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?

Taste of Toronto

My sister and I travelled to Toronto by train this past Friday to see Billy Elliot.  Tucker and Beckett stayed with their Westie cousin Toby. The train ride was nice; I hadn't been on one here in Canada for years. We had a little delay when a freight train broke down on the tracks in front of us but they got the freight train moved off the line after only about 10 minutes. We arrived in Toronto at about 1:30 pm and made our way to the hotel, the Sheraton Toronto Centre. Across the street was the Toronto City Hall - Nathan Phillips Square, the ice rink and Old City Hall. After checking in we went down to the Eaton Centre grabbed a quick bite to eat and then just wandered around for a while. We went back to the hotel to get freshened up for dinner, then it was off to Big Daddy's Crab Shack.

After dinner, we made our way by the subway to the Canon Theatre where the Toronto run of Billy Elliot is playing. The theatre is very ornate and was originally built as a movie theatre; you won't see them like that any more. The musical was wonderful, too bad you can't take any video. The kids in the play are just fantastic dancers and singers. The boy, who starred as Billy on the night we saw the play comes from Burlington, Ontario and is only 12 years old.

Toronto by Train

After the play, we went back to our hotel for a couple glasses of wine. The wine was aptly named "Girls Night Out". The next morning we went to a restaurant called Eggspectation for breakfast, then after a bit of window shopping, back to the hotel to check out in time to go back to Union Station in time to get our train home.  We were again delayed, this time by problems with signal lights and arrived back home about half an hour late.  It was, even with the train delays, a great weekend, one to remember.

It was only a taste of Toronto, would have been nice to have another day or two. Maybe next time.