With Aidan on holidays and Sarah and Luc visiting it was a perfect time for a summer holiday. If not for them we probably wouldn’t have planned a trip to Niagara Falls but we’re so glad that we did because we had such a fabulous time. In Vancouver we did some catching up with Sarah, hearing all about her long travels, she and Luc had been traveling for a solid 3 weeks and would be having another hectic week of travel with us before flying back to Paris. Something that we had all commented on this trip was how appalling Air Canada was, it’s perhaps the worst airline any of us have had the misfortune of traveling with. We had a miserable flight to Toronto. The plane was so hot and cramped that things with Aidan quickly degenerated into a desperate, no holds barred turf war for the armrest. We had little choice but to fly with Air Canada because it is the only domestic airline. We were perhaps foolish to think that a flight that cost us $1500 return would provide good service and the bare minimum creature comforts that you’d come to expect from most other airlines. We were so wrong!! That price was for the cheap tickets but Sarah and Luc’s flight was no better and more expensive. I can’t imagine why anyone would pay even more to sit in the curtained partition a couple of rows in front for virtually the same treatment, perhaps a little more leg room? Even with Alaska Airlines on a small propeller driven aircraft (scary) we were offered free snacks. Well no more about that but if we ever have a choice we will use other airlines.
We hired a car in Toronto which Aidan quickly adopted as his pimped out ride, really it was just a red Chrysler but that didn’t stop him goin’ all gangsta (see photos). We did the pleasant drive to Niagara Falls, an hour and a half drive from the city skirting the edges of Lake Ontario (one of the great Lakes) which is just jaw droppingly huge! I mean I wonder how long they it took them to discover that it was not a sea or ocean… I guess the fresh water and lack of waves does give it away but still it just so vast!!! Niagara reminded me a little of Las Vegas, the humid heat, the casino and hard rock café. I won’t go on about Niagara Falls but it is impressive. Totally worth the trip. We walked up and down the river amongst the hundreds of other tourists from all over the globe. When you look at it you wonder how crazy those people were that sailed over the falls, hoping that a barrel would convey them to safety!! FOOLS!! My favourite was the guy who strapped himself to an ANVIL inside his customized barrel for unsecured ballast – when they fished him out of the river, the only bit of him left in the barrel was his arm. One crazy woman back in the 50s did make it, sheer luck… they were eventually forced to ban the practice due to the great number of other victims longing for glory or a watery grave. A great vantage point and a spectacular place for dinner was right above the Canadian side of the horseshoe falls – The Table Rock restaurant. At night they somehow light the waterfall with a dynamic rainbow of colours! We stayed at the Brock plaza hotel (where Marilyn stayed back in the 50’s, also Garey Busey has been there) a gorgeous old hotel with a fabulous view of both American and Canadian Falls from our room and a fantastic restaurant on the top floor. Totally recommend staying there if only to enjoy the fabulous breakfast with a spectacular view. Best omlette ever – Aidan reckons, hands down.
We journeyed onwards to the wine region Niagara-On-The-Lake. Their specialty is Ice Wine. A tasty, syrupy sweet desert wine made from frozen grapes. Heinously expensive, but I guess you don’t get much juice from a frozen grape and someone has to go out there and hand pick the things at midnight in the snow. We toured six wineries like Jackson Triggs and Inniskillin, they say you should visit only 4-5 in a day but all the vineyards were so beautiful and the wines so deliciously tasty that we had to see just a few more. Some places make a sparkling ice wine which is good….really, really good. I was quite taken with this sweet ambrosia (sorry Sylvie…we uh, kind of accidentally drank your bottle and stuff… we’ll get you another one). The region itself was just so quaint and peaceful. The houses in the area were mostly around 19th century really beautiful gardens and lush lawns. Our stroll down the street of the historic township had Aidan all giddy for his obligatory trinkets and knick-knackery. Quite the treasure trove!
We stayed at a gorgeous B&B on a Vineyard (aptly named the Vineyard Estate B&B) our lovely hostess Jolene was delightful and the breakfast was just devine, we had home made waffles with fruit picked from their very own orchard. We left Niagara and headed back to Toronto but unfortunately I left my passport at the B&B (stoopid) but luckily I didn’t really need it to get home and they were really helpful in getting it back to me, that’s the first time I’ve lost my passport and hopefully the last. In Toronto we headed straight for the Zoo. My little treat for organizing the trip!! It was a huge zoo spread out so much so that a ticket on the little golf cart like train was well worth the $7, which we were too tight to part with until we’d already walked for 2 hours in the unrelenting heat. What I really loved was that the cutest animals like the chipmonks and squirrels were running around all over the paths. I briefly considered leaving Aidan and running free as queen of the mere cats. We did see a Moose in the Canadian section and it confirmed my suspicion that we did in fact encounter a Moose on our trip from Banff to Jasper. Neither one had antlers which was perhaps why I was confused the first time I saw one. But now I am happy now that I have seen two real live Moose!! Now I just want one with Antlers!
Back in Vancouver we must have somehow missed summer or something because the weather here is not that warm. Well maybe it’s that we’re so used to the hot hot heat of Brissie it’s strange to have to contemplate the need for a jacket, not at all what we’re used to. Anyway we are soon to have more visitors, my Mum and Dad are making the journey here in a couple of weeks which I’m looking forward to as hopefully they will be bringing us some vegemite… also I do miss them. We’re also planning to head down to Seattle in the early September. Maybe then Aidan will stop nagging me about the awesomeness of the Space Needle he’s really quite obsessed by it. It being baseball season we might go see the Yankees play the Seattle Mariners I’m so excited. More wine country is on the schedule too, we have decided that the nine bottles we lugged back from Niagara are too special to drink on just any old day. British Columbia boasts the beautiful Okanagan wine region so a tasting we will go. So in the meantime it’s back to work!!
