to take her to the wineries at Niagara-on-the-lake. She expressed her interest in it since we were just up there. I love the area and it’s a fairly stress free vacation so I was more than happy to go.

The drive up was pretty standard and without any surprises since we just did it a few months ago.

We checked into the Hilton and got situated. Maura and her mom wanted to take a little rest so I decided to head to the bar for a beer to clear the dust from my throat.  Amazingly the bartender remembered us from when we were there in January. It was truly shocking considering I’ve been to the same bar in Pittsburgh dozens of times but the bartenders treat you like a stranger.

We chatted for a bit and he told me he lives near Niagara Falls and that they were going to be doing an Earth Day thing where they turn the lights off for the falls. Our plan was to head down that way for a bit anyway so I was worried this might make it a traffic nightmare but that wasn’t the case.

I grabbed my beer and headed back to the room to rest before we made our way back south a bit.

We drove the longish way down to find a casino. I’m not a gambler so it didn’t really make a difference which one we went to but the one that was chosen was the Fall’s View Casino. Someone dug deep for that name.

Before we went there, however, we stopped to look at the falls. It had been about 30 years since my mother-in-law was last here. It was good to know it hadn’t changed that much. We, of course, took a selfie with the falls in the background.

Then it was off to the casino. The plan was to find the bar and deposit me while they went and gambled. I found a nice spot where I could watch the Penguins hockey game. While I drank my beer Maura broke about even and we decided to head back to the lake for dinner.

We decided to try and get some food at the Silversmith Brewery that we discovered the last time. However, we weren’t taken with their menu or the drink options.

I wanted to head further into town and try the Exchange Brewery since they had some great IPAs the last time. Unfortunately, they were closed. So we made our way to The Irish harp.

Even more unfortunately, the Irish Harp is now two-for-two on our trips there. The service wasn’t very good and the food turned out to be kind of bland. Worse yet, we ordered bottles of beer that we discovered too late had expired some time before.

Seeing that the fortunes were against us. Maura got a dessert to go and we decided to call it a night.