Three girlfriends and I took a wonderful and whimsical weekend getaway to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario for the Shaw Festival this past weekend. It was pure bliss!
We stayed at the beautiful Highbrook B&B run by Ken and Joanne. They were lovely hosts and excellent cooks! The B&B was an easy and convenient 7 minute walk into town, and our weekend there was nothing short of luxurious, warm and welcoming, comfortable, immaculately clean, artfully decorated, and fun. We especially appreciated the Kurig for warm frothy beverages and delicious freshly baked banana muffins and lemon loaf directly outside our bedroom doors in the morning, access to wifi, complimentary snacks, a nightly dish of dark chocolates, and a guest fridge for us to keep the two bottles of wine Chelsea’s awesome husband, Andrew, sweetly asked Ken to surprise us with upon our arrival on Friday evening, and the private hot tub on the back patio that we made fine use of each night after we returned from the theatre…with glasses of wine in hand, of course. If you’re looking for a stunning B&B in Niagara-on-the-Lake, look no further! This place takes the cake. And the breakfasts….drool-worthy! They were everything we’d hoped for and more. And I’m missing that glorious hot tub already.
{The 9 photos above are from Highbrook B&B’s website and Facebook page. My own photos of the place definitely did not do it justice – these were a much worthier choice and more accurately depict our heavenly weekend accommodations}
{We ventured out each morning, good and full from the baked goods, warm drinks, hearty and flavorful homemade breakfasts, and fruit salads we devoured. Those home fries were to die for, the bacon was splendid, the salted tomatoes perfectly ripe, the bread freshly baked, and the Gruyère and asparagus frittata a real treat}
{For obvious reasons, I don’t have pictures of theatres or the plays we enjoyed at the Shaw Festival, but we saw Peter and the Starcatcher at the Royal George Theatre, Top Girls at the Court Theatre, and You Never Can Tell at the Royal George Theatre. They were all great shows, but what stood out to us the most in each production was the clever, inventive use of creative and whimsical staging. They were all so uniquely and gorgeously staged – from the costumes, to the scenic, lighting, sound, and property designs, to the colors and textures, to the projections, to the direction and how the cast and creative team used the space to tell each story. Really bold, interesting choices all around in each of the productions that were worth the artistic risk. With each show there were many exciting, unexpected, gorgeous, and fantastic somethings to fall in love with. Lots of really fun moments in Peter in the Starcatcher, especially!}
{Fish n’ chips – with salt and malt vinegar, of course – for dinner, mango gelato inside a giant frozen mango for lunch, fresh hot poutine in the park – fries, gravy, and cheese curdy goodness, and a smattering of treats I brought home to savor – strawberry rhubarb wine, blueberry cinnamon wine, vidal icewine, lemon curd, Devonshire clotted cream, butter shortbread, and dark chocolates filled with maple icewine}
{Tempting tapas – brushetta board, lobster cake, goat cheese and onion tartlet, gnocchi porcini, and lemon curd tart – and a shared bottle of Riesling-Gewurztraminer for dinner from Oliv Tapas Bar and Restaurant at Strewn Winery. The food was rich and incredibly flavorful due to the multiple varieties of flavored olive oils and balsamics used in each dish. Everything was superb, but my favorites were the ones that used the blood orange olive oil! At their tasting room in town I fell in love with the grapefruit, cilantro, chocolate jalapeno, and bacon and fig oils and balsamics. They have great flavor profiles and I’ve been enlightened to the many ways oil and balsamic can be used in cooking and baking!}
{Sunday morning we took a Good Morning Cycle Tour with Niagara Wine Tours International and we had a fantastic time! The weather was sunny, 77 degrees, and just a little breezy. In other words, utterly perfect! We rode on the stunning Niagara Parkway trail that runs along the Niagara River and stopped at three wineries – each with a very different style from the last – for about 24 tastings, including icewine. Our tour guide, Martin, was awesome, had some great stories to share, and was funny, too. Along the way he shared the history of the area with us, rode us past some really neat historical things that we would have completely missed out on learning about and seeing otherwise, and explained a lot about vineyard pruning, wine making, and grape growing as well. The 16 kilometer bike route along the parkway, on the public roads past miles of vineyards, and through shaded forest bike trails was gorgeous. I especially loved biking on the country roads with rows and rows of grapes surrounding us on either side. It felt right out of a lovely Italian movie. Any bottles of wine we purchased – hello, icewine! – were left at the wineries with our names on them and a van came by after we rode off to take it back to the company’s storefront in town for us so we never had to worry about trying to haul our wine purchases around with us while biking….they just made it too easy to buy delicious wine, these people! The cycle & wine tour was a splendid way to cap off our girls weekend. Now, in about two weeks time, I’m looking forward to enjoying these wines, as well as the wines I collected from the Keuka Lake trail while my parents were in town, with Ted}
Verdict: Get thee to Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Shaw Festival this summer!
