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 :)