Catching Up!

Boy, it's been quite a while since I last posted. I won't go into to all the details but  mostly I've been away camping. This summer's big trip was to Prince Edward Island on Canada's East Coast. The last time I was to PEI was in 2019 for the Arsenault Reunion. That trip, as they say on PEI, was mostly"up West". If you look at how the Island sits in the Northumberland Strait, it's sort of on an east west axis. This trip we were "out East", staying at Brudenell Provincial Park. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Our first trip was to Emily Provincial Park here in Ontario. Just a shakeout trip before we took the long drive to the Maritimes. It was a longer drive than I thought but that probably was a good thing as our trip down east would involve some long driving days. While in Emily, we went to a small historical village and a dog friendly brewery in Bobcaygeon. 

Our trip down east involved three one night stops, one in Quebec and two in New Brunswick before we arrived in Shediac where we would stay 4 nights. I said we had long driving days, I'm not sure everyone would agree, we didn't have to leave really early and we arrived well before supper time but for me if the drive is longer than 4 hours, it seems long. After all by the time you include gas stops and rest stops, it makes for six hours or more in the car.

We stayed again at Parlee Beach in Shediac. I booked the tent site next to our RV sites and brought extra camping equipment so my brother could join us. Another of our sisters has a seasonal site in Caissie Cape about half an hour away.  We went up there for lunch one day where we were able to meet our newest great niece and have lunch with cousins that we hadn't seen in a few years. We also went to a dog friendly pub called the Thirsty Whippet.

The next stop was Brudenell Provincial Park on Prince Edward Island. We would stay here for a week. The sister who has the seasonal site, had booked two nights there over Canada Day, so we decided to have a Canada Day Party. We also have a sister who lives on PEI she, two of her children and their children were to join us for a Canada Day BBQ picnic. Little did we know though, that a plan had been made to have our remaining sister fly out from Alberta to PEI to be with us for Canada Day. When we went into Milton Station where the PEI sister lives to have dinner one night and to do laundry; she welcomed us in but kept saying they had company and to come see. So we went out to the back deck and there was our sister from Alberta. That was quite a surprise as I had not expected to see her until our trip to France later this summer. While in PEI, we also took some nice drives, visited some breweries and a cidery. The dogs got to go wading in the Brudenell River and see some horses.

Double Hill Cidery

After a week in Brudenell which passed by rather quickly, it was time to head home. We went for two nights to Kouchibouguac National Park. It was the first time I'd actually camped there, we used to go to the beach there when I was a kid.  The dogs got to go swimming at Callender's Beach as it's the dog friendly beach, where we used to go, Kelly's Beach, isn't dog friendly.

The next stop was back to Mactaquac Provincial Park where we had stayed one night on the way down. We stayed 3 nights this time so I could have a chance to get together with friends in the area. Teddy got to go wading in the Saint John River and we found some painted rocks.

Mactaquac Provincial Park

Our second last stop was at Parc de la Republique for 2 nights, again we had stayed one night here on the way down. We went to another dog friendly brewery that was located on a golf course that wasn't dog friendly, figure that, so we had to check if dogs really were allowed.

Parc de la Republique

The last stop of the trip and where we had started the journey was at Camping des Voltigeurs near Drummondville, Quebec. Both stops were just for the night. My drive home was easier than the drive there as I didn't let the GPS take me through the city of Montreal.

Camping des Voltigeurs

Now, I've been home for a little over a week. The trailer is back at the storage location but I do have another camping trip booked for Sep, just a short one closer to home.

Beat the Heat

Our last camping trip was to Voyageur Provincial Park which is very close to the Quebec/Ontario border and not very far from my place so it was a very easy drive for me. It started out very hot but at least the first day there was a breeze so in the shade it didn't feel too bad. That is until it came time to go to bed, my AC in the trailer isn't cooling so it was very hot in the trailer. I left the fan on high, opened all the windows and left the door open. I didn't even need to get under the sheet. 

The next day it was just as hot. After a late breakfast, we went to Beau's Brewery as dogs were allowed in the taproom. I think they both enjoyed the concrete floor while we enjoyed some cold beer. I also took the dogs over to the boat launch in our campground and even Liam didn't need to be convinced to come in wading.  Again I left the door open on the trailer that night to sleep but it did cool down some and I did need the sheet later on.

The following day we went to Higginson Tower in Vankleek Hill and to Confederation Park in Hawkesbury. The temperatures had moderated somewhat.  The Higginson Tower was built as a grist mill but the winds in the area were inconsistent and the mill failed. The tower was then used as watch tower during the Fenian Raids and later was converted to an observatory by the original builder's son. Confederation Park is a park on a small island in the Ottawa river that looks over to Quebec. They have a sculpture to the Franco-Ontario families and some sculptures built of recycled materials.

Again that night, I slept with the door to the trailer open but actually turned the fan off during the night and got in my sleeping bag. Liam actually got up in  bed with me too. 

On our last day we did a wine tour of two local vineyards.  Stonehouse Vineyards, located in Alexandria, is owned by two former RCMP officers. The land the vineyard is on was part of a land grant to one of their ancestors. In 2012, when they had the chance to buy some of the land back, they took the plunge. The vineyard was planted in 2012 and the winery opened in 2017. The dogs were allowed downstairs in the tasting room. We went outside where they have a pavilion and a number of other seating areas.

The second vineyard we went to was the Vankleek Hill Vineyard.  This vineyard has one of the Eastern Ontario Popsilos. You might recall during COVID, I took a day trip to drive around and see the ones nearer to me. Here we all enjoyed a glass of wine while Liam enjoyed a dog white wine. 

Before heading back to the campground, we drove to the other Popsilo in the area, the Farm or Country Boy silo.

It was considerably cooler now this night so I closed the door to the trailer and and I slept in my sleeping bag. Liam again slept in bed with me while Teddy still chose the floor. 

We had a relaxing start the next morning as for me it wasn't a long drive home.  So while we beat the heat during our camping trip, I came home only to have my AC fail. Luckily, the repair company was able to get me an appointment the same day I called and the repair technician soon had it up and running again.

World Tour

As we all know in these pandemic times traveling isn't easy to do and likely won't be for awhile. One of the retail outlets that was considered essential throughout all of this was our liquor stores so I started looking through my local store at wines from other countries. When I started posting the pictures of the wine I was having with dinner, my brother jokingly asked if I was doing a world tour. 

But that got me to thinking about food from various parts of the world. You might have read in my blog about the dinner I hosted for my sister and brother-in-law (my bubble) based on The Ivy Restaurant in London.   I made a special dinner for myself from Scotland for Robbie Burn's Day of stacked neeps and tatties. I used hamburger for the base rather than haggis. 

I also made for the first time an Acadian Meat Pie. My mother always called them "tourtiere" but I've since found out that tourtiere use ground meat while my mother's recipe uses chunks of meat. Many Acadian meat pie recipes call for potatoes but my mum's only used chicken, pork and steak. I used just chicken and pork for my meat pie. It's a Christmas tradition to have meat pie; in our home we always had it on Christmas Eve; when I was much younger it was a late night meal after Midnight Mass. 

My last job before retirement had me as the Canadian Forces' representative to NATO for explosives safety so I got to travel a bit for work. One of the places I went to was Rome, Italy, I'm not a huge fan of pasta in fact I ate at my first Hard Rock Cafe in Rome just to get away from pasta. One thing I really did enjoy was the tortes that were on the breakfast buffet. One I especially liked was a chocolate and pear torte so of course I had to give it try making one. It didn't turn out too bad if I have to say so myself.

Another dessert I made was for our Thanksgiving shared dinner. I ate dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's house but we shared the meal with my neice and her family and had a video chat over dinner. My contribution for the dinner was Sambuca Shrimp and Swedish Crustless Apple pie.

But back to wine, one day I had a white wine that was from South Africa so I looked online to see if there was a relatively simple dish I could make and came up with Bobotie. It's a curried ground beef dish and was quite good. 

This past week, I had a wine from Chile so I again decided to try and find a Chilean recipe and came up with this corn and ground beef casserole, called Pastel De Choclo. It was very good, the savory and sweet tastes went well together. 

So I've been doing well in my world travels, Canada, Scotland, England, Sweden, Italy, South Africa and Chile. I live in Canada and have been in every province but haven't yet visited the territories. I've been to England, Scotland and Italy, so I guess I'll have to add Sweden, South Africa and Chile to the bucket list.  I wonder where I will go next?