September 2021 - Toronto ON
September 2021 Port Stanley ON
Things are slowly getting back to "normal". Our shuttle bus returns to the regular schedule before March 2020. Our two buses are back in service and we now have service from 6:30 AM to 9 PM.
We have a federal election looming in a couple of weeks. We can vote by mail and I think we will, although they always set up a voting station in our building.
The main candidates. I will be voting Liberal Justin Trudeau. Guy in the middle is old white rich guy who would fit right in in Texas.
Labour Day long weekend and the air show is on. It was cancelled last year due to Covid but we had watched it from our rooftop in 2019 and took
lots of photos click here. A favourite.
Monday we were woken around 6 AM by thunder and lightening but by the time we were on the road it was a gorgeous sunny day. We had booked a night in Port Stanley on the shores of Lake Erie.
We'd seen this guy walking up Talbot St. when we entered town and he appeared as we were having lunch.
Many places around this area had gluten free options which was great.
Just a note that we were booking for Labour Day Monday.
Our room at Inn on the Harbour in Port Stanley. One of my pet peeves, only one bedside table, never mind how close the bed was to the wall. The outside patio was very nice, overlooking the water. It did have air conditioning, a fire place, fridge, coffee maker (no coffee) and microwave. It also had, to my annoyance, two bureaux (chest of drawers) that were totally redundant and served no purpose except to clutter the room.
Plan B the Kettle Creek Inn looked like a good choice, I saw that they didn't do dinner on Mondays, but sent them a note asking if they did breakfast and the response was "we do a modified continental breakfast, delivered to your room the night before, and there is a coffee maker in the room"...
So on to Plan C, Inn on the Harbour, didn't offer any food, fine.
The Inn in the middle.
Took a walk to the beach on Lake Erie.
Beach town, long weekend, gorgeous weather shouldn't be a problem finding somewhere to eat. So Lo, one of only two "finer" dining was across the street, but fully booked for the evening.
Two Forks looked inviting, no reservations, first come first served, closed at 9.
At least five 5!! casual places in town weren't open on Monday!
Long weekend, LCBO (Liquor Board of Ontario) is closed. Must be somewhere to get a bottle of wine and relax on our deck...asked the women at the desk, no wine store in the town. I said we were thinking of getting cheeses and eating in our room. We like doing that. So they suggested we drive 15 minutes into St. Thomas to the Great Canadian Superstore and we could find everything. Perfect! As we are hopping into the car, one of them also suggested GT's on the beach.
Off we went, empty parking lot...
How could 4 of us forget?? It is LABOUR DAY, everything is closed.
Oh well back to hotel.
Around 7 we walked to GT's On the Beach, and it was a good solution.
Since we are sitting on Lake Erie, we order Lake Erie yellow pickerel and perch.
Delightful server, Jazmin, average food, could have been hotter, great setting, all is good.
The food saga continues. We had walked by a couple of coffee shops on the way back and noticed the opening times and I said I would get up first and go and get us coffee and a treat (one place even had gluten free options). We both slept in until 9:30 so we headed out together. First place CLOSED. Second place CLOSED. Now we are ticked off head back to hotel and check out. As we pull out we see a woman with a coffee take- out. Hey!! There must be somewhere, sure enough, across the street from the closed places is Art and Soul Cafe, we park and get coffee and pastries.
Fortified we headed back to a market we had passed and picked up all local produce. Corn on the cob, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, new baby potatoes, onions red and cooking, garlic, apples, peppers.
Sparta Tea Room does proper afternoon teas.
Big enough??
A few weeks ago we had been foiled by a construction detour that led us in circles trying to find this winery.
We did a tasting, 3 for $5 and if you bought 6 bottles you received two wine glasses ($7 each). So we bought 6 (not the crappy wine!) and the cost of the tasting is deferred as well.
John, waiting for our lunch at Willie's, who also offered gluten free options.
I guess she got tired of waiting.
Wednesday was John's weekly golf game and I headed downtown.
New banners went up outside Union celebrating the 100th anniversary of the TTC Toronto Transit Commission.
I went to St. Lawrence Market to pick up 3 things. The new north market building getting there. The North Market building was underutilized and did not maximize the full potential of the St. Lawrence Market Complex. The redevelopment of the North Market building will improve the utility of the St. Lawrence Market Complex for vendors, visitors and shoppers, while contributing to the economic development of the area.
You can see the artist rendering here.
The North Market was primarily known for its Saturday Farmers' Market, a tradition begun on this site in 1803 and continues today but in a temporary structure south of the south building, as the producers of Southern Ontario bring their seasonal produce to market in the city.
This photo was taken in 2011.
Three items morphed into more. Baking potatoes at Longo's 1.99 a pound, Loblaw's 2.50 and the market 0.79.
Thursday we were up early to head to friends' cottage in Niagara on the Lake. We were smirking as we went west as traffic was horrific going into Toronto. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a truck fire closed lanes of the QEW in Burlington for hours on Thursday morning.
Commuters were impacted by a road closure after a load of batteries on a tractor-trailer caught fire. Police say the incident was called in around 3:30 a.m. and led to the shutdown of the highway between North Shore Boulevard and the 403 for a cleanup and investigation. And right behind that there was another accident. Nothing was moving anywhere in Hamilton as people tried to get around this.
The guys went golfing and my BFF and I got caught up and went shopping at the outlets.. We haven't seen each other since the spring and only once last year (after March). After we had lunch at the outlets the skies opened and it poured. The guys were soaked through and didn't manage to play their last holes.
After some snacks and a drink we headed home. Estimated travel time 1.5 hours. Well, we weren't laughing as we approached the scene of the accident and the radio and signs were saying "2 right lanes closed" and the cars were backed up to Centennial parkway. We got off and cut through Hamilton to the 403, it was bumper to bumper in Hamilton as others had the same idea. We decided to take the toll road 407 which is never busy but it does take us quite far north so we got off at Dundas St. and came across that way. Our trip home ended up being 2.5 hours. They hoped to have it cleaned up by morning.
