Road Trip - Bayfield, Ontario

Wow, it's been a while since there's been a new post on this blog! Since we moved last December there has been lots going on and now that it's summertime, we're really enjoying our new yard and garden. 

This is one of the things we've been spending time on.  Our house's previous owner planted beautiful perennial gardens so every week brings a new surprise.  

But last weekend we decided to take a break from our garden and head on a little road trip to Bayfield, Ontario.  Bayfield is a little village on the shores of Lake Huron, between Goderich and Grand Bend.  It's only about an hour from home.  We've been there on day trips several times but this time we stayed overnight at The Little Inn of Bayfield, located right on Main Street in the centre of town. 

The Little Inn is an historic property recently under new ownership and it was a perfect place to stay. We had a little room with a king sized bed on the second floor. Service at the front desk was beyond friendly and helpful. In fact, service was absolutely fantastic everywhere we went in the Inn and its restaurants and bars. 

The first thing we did when we arrived was make a beeline to the Inn's weekly Backyard BBQ, every Saturday this summer from 11:30 am until 3:30 pm or until the food is gone. It's all you can eat for $19.99 per person and the food was surprisingly delicious!  We had pulled pork, ribs, chicken, brisket, corn, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, amazing biscuits, and even pie for dessert. 

We also ordered some craft beer for Matt and a bourbon sour for me.  The BBQ is served outside in a lovely back garden with plenty of sun and shade. The service was once again terrific, especially from the young man handling the grill.

Next we headed for a walk down Main Street, which is great for shopping.  And then we walked down to the marina and main beach.  There are three beaches in Bayfield and we had a lovely time swimming in the lake.

For dinner we headed to the Black Dog Village Pub. We've had lunch here many times and we were looking forward to being able to stay longer and enjoy their extensive beer and cocktail list.  Unfortunately, service wasn't quite up to their normal standards so we were only able to order one cocktail each with dinner.  

The food was fantastic though!  This cauliflower & quinoa salad was so good I can't wait to attempt to make it myself. 

After dinner we were still thirsty so we headed to the Ashwood Inn's bourbon bar.  This place has been nicely renovated and has a huge patio.  

We headed back to our Little Inn for one last cocktail in their wonderful bar.  

We had a great sleep and in the morning we were delighted to find that breakfast was included with our room rate.  The breakfast buffet had eggs, bacon, sausage, cold meats and cheeses, excellent chicken and roasted vegetables, salads and desserts, plus juice and coffee. It was an unexpected treat. 

Before leaving Bayfield we stopped at the cutest bird store I've ever seen. Porter's Hill has a great selection of bird feeders and seed, plus other great gifts. And the service is extremely knowledgeable and friendly.  We will be back here for sure. 

On the way home we stopped by one of our favourite places, Twin Pines Cider House. We've been here several times but were pleased to see they now they have a new tasting room on the main floor.  We picked up some cider and glasses and headed home. 

It's so great to have such a wonderful getaway so close to home. Bayfield is definitely close enough for a day trip, but it was very relaxing to stay overnight. We will be back soon for sure!  

  

Road Trip - Montréal

Last week we celebrated my 40th birthday in Montreal!  We wanted to go somewhere fun and, surprisingly, have never been to Montreal together, and neither of us has been since we were teenagers. 

Montreal is about a 7 hour drive from home. On the way, we stopped to visit family for a couple of nights in Eastern Ontario, then headed into the city.  

I'll let Matt, the Beer Baron, talk about all the beer he tried in an upcoming post, but one of our first stops was Atwater Market to check out the beer and cider selection at the Fromagerie.  We collected several selections to enjoy in our hotel room.

We chose the Delta Montreal as our hotel and it was great. The Jazz Fest was on while we were there and it was right next door. It was an easy walk to Old Montreal and shopping downtown. 

Road Trip: Detroit

Last week we took a trip to Detroit.  Detroit is about two hours from home, about the same distance as Toronto, but in the opposite direction.  When we travel we usually fly from the Detroit airport and we've been to restaurants downtown and shopping in the suburbs plenty of times, but this was our first time staying overnight downtown and walking around the city.

We were there to see Jack White in concert at the Masonic Temple theatre, so we decided to spend about 24-hours in Detroit for the concert.  I have to admit, we were a little nervous at first.  People seem to think Detroit's not safe.  I'd read online that it is perfectly safe to walk around the downtown area, but we'd never done it and didn't know our way around. 

Southern USA Road Trip - Lexington, Kentucky

We spent the first night of our road trip in Lexington, Kentucky.  Normally when I plan our trips I verge on over planning.  I research hotels and restaurants and make spreadsheets of the best locations and an itinerary of things to see each day.  We can be flexible, but it's nice to have an outline so we don't miss anything we really want to see. 

But on this road trip we wanted to be a little more spontaneous.  We hoped to make it all the way to Lexington on our first day, about a 7-hour drive and we'd read we could get a hotel easily enough without a reservation so we played it by ear. Unfortunately we don't follow horse racing.  Little did we know, two of the biggest horse events of the year were happening in Kentucky the two days we would be travelling through.  In Lexington, it was the Rolex, Kentucky and the city was almost booked to capacity.  A week later we hadn't learned our lesson and had to skip Louisville because it was Kentucky Derby weekend.  So we've learned to check the calendar for horse events when visiting Kentucky in the future.  

But we managed to find a room for the night, and Lexington was good to us.  Everything came together almost magically without planning.  We used the Rate Beer Places app to find a bar with craft beer that was open nearby.  When we arrived we saw a taco truck in front of another bar across the street.  So we went over and ordered some tacos.  

We were shocked and delighted when the taco guy asked whether which bar we wanted our tacos delivered to.  He said he'd bring them to us across the street!  It was a nice change from our home town where they've just voted not to allow food trucks on city streets at all.  

Milos' Craft Beer Emporium

I guess it must be this interminable winter, but I am not in the mood to cook lately. We have been eating out a little more than usual because all we want to do is bundle up on the couch and watch TV.  

So, let me tell you about one of our favourite bar/restaurants here in London, Ontario... Milos' Craft Beer Emporium.  We probably go to Milos' more than any other place.  We're there almost every week.  Sometimes we just have drinks from their excellent rotating craft beer menu, and sometimes we eat.

They have a fantastic burger, but they also have a really interesting menu featuring local meats and veggies.  They often have great specials.

On our most recent visit we tried some new menu items.  This is a local, pastured pork cutlet with brown butter pomme purée, deep fried Brussels sprouts, pine nuts and Creole mustard gravy.  It was juicy and delicious. 

And this is fried organic chicken sprinkled with piment d'esplette with collard greens, bacon cracklins (!) and buttermilk gravy.  This was so fantastic!  The chicken was mostly boneless and so tender and crispy.  It was way to much for me to finish so Matt helped out a lot.  

Milos' has the best craft beer selection in London and for miles around. You can always find something interesting to drink and the fact that the food is great too makes it one of the best finds in London.  It's right downtown, the staff is super friendly and the atmosphere is great.  I can't recommend this place highly enough if you're in London.  

Road Trip: Toronto Treats

Toronto is just under two hours away so we go there pretty often for concerts and events.  This time we pretty much just went for the food.  We normally stay at the Westin Harbour Castle on Queens Quay near the harbourfront.  It's a great hotel but the neighbourhood historically wasn't the greatest for food and drink.  It's a close enough walk to St. Lawrence Market though, and we'd usually stop into C'est What or the Bier Markt on the Esplanade for drinks.