After winding down a long work week at Chez Nous, followed by a satisfying Raptors game to close out the Wizards in 6, I settled in to wait for Lindsay to arrive home. After she landed Saturday we had just enough time to stuff in some lunch at Eastbound and then turn around to head down to Niagara-on-the-Lake. We (and CBJ+M) were having dinner and spending the night at our friends Brian & Mandy’s place.

We had a look around at the new house developments, began the wine drinking, shared a meat + cheese platter from Sandy Aleksander, ate a delicious dinner centered around an enormous prime rib, drank several Ontario reds (a 2010 Hidden Bench Terroir Caché, a 2011 Hidden Bench La Brunante, and a 2010 Tawse T-Blend Red) and a 2010 Le Vieux Pin Syrah from BC, played Pictionary and Cards Against Humanity and pool, nibbled on pie, and then fell asleep. This morning CBJ made us all a stellar breakfast before we rolled on out of there.

Lindsay and I hit a few wineries on our way home: Kew for some sparkling, and Hidden Bench to pick up the latest vintages of Terroir Caché and Tête de Cuvée Chardonnay. Maura from Hidden Bench had been the one commenting on my Instagram posts of the previous nights’ bottles, so it was nice to connect in person this morning.

We had a long slow slog back into Toronto but eventually dropped the car off and settled at home. We had a bit of a crash-out afternoon too, I’m afraid.

Thanks for having us kids.

.:.

Cover photo by Rich Kaszeta, used under Creative Commons license