If I didn’t arrange this trip, I would definitely be in the doghouse. Michelle had been itching for some sort of vacation since summer started, and since I was away in Sarnia, it was a convenient time to spend a weekend in Toronto!
We stayed at Director Nick’s and Amber’s place in Oakville (most income per capita in Canada), where they were so generous to let us stay on their kick-ass futon for several nights.
Day one was a walking-and-shopping route of the downtown scene, going from Yonge, to Queen, to Spadina and then a nice relaxing return walk via College. Michelle loved the Umbra store, and we stopped at every, single, freaking, clothes, shop, along the way. And Michelle also stopped at the several shoe stores as well. Richtree for lunch, an Italian Oakville place for dinner, and Mario Kart afterwards was a satisfying way to kick off this vacation.
Before we started the second day, Nick and Amber introduced us to a great independent breakfast place, Stoney’s Bread Company. After a great bowl of soup, we journeyed out to the wineries at Niagara-On-The-Lake.
First winery stop was at Peller Estates. We opted for the newbie tour ($5 a person), where we got a 45-minute run-through of the history of Peller, and walked up to the vineyards – we got the chance to taste some very sour grapes, and which will one day become a great wine.
We then entered the climate-controlled cellar, where we were served three samples of wine – a red, a white, and an icewine! We were also taught how to smell and taste the wine, which really made for an eye-opening experience.
After the first wine tour, we shuffled over to Epicurean, in the town of Niagara-on-the-lake, where the sandwiches are good, the quiches look great, but the popular focatia [sic] sandwiches are always sold out by 1:30pm – get there fast!
The second tour was more intense on the information scale, as Hillibrand is where all the wine is produced (Peller Estates ships their grapes to Hillibrand due to their developed processing facility). Unfortunately I was not a great fan of their wine, but there was some great information, and at $5 with four different types of wine tastings, going on the tour is recommended.
Our third and last full day was fun – we took a trip up to Buk Chang Soon Dong Tofu on Bloor for some great Korean Tofu soup. Then a special first treat for Michelle, and the third time for me – a trip up to the CN Tower! After spending four hours at the Tower (one hour waiting to go up), we then headed to Markham and shopped for random Chinese accessories and we stopped at every, single, freaking, clothes, shop along the way. Again. And Michelle scored a nice power-up and 1UP Mario Mushrooms, which made it all worthwhile. We wrapped up the day at Oakville’s Oki Japanese restaurant, which featured Kobe beef and some really good fish.
All in all, it was great. Things that need to be remembered for next time:
- Bring a tripod. Stop debating, just do it.
- Go on a food-and-wine paring tour. Or a cooking class with wine.
- Visit the CN Tower either early evening or early morning – avoid the afternoon tourist rush.
- Furnish a future home with cool Umbra stuff. In addition to those cool Mario Mushrooms.
- Towels make great pillows – use the thick towel for extra comfort and the thin one to dry yourself off.
Thanks to Nick and Amber who became great hosts and offered us a great place to stay, and thanks to Michelle for letting me have a day of wineries. 