A day trip to Niagara and a spot of wine tasting!

The day trip to Niagara started early so we asked for a wake up call on Wednesday morning.  The phone rang, I answered and was greeted with a very cheery 'Good Morning Dr Mason, this is your wake up call' at which point I explained that I wasn't Dr Mason, but a relative.  The person on the end of the phone apologised and we said goodbye.  

While I was in the bathroom, Grace answered a knock on the door to someone who was bringing us complimentary morning tea, he smiled brightly at her and said 'Good Morning Dr Mason'.  Grace said 'Thank you but I'm not Dr Mason' to which he replied, 'Oh I'm sorry Mrs Mason' so she said 'I'm not Mrs Mason either'.  I think the next question may have been something along the lines of 'If you're not Dr Mason or Mrs Mason, then who the devil are you?'!    For the rest of our stay, we were each regularly addressed as Dr Mason which we did chuckle about and in the end, decided it was easier to go along with it and not bother to correct them.  But its nice to know that the real Dr Mason gets such excellent treatment when he and Julie stay there!

The bus trip to Niagara Falls was a 2 hour trip mainly along the highway until we reached Niagara on the Lake which is a pretty little town with some interesting history.  A lot of the land around the town has been used to grow grapes due to the fact that there is a micro-climate in that particular area and as a result, there are several wineries in the area.  We were taken to the Peller Estate for wine tasting and lunch which was excellent.  We tried their fizz and some Merlot, then I tasted Icewine, a wine made from white grapes which are left on the vine into the winter and are harvested in Janurary when they are completely frozen, then pressed before they have a chance to thaw.  Each grape then produces one small drop of nectar which is used to make the Icewine, which is quite sweet and probably more like an aperitif than a dinner wine.

After lunch it was only a short trip then to the falls which were absolutely stunning. The visit also included a trip on the Maid of the Mist which was exhilirating, a little wet but very exciting, although Grace didn't join me for that particular trip so she stayed in the dry with the camera.  I did meet some nice people from Chicago on the bus and they were kind enough to take some photos of me on the Maid of the Mist and promised to send them on, so fingers crossed, otherwise, I will have to put my blue plastic poncho back on and get to work with photoshop!

It was a wonderful trip out, and again, photos will follow when I next get access to Wifi!