October 20, 2014 – The Last Hurrah!

After trying to go to bed early, and failing at going to sleep, I’m up before seven and have time to write yesterday’s blog post and export the photos before people start hitting the network.  Connie sleeps peacefully through my endeavors, which is a great thing because she has been doing all the driving, and that’s exhausting, at least I think so!  Finally I get all the photos imported and the darn thing won’t publish!  I check my mail and we decide our plan for the day and, voila, there it goes!  Excellent!

Our first stop is the Mount Carmel Spiritual Center.  We enter through the gift shop and the nice lady says mass with start at 11:15 if we want to attend.  What that means is that if we want to go and see the chapel we need to hot foot it inside.  The priest is already setting everything up, so I just snatch a couple of quick shots so as not to endanger my immortal soul!  It is a beautiful chapel with a glorious rose window over the altar and equally beautiful windows down each side.

Back to the gift shop and we both find presents!  One of the ladies tells us that her parents have a trailer in Florida and her dad has driven down there four times in the past six months to fix it up, building a porch and adding other niceties.  They are leaving soon to spend the winter in the sun and are driving down with their cat!

Now we are heading back to Niagara-on-the-Lake to finish up our sightseeing and to visit Inniskillin Winery. This time we are driving up the Niagara Parkway which runs beside the Niagara River all the way from Niagara Falls to NOTL.  

We pass a Buddhist temple right across the street from the White Water Walk!  There is a tour-bus driver waiting for his people and he tells me that it is a working monastery with 10,000 Buddhas and many monks.  And he says that half of them are kung fu masters but that all of them are very nice!

The trees are more spectacular each day and I have to remind myself that there is a limit to how many Fall photos anyone needs!

We arrive at Inniskillin in no time and after touring the perimeter of the tasting room get serious about the purpose for our trip!  They have a separate tasting bar for their Icewines and the “regular” stuff!  After our splurge at Peller, we opt for the more traditional varieties.  Instead of a flight, they simply charge one dollar for each ounce that you sample.  That’s plenty of wine for us to share, so we start with three whites, which are very nice, but a bit dry for our palates, even the Riesling.  Connie doesn’t generally like reds and the two I select are no exceptions.  We’ve been having our Icewine every night before bed and I think our taste buds are not sweet sensitive!

Our pourer is a perfectly delightful young Asian lady and she giggles like a school girl when I ask to take her photo!  She makes our morning!

It’s really time for lunch since I haven’t had anything and Connie only had a protein bar and a bit of coffee!  The folks at Lakeside Pottery had recommended two restaurants that they say the locals favor and we select the one that has “pastries” as part of its name!  Willow Cakes and Pastries.  What a charming little place!  There are shelves of coffee cups with people’s names on them!  Must be regulars!  There are only about ten tiny little tables but the display cases are filled to bursting with delights for the eye and palate!  Connie chooses the loaded baked-potato soup and I have a sandwich of prosciutto, brie and apples on pumpkin chili bread!  Wowzer is that ever delicious!  And of course we can’t leave without a little bag of shortbread cookies for the plane!

It time for elections in Canada, too, and there are campaign signs everywhere.  Some people are running for Councillor or Trustee and I even see one sign for Lord Mayor!

We drive along the shore of Lake Ontario so I can get some photos and then head south for the NEOB Lavender store.  

The houses are all beautiful and each is so different from its neighbors!

That’s Natural Essential Oils and Blends.  It is owned by a personable young couple who eloped to Clearwater!  They’ve been in business six years and grow their own lavender!  Again we both are able to find gifts and made one or two things for ourselves!  I just love lavender!  Unbeknownst to me Connie buys a two-pack of Lavender shortbread cookies and presents them after dinner.  What a treat!  I’ve never eaten lavender before and it’s marvelous!

These are just two of the stunning stained-glass windows at NEOB.

As we’re leaving the man suggests that we stop by Chocolate F/X and even points it out on the map.  It’s pretty close and kind of on our way home and, anyway, it’s CHOCOLATE!  Yep, a few more gifts and now we’re starting to wonder how we will pack everything!  We’ll worry about that when we get home, which is where we’re headed now.

We schlep everything in from the car so we can pack and wouldn’t you know it, neither key card works, again.  Connie goes to the desk because he’s already been surly to me when I asked if we could print our boarding passes!  She comes back with working keys and we drop everything and begin the packing travail.  Believe it or not, everything fits!  We can even get all the liquids in our stupid little liquid bags!

That out of the way, we head back to Vinny’s for our farewell dinner.  We split the eggplant Parmesan and even though I only had a quarter of the salad and half a piece of bread, I can’t finish my half of the eggplant!  These portions are gigantic! But dinner sure is good.

After we settle our bill we stop by the bar to say good-bye to Luis.  He gives us each a big hug and wishes a safe journey.

We stop by the hotel lobby but there are some people there, so we set out for the mini-mart where Connie has a couple of gifts to buy.  When we get back no one is in the lobby and we are able to use the front desk’s computer to print our boarding passes!  And because I went back and added my frequent-flier number, I’m not TSA pre-checked too!  Now if they will only take our bags away at the gate everything will be perfect!

Just time for the last minute things – like this blog post – and we’ll be ready for bed.  Tomorrow will be here too soon!  It’s been a terrific trip and we’ve seen some amazing sights, met some enchanting people and sampled some wonderful foods and drinks!  Life is good!