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.
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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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