We didn’t want anything too elaborate for our first post-retirement trip together. Jean came up with the idea of Prince Edward County, where we hadn’t been for a bit.
Jean was fairly booked with solo trips earlier in the month of October, however (to near-Timmins for a brothers gathering, and to Killarney for fall camping), so I suggested the third week of October. This pretty much eliminated any possibility of outdoor dining, so we aimed to be away from Monday to Thursday, with the hopes that places would therefore be less crowded than on weekends.
Monday
Weather-wise, this would prove to be the worse day of the vacation, cool and fairly rainy. Of course, it was also mostly a travel day, so that was OK.
Our first stop was at Sugarbush Vineyards in Hillier, which we hadn’t visited before. They are so-named because they are located on a property with a lot of sugar maples. And they do in fact offer a couple of wines that they infuse with maple syrup. We selected this winery because that sounded interesting—as did the rest of their wine portfolio—and because they also offered cheese plates. That made it possible for this stop to double up as lunch.
Here we were highly successful on the “avoiding crowds” front, as we were the only patrons. It was a very relaxed, pleasant tasting experience (with cheese), where we got not only an overview of their portfolio, but also of the wines generally available in the county. They are one of the only ones who produce a Viognier, a wine I don’t always like—but I did enjoy theirs. They also have a Viognier/Cabernet Franc blend that was very good.
We did try the maple-infused wines, the red and white. She explained that they were very reluctant to attempt this, fearing it would seem gimmicky when they were striving to produce good wines. But they finally did, and the results proved popular. Neither wine is overly sweet; it’s more a hint of maple. You get a sense of it more in the red, which starts dryer, and therefore doesn’t have as much fruit to compete. We bought a bottle of that one, along with some of the more traditional wines they had (included the two Viognier options).
There are also trails on this property, but it wasn’t a nice enough day to attempt those.
Instead, we went to check into our Inn, Jackson’s Falls, which is in Milford, basically on the opposite side of Prince Edward County. The owners had upgraded us to a King Suite. So the room was quite spacious, and included a mini fridge and a Nespresso coffee machine. It also had what seemed to be an air purifier in the corner (unless it was just a fan, but I turned it on regardless), and the TV included free Netflix and CBC Gem accounts (first time I’ve seen that!).
(And this is how we came to binge Season 3 of The Diplomat while on vacation, after dinner each night, because we aren’t currently subscribed to Netflix at home.)
Our first dinner was at Stella’s Eatery in Waupoos, which we hadn’t been to before. We were eating a little later (6:30), so it was somewhat busy, but not completely packed (and it’s not that large). While I can’t quite remember what we ate (Jean had duck confit, I think?), I know that the menu was creative and featured local ingredients and producers. The list of wines by the glass was somewhat limited. The sparkling Riesling Jean ordered tasted way “funkier” than we were expecting. When we mentioned it, the waitress went to investigate, and found out that it had been substituted with a different wine for which funk is much more of a possibility. That was OK, but a bit odd to not have been warned about it before it was served.
Tuesday
Breakfast at the Inn was not included in the price, but was available for purchase daily to those staying there. We had the dining room to ourselves each day except the last (and even then we only briefly overlapped with others), and the breakfast menu was quite good.
Tuesday was the nicest weather day of the vacation, and we decided to road trip it a bit, to the Kingston area. Our first stop was to Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, which had a number of trails. We got some advice on which ones to do. While it was not the most breathtaking hike ever, the back end of the sugarbush trail in particular was quite lovely.
We then drove to the waterfront area of the City of Kingston. We did an ice cream stop, then walked over to the Great Lakes Museum, arriving just in time to join a tour of the S.S. Keewatin, a decommissioned luxury cruise ship built in 1907.
The 1 hour, 15 minute tour was very interesting. It was co-hosted by someone who had worked on the ship in the 1960s, who sometimes didn’t agree with all facts provided by the main tour guide.
Our ice cream lunch not proving that sustaining, we decided to go for an early-ish dinner at Chez Piggy, a local favourite. They weren’t willing to seat us in the quieter upstairs area before 5:00 (we arrived around 4:50), which they later explained was because they were doing staff training up there. No mind, we did a bit more walking around and came back to be seated.
We had the upper area to ourselves, which was nice. Also nice was the food. We shared oysters and Vietnamese spring rolls, then I had the scallops with risotto, chorizo, and popcorn, while Jean had the paillard chicken.
Wednesday
Not too bad a day, weather-wise. We stayed in Prince Edward County, and (after breakfast) headed to the Prince Edward County Bird Observatory. Some of the trails there were marked closed, but we were able to walk the waterfront trail out onto the beach, which was pretty neat, actually. I didn’t know lakes had so many shellfish! There were quite a few birds around as well, though many were easier to hear than see.
We drove to the Three Dog Winery after that, where we ordered a charcuterie board to have alongside our wine tasting. This was another pleasant and not very crowded stop. The charcuterie board was excellent, and they did a good job with their wine as well. We purchased a few bottles here.
Next we stopped in at Black Prince Winery, where we’ve been a few times already. We didn’t do any tasting or eating here—just picked up a couple bottles of their sherry and a few bottles of their flavored vinegar.
Final stop was Lighthall Vineyards, where we shared a tasting. Here they make and serve cheese samples along with the wine. This was the one place where the experience felt a bit rushed or something, though we were the only customers. We still did a bit of purchasing, I think more of cheese than wine.
Dinner that night was at a new (to us) place called Hartley’s Tavern, in Picton. Despite the name, it was kind of high-end food, and pretty quiet there this evening. I started with rabbit ravioli, then had the seared rainbow trout with peas and potatoes. Jean selected seared foie gras as his appetizer, and followed that with a vegetarian dish, the lion’s mane bugolgi.
We were quite impressed with the food quality and enjoyed the general atmosphere of the place.
And that’s about all she wrote! Thursday was a pretty smooth drive home.
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