The Engineer and I are on a mission to explore our new home province of Ontario.
Well, to be exact,
I am on a mission and the Engineer is along for a ride.
This past weekend, our adventure took us to Prince Edward County - about two and a half hours east of the city.
Prince Edward County is known for
Sandbanks Provincial Park, a burgeoning food scene, and wineries/cider houses/distilleries/breweries.
I
think it also holds some sort of historical significance with the
Loyalists but I was sampling too much of the latter to really notice.
Here's the thing with lake country/summer retreats in Ontario: book
early.
As in a year in advance if possible. But you might be more or less
screwed if you are like the Engineer and I: avec pooches.
Pet friendly accommodation is
always slightly gross.
Needless to stay, I found an affordable room in a motel (as Manny says in
Modern Family:
Comfort always goes down when the 'h' is replaced with an 'm'). I must
say the place, Merland Cottages, was spotless. Albeit right out of
1962. Also there was a rather boisterous family reunion of a
Latin-Canadian family in the adjoining cottages. And a young child was
in the room next to us and the walls were beyond thin. My peaceful weekend by the lake was not happening at Merland Cottages.
I went the night before the Engineer could get there. Which left me to do whatever I fancied.
I was at a loss.
And then I remembered the
Taste Trail.
I fully intended to eat/drink my way through this taste trail over the weekend. Who wouldn't? It's called
TASTE trail. Sounds delicious.
First stop? The
Tall Poppy Cafe in Wellington. Unfortunately for my stomach, I wasn't actually hungry. Shocking, I know.
So I picked up two butter tarts (fully intended to give one to the Engineer) and a house-brewed iced tea.
I would highly recommend it. Firstly, this one road
town is quaint and lovely. Secondly, the baked goods should be enough
to bring anyone back. Thirdly, their brunch menu appears delicious AND
Tall Poppy is one of the only food establishments in the area with a
brunch menu.
I took my butter tart, iced tea, and panting poochies to a nearby
beach to watch the sunset and gorge myself on brown sugar goodness.
I ate both.
Whoops.
We headed back to Merland Cottages and hoped not to be murdered
in our sleep. Where I promptly fell asleep and awaited the morning of
tasty treats.
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| Random Barn |
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| Lovely old barn now houses weddings |
I got up early <shock> and my early I mean eight. The dogs and I headed to Taste Trail taste #2 in Bloomfield.
Doesn't the name of the town say it all? Bloomfield. It says I
am a cute little town where people smile from their knitting on front
porches and little girls sip lemonade while watching the clouds. I saw
both of these things.
While eating my croissant and (yes,
and) a vanilla glazed cinnamon bubble
bun from
Marshmallow Room Bakery. Clearly the name of this place won me over
from the beginning. And it did not disappoint. Inside the bakery there
was a myriad of warm baked goodness. From french bread (sampled -
divine) to pecan pie (sampled as well. INCREDIBLE) to homemade jams
& jellies. With a hot coffee, some warm pastry and the early
morning sun warming me up - I sat on the porch and watched the life of
this quaint little town.
That was clearly full of tourists.
But it was still quaint.
By this time, the Engineer arrived and we set out to Sandbanks Provincial Park.
Well, first we stopped off for Taste Trail #3:
Buddha Dog.
A
gourmet hot dog restaurant that I loved but didn't impress my
Costco-all-beef-hot-dog-loving-husband. Mine was delicious. A homemade
wiener/sausage with Gouda and wine & red-pepper jelly. YUM! I
would never think to put a red-pepper jelly on a hot dog but it's
fabulously delicious.
All hot dogged up, we got back on the road for the park.
I must say I am in love with this park. It's a mix of
farmsteads, meadows and a sweet meandering road along the shore of Lake
Ontario. With three beach areas to head to. Apparently everyone goes
to Outlet Beach - so we avoided that. And all the kids go to the Dunes
Beach - so we avoided
that as well. Which left us Sandbank Beach - and the only stretch of beach that is dog friendly.
I also must preface this by saying that the Engineer and I are not beach people.
Except this beach! Being the dog part of the beach, it was
sparsely populated (I shouldn't share this secret but I only have three
readers so it's okay: aim for the dog part of any beach you go to and
you will find you will be very much alone).
This beach is wonderful. There are sloping dunes (very much
reminding me of Cape Cod), super fine, soft sand and the water feels
like you are at the ocean without the peskiness of salt water. Waves do
crash but the water is shallow so you can body surf without fearing you
will drown (maybe this is just me?).
But as I said, we are not beach people so we came terribly prepared.
I looked at the picnic table near us and they were clearly pros.
They came early and scored a table that was shaded by a tree. They
also came with important things. Like snacks and chairs.
And a big blanket.
A big blanket that Mr. Mop made himself at home on.
Ugh, this dog is a disaster at the beach. I let him off-leash
only because his recall is so good. However, I always forget that water
makes him act like a three-year old boy who was just eaten cotton
candy.
He ran into the water and then proceeded to run along the beach,
rolling in the sand. THEN he ran to this big blanket, plopped himself
in the middle of it and began to rub his wet, sand-ridden body all over
it.
Luckily, the beach pros were also dog owners and thought this
hilarious. All the nearby beach bums also laughed at him (he was making
his weird growling noises of pleasure) and quipped he was full of
'personality'.
He gets that so much. I know what that means. What a funny little badly behaved terrier.
As much as the Engineer and I wanted to enjoy the beach, we were
sadly lacking in food & chairs and our dogs were both rolling and
rubbing themselves in the sand.
We decided to leave and stock up on supplies.
And eat at Taste Trail #4:
Agrarian Cheese Market. Okay, this place isn't
officially on the Taste Trail (I don't know what/why the places that are
on the trail are on and others are not), but it should be tasted.
After all, the menu is gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.
YES PLEASE!
We went in with the intention of sharing a sandwich (mostly
because the Engineer was shocked at the $10 price tag of a sandwich) but
then we couldn't agree on the same sandwich. And let's face it, I can
always eat a full grilled cheese sandwich to myself.
I had the Blue & Frere Jacques with spicy wine jelly (again
with the wine jelly!) and the Engineer the 'Sassy Sausage Surprise'
which was onion cheddar, sausage and chipotle lime mustard. As
suspected, both were incredibly yummy and have inspired me to be more
creative with grilled cheese. Although Kraft singles do make damn good
sandwiches.
I also had watermelon sangria. OH. MY. WORD. SOOooooo good! I
would have loved a few more glasses but it was the middle of the
afternoon and we had to go back to the beach sans dog.
By the time we got our act together, we got to the beach at about 4:30. Just when everyone was leaving.
Perfect.
We snacked on a picnic of baguette (Marshmallow Bakery), chicken
liver mousse (Agrarian), meat, some more cheese, Pimm's, and the pecan pie
and fruit crumble (Marshmallow Bakery).
Which brought us up to sunset on the lovely beach.
Honestly, this lake is so big that it's hard to remember it's a
lake. With the waves crashing and the water a bright blue, we really
felt we were in Nantucket or even somewhere tropical.
Definitely fell in love a bit more with Ontario as the sun went down on a wonderful day.
- Until next time,
Mrs. Law
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