Forest fires in Northern Ontario have dropped a lot of smoke over Southern Ontario. The sun is nothing more than a pale red disc in the sky. It’s still hot, humidity sky-high.
It’s a good reason to leave town.
Last night, after dinner, we toyed around with what to do. Our last vacation in Costa Rica was devoid of plans. That wasn’t so much by design as a lack of desire to overplan. And as it happened, it was a great vacation because we could just invent whatever it was we wanted to do.
So Ontario, outside of a few key things (Louis Tomlinson’s concert on Friday, which includes a Jays game for Alex, Cathy, and I; and a service for Janice in St. Thomas on the 21st), we’re making it up as we go.
Beamsville. I know the town because of my dad. And that’s about all I knew of Beamsville. Oh, and that there’s a cidery and brewery out there – Niagara Cider and Bench Brewing. That was destination #1.
It took a while to get there. Traffic on the QEW is markedly higher than when I lived here and I’ve never adjusted to the change since. For Cathy, it’s “normal”.
The Burlington Skyway over the entrance to Hamilton’s harbour was busy and gave us a clear sense of how bad the smoke was – we could barely see Hamilton, and mostly only what was waterfront. Everything else beyond was faint silhouette.
The stretch beyond was at best vaguely familiar. The old landmarks my faded memory might recall were long-gone, mostly having been erased through housing developments, light industrial, and shiny new commercial buildings. It’s the way of life, I know, but it does make things a bit tougher.
We turned off at Ontario Street for Lincoln and Beamsville, entered small town Niagara. It’s been a while since I’ve been through a small Ontario town, which I think was for Kathryn’s wedding so many years ago, before Monkey was born. Quaint little houses, often brick, sometimes stone. Larger ones are B&Bs and inns, some relegated to businesses.
Turning on King, we headed east for a stint before coming across Bench’s extensive (and new) buildings. Someone with deep pockets has funded the place well – it’s an impressive modern building with more seating than I thought possible (at least in the summer; colder weather is all indoors, which is also nice).
Alex was in heaven. I’m not a huge cider fan, but I will say that it’s among the best cider I’ve ever had – on tap, bottled, or canned. It’s very well-crafted, someone has paid a ridiculous amount of attention to flavours.
There’s also beer. Which was … okay. But not as well-made as the cider, in my mind.
The food was delicious. In short, it’s definitely worth the drive to Beamsville.
From there, it was off to The Falls. Cathy took us down Clifton, which would turn out to be a very wise decision that would come to fruition later on. It had all the kitsch I remembered, and quite a lot more. Being mid-week, there was a lighter load of tourists, but it was still busy.
Cathy dropped us off at the Police loop, from which we walked most of the way towards the falls. Alex quickly found that she’d worn the wrong shoes and ended up walking barefoot whenever she could. It was periodically uncomfortable when acorns were present in the grass.
The sky was light beige and largely masked the Falls’ mist, which is usually plainly visible on a blue sky. We walked about a bit, took a few photos (including trying to recreate one from when we were there with the kids when they were far, far younger), before realizing that none of us wanted to back to Clifton (although Choo Choo missed out on the wings there), so we called Cathy for a pickup.
We headed north out of town, passing a few remaining tourist traps, as we headed for another cidery, Ironwood.
This took us through St. Davids, another glorious small town on the peninsula. (I still don’t know why they call it a “peninsula”, it’s more like an isthmus dividing Lakes Ontario and Erie.) Cathy then told me that our parents had planned to move there at some point, but Dad’s illness had kiboshed all that.
We stopped at the St. Davids’ Chocolate Factory. A word to the wise: It’s not much of a chocolate factory. It’s mostly other stuff, with a bit of chocolate. You’ve been warned.
Ironwood was almost empty. The highlight was an adorable weiner dog out with their owner. Less flashy than Bench, it was cider-only. And while good, it was not as delightful as the cider at Niagara/Bench. We stayed only long enough to sample, then left for home.
We stopped for dinner supplies at a Metro in St. Catherines before hitting the QEW for the hour trip back. Save for a lane closure on the Skyway (stalled vehicle), the trip wasn’t too bad. Though I have noticed that the drivers in Ontario really don’t seem to understand the concept of “pass on the left” – they stay there, even when being passed on the right.
Burgers were a decent way to end the day.
Well, almost end the day. I was also tasked with figuring out what we’re doing tomorrow. It’s my birthday. #54. So, Geoff, what are we doing?
