Parting, Departing and Moving On

Breakfast this morning was a FEAST, Yogurt with mango, strawberries, and granola.  and a chocolate croissant, even smaller then I make.  It was good though.  The main course was scrambled eggs with spinach, sausage, toast and potatoes fried with brie.  Pretty good!   Elisabeth left Jodi some fruit and yogurt, OJ and the croissannt.  Elisabeth ate Jodi's eggs and of course the potatoes, (who could pass those up?) And we visited a bit more.   While we were packing Elisabeth played the piano, it was so pleasant.  I noticed this cute little door as I was lugging our suitcases out.

How did I walk by it for the last five days without noticing it?  It felt like leaving a friend after all the chatting we had done over the week.

Elisabeth suggested we return the bad wine from last night so we drove off in that direction.  Firstly we verified the name of the lovely grocery store we went to,

then noticed that the seagulls were lined up for Tim Hortons,

I had wondered who actually ate there.   And then I returned the wine with no hassles.

The same lady we purchased it from was there.

The drive was o.k. I am a bit concerned about a toll road that we took, we never paid, there as no place to do so.  I wonder if that will nip us in the derrière? We arrived too early to check in, so we we to into Niagara on the Lake, and it is truly a beautiful little town. First coffee (pumpkin for me) at Balzacs,

a butter tart with raisins (Cranberry was better) and a powder room.

I coveted the furniture here!

We wandered in and out of shops looking at menus and being pushed around by the Asian people swarming there. We saw some lovely stuff, Jodi particularly liked the leather animals in this store.

There is Maple coffee, Maple Tea, more butter tarts,

expensive hats, clothing,  and the list goes on.  

We came back  to the Brass Bell and checked in.  It is cute, and the owners seem nice.

 I asked for dining recommendations and we were offered several  options.  Back into the town to see about reservations at the golf club which is on lake Ontario. We got reservations for 6:30 and then went to the park where Jodi played Squirrel paparazzi, and I knitted some.

There is a lovely view of Ft. Niagara, in the good old USA from here. 

Then we took a walk down by the water on a  paved a walkway, and played in the rocks.  I figured out the name of those  little "totums"  -  Inukshuk.  They are stone landmarks,  often made shaped like people.  

So we made a couple of them just for fun.  

Wonder if they will be there if and when we go back?

Dinner was a shared ceaser salad, Vegetable Lasagna for (Jackson-Triggs - Cab. Franc, Cab. Sauvignon) Jodi and Honey pecan Chicken with a Dijon sauce, mashed potatoes and vegetables (Chardonnay Peller Estates Family Select) for me.

Jodi was happy to have bread and butter at last.   It was all very good and we shared a creme brûlée for dessert.   

Leaving Behind Something of Us.

Today Jodi got up with me and had breakfast so we could get an early start.  We had yogurt and fruit, Belgian waffles with blueberries and peaches, topped with whippped cream.

We had the pleasure of another guest, Rajid, and it was very interesting to talk with he and Elisabeth about North American Politics.  It is amazing how much we think we know about Canada and how little we probably do.   Regardless, we Judaeo-Christian US Citizens have much to learn from our neighbors to the north about how to really treat our fellow man.  Apparently it is not perfect, but the system here sounds much more like what Jesus taught than what we do in the USA.  Rajid is hopeful for American politics, maybe we should be too. Off we went to scope out the lake region,  Bracebridge, Rousseau, and Gravenhurst.  Bacebridge is a cute little town, with no apparent knit shops, and a pitiful falls that it took us forever to find.

 Jodi wasn't ready to have lunch yet so I decided to try to find Muskoka falls which got some time in my research.  But it too seemed pretty pitiful, so, on to Rosseau, which is a lovely lake, and a TINY town.  But there was a bar and grill called the CrossRoad Cafe that had lovely views and good food.

Jodi and I shared a special the day, sliced pork, Brie, tomato and mustard,

we upgraded the fried to sweet potato fries accompanied by spicey aoli and they were Perfect!  The whole meal was good, at least I thought so.

After lunch we walked out on the docks by the lake, it was pretty nice.

We decided to head on and follow around the tertiary roads and see what there was to see.  Off we went, the scenery was lovely.  All week Jodi had been noticing these piles of stones on the top of stone ridges, we asked Elisabeth about them.  She said that the government frowned on them but people out on the roads who make  them, do it in tribute to something, someone.

Jodi wanted a pic of one so I stopped,  she had said she wanted to make one, but I thought she was kidding.  I should have known better.    She gets back in the car and shows me photos of the one we stopped for and one she made for us!

We turned around to go back and see it, stopped at the side of the road and she ran across for me to take a picture.

She is standing there waving, I am taking pictures and all of a sudden she is down in the ditch  and I hear "oh, shit",  and all I see is her head peering over the edge of the ditch.

At least she is talking.

ON down the road we moseyed and stumbled across this teak furniture store

which had these cool animals out front!

I wanted some coffee and started having flashbacks to that cranberry butter tart and thought why not, so we set Siri for Bala, arrived and the darned bakery was closed!   On we went, now I really want some coffee and a goodie and  we arrived in Gravenhurst, and here is a coffee shop, we stop, get out and the place is closed , so we went into a Boston Pizza for coffee.

The view was incredible though.

 Eventually we headed back to Barrie for supper at Chavos.  You guessed it, I wanted another Crepe, this time I Had a Monte Christo

and Jodi had a Vegetarien.

 Both were delish!  I got tickeled at the "Normal is weird" sign at the Flying Monkey Brewery!

Back at the B&B we decided to try a bottle of the wine we bought last night, from  Pellham just in case we want to stop by on out way to Niagara on the lake tomorrow.  WE probably won't.