Friday, February 28, 2014

(Extended) Family Day Weekend!

Our Family Day weekend was filled with activity times with our closest friends with a day trip to Toronto to the Ripleys Aquarium and a day outing to the sugar bush in London.

We headed to Toronto in the afternoon on Sunday of the Fam day weekend. Aleksy and I had a busy weekend and stayed in Kitchener the night before for our friend Don's birthday/house warming so got home Sunday morning, got ready and left promptly! We carpooled with Chels and Warren and got pulled over in Burlington on the way there... no ticket though!

We got this shot of everyone at our Aquarium day in T.O.!
This was a tunnel in the aquarium that you could crawl through with the sharks and fish swimming above you! This is the adults crawling thorugh: Chel, me and Paul. Our little Serena and Natalia went first! The other little girls in front of us thought this was terrifying and refused to go in!
There was a part of the aquarium where you are moved along on the conveyor belt and there is water on both sides and above you and when you look up this is what is swimming above!! So cool!

The aquarium was seriously cool, the only problem was there were 20,000 other people also wanted to look at the same shark: 20 of which were coughing with colds and 5 babies crying. It was so packed! And we brought a "picnic lunch" in a effort to save some money with sandwiches, veggies, fruit and cupcakes, which we ate in a small corner of the packed aquarium... not the best place for a picnic!

It was a fun day in Toronto though... ended with a parking ticket and some beer and deep fried mac & cheese and pizza sticks at Wild Wings.
On Monday (Fam day!), we had another extended family adventure this time with Al, Steph & Colton. We went to the sugar bush, which was free for family day! We did a tour around the sugar bush, learning bout making maple syrup and at this stand, there was also bird feeders to be made!




And after making bird feeders and getting a group shot with the bear, we headed to the station where we could roast marshmallows (frozen marshmallows are very hard to roast).

After adventures to the stations around the sugar bush, and Chels drilling into a tree to extract the maple we went inside for pancakes and syrup!! My fav!! Plus, a little hot cocoa....It was by donation on fam day.
There was a situation that happened where we sat at a table with a hot cocoa already on the table, which I may have drank... a little on the barfy side...

After our sugar bush adventure we had everyone over to our place for supper with a little bit of board games... always a sign of a good night :)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Our Winter Weekend Getaway

Last weekend, we had a winter getaway at a bed and breakfast that was just outside of Wiarton. Aleksy and I decided that instead of spending our Christmas money on something for the house or something ourselves, that we would pool it together and spend a weekend away instead. We were looking for something that was north of London, but not too far north that we were driving more than 3 hours This was a perfect distance from our place and took about hours driving time. I was searching online for different winter activities that we could do like skiing or dog sledding, but those ended up being really expensive (over $600 for Blue Mountain!). So I ended up finding this B &B on the Ontario website and the weekend winter getaway came complete with 2 nights, a snowshoe and horsedrawn sleigh ride, plus all meals included for $200 per person.

We arrived on Friday night pretty late, around 9pm. Both of us worked that Friday and Aleksy worked a bit late and after the stops at lcbo and tim hortons, it ended up being a bit that we arruved than intended. Upon our arrival, the hosts at the B & B greeted us, and gave us white wine and apple crumble pie! We toured the place, stayed up for a bit having another glass of wine in the lounge area (which we used a lot, but the other couple didn't sit in at all) then headed to bed around 11 since we had to be up for 8:30am breakfast the next day.
One of the huge perks to this weekend getaway was that all meals were included! This is Sat mornings breakfast of pancakes and fruit along with coffee (always needed) and some OJ. Each breakfast, the hosts would sit with us and talk about the plan for the day. For Saturday, our horseshoe adventure was to start at 10:30am, but I realized I needed to buy some better suited winter boots, so we made a quick stop into Wiarton before our snowshoeing to pick up boots for me.
Aleksy and I were all ready to go snow shoeing for 10:30am, and realized that the people who were guiding our snowshoeing weren't ready yet... so we decided to have some 10:30am red wine.... just like vacation!
We left for our snowshoeing just shortly after. The B & B provided the snowshoe rentals. We snowshoed through a path that was part of the owned property of the B & B (we may have extended a bit farther with our trek). On our snowshoe adventure, we hiked up to a campsite (at a quick speed because I wanted to lead the way and get a bit of a workout), and we made a fire (which they emphasized with NO matches or lighter), and grilled up some wraps on the fire we made.
The scenery was so beautiful and we chose such a nice weekend to go where the snow was falling and freshly on the tree braches. We also got to snowshoe with the host of the B & B's doggie, "Zee". He was a trooper moving through the 3 feet deep snow!

After our snowshoeing and lunch at the fire, we got back to the B & B around 1:30pm, and had some time before our 5pm sleigh ride.
After having a mid afternoon siesta, and playing a little scrabble with some wine, we headed to our sleigh ride, which was about a 10 min drive up the road.It was a really cute little date, but a little weird because there was an older man who was with us and talking to us the whole time (and we couldn't really hear what he was saying). The horses were really beautiful, and the scenery was beautiful, but it was also a little strange that the trees we were viewing for their beauty had markings because they were being cut down for logging. Again, it was a beautiful experience, but... a little weird.
We got back from our sleigh ride about 6:30pm, and we had our pizza dinner. There was another couple that was staying in the b & b at the same time who had a "romantic package" with a candlelit supper, and they finished up there supper by the time we got back, so we got their candle light too. It would have been romantic, but the host did sit with us for about 45 minutes talking. They were really nice, and they sure loved to talk.

After supper, we spend the night playing boggle (which Aleksy is about 3 times better than me at), and having snacks and drinks. The next morning it was breakfast at 9am, then heading home!
On Sunday, before heading back to London after our eggs and peameal bacon breakfast, we decided to make a pitstop at Sauble Beach, which was about 15 minutes away to see the frozen beach! We had actually brought our skates because there was an image on the B & B website where there was a skate rink, but we learned it was not a public rink, and was in Tobermory. So we improvised, and I'm glad we did because seeing Sauble was so cool in the winter. The waves were so high and completely frozen blocks of ice. There were people snowshoeing and cross country skiing along the beach. And this Sauble beach sign that cars drive under in the summer had so much snow collected underneath that standing under it, you could touch it!
This is the picture prof of how high the snow was. The stop sign was at my knees and street sign at my shoulders! Also, really weird to see the town completely boarded up for the season!
It was our first time seeing a completely snowed in, frozen beach and it was really something to see.

After this we headed back to London! There are few times that I actually take the time to enjoy winter, and this weekend was one of them :)

Friday, February 14, 2014

Our Annual Food & Wine Show Adventure!

The food and wine show was the weekend of January 17-19th this year. We have our plans worked out perfectly so that we never have to wait in a line outside in the cold and never get turned down at the door. We go on the Saturday (Friday is ladies night, which is busy) and we go in the afternoon around 2pm. We prepare well in advance to ensure that we have a DD because the glasses add up quickly, and head out just before the huge crowds force you to wait in lines for wine!

One of the first stops that we made after grabbing our glasses was to the stand with the little ice cream cone cream shots! It was tequila rose this year... add a little whipped cream and sprinkles and perfect.
As we were meandering about, we saw someone with this vibrant green drink and asked where she got it from. We did some thorough searching for the tiki hut and managed to find them. Pineapple juice with blue caracao was all I remember (maybe coconut rum?), but these were way too good.

Also, landing a seat at the food and wine show is a success in itself. We ate out food while walking. What we found at the food and wine show is that each year, there seems to be less selection in terms of the food. We are always happy with the selection of drink. The first year, we had delic Indian food from the Raja, last year we had some stuffed tomatoes from the dancing greek, and this year we walked around forever and ended up getting tacos from mucho burrito. They were good and all, but I have already been to mucho burrito so it wasn't that exciting. We searched for a long time for food too. My Mom got an empanada since the tacos weren't gluten free (which reminded me of the delic empanadas in Chile & Argentina!)
Throughout the day, they have several cheese presentations that you can attend. But, you have to sign up in advance (like an hour and a half), and arrive 10 min before it starts. This was a lot of commitment to make, but we were determined because in previous years, we lose track of time and don't make any presentations. In this presentation, we were able to try 6 different kinds of local cheeses, and they talked about recommended pairings.
Just before heading our for the day, we passed by the booth where you pick out your props and have your photo taken. There was no line up so we figured why not. We got this gem of a photo out of it, really showing that this was an end of the day photo. They took a few of these shots and posted them to the western fair webpage and I got them from there!