We selected Prince Edward County as the destination for our first post-retirement vacation together. Although we waited until late enough in October that we missed out on all the unseasonably warm Fall weather, we were still able to get some hikes in. And despite having visited this area a number of times previously, we still had some new experiences.
Highlights were:
The quite fascinating tour of the S.S. Keewatin, a decommissioned luxury cruise ship, at the Great Lakes Museum in Kingston.
Staying at the Jackson’s Falls Inn in Milford, where we enjoyed a king suite with Nespresso machine, excellent breakfasts, and an included Netflix account (hello, The Diplomat Season 3).
The informative and basically private wine tasting stop at Sugarbush Vineyards in Hillier, makers of excellent Viognier and Cab Franc and experimenters with adding a bit of maple syrup to wine (not bad!).
Dinner at the cozy Hartley’s Tavern in Picton, whose casual name belies the excellent food and service provided.
A rather stunning beach walk at the Prince Edward County Bird Observatory.
Finally making it to Three Dog Winery in Picton, where we enjoyed their excellent charcuterie board along with tastes of a good portfolio of red, white, and sparkling wines.
The S.S. Keewatin. We went aboard!The beach at Prince Edward County Bird Sanctuary.
I’d sometimes feel a little prickly when people would ask what I planned to do when I retired. For one thing, how do I know, really, until I actually have that extra 37.5 hours per week? For another thing, I figured some of the things I expected I’d be doing wouldn’t sound interesting to other people.
Some things I’ve done:
Made a tiny apple pie (just as much work as a full-size pie, fyi)
Tried out Jean’s ebike to see whether I like certain features for myself
Finally switched out my Windows 10 PC for a Windows 11 one
Researched a suitable cat food substitute for a flavor that’s been discontinued
Are you not entertained?
I have a habit of overthinking regardless, but I hadn’t quite realized that so many things could be re-thought. Like, what time should I set the alarm? Does doing groceries once a week still make sense? How long should my workouts be? Do I have French press coffee every day now? (Answers so far: I’ll try adjusting it every three weeks or so to roughly match sunrise; no, every six days works better; slightly longer than before, unless I’m too busy or tired that day; and no, on busier mornings I’ll go with filtered coffee.)
We aren’t planning a big trip yet; just some small trips.
But, I have done a few local things that are more interesting to describe.
Fun with physics
Waterloo is home to the Perimeter Institute (PI) for Theoretical Physics, which Jean likes to take pictures of. They periodically have free public lectures. I hadn’t been in years, but decided to sign up for one called “How the Universe Ends”, by Dr. Katie Mack, both because that sounded interesting, and because I follow Dr. Mack on Bluesky (where she’s astrokatie), and I think she’s cool.
Not a recent shot of the Perimeter Institute; it’s been quite nice and warm here lately!
The talks are now held at the nearby Centre for International Governance rather than at PI, which allows for more attendants. They also livestream them. Nevertheless, the event was still sold out.
It’s always mind-blowing (for me, anyway) to be reminded that our planet is just one of several big rocks rotating around one star among billions of stars in one galaxy among billions of galaxies that comprise an ever-expanding universe—and we’re not sure whether there’s only one of those.
The talk wasn’t about when and how the Earth will end (as that isn’t too much of a mystery), but the universe. There are several theories about that. Dr. Mack outlined four of them, all in a very entertaining fashion. (And for public health fans wondering, yes, she gave her talk while wearing an N95 mask.)
About a week after that, Jean and I went to the Princess Cinema to see a free movie sponsored by PI that Dr. Mack had mentioned in her talk: Particle Fever. This documentary was about the development of the Hadron Collider, which led to the discovery of the Bose Hickson particle. That might sound dry, but in fact, it was so fascinating! Even the woman introducing it (who was from PI, I assume?) commented that she was so surprised how good this movie was.
We knew that two people were going to be available to take questions afterward, but I hadn’t realized that the two people would be the film director and one of the physicists featured in the documentary. (I had thought it would just be generic physicists from PI.) Getting their insights into the making of this film was really cool as well. It took four years and, going in, they had no idea if the Collider would even work and, if it did, what it might uncover. The Hickson particle was discovered three years into filming, requiring a complete re-edit of the whole thing and another year of footage.
Feeding the world
Or, feeding a few beings in my little corner of the world, anyway.
I’m still doing cat shelter volunteering, at slightly increased frequency, though I haven’t picked a regular day per week, preferring to select based on what else is going on that week crossed with when they seem to need people most. Going there more often makes it easier to keep up with the kitty population and any changes in the care routine. I’m also getting to know a few of the other volunteers.
In the foreground is Shawnie, my little buddy. She used to be considered un-adoptable as she was so grouchy. Turns out she just had really sore teeth. Now she’s toothless and an absolute sweetheart.
And how did it go? Well, my plans were minimal—see family, see friends, do some outdoor dining while the dining is good… But even so, results were mixed.
Seeing family
Thanks to Jean arranging it (also with a number of his friends), I did get together with one of my sisters and brother-in-law for a canoe trip down the Grand River. The trip started just upstream of a small waterfall. We then had to stop ourselves before going down said waterfall, and maneuver the boats (and people) down it from the side, while walking on rocks and sloshing in water.
Post waterfall. I’m not related to any of these people, but they were on this canoe trip with us!
This was a rather stressful start to the trip, particularly for my sister and brother-in-law, who, at that point, were still working on just getting the canoe to go in the direction they wanted. But we did all get through it.
And after that, it was a lovely trip down the river on a nice sunny day! (Or what Jean called “the boring part”.)
The long weekend of August, we travelled to Timmins—and so did both of my sisters! We stayed with Dad, and my brother hosted all of us for dinner one night, along with a few other local relatives. The occasion, we declared, was Dad’s pending 90th birthday.
This is a Timmins resident, but again, not someone I’m related to.
That dinner, and the other dinners and gatherings we had that weekend, were great despite the wildfire smoke in the air. One of my sisters traveled with us, and we broke up the return trip by we stopping over in Orillia. The highlight there was a patio dinner at Picnic, a tapas and wine bar. It was a nice day, with better air quality, and really good food!
So, I’d say that was pretty successful, especially if you also consider the Quebec City family gathering we had earlier in the season, and that another sisters gathering is pending, in September.
Seeing friends
We did see some friends in Timmins, and we managed the Blackshop outing in July, and Jean sees his friends all the time. But due to certainly valid reasons such as trying to sell a house, or getting sick, or traveling, I haven’t been able to arrange too much else.
So in August, I stopped trying to wait on doing certain things until friends were available, and Jean and I just headedout à deux.
Outdoor dining and such like
So here’s the run-down of, I just realized, all new (to us) places we tried this month.
It’s been open for about three years, but it was our first time there.
Getting there: It’s in uptown Waterloo, so we biked there. They didn’t have a bike rack, but we found a spot to park the bikes in front of the (at the time) closed ice cream shop window.
Reserving: Uses Open Table, and allows you to select outdoor seating, which is nice.
Service: Not wonderfully outstanding, but not bad, either.
Ambiance: They do what they can to block off the street from the patio, but it is a street-side patio.
Drinks: Some of the best iced lattes we’ve ever had. And a pretty decent wine menu.
Food: We went for brunch, so it was that kind of thing. My French toast was nice, and Jean’s braised beef skillet was very good.
A historic building recently reopened at Victoria Park, now with patio. Our first time trying it since that happened.
Getting there: It is in downtown Kitchener, and we biked there. There was a nearby bike rack.
Reserving: Was not going to bother, as it was a weekday, but at the last minute I did request a reservation. They use Touch Bistro as the reservation service.
Service: Strange. Upon arrival, we asked to sit outside, but they said there was no room—though it looked as though there was? We said we’d wait a bit to see if room opened up, and went outside to spy on the patio tables. After maybe 10 minutes, we did see two people leave, so went back in to ask for their table. Which they agreed to seat us at. While waiting for that to be cleared, a few more people arrived, and they asked to sit outside, and were immediately told that wasn’t a problem. (?) I remain perplexed.
Ambiance: Beautiful patio, because Victoria Park is beautiful, and you get a great view of it from here.
Drinks: We both ordered off the very interesting mocktail list, and were both pleased with what we got.
Food: Very good fries / poutine. Jean said his burger was fine. I had the burrata grilled cheese, which was just way too much bread for the amount of cheese, the taste of which was further overwhelmed by the zucchini relish. When they saw I only ate half of the sandwich, they did discount its cost by 50%.
Believe this is a relatively new restaurant, with a partner one in Hamilton. This was our first visit.
Getting there: It’s in the Gaslight district of Cambridge, so we drove. Was a bit of a challenge finding parking.
Reserving: Recommended, so we did make them, on Touch Bistro. We were aiming for their seafood raw bar on the patio, and mentioned that in the reservation comments. We knew that option would get canceled in case of rain.
Service: The day was cloudy with risk of rain, so we weren’t sure what the restaurant would have decided to do about their seafood raw bar. On arrival, they told us that, despite what the Gaslight District tourist site said, they weren’t actually offering that menu at that time! Only brunch. However, they said they would still accommodate us and let us sit outside and order off raw seafood menu (and/or off the brunch).
I thought all that was excellent. Table service throughout the meal remained so.
Ambiance: Quite a nice patio, actually, because it’s in a quiet historic square in Cambridge. Restaurant indoors looked nice as well.
Drinks: They had a rose flight feature, whereupon you could pick three 2 oz servings among a choice of seven roses, one of which had apparently been dubbed the world’s best rosé. We were both intrigued by that, so we selected it and five others: two Ontario (one sparkling, one Pinot Noir), three French (“the best” and its cheaper cousin, along with another), and a Spanish. It was interesting comparing and contrasting those. “The best” was definitely the most complex, but the Spanish and the Ontario Pinot Noir were probably our favourites.
Food: From the raw bar menu, we had oysters (shared), tuna crudo (me), and crab (Jean). Everything was delicious, though the crab was messy to eat. From the brunch menu, I added smoked trout salad (no, I wasn’t sick of seafood) and Jean had a foie gras danish—which might not be the best way to serve foie gras, but was still a quality dish.
This is a winery near Guelph that serves wood-fired oven pizzas and charcuterie. It was our first visit.
Getting there: We drove. They have a parking lot.
Reserving: Suggested but not required, but we did make them, using Tock.
Service: We went on a Wednesday, a quiet day overall, but with mainly one person to handle visitors. A couple was finishing up their tasting when we arrived, meaning we had to wait a bit for our turn to select wine tastings and get our charcuterie delivered. That was all fine. The server was very knowledgeable.
Ambiance: The winery is on a bit of country road, on a property with walking trails, so it was nice to sit outside there—except that there were quite a few wasps this time of year!
Drinks: Jean expressed some dubiousness about a Guelph winery, but they actually make some pretty nice wines—including a non-alcoholic sparkling. They also do some ciders and fruit wines. And they let us try the reserve Meritage, even though it wasn’t on the tasting list.
Food: No pizza on Wednesdays (we knew that), but the charcuterie board was excellent. They made their own relishes and honeys and stuff and Jean wanted to buy them all, but at this point, they aren’t for sale other than as part of the charcuterie board.
In the summer, we like to do patios when the weather cooperates, but the pickings have become slimmer. In uptown Waterloo, our beloved Babylon Sisters Wine Bar closed over the winter, following the early closures of S&V Uptown and Redhouse. Loloan remains an option, but it’s a bit of pricey one. Solé is booming, possibly in part aided by their appearance on OpenTable’s top 100 outdoor dining spots. But this brings on another problem, in that it can be difficult to get a reservation for one of the coveted outdoor spots.
CBC ran a recent article on some of the best patio spots in Waterloo region, which reminded me of another option: Blackshop Restaurant and Wine Bar. The thing about Blackshop is that it’s in Cambridge, about a half-hour highway drive from Waterloo. It’s not inconceivably far, but is far enough that we don’t tend to think of it when pondering where to eat out. Hence, we haven’t been there in about 20 years.
It was in a different location then, and under different ownership—the same as Solé’s, at the time, but both have been sold since to different entities. I had no idea if it was any good anymore, but the menu looked promising enough, and it did have outdoor seating reservations available, even on a Friday night, and the weather forecast for that day was perfect. So off we went, with some friends.
The restaurant is on a busy street in Cambridge, but the restaurant building is set back from the street, with the patio at the back, nicely decorated with plants and red umbrellas, so it makes for a reasonably serene atmosphere. Part of the patio is covered, so usable even in case of rain, but this day we were able to sit in the open part.
The menu is manageable in size and fairly traditional, with appetizers such as soup, salad, and seared scallops; and main courses such as salmon, duck, and steak. Gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options are available as part of the standard menu.
The wine list is long and impressive, and even by the glass, there are some appealing and unusual options, such as Moscato, Appassimento, and Vacqueyras. There is also a nice cocktail list, including several no-alcohol options, one of which I tried—the hibiscus spritz, with pomegranate, ginger honey, and lime. It was very nice, quite refreshing, not too sweet.
We had semi-settled on menu choices when they told us about the daily specials, which did change some minds. Jean and I ended up starting by sharing the special of PEI oysters, while our friends decided to share the Brussels sprouts side dish as an appetizer (including letting us have a taste). Both items were very good, the oysters very fresh, the sprouts really tasty. I had a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with that, while Jean had a prosecco.
Jean stuck with duck as his main course, while I decided to try the fish special of the day, halibut with asparagus and risotto. The duck main was fantastic, the meat perfectly prepared. The halibut was also properly cooked and juicy, with tasty risotto and crisp Ontario asparagus. It was a pretty large serving, so I also had some for lunch the next day. Jean had the Vacqueyras with that, and it was amazing, while I had an Ontario Tawse Riesling named after the restaurant! It was also quite good.
Come dessert, we were told they made everything in-house, including the gelato, so Jean and I shared that, in three flavors. Our friends went with a different dessert that also came with gelato. Nobody seemed to regret their choices. Several of us had decaf coffees or lattes as well.
Sorry, no photos of the place or its food, but if you’re in the neighbourhood—or don’t mind the drive to it—you might want to check it out.
Though we’ll probably be taking a break from this “tradition”, this year we again spent a few days in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area. I wrote up the full blurb here: Return to Niagara. This post is just a summary of the more notable items.
Best discoveries
Caroline Cellars and Farmhouse Cafe: Menu items almost all under $20. Glasses of wine $7 or less. Bottles of wine (to take home) under $20. And it was all very good! Not blow-off-your-socks good, but both food and wine were very enjoyable. Staff were friendly. A nice visit. A nice change.
Niagara Custom Crush Studio: It features the wines of multiple small wineries all under one roof, a cool idea that is well executed. On this visit, we tried wines from two wineries with very different approaches to wine making, which was super interesting.
NOTL: Treadwell’s sister restaurant, with a simpler menu and lower prices, but still excellent quality. And a bonus beautiful sunny dining room.
Weather report
Mixed bag for sure. We had one warm but cloud day; one cool but sunny day; one day with torrential rain / freezing rain / thunder / snow / wind; and yet another cool but sunny day. In between the inclement weather events, we did some walking and hiking.
Winery round-up
Best guide: Strewn, where our private, sit-down tasting was led by someone with a lot of experience and knowledge. Most fun: Fielding Estates, because we’re suckers for the snow globe experience (now done for the year). Best refuge: Reif Estates, from whence we watched the crazy storm while tasting wine and eating charcuterie. Most chaotic: Malivoire, who were supposed to be closed due to storm damage, but finally gave up and gave tastings.
The other dinners
Jean was underwhelmed by the offerings of Trius Winery, despite their Michelin star. Nothing bad—but maybe not star worthy? Beautiful plating, though.
Adorned chicken pate.
Treadwell’s was up to its usual high standards of food quality and wine pairings, but compared only to itself in the past, it was disappointing in terms of the experience. It was just your usual three-course meal with good service. We didn’t get our past feeling of it representing a really special night out.
A couple weeks before, I was feeling somewhat despondent about our pending vacation to Quebec City and Montreal, as the weather forecast seemed to be predicting rain, with some more rain, then a side order of rain. 🌧
But as of a week before, the forecast had completed flipped to sun, more sun, and a side of sun. This really perked me up. But I still had to deal with the jitters and the actual work of prepping to go. (Hiring a housesitter is great for the cats, but does mean having to prepare the house for a guest along with organizing oneself to be away.) 😟
The first night of vacation, I was back to dispirited. Lying in an overheated hotel room on a gray day in the uninspiring town of Drummondville, Quebec after an indifferent meal of St Hubert chicken, I wondered what the points of this was. Wouldn’t I be better off in my house, with its working air conditioner, and cute kitties? 😿
Six nights later, after a lovely dinner of French food on a beautiful patio with my best guy, I felt relaxed and content. Which I guess was the point? 🌞
Itinerary
We were away from Sunday, September 8 to Saturday September 14.
Day 1: Just a driving day; we got as far as Drummondville, Quebec.
Days 2 to 4: Québec City
Days 5 and 6: Montreal
Day 7: Another driving day to back home
Activities
Mainly, it was a lot of ambling, first around the Old Town of Québec City, then around the various neighbourhoods of Montreal. While no longer in the height of summer, Québec City was still pretty crowded with tourists, especially when the huge cruise ships were docked. But our hotel was very centrally located, so it was easy to walk to any part of Old Quebec.
Lovely view of the Quebec City port
Montreal is always a busy big city, of course. Our hotel was close to both downtown and Old Montreal, but not in either. So here we supplemented the walking with taking the métro. Figuring out the metro cards was a bit frustrating, but the system itself was great.
Crescent Street in Montreal
I was pleased to find how much my French came back to me on this trip—not that you can’t manage in English in both cities. But living la vie bilingue again was fun.
We fit in a few other items between the ambling (and eating. A lot of eating.)
Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilization)
It’s quite modern and interactive and full of technological gizmos. Featured exhibits on gladiators in Rome and wrestling in Québec were pretty good. But my favourite was the section on Québecois rap. There you had to don head phones that activated based on what exhibits you were standing near. You got the history of that type of music in this part of the world, and samples of it. It was kind of neat!
The only picture I have from the museum. This map of the world is made up of clothing tags.
Ile d’Orléans
We’ve been before, so didn’t do as many stops this time. The best new discovery was Du Capitaine—Ferme, Vinaigrerie, Distillerie (the captain—farm, vinegars, distillery). We spoke at length with the owner and got to try various interesting vinegars and liqueurs, then buy a number for home use.
Not sure this photo was taken on the island, but it was definitely taken on this trip!
The best revisit was Vignoble du Mitan, where they make a lot of wines with the Vancliche grape that is native to the island. The guide to our tasting was very knowledgeable tasting, and we found that we enjoyed quite a few bottles, so they got patriated, also.
Bike tour
In Montreal we signed up for a three-hour bike tour of the city. This was possible for me because Ca Roule Montreal (Montreal On Wheels) offers ebike options for all of their guided tours. I of course went with that, and Jean decided to do the same. I was somewhat worried about riding an ebike that wasn’t the one type I had, and with keeping up with the group, but these proved to be no problem. I adjusted pretty easily to the bike (found it easier than mine, in some ways) and kept up no problem, given that the other five people on the tour (and the guide) were on regular bikes.
This was the route we took
It was fun. The other participants were five guys from the States who were in Montreal for the first time. It was mostly on bike paths, which are very good in this city and were neat to experience. And we were guided through the street parts. We would stop and the guide would give us facts about the city. The only riding I found tricky was through McGill campus, simply because it was so crowded.
On the menu
So much eating! It was a great week in these two very foodie cities.
Coffees and cafes
Sure, you can get a good latte and some nice pastries in Waterloo. But it felt like these were just so everywhere, and so good, in Québec and Montreal. And even Drummondville! Whether the Van Houtte coffee chain, the independant Baguette et Chocolat that became our Québec City breakfast go-to, or the lovely Columbian Cafe in Montreal, it was all caffeinated bliss.
The fancy dinner
Tuesday evening was also somewhat cool in Québec, which made patio options a dodgy prospect that day. We’d been talking about getting back to Le St. Amour restaurant for some time, and Google Maps reported that Tuesdays were typically their quietest day.
There was still some hemming and hawing over whether to go, because on perusal of their menu, we weren’t sure about the entrée (main course) options. But yeah, in the end, we went, early, sans reservation, and they were able to accommodate.
At St Amour, not being disappointed by the amuse bouche and the hors d’oeuvre
The wine ordering was interesting, as the menu is 75 pages. We picked one bottle out (there wasn’t much by the glass), but said we’d be open to other suggestions. The sommelier came back with a map of the world to show the various areas of the lighter-style red wines he’d suggest and why. In the end, we picked the cheapest one he recommended, which was $105.
It was in fact delicious.
I resolved my main course dilemma by ordering a large appetizer to start—the beautiful platter pictured above—then followed with another appetizer, a seafood medley. Jean was more traditional, and had an actual main course of lobster. And we both had dessert. I don’t now remember what that were, but it was fantastic. The whole meal was fantastic, the room still beautiful with its natural light and high ceiling (excellent CO2 readings!), the service perfection.
Patio moods
We had many meals on patios, but they each had their own “feel”.
La Buchette. Now we’re on vacation: Our first meal in Québec City, this popular restaurant is right on the main St-Jean stretch. It had an excellent charcuterie board.
Entering vacation mode at La Buchette.
Le Lapin Sauté: Cozy and casual. Located in lower town, they specialize in duck and rabbit. We had the main course platter; all good, with amazing confit in particular. The desserts were also nice. And we talked to people at the neighbouring table here, a rarity for us!
Le Lapin Saute is near this area. The pink dude was part of an art installation. He showed up in various public spaces in both Québec City and Montreal.
L’Echaudé: Joie de vivre. A discovery of the trip, L’Echaudé is also in lower town, a French bistro. The appetizers and main courses were great, and we were both excited to see tarte au sucre (sugar pie) on the dessert menu (which we had in the form of a dessert platter with other delicious things).
Gallery of items from L’Echaudé.
Terrasse Place d’Arme: Cinq à sept night life. A rooftop terrace in Old Montreal. It was crowded (but not too crowded), there was music (but not too loud), well-dressed people, and a great view. Food wasn’t bad, either! Nor was the company.
Boqueria Tapa Bar: Bustling. We stopped at this busy tapas bar after our bike ride, when drinks and some smaller plates seemed just the ticket at this point. The first picture on this blog post was taken there.
Bistro La Fabrique: Date night. Our last dinner of the trip was selected and booked just a couple hours before we went, and what a capper! It was at a French bistro on St-Denis, which was nicely decorated with fabric and plants. Though busy inside, we had the patio almost to ourselves (which the waiter was mystified about, as it was an absolutely gorgeous day). It made for a lovely, relaxed dinner.
The menu was very France French, with wine offered by the cL instead of by the bottle or glass, and items like rillettes, terrine, and tartare. I had the slightly less French (I suppose) squash ravioli with beets, Brussels sprouts, hazelnuts, and wild mushroom foam—fantastic. For dessert, we puzzled over what a verrine was (same word used on French and English menus), but ordered it anyway. Turned out to be a jar, filled with fig, nectarine, apricot cream, lemon foam, and hazelnut praline crumble. Mm, mm, good.
Hotels: Meh
The Drummondville Travelodge, booked in Expedia enroute, was renovated and very clean, but as previously noted, was difficult to keep cool enough.
Our Québec City hotel, Terrasse Dufferin, had a great location right by the Chateau Frontenac. But the room was quite small and a bit run down. The bathroom sink had two separate faucets. The shower had trouble maintaining temperature. The room could be a bit stuffy. There was no hair dryer. That sort of thing.
Our hotel was right around here.
Our Montreal hotel, Le Nouvel Hotel, was the biggest and newest of the lot, and had the best-functioning climate control. It offered a Chromecast-type television service, but I couldn’t work out how to connect my apps to it. It also had a bit of cockroach issue…
Precautions
We took some of those! Covid projections for that time weren’t great, but we were lucky enough to be able to do most activities outdoors, and then we supplemented with:
Mini HEPA filter for the hotel rooms.
Antihistamines, H1 (Allegra) and H2 (Pepcid), taken daily.
Nasal sprays before and after more crowded maskless activities.
Respirator masks, for places like the Montreal métro (where, hey, we weren’t the only ones!).
Laminar personal air purifier to blow clean air onto my face when indoor dining. Less obtrusive than I initially feared (you can see it in the pictures of the St Amour).
CO2 monitor, which is merely informative, not actually protective. Biggest surprise: The great readings on the Montreal métro stations and trains.
Because it’s the most important topic ever, I’ll get y’all up to speed on my latest hair colour, while also providing a bit of a “tour de restaurant patios”.
First up, at Loloan Lobby Bar, you can see that the hair is kind of rose gold (and also windswept, and also my makeup is quite faded, but oh well).
We biked over to the Loloan that Tuesday for dinner, and partook of their new summer menu. It was very good!
Then a couple weeks later, behold the blonde look at our anniversary dinner (32 years married, 36 together) chez The Odd Duck.
I now I understand why Jean commented on how their patio lacked charm—I hadn’t realized til looking at these pictures how much of the street view he was seeing! My view was pretty different…
… because the canvas did block the streetscape for me. (Also note Jean’s weight loss, hey?) We’ll have to trade seats next time to be fair.
Regardless of charm or lack thereof, we both really enjoyed the meal. They know their food, and their wine, at The Odd Duck.
I ended up selecting a semi-permanent colour called light golden brown to dye my hair. I was quite happy with the result. You can pretty much see it in the photo below (along with more faded makeup—I’m really bad about reapplying makeup) from our dinner at Arlo, in Ottawa, last week.
Arlo also had excellent food! It’s been a good run. This isn’t even a complete list.
A couple days after our anniversary dinner, we biked over to Babylon Wine Sisters to meet some friends for vino and a meal. Less elaborate than these other places, but still très bon. And perfect weather for it.
This was some sort of cheese bombé situation…
And our other big dinner in Ottawa, at Fairouz Cafe, was also fantastic and creative. Halloumi cheese with cappuccino cream, dates, and figs; duck confit flatbread; babaganoush with shaved truffle!
And between meals…
we did a few other things. The Friday before leaving for Ottawa, we went to see Something Rotten in Stratford. Lordy, that was funny! It’s set in the time of Shakespeare. Two brothers are trying to compete with him as playwrights. With the help of a soothsayer, they come up with the idea of producing the world’s first musical!
It ends up mocking / paying tribute to numerous musicals, as well as various Shakespearean plays, and it’s all just delightful.
As for the trip to Ottawa, that went well! It was very hot and humid, but we managed by doing our longer walks more in the morning, and spending afternoons in cooler museums or drinking iced beverages. Our hotel, the Sonder Rideau, was very spacious and well-equipped, and located right downtown, so that was all good. We visited KIN Winery, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and Rockcliffe Park. If you’d like more details and photos, I’ve posted them here: Ottawa 2024.
Great photo by Jean from that trip
The poop scoop
I and fellow activists have not been successful in saving the Ontario Wastewater Surveillance Program, but there have been some minor accomplishments:
Quite a few media articles about it, in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, CBC, CTV News, the Tyee. The Health Minister got asked about it at a media scrum, which seemed to make her cranky. It’s definitely something, as other program cancellations have gone mostly unremarked.
The cities of Ottawa and London have come up with funding to continue the program, in a somewhat reduced capacity, for 2 or 3 more months. (Peterborough and Windsor might also have cobbled something together; not as sure here.)
The Federal government has given official statements that confirm the Ontario government has been lying about the reason for cancelling it (their claim was that the Federal government was taking it over):
The Federal program does not duplicate what the Ontario one did.
The Federal expansion will not result in a system as comprehensive as Ontario’s was.
Ontario did not consult or collaborate with the Federal government on coordinating wastewater testing programs.
I personally got a flurry of email responses about this in recent days, from the Mayor of Waterloo, the Chair of Waterloo Region, and my Federal MP, Bardish Chagger.
I generally don’t spend too much time thinking about or working on my hair. I have a short cut that suits its thin, straight essence, and a hairdresser who knows how to maintain that. “Styling” it takes only minutes.
But I’ve been getting so many comments on it lately. And that’s all because of the colour. A colour people naturally assume I deliberately selected for my hair. Which I kind of did, but it’s not so simple.
The hair is getting pretty gray now, but I’ve still been dyeing it. A while back, though, I switched to Clairol Natural Instincts, which has no ammonia. I figured that should be less harsh (and hopefully less likely to give me cancer or whatever). But it’s a semi-permanent colour. So it gradually fades away.
I selected Medium Auburn Brown. It looks lovely on the box. On me, when first applied, it looks more like, “Holy crap, that’s really red.” (Interestingly, I got some compliments at this stage, also. It was certainly vibrant!)
But then it fades to something closer to medium auburn brown.
Then it keeps going, to kind of a rose-gold colour, which I rather like. There are gray roots by this point as well, but they actually blend in reasonably well with the rose gold, which I also like. Because overall it means no big rush to dye the hair again.
But then it keeps going, and now I’m kind of… blonde? With more significant gray roots, which still kind of blend in. I don’t hate it, but I’m not sure what my end game is now.
Not sure how evident my hair colour is in this photo, but it’s the only recent one I have.
Unless I embrace all-over gray next, I’m going to have to dye it again, but I’m a bit mystified about to how to approach that. Do I do the whole medium auburn brown cycle again from the start? Or do I start with something lighter in the first place?
I’m not sure how much “rose gold” hair dye there is on the shelf. And if I go with some sort of blondish brown situation, what is that going to fade to? Platinum?
While I ponder that, I will mention that the photo above was taken on the Solé patio on Canada Day. It was our first time at Solé since the ownership change (and our friends’ first time sitting on this particular patio!). We were all quite impressed with the place. It is perhaps the nicest patio in the region. But the food, in the past, could tend to be… uneven.
This time, everything was really great. Between us we sampled three appetizers, one main, and a dessert. High marks for everything, and I think Solé could be worth visiting for an all-out dinner.
The updates
My non-dairy quest has uncovered the most delicious vegan ice cream yet: Honey’s Premium rocky road. Made with “cashew cream”. And in-house marshmallows. Oh my, oh my. So creamy. So delicious.
And while I haven’t heard back from any more Conservative MPPs—guess they’re pretty busy trying to keep Ontarians drunk—I did drop another line to Waterloo Regional Council for an update. I quite promptly got a detailed and personal response from Colleen James, the Kitchener representative who put forth the motion to try to get the federal government to invest in the wastewater surveillance system locally. She said they are consulting with the University of Waterloo as well. Here’s hoping something can be cobbled together, though I expect there will be some kind of data gap after the provincial system closes down in a few short weeks.
In the meantime, let’s admire this lovely local graph while we still can:
The only problem with having events scheduled for sequential Saturdays was that it was getting in the way of movie night. By the third week, we solved our dilemma by watching a movie on Friday night.
Radical, huh?
Anyone but You was quite entertaining. Very funny in parts. As long as you’re good with the whole romantic comedy genre, I say go for it.
But, on to the events.
The will they or won’t they tour: Jann Arden & Rick Mercer
Chronologically, this was first up. Not only for our series of outings, but also for Jann Arden and Rick Mercer, who began their tour of the country in Kitchener. Jann Arden is a singer/songwriter (and also actor and novelist). Rick Mercer is a satirist, comedian, and author.
How the two met was something Rick explained during their live “Night of laughs and intimate conversation”. He was in Calgary filming a bit for his show, Rick Mercer Report. Only the bit was a flop—wasn’t going to air. They had to quickly come up with something else. One suggestion he got was to have Jann Arden give him a tour of Calgary. And he was like, “Jann Arden? Great singer, but I think she’s a depressive!”
We don’t pledge to continue this annually forevermore, but there’s no denying that this is the third year in a row we head to the Niagara area around now. In a lot of ways, it’s a good time to visit: it’s low season, so somewhat cheaper, and quite a bit less crowded—often resulting in better service. Weather of course can be iffy but that means, sometimes, it’s not bad!
Same destination, but that doesn’t mean it was all the same activities. These were the new:
Visiting Reif Estate Winery
Staying at Shaw Club, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Reserving Wine Dome Lounge at Fielding Estate Winery
Staying and dining at Inn on the Twenty, Jordan
And these were repeats, though not necessarily “same old”:
Dining at Peller Estates Winery
Wine tasting at Strewn Winery
Hiking the Niagara Glen trail
Dining at Treadwells
Hiking the Twenty Valley trail, Jordan
Despite knowing I was heading into wine country, I would not have predicted trying a $100 bottle of wine, nor a sherry nearly as old as I am. And yet!
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