A little of this, a little of that....

Vacation Day #4: Niagara Falls on the Canadian side

Our day at Niagara Falls was awesome- the weather was perfect.  It was low 70's and sunny, along with a bright blue sky.  We parked near the Fallsview Casino and headed towards the Falls and the Table Rock area.  I took a ton of pictures, but I picked a dozen (or two) of my favorites.   We were going to go on the Maid of the Mist, but we didn't want to chance getting wet from the mist with it being in the low 70's.  We walked all along the Falls, and then up Clifton Hill, and then back to the Fallsview Casino area.  I like the Canadian side of the Falls better- the view is amazing, plus there are so many beautiful flowers and landscaped areas on the Canadian side.

We left the main Falls area and then headed north on Lakeshore Drive, up to Niagara-On-The-Lake.  On the way, we stopped off to see the aero car.  A suspended trolley on cables that takes you over and back across the gorge.  You can see the whirlpool jet boat too (down in the river).  You can pay $60 to go on the whirlpool jet boat and go right up to the whirlpool rapids.  Jim and I thought this looked fun, but we'll save it to do for our next Niagara trip.  Here's the view from the aero car platform...

We stopped off at a little park in Niagara-On-The-Lake and watched the sunset... it was a great view.

The next day we left around 11am and drove back along Northshore Drive and took the scenic route back to Buffalo.  We got home later that evening and are already anxious to go on our next vacation.

Vacation Day #3: Rainy Day in Jordan...

The Sunday of our vacation was a little grey and gloomy.  After our 8am breakfast tray (which I finally remembered to take a picture of the tray outside our door)...

and then also after our 9:30am breakfast, we packed up our stuff so while we were out, Carole could move our stuff to our new room.  We headed out to tour some more wineries, but the forecast called for showers, so we didn't know how much we'd actually get to see.  We made it to a few wineries- our favorite of the day was Fielding Estates...

We also went to the Angel's Gate, Organized Crime, East Dell and Peninsula Ridge wineries.  It was really drizzling once we left Fielding Estates, so I didn't get any other pictures. Boo hiss.  With the rain, we decided to head back to Black Walnut.  Our new room was ready- not as big or as cool as our first room, but it had a bathroom door!

Black Walnut had hundreds of DVD's, so we picked a couple of movies and relaxed the afternoon away.  Once the rain stopped in the late afternoon, we decided to drive along Lakeshore Drive up to Port Dalhousie and then down through St. Catherines.  We stopped off at a park and walked out to see Lake Erie (we had been so close to the water, but until this point, we hadn't seen one drop of lake water!). We had dinner at the Lake House- it was good, but not as great as Vineland Estates! 

We turned in early so we could get some rest for the fourth day- a full day at Niagara Falls.  Stay tuned- I have tons of pictures to post from the Falls.

Vacation Day #2: Exploring Jordan & Vineland

After our 9:30 breakfast at Black Walnut, we started our first full day of vacation.  We had a 11:30am side-by-side massage at Spa On The Twenty.  It's been awhile since I've had a massage, so I was excited to relax and enjoy the massage. 

After our massage, we got to sit in the 'relaxation room' for awhile and enjoyed a fruit plate.  We also got a complimentary bottle of Cave Spring Chardonnay (but we saved it for later). 

The Spa On The Twenty is part of the Inn on the Twenty inn and restaurant.  They're all on this little quaint street in Jordan.  We walked across the street to the Cave Spring winery to check everything out.

We were anxious to try their Ice Wine... one of the area's specialties.  They make the ice wine from frozen grapes, so the juice is super concentrated and super sweet.  Jim and I both like sweet wines, but the Ice Wine was waaayyy too sweet for us, even for a dessert wine.

After Jordan and Cave Spring, we started out on the Wine Route.  We went to Vineland Estate and tasted several wines and then checked out the restaurant.  While we were there, one wedding had just ending and another one was just starting.

We continued on to Featherstone Winery and had a little lunch.  Featherstone wasn't as impressive as Vineland, but the little house was cute and we had our lunch on their wrap around porch.  Our lunches were tasty- we got fresh baked wheat/white bread baked in clay flowerpots.  They served the bread with 'dukka'... this dry mixture of sesame seeds, cumin, ground pine nuts and other spices.  You dipped the bread in olive oil and then into the dukka mixture.  It was different, but good.  I had the soup, salad and cheese lunch (gazpacho, field greens and aged asiago) and Jim had a turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo on ciabatta.  It was great, except for the flies and bugs.  The area had recently had so much rain the bugs were riduculous.  Dinner the night before on the back deck at Black Walnut resulted in me getting about eight mosquito bites. 

 

 

At Featherstone, they had a herd of 'rented' sheep.  They bring in the sheep to eat the leaves off the top of the vines so the grapes can get more sunlight.  The sheep have an enjoyable summer, grazing and eating the grapeleaves, and then the tourists have enjoyable lamb dinners a couple of months later.  It works out well.

 

The last winery we went to on Saturday was Flat Rock.  We were getting a little tired and wanted to head back to rest and then get ready for dinner.

So we headed back to Black Walnut, along with a few bottles of wine we'd picked up (we got a bottle of wine at each of the wineries we went to).  We rested a little and then got ready for dinner.  Around 7pm, we headed downstairs.  Mike opened a bottle of wine and we waited with Dave and Sue for our dinner.  For Saturday night, Carole and Mike had arranged a car to take us and bring us back for dinner, so we didn't have to drive.  Our driver came and took us to Vineland Estates for dinner.  We were excited to eat here, because of the high recommendations from Carole and Mike and also Dave and Sue (Dave and Sue were regulars- this was their fifth trip to Black Walnut).  Oh, when we returned to Vineland for dinner, another wedding was going on (this was the third wedding in one day!). 

Dinner was excellent- we shared a bottle of wine and then each got a first course, a main course and a dessert.  I had the salmon trio (salmon tartare, salmon sausage and salmon fillette... the best was the salmon tartare), New York Strip with fingerling potatoes and grilled vegatables, and then blueberry and cherry creme brulee.  Yum.  Jim had fois gras (he'd always wanted to try this...  I tried it and I don't think it's for me.  Carole described it best as 'liver flavored butter'), duo of duck (I tried this and it was really, really good) and then chocolate cheesecake with white chocolate.  While their patio and view was beautiful, I couldn't subject myself to more bug bites, so we sat inside.  Throughout the night, the patio diners slowly moved inside because of the bugs, so I'm glad we didn't chance it. 

Our driver came back to pick us and our full bellies up and took us back to Black Walnut.  Our second day of vacation was great- full of new experiences... trying ice wine, fois gras, getting a massage (this was Jim's first massage), having someone take us and pick us up for dinner.  Lots of things we'd never do on a normal day in Columbus.

Vacation Day #1: Niagara Falls on the American Side

Our first day of vacation...  We left Columbus around 8am and ended up getting to the Niagara Falls State Park around 2:30pm.  We stopped a couple of times and then had also stopped for lunch (we packed our lunch- Giant Eagle's ever-so-tasty Lemon Almond Chicken salad on criossants).  We could've gone straight to Black Walnut, but we at least wanted to see the Falls right away.  We parked at the State Park and walked to the Falls and over to Goat Island.  From the American side, you're able to get right up beside the American and Bridal Veil Falls.  While I think the American side of Niagara Falls is ghetto, I do like that you can get close to the Falls and watch the water spill over.  I do find the Falls amazing- the rush of the water and just the sheer size of the Falls.  Plus, I've shamefully watched that PBS special about Niagara Falls about seven times, so I'm also amazed at the whole 'negative ions' bit.  Negative ions are found by moving water, so Niagara Falls is said to just naturally make people feel better.   I know I felt better when I was there, but it may have been the giddy excitement of hoping to see someone jump over into the Falls.  Again, from watching the PBS special about all the Daredevils of Niagara.

Here are the views from the ghetto side (I should explain that while I think the American side is nice, the Canadian side kicks the American side's ass.  Just like in health care.)

You can see in the above picture the rainbow in the mist.

 

 

 

 

It was really hot when we were there- it was in the upper 80's.  We decided to do the touristy "Cave of the Winds" tour.  I'd done this before and I thought it was neat.  This was my third time to Niagara Falls and Jim's first time, so I wanted to do at least one thing tacky and touristy.  We had to wait in line a little while, but we finally got to go down in the elevators (the elevators take you down through the stone).

The COTW tour is simple- wear plastic yellow trashbags/raincoats and then walk on a series of decks at the base of the American Falls.  Here's an overhead view of the decks....

 

 

From this point on, we went up to the higher decks and ultimately to the "Hurricane Deck".  Here, the mist is basically shooting horizontally at you.  I was cracking up- the wind and the mist made it a little hard to see, but it was so fun.  Obviously, I was not getting out my camera on the "Hurricane Deck".

In addition to our shiny yellow raincoats, the cost of admission also included these...

Official COTW shoes.  These were actually comfy.  At the end of the tour, they had these huge containers to 'donate' your COTW shoes to third world countries.  We originally thought our shoes looked a little worn to begin with, so we concluded they just 'donate' the shoes right back to themselves.  So, we kept our shoes.  We saw one another guy who kept his shoes, so they at least lost three pair of shoes that day.

After the COTW tour, we headed back to the car and then headed towards Black Walnut.  We got there around 6pm.  Carole showed us to our room and then we quickly changed and got ready for dinner.  We went downstairs at 7pm to meet two other couples staying at BWM.  Carole and Mike had brie and champagne and we chatted with the other two couples.  One of the couples was heading out for dinner, but then at 7:30, we headed out with Dave and Sue to the back patio.  Dave and Sue were 59 and 62 and ended up being one of the highlights of our stay.  We were a little bummed at first to learn that we had to share our candlelit dinner with another couple- we just wanted to relax and enjoy our dinner and didn't want to feel pressured to keep small talk going for two hours.  But it ended up being an AWESOME dinner.  Carole had our dinner set up on the deck with these big arrangements of fresh flowers with these huge white lilies and a few candles.  Jim and I sat at one end of the table and Dave and Sue sat at the other end, so we could either engage in conversation between the four of us, or have conversations on our own.  It ending up being a good set-up.   Carole brought in a local chef (Robbie from the Blue Turtle) and he made us a wonderful and amazing dinner.  Jim and I were able to pick our dishes from a menu that Carole had sent us months ago.  We both had to pick the same dish, so some compromises were made.  Jim and I had zucchini soup with walnuts and gorgonzola (Robbie offered it either chilled or hot, so I picked chilled and Jim picked hot).  Then we had pork tenderloin with a mushroom, mustard and bacon sauce.  We also had blue potatoes (I've never seen or tasted blue potatoes) and asparagus.  Then we had strawberries in ice wine sabayon with a ginger snap waffle.  The dinner was so good.  BWM doesn't have a liquor license, so we were able to bring our own wines, based on the chef's recommendation.  We ended up bringing two bottles- one Reisling and one Chardonnay and finished them both.  Jim probably only had two glasses, which means, well.... it means I had quite a few glasses. 

Sorry to ramble on and on about our dinner, but it really was soooo good.  

Well, if you're still reading this post, thanks for hanging in there through all of the nitty gritty details.  I'll post about Day #2 soon.

Black Walnut Manor...

I have a ton of pictures to post about our recent Niagara trip, so I'll start off with the place where we stayed- Black Walnut Manor.  This place was awesome.  Jim and I loved it (I mean L-O-V-E-D it.).  BWM is close to the road and on a little hill, so it was a little challenging to get a good shot of the place.

BWM has three rooms.  We stayed in the 'Retreat' room the first two nights and then moved down the hallway to the 'Return' room.  We originally booked only the first two nights, but then as our plans changed a bit once we got closer to our vacation, we ended up adding two more nights at BWM.  By that time, the 'Retreat' room was already booked for the third and fourth nights. This was the room we had for the first two nights...

 

This room had a king size bed and was soooo comfy.  It was the best bed ever.  Even better than the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas (now that's serious). 

 

In the pic above, you can see the double doors that led out to our own private balcony.  It had a set of table and chairs out there... very nice for having our morning coffee and tea and then also very nice for... well, read on...

 

OK, so here's the story about this room.  Jim and I loved this room.  It was peaceful.  It was filled with light.  It had a big comfy bed.  It had a private balcony.  It had a bathroom without a door.  Umm... hold up.  Yep- the bathroom was just sort of 'part of the room'.  This was the one aspect of the room we didn't love.  In the above picture, the blue wall you see with the rectangle opening is the only divider to the bathroom to the rest of the room.  And you can see it doesn't even go all the way to the ceiling.  You may even think I didn't get a wide enough picture to get the actual door in the frame.  Oh no, my friends- there was no door.  The is the view you see coming into the room...

 

 

 

So, this trip marked six months of dating for Jim and I.  We've spent a lot of time together in the past six months and have really gotten to know each other.  We've shared a lot, EXCEPT going to the bathroom while the other one is ten feet away.  We worked out a good system- when one of us had to 'go to the bathroom', the other one would spend some time outside on the balcony.  Thus, the second reason we're glad we had a private balcony.  We laughed about our situation, and thankfully wasn't a big deal... we're just glad it didn't rain the first two nights.

While we loved this room, we were anxious to see our other room and to see if it's bathroom had a door.  Here's the room we stayed in the third and fourth nights...

 

This room had a queen size bed and wasn't nearly as comfy- but it DID have a bathroom door!  This was a blessing, because it poured down rain on the third day (this would not have been good during any time we would have had to spend on the balcony in the other room!). 

Each morning, a tray with coffee, tea, two small pieces of fruit (two mornings we had yellow plums and the other two mornings we had apricots), plus the daily paper was waiting outside our room promptly at 8am. 

 

Then at 9:30 each morning, all of the guests would meet downstairs for a gourmet breakfast.  These breakfasts were amazing.  Each breakfast consisted of a fruit course, homemade baked goods, and baked dish.  The area we stayed at is called 'the green belt' because the area is so condusive to fruits and vegetation.  Our breakfasts were made with fresh fruits everyday we were there- plums, apricots, blueberries, peaches, strawberries.  Some of the tasty breakfast dishes we had were: blueberry stuffed sourdough french toast, baked peaches with raspberry coulis (all locally grown), blueberry lemon coffee cake, zucchini peach muffins, fruit and yogurt parfaits, plus individually baked souffles and egg dishes.  Each morning was very delish (I'm using one of Alison's words).  I wish I would've taken pics of our dishes, but I didn't want to give Americans a bad name.  They were already a little bitter that we had Michael Phelps.

Black Walnut Manor was awesome- I wish I would've taken more pictures of the interior and the grounds.  Carole and Mike are the owners and also live there.  They were amazing hosts- they definitely know how to make their guests feel pampered.  We can't wait to go back.  Jim and I have already talked about returning and also have talked about the big question- do we go with the bigger, better room without the bathroom door again? 

I'll post more about visiting the wineries, plus then about Niagara Falls.  Stay tuned.
 

It's almost September, eh?

We're back from Niagara!  We got home yesterday around 7:15pm.  I'll post lots more pics and lots more about our trip soon, but here's a pic to hold you over until then...