Summer in Ontario doesn't quite feel like summer until I get to spend some time at a cottage. I got my 24 hours in Sarnia, but it's not quite the same. I just got back from 48 hours on Lake Rosseau in Muskoka and now I really feel like I've had that summer experience. (Lucky for me I'll also get 48 hours in Southampton on Lake Huron next weekend!)
My 3 days in Muskoka were incredible!!! My GF and I arrived there on Sunday around 1:00pm after the oh-so-necessary stop at Weber's on Highway 11. My dad met us at the marina and off we drove to the cottage which is on an island I can't remember the name of. My parents rented this cottage for about two weeks and I'm so glad I was able to spend some time there. It's newly built and is that perfect combination of creature comforts and real cottage living. Everything's very clean and new but also comfy and cozy. There are tonnes of different spots to cuddle up and read, sit down and play cards, or lounge and get some sun.
During my 48 hours there I had 4 swims, 2 periods of lounging in the sun, 2 sleeps averaging 9 hours each, I finished 1 book (Mockingjay... which I've been reading for what feels like 2 years... more on that another time), played Gin Rummy twice, Boggle once, Dominion (new favourite game!) 3 times, ate 2 delicious dinners... the list goes on.
Needless to say, I enjoyed every moment, and was glad to have my first real cottage moment of the Summer of 2012. More to come!!!
Currently reading... In One Person by John Irving
Posts to come... my thoughts on The Hunger Games trilogy / an update on rc-4 + my 3-year anniversary dinner at Yours Truly (Dundas & Ossington)
Showing posts with label ontario. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ontario. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Wonderful Weekend!
Man, I must be in a writin' mood. Two posts in two days. Oh well, when the muse is with you, the muse is with you...
First a little something fun:
What a sweetie!
I've been having a great weekend! It's a long weekend here in Ontario (Family Day), so the usual luxury of the weekend is made that much more luxurious. I've had a great mixture of chill times, time outdoors, movie-watching, friend-seeing, food-eating... the whole gamut. In the food-eating arena, I went to Frida last night as I mentioned I would, and it was as delicious as I remembered. Tasty margaritas, succulent jumbo shrimp, and the best guacamole I've ever had in my life!!! On top of all that, I had with me some absolutely fabulous company. Great evening!!!
Today was an adventure with my boy Waleed. As his birthday present, I wanted to do something fun together. W. and I are going to be friends forever, so buying expensive things isn't always necessary; I'd rather have a fun experience together, so that was the inspiration for this gift. We started the day off with brunch. We met at the Bloor Street Diner where I was having a coffee and thinking that the all-you-can-eat brunch sounded tantalizing. When Wal arrived we asked how much the AYCE brunch cost and it was $25.95 each before tax. That was a little too steep for the two of us, so we finished our coffees, paid for them, and headed east to Sunset Grill at Bloor & Church. There we got 2 filling breakfasts for $20 TOTAL!!! I'm glad we resisted brunch at BSD -- another time.
After a yummy breakfast at SG, we headed to surprise #1, which Wal had NO idea about. Where did we go??? The Bata Shoe Museum!!! I hadn't been there since I was 12 or so, and Wal had never been, and I thought it would be a fun experience. We went to lots of museums together in Paris, but why not in the city where we both (kinda... sorta...) live?! It was a lot of fun. We started downstairs where the history of shoes is charted, and then we followed that up with the Roaring Twenties exhibit, which was really well done. We also saw the Art in Shoes | Shoes in Art exhibit, which was cool, too. We were there probably an hour or so in total, and then we headed to surprise #2.
Surprise #2: Seeing "The Iron Lady" at the Varsity Theatre in the VIP theatre!!! Wow... what a movie. It was really fantastic to see such a strong, powerful woman's journey. It was also well-done; watching Margaret Thatcher's struggles with sanity/dementia. Jim Broadbent acted well, as he always does. But, let's get to the most important thing:
MERYL. MERYL. MERYL.
Meryl Streep... how do you do it? She is, without a doubt, the greatest actress of our time. For that matter, she may be the greatest actress of all time. While watching the movie, you completely forget that it's Meryl. That is definitely thanks to the talent of the make-up artist, too, but... oh Meryl... you really just nailed it. You were Margaret Thatcher. You were completely in the character. The accent, the facial expressions, the voice... You were absolutely flawless. Win or lose the Oscar, there is no debate about your talent. Congratulations on the performance of a lifetime!!!
Never mind the special treat of enjoying a movie in the VIP theatre. It's not something you want to do every time you see a movie, but for a treat it's worth the extra bucks. You've got a small, intimate theatre with a great view of the screen. You've got extra comfy seats and a side table for your treats. You can have beer while you watch your movie! And, in my last experience in the theatre, I even had an employee serve me my treats!!! It's a fun little treat. (Say treat again... treat!)
So that was the birthday adventure with Waleed. A lot of fun!
I also saw another great movie this weekend: "Beginners". I'd been wanting to see this since I saw a preview for it; it seemed like a really new idea for a movie. Beyond a fun story line, it also had a creative multimedia-esque approach. The acting was also really good. I loved Melanie Laurent, and Ewan was great, and Christopher Plummer was at his best. It was a well-written movie and quite moving. I loved it!
So, that was my weekend! Lots of fun, and back to reality on Tuesday!
First a little something fun:
What a sweetie!
I've been having a great weekend! It's a long weekend here in Ontario (Family Day), so the usual luxury of the weekend is made that much more luxurious. I've had a great mixture of chill times, time outdoors, movie-watching, friend-seeing, food-eating... the whole gamut. In the food-eating arena, I went to Frida last night as I mentioned I would, and it was as delicious as I remembered. Tasty margaritas, succulent jumbo shrimp, and the best guacamole I've ever had in my life!!! On top of all that, I had with me some absolutely fabulous company. Great evening!!!
Today was an adventure with my boy Waleed. As his birthday present, I wanted to do something fun together. W. and I are going to be friends forever, so buying expensive things isn't always necessary; I'd rather have a fun experience together, so that was the inspiration for this gift. We started the day off with brunch. We met at the Bloor Street Diner where I was having a coffee and thinking that the all-you-can-eat brunch sounded tantalizing. When Wal arrived we asked how much the AYCE brunch cost and it was $25.95 each before tax. That was a little too steep for the two of us, so we finished our coffees, paid for them, and headed east to Sunset Grill at Bloor & Church. There we got 2 filling breakfasts for $20 TOTAL!!! I'm glad we resisted brunch at BSD -- another time.
After a yummy breakfast at SG, we headed to surprise #1, which Wal had NO idea about. Where did we go??? The Bata Shoe Museum!!! I hadn't been there since I was 12 or so, and Wal had never been, and I thought it would be a fun experience. We went to lots of museums together in Paris, but why not in the city where we both (kinda... sorta...) live?! It was a lot of fun. We started downstairs where the history of shoes is charted, and then we followed that up with the Roaring Twenties exhibit, which was really well done. We also saw the Art in Shoes | Shoes in Art exhibit, which was cool, too. We were there probably an hour or so in total, and then we headed to surprise #2.
Surprise #2: Seeing "The Iron Lady" at the Varsity Theatre in the VIP theatre!!! Wow... what a movie. It was really fantastic to see such a strong, powerful woman's journey. It was also well-done; watching Margaret Thatcher's struggles with sanity/dementia. Jim Broadbent acted well, as he always does. But, let's get to the most important thing:
MERYL. MERYL. MERYL.
Meryl Streep... how do you do it? She is, without a doubt, the greatest actress of our time. For that matter, she may be the greatest actress of all time. While watching the movie, you completely forget that it's Meryl. That is definitely thanks to the talent of the make-up artist, too, but... oh Meryl... you really just nailed it. You were Margaret Thatcher. You were completely in the character. The accent, the facial expressions, the voice... You were absolutely flawless. Win or lose the Oscar, there is no debate about your talent. Congratulations on the performance of a lifetime!!!
Never mind the special treat of enjoying a movie in the VIP theatre. It's not something you want to do every time you see a movie, but for a treat it's worth the extra bucks. You've got a small, intimate theatre with a great view of the screen. You've got extra comfy seats and a side table for your treats. You can have beer while you watch your movie! And, in my last experience in the theatre, I even had an employee serve me my treats!!! It's a fun little treat. (Say treat again... treat!)
So that was the birthday adventure with Waleed. A lot of fun!
I also saw another great movie this weekend: "Beginners". I'd been wanting to see this since I saw a preview for it; it seemed like a really new idea for a movie. Beyond a fun story line, it also had a creative multimedia-esque approach. The acting was also really good. I loved Melanie Laurent, and Ewan was great, and Christopher Plummer was at his best. It was a well-written movie and quite moving. I loved it!
So, that was my weekend! Lots of fun, and back to reality on Tuesday!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Stratford
Holla y'all. I'm not quite hungry yet, so while I'm contemplating dinner options, I thought I'd blog. I came back today from a LOVELY 24 hours in Stratford, and I'd love to tell you about it.
My girlfriend and I went to Stratford to celebrate our 2-year anniversary (yay!). The day started at the Festival Theatre where we went to see the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. I love Shakespeare, so I was really happy to be seeing one of his plays, but when I see a Shakespeare play performed, it often takes me a scene or two to get into it. The language, the characters' names... sometimes it takes a little time to adjust. However, when I did, I got so into it. The acting was fantastic (I especially loved the actor who played Falstaff), the story is just too funny, and it was a well-done production as far as I was concerned. A lot of fun!
Sugar & Gravy Travel Tip: One of my favourite parts of this 24-hour trip to Stratford was seeing the play as a matinee. This meant that the rest of our stay in Stratford was completely stress-free... no rush to go anywhere. Total relaxation. S&G planning = complete win!
Moving on...
After the wonderful performance, GF & I headed to our hotel: The Queen's Inn. The historic Queen's Inn has been in Stratford for over 150 years. I love the charm of a historical building, so I was drawn to its history and its very reasonable price for 1 night's stay. Definitely a cute building, and the room was very cute and clean, with a HUGE bed. Not my fave hotel that I've ever stayed in, but it was cute, and the hotel wasn't supposed to be the highlight of the visit anyway. The staff was fine... nobody went really above and beyond service, but it was just fine!
After checking in and relaxing for a few, we wandered Stratford for a half hour or so. It's really such a pretty town... lots of cute little cafes, antique stores, used book stores, and whatever the store is, it always fits into the historic little town well. Thankfully the rain held off and we were able to enjoy a nice little walk. We stopped at Balzac Cafe for a quick (and delicious!) cappuccino, too. My GF spent about 6 weeks in Sulmona, Italy recently, and as a result has become a cappuccino snob (I say that with lots of love). Even she agreed that it was a delicious cappuccino! While at the Balzac, a woman told me I smelled really nice. Sweet.
After we wandered, we were getting really hungry and so we got to our restaurant about 30 minutes before our reservation. The kind people at Raja Restaurant found us a table and we spent the next 2.5 hours there. Thanks to the brilliant decision to see a matinee, we were able to stretch that delicious meal out for as long as we wanted. Raja (if you didn't figure this out) serves Indian food, and they do it well. We had pakoras, garlic naan, GF had a mixed vegetable korma (I think), I had the most incredible Bengal Duck (mmmmm!!!), and we finished things off with coconut (for me!) and apple (for her!) sorbets. The dinner was amazing, the service was quite good, and I would go back and eat there again in a second!!!
After that we were stuffed, and went back to the hotel and slept well!
This morning we woke up, got ourselves packed and checked out, and then before we hit the road we grabbed some breakfast at Foster's Inn. GF had been to this place before, but couldn't remember the name of it. While wandering around Wednesday night, we spotted the place, double-checked the menu for her fave dish there, and promised them we'd be back. We went there this morning and it was DELICIOUS - absolutely worth the hunt around for it. I had the Huevos Rancheros (delicious, but too big for me to finish) and GF had Foster's take on french toast. Yum yum!!!
After Foster's, we hopped back on the 7/8, and headed home. Parfait!
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