Day 18 Thurs- County Royality 🤔!

Today we are off on another adventure Tim and Jess have planned….To Prince Edward County….sounds like we are heading to royalty…. With a name like that I expect Castles and gold paved streets….

John and I set off before Tim and Jess to explore along Lake Ontario around Hamilton and beyond…..We really didn’t get much explored with slow traffic and a stop to get a blowup whoopy cushion for me. I have a nerve in my left leg that plays up on long trips we wanted something to support it gently otherwise I actually end up in terrible pain….

Plus a coffee from Tim Horton’s which our Tim says is crap….and yep he is pretty right….I ordered a cheese and bacon toasted sandwich it came with just cheese….the little girl making everything seemed fine be a bit pushed….Anyway I didn’t let her know and she made a new one…good on her….we were sitting next to old fellas having their daily coffee talking painting cost and how much they charge…one still did work the other was retired….their conversation lead to them discussing stuff about Australia, so my ears pricked…I eventually mentioned we were Aussies and the older of the 2 was telling me all about a TV program he was watching this week about Sungs in Melbourne he asked us what a Sung was….🤔🤔🤔🤔 well we told him we had never heard of such a thing…maybe it was Victorian….Hey Vic is it?

Anyway they were your typical old fellas with lots of options especially about the state of how Tim Horton’s was not run….not in his day he told us when he worked here…p,us he had been a pilot for British Airlines apparently plus another job he mentioned…we learnt a lot in our 20 min stop….😂😂😂

Off we set again feed and coffeed…. Past the most hugest massive homes all along the Lake front of Hamilton….my glory the money that must be tired up in these oversized Hollywood type homes….Time hit away fro us looking and we had to be at The Distillery District in Toronto to go to my Cousin Elizabeth’s for fathers had owned the buildings now made into the distillery precinct…..

(The story of The Distillery District begins in 1831 when James Worts came to Canada and opened a mill for grinding grain with his brother-in-law, William Gooderham, along with their families. Two years later, Worts’ wife died during childbirth, and he ended his life. However, Gooderham continued with the business, partnering with Worts’ eldest son.
In 1837, in response to the increase in harvest grain from Upper Canada farms, Gooderham added a distillery to the mill, producing his first spirit – whiskey. By the 1850s, the Gooderham and Worts distillery was fully functioning – and thriving to say the least – including a wharf, storage facilities, an icehouse, cooper shop for barrel-making and a dairy in addition to the already operating distillery and flour mills. In 1859, Gooderham opened a new distillery on Mill Street, which is said to be the most important contribution to Toronto’s manufacturing business; although a fire destroyed parts of the main building in 1869, forcing Gooderham to reconstruct the building, his business continued to thrive. In 1871, Gooderham and Worts became one of the largest exporters in spirit production, shipping millions of gallons across Canada as well as North and South America – and at one point was the largest distillery in the world. After the death of Gooderham and Worts’ son, Gooderham’s son inherited the business; however, between 1914 and 1920, WWI and Prohibition brought spirit production to a standstill. In 1923, he was forced to sell the declining business to Harry C. Hatch, who merged with Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd., renaming the business Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts Ltd. in 1927. With a new focus on the production of Canadian Club whiskey, operations moved to Windsor, officially ending the production of rye whiskey at Gooderham & Worts in 1957 – although rum production continued until the distillery officially closed its doors in 1990, after 153 years of production. In the 1990s, The Distillery District was granted new life as it became a popular destination for film – it was the number one film location in Canada and the second outside of Hollywood, with over 1700 movies filmed here. The Distillery – purchased by Cityscape Holdings in 2001 – underwent a huge project to restore the district in order to turn it into a car-free neighbourhood that would preserve its heritage, ‘entirely dedicated to arts, culture and entertainment.’ It finally opened in May 2003 and is now one of Canada’s top tourist attractions as well as a unique neighbourhood that is a vital part of the city of Toronto.)
Lib is very proud of her families history with these lovely old buildings….we didn’t have much time there sadly so I took as many pics as possible and we grabbed a quick sandwich before we sided off down the freeway 🛣….we had to go this way instead of slowly along the lake as we had to be at our Airbnb by 4pm which is the time you can access Airbnb and hotels here it’s late…plus Tim and Jess had booked their Fav restaurant at a little place called Wellington fir a special dinner…

The traffic was just terrible getting out of Toronto, so we arrived just around the 4 pm mark…our little Airbnb is very tastefully decorated, chocolates on the beds and a bottle of my fav Rise Bubbly to greet us….how lovely…. From the outside it looked very ordinary…apparently there is another section in their basement that’s an Airbnb as well…hard to see where they go in….

We quickly changed then speed off in Tim’s car to the restaurant destination….once there the scene was just lovely the restaurant overlooking the massive Lake Ontario…Drakes Devonshire Inn on the Lake…interesting eclectic place with quirky artworks, modern feel…
The services was excellent….Tim and Jess had stayed here just before Covid lockdowns had occurred…it held special memories for them…it was partially frozen the Lake on their visit…

Tim picked most of our dishes they started with Oysters….I don’t like them so they had 4 each…then we tried 3 different starter….Scollop Crudo marinated in burnt orange, coriander oil, burnt sea same rice tule, cucumber and pomegranate….
Bison 🦬 finally finally sliced with a sauce on the top of Oyster mayo, pickled mushrooms, capers, pickled shallots and croutons to eat it on….

Next course was Duck Wings done in a maple syrup + sriracha spiked, buttermilk ranch dip, chillies, green onion and garlic….these were Devine….
To go with this we had Alan- Seared Yukon, roasted mushrooms, petal barley risotto, asparagus tips, beetroot roasted, herb beurre Blanc and crispy kale…..lastly Roasted Octopus romesco sauce, toasted almond’s, chorizo, crispy confit potatoes, kale preserve lemon vinaigrette….

Plus Jess and I had cocktails 🍸…..a very yummy meal….I ordered another cocktail with the waiter telling me it packs is a punch….well it tasted just like the Racha we had in Montenegro like rocket fuel….even John tired to partake only it bought back bad memories of a very heavy head the night him and our Russian landlord partook for a few hours neither able to speak each others language but who cared with the Racha to do the talking….ohh the head that night and next day….so one sip and he just couldn’t cope…😝😂😂😂

We tried to sit outside of the restaurant but a bit chilli….so headed in near the fire…a guy started singing, but we had to go….we had to be there by 5.15 pm as they have 3 sittings a night…very very popular place…

It was a lovely night only my poor old gut got very upset I was sure it was the oil the duck was cooked in…definitely not the Racha which sadly none of us could finish…I think we could of fired the car home on it 😂….

Back home we settled in to watch a very predictable Liam Neeson picture and have some of the bubbly Lola it’s called….very very nice…

Another day over…off to visit wineries tomorrow…and wine unusual sand dunes…Read more