Friday, June 16 ; Steinbach to Winnipeg, Manitoba to Hamilton, Ontario to Woodstock
Sunny and very warm.
This morning I was scheduled to attend a seminar via Zoom, but … yesterday I ineptly purged e-mail and unintentionally deleted my Zoom invitation/link to the seminar. <sigh> Doofus !
Today is the first of the three day annual Steinbach event “Summer In The City”. So for our noon time walk we walked over to the MCC Thrift Store to donate a book that I just finished reading, then we walked the length of Summer In The City spread along about a five or six block length of Main Street. We enjoyed our day at Summer In The City a year ago with Joanne’s family, and are a bit disappointed that we will be (mostly) missing this year’s festivities.
We left home on time at 3:15 PM heading for Winnipeg airport. We arrived at Winnipeg Park 'N Fly on time at 4:45 PM. We arrived a bit earlier than expected at Winnipeg airport at 5 PM. We checked in at Swoop Air, cleared security, boarded our flight on time at 6:30 PM, and were wheels up / in the air a few minutes late at 7 PM. We arrived at Hamilton airport a few minutes late at 10:15 PM. We retrieved our luggage, endured a line-up at the car rental counter, got an upgraded (very nice Chrysler 300) rental car, ate a very late, light supper of last night’s leftover pizza that Joanne had brought from home, and were leaving the Hamilton airport around midnight. We arrived at our hotel in Woodstock, Ontario about an hour later.
Even “short” travel days are an endurance test / ordeal for us old folks !
Saturday, June 17 ; Woodstock to St. Jacob's Farmers' Market & return
Sunny and very warm.
This morning we had (free continental) breakfast in our hotel. We left around 11 AM heading about an hour north of Woodstock to the massive and mostly Mennonite St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market on the southern edge of Waterloo. “Farmers’ Market” is a misnomer. It’s so much more than that ! From our perspective, it should be called “Foodies’ Market”. We have been here before, but it’s been about 19 years. (see tomorrow).
We had a wonderful multi-course, multi-vendor lunch ; Vegetarian Pad Thai from one vendor, Columbian crepe dessert from another, Bubble Tea from yet another, etc. As we wandered around the market we bought Joanne a new pair of polarized sunglasses, fresh locally grown raspberries and strawberries, locally made Mennonite beef summer sausage, Mennonite Provolone cheese, Mennonite baked buns, a six pack of varied filling butter tarts, etc., etc.
By the time the market was closing at 3:30 PM, we were pretty tired. We drove “home” to Woodstock, and before returning to our hotel we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a jug of water, and other beverages. We rested briefly in our hotel room before heading over to a nearby restaurant just before its 6 PM closing time. Balkan Eats had caught our eye recently while doing online “foodie” research in preparation for this trip. It’s operated by a Bosnian couple, featuring (obviously) Bosnian ethnic specialties. While we were waiting for our Cevapi meal to be prepared by the husband, the wife offered us a complimentary serving of a new dessert she is “test marketing”, a large apple stuffed with a sweetened crushed walnut and sweet cream cheese mixture, poached/stewed in a sweet syrup. WOW ! It was quite the “appetizer”. HA HA HA … we weren’t ready to eat dinner until three hours later !
Back in our hotel room, around 9 PM we had the Cevapi meal, ten pieces of skinless/casingless veal sausages served burger style on a huge Bosnian “bun”, with diced onions, some manner of savoury cream cheese “special sauce”, and a spicy red “special sauce” condiment. <blink blink> Top that, McDonalds ! HA HA HA ! As another “appetizer” before eating our Cevapi meal we also had some of their Zeljanica (spinach) and Sir (cheese) Burek (stuffed phyllo pastry). Afterwards we had fresh raspberries for dessert topped with a bit of yogurt (from this morning’s breakfast bar).
Our Chrysler 300 rental car is very nice and comfortable, and has quite a sophisticated (by our old folks’ standards) in-dash navigation system.
Did I mention … Joanne found it necessary to purchase for herself a Bosnian chocolate bar for a bedtime snack ? ! HA HA HA HA HA !
Sunday, June 18 ; Woodstock to Stratford & return
Our 19th anniversary of “retirement” ! ! !
WOW ! How privileged ! Far more healthy retirement than any of our parents had. And more than most of our contemporaries will ever have.
Sunny and very warm. A perfect “June 18” weather day, just like our retirement day 19 years ago when we pulled out of our Quigley Hill Road (Ottawa) driveway in our new to us huge truck and fifth wheel trailer to begin our new chapter in life as full time RV’ers.
We left our hotel in Woodstock this morning at 11:30 AM for the forty-five minute drive northwest to the beautiful town of Stratford, home of Canada’s Shakespeare Festival Theatre. Upon arrival we parked in one of the many lovely parks surrounding the main Festival Theatre grounds, and had a wonderful picnic lunch we had prepared, not that easy a feat when living out of a suitcase, in a hotel.
Mennonite all beef Summer Sausage, Mennonite Provolone cheese, Mennonite buns, all from the St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market, a boiled egg and strawberry yogurt from the hotel’s breakfast bar, iced tea from Wal-Mart.
After our picnic lunch we wandered through the park down to the Avon River waterfront where there was a Father’s Day Classic Car show. We ambled over to the Festival Theatre while admiring the beautiful old cars of our youth.
It has been a long time (19 years !) since we have attended theatre at Stratford. Today we saw the musical RENT. I wasn’t a huge fan of the storyline. It isn’t a particularly uplifting story. BUT … it was powerful. Brought Joanne to tears. Twice ! And the Stratford Festival Theatre’s production, direction, music, lighting, set, sound, costuming, and acting/singing were SUPERB ! Even the brief interruption of the play by a medical emergency in the audience was handled extremely well.
After the play we wandered around outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and setting. We wandered around the Festival Theatre’s flower gardens, then down to the Avon River waterfront again, ambling a scenic route along the river back to where our car was parked.
We left Stratford around 6 PM and were back in our hotel room at 7 PM. We rested (and rehydrated, and snacked on raspberries) for about an hour, then drove over to Wal-Mart to buy a salad mix, then over to Punjabi Swaad, an Indian pizza restaurant (HUH ?) where we ordered … of course … a Butter Chicken Paneer Pizza to take back to our hotel room. Very interesting. Very unusual !
Monday, June 19 ; Woodstock to Port Stanley, Port Bruce, Port Burwell & return
Sunny and hot, a perfect day for the beach.
This morning we left our hotel room in Woodstock around 11 AM and drove about an hour southwest, passing by the eastern edge of the city of London (Ontario) to the Lake Erie shoreline town of Port Stanley. We had been here before, but nothing today looked familiar. We wandered around the touristy “downtown” area, and along the shoreline of Kettle Creek at its mouth on Lake Erie. We had another wonderful picnic lunch sitting at a picnic table in the small park beside the library, on the shore of Kettle Creek, beside the lift bridge. Twice while we were having lunch the lift bridge opened to let tall boats pass through. After lunch we wandered along Kettle Creek a bit more and watched commercial fishing boats coming in from Lake Erie and unloading their huge catches of Yellow Perch at the fish processing plant’s dock.
We left Port Stanley around 2:30 PM and drove east along the Lake Erie shoreline for about half an hour or so to the lovely little beach village of Port Bruce. We wandered around the fishing pier for awhile, then along the dark sand beach. We tried walking along the beach barefoot, but the dark sand was too hot. I waded into the Lake Erie water … BRRRRR !
We left Port Bruce about 4 PM and drove about another half hour east along the Lake Erie shoreline to Port Burwell, an even lovelier beach town. We sat for awhile on the Lake Erie shoreline beach for awhile, enjoying the lighter coloured, cooler, soft sand. Before leaving Port Burwell around 5 PM we stopped at an overpriced ice cream shop and bought a milkshake to share on the drive north, through the town of Tillsonburg, back to our hotel in Woodstock, arriving “home” around 6 PM.
At 8 PM we drove to another local Indian restaurant, where we had another wonderful dinner ; an Indian and Canadian fusion version of poutine with paneer, and Lamb Biryani.
P.S. ; PHOTOS LABELLED "PORT DOVER" ARE ACTUALLY "PORT BRUCE" <sigh> I was tired when I processed the photos !
Sunny and hot.
This morning we checked out of our hotel room in Woodstock at 11 AM and headed northwest about an hour to Stratford … again. We parked very near to the Stratford Festival’s Tom Patterson Theatre and had another lovely picnic sitting on the banks of the Avon River. We lingered over lunch, enjoying the weather, the scenery, and people watching, until 1:30, time to walk to the theatre for our 2 PM performance. We parked near the Tom Patterson Theatre and the Avon River, but our play was at the Avon Theatre, about a twenty minute walk away, in Stratford’s downtown.
Today we attended Spamalot, the live theatre adaptation of Monty Python’s In Search of The Holy Grail movie. HA HA HA HA HA … it was hilarious and ridiculous. I love a good British farce.
The play ended at 4:20 PM. We walked back to our rental car and left Stratford at 4:45 PM. I estimated that we would arrive at our St. Catharines rental apartment around 7 PM. WRONG ! I underestimated the distance and time, and … we were delayed by a serious traffic accident for about an hour, stuck in gridlock on Hwy. 403. <sigh>
We stopped at 7 PM at a shopping mall on the outskirts of Hamilton, to have a bathroom break at McDonald’s, and to administer Joanne’s eye drops, two hours overdue. She needs eye drops administered in her cataract surgical eye three times a day for a month and a half, then again for the second eye surgery, for a total of two drops administered five minutes apart, three times a day, for three months ! And she’s unable to do it herself. <sigh>
As we arrived in St. Catharines we stopped at a Superstore to buy some beverages and something for supper. We arrived at our furnished rental apartment in St. Catharines around 8:30 PM, tired and hungry.
Wednesday, June 21 ; St. Catharines to Niagara-On-The-Lake and return
Sunny and very warm.
This morning we left our rental apartment in St. Catharines around 11 AM heading for Niagara-On-The-Lake, and the (George Bernard) Shaw Festival Theatre. We departed St. Catharines to the north, and drove along the Welland Canal for awhile before crossing it and meandering down back roads through Niagara wine country to Niagara-On-The-Lake, arriving around noon. Yeah … we took a few wrong turns, even with the assistance of GPS. We found a place to park in town, just beyond the limits of the $5 per hour metered parking.
We wandered down Queen Street, the main street in town, window shopping along with thousands of other theatre tourists, until reaching Joanne’s chosen lunch spot. WOW ! See www.budapestbakeshop.com ! The turkey sub made in a cheddar chimney cake was so good … how good was it, Dan ? It was so good, that after eating it on their outdoor patio we went back inside and ordered a key lime cream cheese and shredded coconut filled chimney cake for desert. <blink blink>
We waddled down Queen Street to the Shaw Festival Theatre for the 2 PM matinee performance of Blithe Spirit, a Noel Coward play from about eighty years ago. We have seen and liked other Noel Coward plays. And we liked this one as well.
When it ended at 5 PM, and we were (slowly) leaving the theatre and grounds with the rest of the blue hair crowd as my sister-in-law calls us “older” matinee performance attendees, we noticed a huge Saskatoon berry bush amongst the beautiful theatre grounds gardens. Laden with huge, ripe berries ! Being ignored by all ! Well … not by us ! We picked and munched on Saskatoons for a few minutes, enjoying the experience immensely. Many people stopped as they walked by, puzzled by what we were doing … and eating. Apparently nobody attending the Shaw Festival knows what Saskatoon berries are !
On the way back to our rental car we stopped in to Greaves Jams & Marmalades, a favourite spot of mine since my very first trip to Niagara-On-The-Lake back in the early 1980’s. By myself, on a business trip, without Joanne. Today I bought three jars of overpriced, but priceless, jams and marmalades.
We left Niagara-On-The-Lake around 6 PM and were back in St. Catharines around 7 PM. We stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some items for supper before returning to our rental apartment and preparing supper.
Sunny and warm.
Like yesterday we left our apartment this morning about 11 AM. But before heading to Niagara-On-The-Lake we stopped at three (of four) local restaurants Joanne wanted to check out as possibilities for today’s lunch and/or supper. First was Tony’s Fish Market, a “third world” looking Jamaican fish shop (?). PASS ! Second was Italian Cafe, an … Italian cafe, of course ! MAYBE ! Third was … <insert drum roll here> … St. Joseph’s Bakery & Grocery. BINGO ! ! ! A Polish bakery, deli, and grocery store. Before ordering our Polish sub and Italian pastry <shrug> to have as a picnic lunch in Niagara-On-The-Lake we browsed. And bought about half a dozen packages of dry soup mix imported from Poland, to take back home to Steinbach with us. And a large jar of Polish cabbage soup, also imported from Poland, to have as part of tonight’s supper.
We made it to Niagara-On-The-Lake today without any “wrong turns”. We found a parking spot in town near the lakeshore, ate our picnic lunch in the car (due to the threat of rain), then walked along the windy lakeshore, then to downtown and the Shaw Festival Theatre to attend the 2 PM performance of Gypsy, a musical about the famous Burlesque entertainer, Gypsy Rose Lee. The play was more about the mother than the two daughters, Louise (Gypsy Rose Lee) and her younger sister June. And was mostly about the childhood of the two girls, as they were being raised by their domineering and completely self-centred mother, a distinctly unlikeable character. Louise became accomplished despite her mother, not because of her mother.
Neither Joanne nor I particularly liked this play.
When it ended at 5 PM, we strolled back to the car, then drove back to St. Catharines, stopping at the last food place Joanne wanted to check out, Your Deli Polonez, another Polish bakery, deli, and grocery store just down the street from the earlier one. Here we bought schnitzels and a potato & vegetable salad for tonight’s supper (along with the cabbage soup), as well as a Polish cream and jam filled pastry for bedtime snack or breakfast.
We stopped at Canadian Tire Fuel Bar to refill the rental car with fuel before heading back to our apartment to make supper, arriving home around 7 PM, again hungry and tired.
Friday, June 23 ; St. Catharines to Hamilton, Ontario to Winnipeg, Manitoba to Steinbach
Overcast this morning in St. Catharines, intermittent light rain in Hamilton in the afternoon, sunny and warm in Winnipeg and Steinbach in the evening.
Our rental apartment had a 10 AM checkout time so … we left at 10 AM, earlier than we needed to and wanted to, but … ! We drove to Hamilton, arriving around 11 AM. Near the Hamilton airport (in Mount Hope, actually) we saw a “Foods Of The World” grocery store, so we went in to explore. Its name was Denninger’s. And it was fascinating ! ! ! First decision we made was to have lunch in their cafeteria. We browsed for a long time. I bought a package of potato pancake mix. I asked if this was their only location. No, no … they have three Hamilton area locations and one near Toronto.
One of their nearby locations was downtown Hamilton. Joanne and I had already discussed a subsequent “theatres trip” in the future, and might stay in downtown Hamilton to avoid the expense of renting a car. Stratford and Niagara-On-The-Lake both have theatre busses direct to/from the theatres from/to downtown Hamilton. So … since it was still too early to have lunch, and go to the airport, we decided to drive to downtown Hamilton and explore a bit.
Using the rental car’s excellent GPS navigation system we found our way to Denninger’s downtown Hamilton location, then explored around that area a bit. Seemed like an interesting area. Next step, accomplished by Joanne while we were waiting for our flight out of Hamilton Airport was to check for interesting and reasonably priced downtown Hamilton accommodations. DONE !
We returned to the Denninger’s location near the airport and had an excellent lunch in the cafeteria, then bought a slice of carrot cake to share later, at the airport, on the plane, after landing in Winnipeg … whatever. We drove to Hamilton airport, arriving at 2 PM for our 4:20 PM flight. Lots of time to return the rental car, check in at the Swoop counter, make our way through security, then spend an hour and a half in the boarding lounge, making use of the airport’s Wi-Fi, me using the laptop, Joanne using the i-Phone.
We boarded the aircraft on time at 4 PM. At 4:15 PM the captain announced that we would be leaving on time at 4:20 PM (EDT) and arriving in Winnipeg on time at 6 PM (CDT). <sigh> At 4:20 PM, instead of the aircraft being pushed back for taxi, the captain announced that … <sigh> … a baggage restraint net clip had broken, and it would take about 15 minutes to replace. Fifteen minutes later he announced that it could not be replaced, and they would have to “steal” another cargo restraint net from another Boeing 737. Fifteen minutes later he announced that there was not another Boeing 737 available at Hamilton airport that they could “borrow/steal” a front cargo net from, and … <sigh> … it would take another half an hour to offload all the luggage from the front cargo hold and relocate it to the rear cargo hold. Only AFTER the airlines “Load Control” department could/would recalculate the feasibility of this plan <rolling my eyes>. THEN … <taking deep breath> … they had to relocate four passengers from the rear of the aircraft to the front of the aircraft, for “weight and balance”, an extremely critical component of aircraft performance.
We departed Hamilton an hour and a quarter late ! ! ! Because of a broken cargo restraint net clip ! ! ! Story of my ****ing life ! Well … to put a more positive spin on it … Joanne pointed out that at least she wasn’t extremely ill … as she was on the return trip home from Portugal a few months ago. And we weren’t travelling with badly behaved young children. As were many people on our aircraft today ! ! ! ! !
We landed in Winnipeg an hour and a quarter late, at 7:15 PM. By the time we deplaned, administered Joanne’s overdue eye drops, retrieved our inexplicably and temporarily lost luggage from a carousel with luggage from a flight incoming from Calgary (way to go Swoop, you’re reinforcing my very negative opinion of your parent company WestJet), and caught the shuttle to Park ‘N Fly to retrieve our minivan, it was 8 PM. We drove to the nearest Superstore (on Kenaston Blvd.) and bought a couple of sandwiches and beverages for supper, eaten in the car.
We arrived home in Steinbach at 10 PM, very tired !
Overall, this was an excellent “theatres trip” adventure, one we plan to repeat every year … or maybe two.
DSK
