Shortly after leaving Frank we turned north and began the long, boring drive up to Calgary. There was plenty more snow, and a few more deer.
Driving into Calgary was kind of annoying. Lots of bad drivers on the highways. Still ice in the underpasses. Knuckleheads cutting me off and forcing me to miss turns — which, in a city with as many one-way streets as Calgary, is a serious pain. Parking lot full of slush. And then we couldn’t get into our friend’s condo, as someone had…glued her lockbox shut. What the hell is wrong with people? And why did Calgary hate us so much? Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes trying to scrape the glue out of the lockbox before giving up and checking into the Calgary Le Germain.
We didn’t have long to shake that whole encounter off, though, as we were meeting our friends Stevie & Sarah at PARK by Sidewalk Citizen. Sarah had booked it, and what a find she made — food is listed below, but the decor, the vibes, the staff were all terrific.
Three Cuts of Beeswax Dry-Aged Lamb (12-day dry-aged sirloin, 12-day dry-aged ribs, 21-day dry-aged leg) w/ house garlic fries, garlic toum, red pepper jam
Dessert
Daily Donut (strawberry + almond)
“Turtles” Ice Cream
Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake
Drinks
Various beer, wine, cocktails…at this point of the trip I wasn’t keeping track
I’ve never heard of dry-aging lamb in beeswax, but my god…it was incredible.
We walked home, chatting, and then Lindsay and I staved off crashing long enough to drink some Burrowing Owl “Athene” (which was tremendous) and change our flight.
Sat Apr 18
After two weeks in the west, in which we’d encountered every type of weather possible, it was time to go home. We showered, packed, and scooted over to Kensington. Our plan had been to leave the wine we’d accumulated along the way at our friend’s condo as a means of payment, but since that plan fell through and we hadn’t the spare kilos in our luggage to bring them home with us, we gifted them to Sarah & Stevie along with some treats from COBS. But really, it was just an excuse to see them again and play with their level-10 adorable dog.
We left them, drove to the airport, dropped the rental car, checked into our flight, and had an easy flight home. There we found one very happy, snuggly cat.
.:.
And so: thank you, BC. Despite nearly killing me in a mountain pass, you remain my second-favourite province.
While Lindsay had a virtual meeting, I went and got us breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and coffee/tea at Queen Of The South. By the time I had the goods her meeting was ended, and we finished packing up.
The next phase of our plan was to drive across the bottom of BC, ending up in Fernie. I’d never been through that part of BC before, and TBH didn’t have much time to research anything in between. I figured we’d just stop somewhere for lunch, and otherwise blast on through to Fernie in a day.
We left Osoyoos, and headed east on the Crowsnest Highway. We immediately started climbing, taking in beautiful views as we crested Anarchist Mountain, and passed through farmland and forest. We drove through a bit of snow at a high mountain pass but quickly drove out of it, and paused to take pictures of Christina Lake.
A few minutes after leaving the lake, we began another climb. We saw signs about needing winter tires through the end of April, but given how warm it had been when we left Osoyoos we figured it didn’t apply that day. Silly us. Not ten minutes later, we found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. Five minutes after that, as we drove over the Paulson Pass, we lost control of the car in the snow-covered road at least once. (It turns out we had all-weather mud + snow tires, but not full winters.) We managed to keep it on the road, white-knuckling until we descended toward Castlegar and the snow turned back into rain.
We pulled into the Lion’s Head Pub, and ordered beers to soothe our jangled nerves. While we drank those and waited for sandwiches to arrive, we looked up traffic conditions for the rest of the Crowsnest. Turns out the next section of highway, Kootenay Pass, was already much worse, and would remain so until Thursday morning. We found a live webcam of the pass, and instantly knew we didn’t feel safe driving through it, so we hurriedly changed plans: we booked an AirBnB in Castlegar for two nights and shifted our Fernie AirBnB to Thursday night. Luckily our post-Fernie plans were very fluid, so we had little to reschedule there.
We finished our meals and killed some more time at the pub (they were awesome, and we resolved to return the next day), stopped for coffee, got some groceries, and drove to the AirBnB — they were fantastic and had the place ready for us in ~90 minutes. It had lots of space, a mountain view, laundry facilities, and a comfy bed — for us, at that moment, it was a palace. And most importantly, we were safe. We assembled a charcuterie board and drank sparkling wine from the Okanagan, barely remembering the 20 degrees that had welcomed us just three days before.
Wed Apr 15
Obviously we had no plans, considering we weren’t expecting to be in Castlegar. We took the opportunity to sleep in, relax at the AirBnB, and catch up on emails (and blogging). Eventually we went out for coffee & pastries at Crumbs, then to a park by the Columbia River (I was humming Woody Guthrie all day).
It was pretty cold, so we popped back into the Lion’s Head for some food & drink. Too much food, honestly — their portions are out of control. Bursting, we drove back to the AirBnB, drank a bottle of Tantalus Chardonnay, and tried to save up energy and luck for Thursday.
Thu Apr 16
We had a pretty sleepless night, honestly. We kept looking at weather updates and highway conditions and live webcams of Kootenay Pass. Around 3am Lindsay worked out a plan to avoid it, while I worked on plan C: abandon the south of BC and strike north for Revelstoke.
When we finally got up for good, we were pretty sure plan C was what we’d go with. But our Fernie AirBnB host messages to say their roads were fine, and we decided to go with plan B: take the Kootenay Lake ferry instead of driving over Kootenay Pass. We collected snacks and coffee at Crumbs, said goodbye to our safe haven of Castlegar, and drove north.
Driving along the Kootenay River was beautiful — it was hard to keep my eyes on the road. We eventually made it to Balfour, where the ferry crosses the lake. Unfortunately, the larger ferry was out of service, and we didn’t make it onto the smaller one, so we’d have to wait 90 minutes. Just enough time to eat some lunch at The Landing. When the ferry returned we got right on, and enjoyed a gorgeous 35-minute trip across the lake. Lindsay commented that it might have been a blessing in disguise to be delayed and rerouted this way — when would we ever take such a picturesque ferry ride again?
That’s not sunshine on the mountaintop. It’s last night’s snow.
On the other side of the lake we had a lovely, winding drive. Lindsay curated a mountain-themed playlist. We spotted lots of deer on the roadside. The weather was lovely, save one really bad spot along Moyie Lake between Creston and Cranbrook. Eventually we reached Fernie, grabbed food from the first place we saw (Subway), and got to our AirBnB. We drank a bottle of Nk’Mip Pinot Noir and slept like the dead.
Fri Apr 17
I woke up early, and caught a glimpse of the mountains before they became shrouded in fog. We packed up and moved on, grabbing a late breakfast on our way out of town at The Bridge Bistro.
We drove east, thinking it would be an easy drive, but once again hit miserable weather at Crowsnest Pass. Luckily, we got through it, and then stopped somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for decades: the Frank Slide. I’ve read about it. I’ve sung along live to the Rural Alberta Advantagesong about it. But it’s not the same as actually seeing it.
We drove up to the interpretive centre to see the slide from above. We didn’t go through the full tour, but we did chat with one of the guides for a bit, and go out onto the catwalk to see it up close. You can’t really grasp the enormity of it until you see it up close, and that makes it fairly unique in terms of natural disasters: explosions last for an instant, hurricanes pass, fires go out, etc. But this pile of rock would take a century to move, so there it’ll stay forever, reminding us of the town buried beneath it.
Anyway, somewhere in the snowy mess of Crowsnest pass, we’d entered Alberta. It was in this godforsaken province that our journey would end some 24 hours later.
After landing at the Kelowna airport we rented a car. It was 20 degrees and sunny in Kelowna, so we were sweating by the time we reached our car, but we’d cooled off by the time we drove to our AirBnB in West Kelowna.
We were scheduled for dinner just minutes down the road at Quail’s Gate, but after the previous nights’ onslaught we couldn’t handle another big dinner. We cancelled that reservation and, in a fit of misguided nostalgia, opted to pick up donairs instead. Then back to the AirBnB to watch the new season of Temptation Island. Trash for the body, trash for the mind.
On the plus side, it felt REAL good to sleep in a king bed again.
Sat Apr 11
So good, in fact, that we slept right in. I got up, made myself coffee, and sat on the deck with it, looking out at the lake.
We still got our meal in at Quail’s Gate, though: we booked in for brunch, and drove the ~20 seconds down the road to the winery. Their restaurant is meant to be very good, and the brunch (with a jazz duo!) didn’t disappoint. We had:
appetizers
salad
whipped nduja sausage, honey & mint gastrique, grilled sourdough
We did a quick tasting afterward, which wasn’t great — the kid who did our tasting was on his second day, bless him, and didn’t know any of the tasting notes. Plus, it was way too busy in there — we felt like we were inconveniencing them by buying two expensive bottles of wine. Anyway.
We drove across the lake to Kelowna, where we tried to go to Cedar Creek, but they weren’t doing regular tastings, just some kind of rosé launch party, so we changed plans. For some reason I forgot Martin’s Lane was right next door, but no matter: we drove to Tantalus instead, and it was excellent. It was busy, but they got us a table, and we dove in. The tasting room manager Alexa looked after us (which meant she got occasionally called away to tend to some bachelorette party departing at the same time, or by a cute dog named Tobias), but we tasted through their lineup and loved just about everything, including the view.
We left with a plan to order a case, and maybe join the wine club if we didn’t find anything down the valley that convinced them otherwise.
[Narrator: “They did not find anything down the valley that convinced them otherwise.”]
It was getting late in the day now, so we drove back across to West Kelowna and got ourselves ready for dinner, again near the AirBnB. I’d never been to Mission Hill, but I’d had their wine. While they had only a limited menu for their indoor restaurant at this time of year, we still got to take in the grandeur of the place. It really is quite a spectacular spot.
While our table had none of that view, our meal was nonetheless very delicious:
Our server Mackenzie’s family was also from the east coast, and she visits PEI each summer, so we bonded over that a bit.
We got home just in time to beat a heavy rainstorm. Considering we’d already been in BC for a week in early April, and this was the first rain we’d seen, we felt pretty lucky.
Sun Apr 12
We woke up to find the rain had mostly stopped, which bode well for our drive. We showered, packed up, departed, and headed south. First stop: coffee and maple-glazed bannock at Kekuli. After that we had a lovely drive along the lake to Penticton.
We weren’t sure where to eat lunch. The two spots Lindsay narrowed it down to while I drove were a Turkish placed called Elma on the lakefront, and Kin & Folk on main street. We opted for the former. We had Cilbir and Sucuklu Yumurta and a cocktail (sans alc for me) which was okay, but not great, and certainly not a lot of food. So we went on our way, and did something slightly nuts: we drove downtown and ate a second half-lunch at Kin & Folk. Okay, maybe 3/4 of a lunch:
Mr.Chan’s Family Fried Rice w/ egg, “perfectly seasoned ham”, secret family sauce, bok choy, marinated shiitake mushrooms, braised daikon, fried tofu
Korean Fried Bao Buns w/ chicken, baek-kimchi, kewpie mayo, crispy things, cilantro
Completely stuffed, we kept heading south to Okanagan Falls. We stopped at Liquidity Wines, which had been recommended by our waiter in Victoria two days prior. The first thing we noticed was the incredible view:
The next thing we noticed was that the wines were pretty good. We satin the sunshine and admired the view, got some tastings of off-limits bottles, and ended up shipping a few home to Toronto.
A short drive later and we were in Osoyoos, checking in at Spirit Ridge just across the lake. We had the upper floor of a townhouse, with lots of space and a view of both the lake and the mountains. I opened the bottle of Quail’s Gate pinot we’d brought down from Kelowna, sat on our patio, and took in the view.
Anarchist Mountain Whisky Sour: Tumbleweed Anarchist Mountain Canadian Whisky, fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, egg white, Angostura bitters (Dan)
Stoneboat Vineyards Bubble Boat Brut (Lindsay)
appetizers
fry bread w/ berry wojape & sunny butter
Three Sisters salad w/ local greens, beans, corn, roasted squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, maple mint dressing
mains
pan seared West Coast salmon filet w/ roasted red pepper sauce, coconut wild rice blend, 3 sister sauté veg, sweet & sour escabeche (Lindsay)
confit duck leg w/ white bean cassoulet, chard & chard chutney, elk chorizo, beets, saskatoon berries (Dan)
bottle of Blue Mountain Reserve Cuvee Pinot Noir
dessert
“Mushroom”: caramel & white chocolate mousse, salty caramel, pear compote, almond sponge cake, feuilletine, peach pate de fruit, chocolate crumble, sponge cake, sweet rock, tuile leaf
The food was good, if unspectacular, but that dessert was a work of art. They even let us take it back to our room (along with the rest of the bottle of wine) because Lindsay wasn’t feeling great. We ate it, and drank the wine, and watched more Temptation Island.
Mon Apr 13
After a decent sleep, we slowly mobilized for an afternoon of wine tasting. First, though: lunch. We stopped at Queen Of The South on the way through Osoyoos for coffees and huge sandwiches, then drove north.
Our first stop was Phantom Creek, one long on my radar. It is a stunning winery in a gorgeous location, and the wines kept up with the scenery. We liked everything we tried, and ordered one of each to be sent to our home.
Next up was Burrowing Owl, which TBH is showing its age a bit. Still, we enjoyed about half of what we tasted, and left with a couple bottles. Last stop of the day was Nk’Mip, right next door to our hotel, and an old favourite. We got there just before closing so the tasting room was nearly empty, and we got to have a little extra chitchat with our pourer. We left with three bottles.
We chilled in the room a bit before we realized we’d need more food, so we did the easy thing and went back to The Bear, The Fish, The Root & The Berry. We kept it simpler this time:
appetizer
Bannock w/ black bean hummus, roasted vegetable ratatouille, sunflower seed romesco, corn & hot pepper succotash
mains
pan seared Pacific Lingcod w/ chestnut pasta, peas, chorizo, spinach, white onion velouté (Lindsay)
We got up early on a cold, grey Sunday morning, showered, packed the last of our suitcases, and headed to the airport. We were off to our first real vacation(ish) of the year.
A smooth drive to Pearson and a speedy breakfast at Fionn MacCool’s later, we walked straight onto our flight to Victoria, BC. The genesis of this was a work trip, but we decided to build a longer trip around it, hence we flew a couple days before my colleagues. We were excited: neither of us had ever been to Victoria.
The flight was easy (love those Porter jets), and we had a spectacular view of the Rockies as we flew over, as well as the ocean and Vancouver island as we descended into the Victoria airport. A cab took us downtown and dropped us at our first hotel: the Victoria Regent. The suite was dated, but very spacious, and had a balcony with a great view of the harbour and the provincial parliament buildings. It would do for a couple of days, surely.
I needed coffee, and badly, so we went to find some. It was beautiful and sunny outside, so much so that when we arrived at our first choice for a coffee shop (Hey Happy) the line outside in the sun gave us pause. Instead, we walked one street over to Habit, fought our way through a crowd of German(?) students, and sipped cortados.
We walked around downtown for a bit, and along the waterfront, before heading to an early dinner at Wind Cries Mary. We had the chef’s tasting menu:
cocktails: Body Of Work for me, Spice Of Life for Lindsay
endive, apple, walnut, goat cheese salad
Vancouver island sparkling
king salmon, romesco, potatoes, fennel, sprouts
Vancouver island rose
duck breast, barley, green bean, beet
Franconia
peanut butter pie
cherry wine
On the way we picked up a couple bottles of wine, a few cans of beer, and a bottle of Gueuze Tilquin Quetsche (maybe my favourite beer of all time) at Vintage Spirits. As it turns out, we bought too much — we’d have little opportunity to drink it, and either dumped some of it down various sinks or left them in hotel fridges. Anyway, we didn’t know that yet, so we blissfully drank that gueuze on the balcony and admired the lights of Victoria’s inner harbour, happy to be back on an ocean.
Mon Apr 06
We had a bit of a lie-in as we adjusted to the time change, but eventually got ourselves out to a big breakfast at The Ruby on Johnson. Lindsay had the sausage Bennie; I had fried chicken & waffles. We were loading up assuming we’d miss lunch, you see. We walked back to the room and got ready for the day’s activity: whale watching!
We’d booked with an outfit called Prince of Whales (get it?) to go look for killer whales. We did a 3-hour tour on a big boat (it was too cold for a zodiac) and ended up seeing a pod of three killer whales: two females and a male. We observed them from a distance before they surfaced right next to us, and then they were gone, chasing some other food. It’s always incredible to see them, and to spend time on the ocean.
After a rough & cold ride back, we realized that, in spite of our huge breakfast, we were too hungry to wait all the way until dinner. We popped into Finn’s, right next to our hotel, expecting a mediocre tourist trap. There were some rocky service issues to start, but the food (prawn tacos, smoke steelhead rillettes, fish & chips, beers) ended up being really good.
Back at the hotel, we showered off the salt water, changed, and eventually went out to what we expected to be the fanciest dinner of our visit to Victoria: Marilena. We were not expecting the vibe we got as soon as we walked in — huge space, with a mix of power dinners, retirees, and whole families with kids climbing on banquettes — but once we settled in to our table, we started to get it. Our server (and our somm) were extremely nice and guided us through the evening. Here’s what we ate:
oysters on the half shell
glasses of Bauchet ‘Signature Cuvée’ 1er Cru NV Champagne
Ratafia, Domaine Henri Giraud, Champagne Solera (1990-2019)
All of it was absolutely delicious, but the Wagyu was the best I’ve ever had in my life. Also, the somm had a bit of fun with us, doing a blind tasting of three reds. It was a smart upsell maneuver too: I picked the Rioja, which was a Coravin selection and 4x the cost of Lindsay’s Orofino.
Weirdly, the very-late-lunch probably moderated our appetites somewhat for this meal, which was lucky, since it was the much more expensive venue. Worth it, though.
Tue Apr 07
It was moving day, so after I ran to Saint Cecilia for coffee we checked out, left our bags, and went for lunch a few blocks away at Maiiz, a Mexican place in the heart of Chinatown. We had duck tacos and chilaquiles and churros, and had to dodge a tortilla production line to get to the bathroom. Good stuff. After that, it was on to the next hotel.
My work function that week was at the Fairmont Empress, and we checked in for a few nights. There was a mix-up with our room, so we ended up with two double beds. Because the room was small and we were traveling with two huge suitcases, one bed was dedicated to luggage, and we did our best to cram into the other bed. Bit of an adjustment when you’re used to a King. Anyway. I was shortly off to a work dinner, which was also at Wind Cries Mary, where we’d eaten two nights before. Bad planning on my part, obviously.
Wed Apr 08
I walked to get a coffee at Discovery, then jumped into a full day of meetings, with a side trip to The Buchart Gardens.
Lindsay found herself various spots around the city in which to eat and grade papers. When my meetings ended my colleagues and I went to The Bard & Banker for dinner, then Lindsay and I met up after at Humboldt Bar. We ate a bit more food, and drank cocktails:
Theory of Colours: Summer Garden gin, rhubarb, riesling, jasmine
Thu Apr 09
Another day of meetings, this time including a sped run to Routine Coffee. After work I didn’t join everyone for dinner at 10 Acres Commons (except for a quick drop-in to say hi) because Lindsay and I had our own dinner reso.
Dinner was at a place called Unicorn Sparkles. It was in an unmarked door in a courtyard. We didn’t know we were in the right place until we saw a neon unicorn on the back wall. It was dimly lit and there were four tables. This wasn’t a fancily-designed restaurant; this was a storage place a few guys decided to turn into a restaurant. So we sat down and asked for the “Today’s best things” menu. And then they absolutely pummeled us with food.
Cheese and salumi balls
Sprouting broccoli + anchovy butter
Duck carbonara pasta
Dungeness crab stuffed pasta
Gnocchi, buffalo mozzarella, artichoke, tomatoes
Liverwurst agnolotti
Cheeseburger raviolo
Coconut cream pie
We got the drink pairings. I couldn’t possibly remember them all. There were two wines from Malivoire. A sherry. A Hidden Chapel cab/merlot. But yeah, it was a mish-mash.
It’s hard to overstate how much food this was. On the fourth course when they brought out Dungeness crab pasta we thought, “Oh wow, what a cheeky way to end the meal!” And then they brought out three more pasta courses. It was all delicious and the music was good and the staff were all like sweet and awkward and it just felt so communal and chill, but my god our stomachs hurt. We could barely walk home. I was still full the next morning.
Fri Apr 10
Moving day once again. We got room service and then checked out of the Empress, leaving our bags behind while we went in search of lunch. We ended up around the corner at the Courtney Room, where we successfully killed a couple of hours.
Cocktails
Seabird: wayward char #3 gin, aperol, oat, citrus
Pineapple Express: mezcal, mia amata, citrus, pineapple, anise
Lightning Rock 2022 Brut Nature, Elysia Vineyard, Okanangan (Lindsay)
Neighbourly 2024 Pinot Gris, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island (Me)
Tantalus 2023 Chardonnay, Okanagan (Me)
We mentioned to our server that we were headed to wine country that afternoon. He gave us some winery recommendations, some of which we knew, but one of which we didn’t: Liquidity. We filed that away for later. And that Tantalus glass ended up prophetic too.
With that, we walked back to the Empress, collected our bags, got in a cab, and headed to the airport. Time was tight — we arrived at 3:09 for a 4:00 flight, and if it wasn’t for our Nexus cards skipping us past most of the security line, we wouldn’t have made it. Once again, we walked right onto our flight, and headed east.
I spent some of this week on a rapid tour of the Atlantic provinces. After flying to New Brunswick Monday, I joined some colleagues on Tuesday and drove to PEI, stopping for lunch at C&B Corner Cafe along the way. After work stuff in both Summerside and Charlottetown, followed by dinner at Ada, we drove back across the bridge, crossed into Nova Scotia, and got a few hours’ sleep at an airport hotel. The next morning we woke up to flight cancellation notifications, but some hurried rebooking later, we three + one more were on our way to Newfoundland. We landed in Gander around 2pm local time, which means we’d touched all four Atlantic provinces in 24 hours. After a brief stop, we were off to St. John’s.
I can’t remember when I last visited Newfoundland, exactly, but I think it was 2003. I would’ve liked to have stayed in St. John’s a bit longer, but we packed a lot in as it was: we made some Thai food at a work event (run by a company cleverly named Yes, Thai!), had an extremely oversized Burt Reynolds shot at Yellowbelly Brewery, had a terrific breakfast at The Bagel Cafe, a good cortado at Toslow, and a bunch more work stuff before heading to the airport.
Our flight from St. John’s back to Halifax was delayed nearly two hours, but I still had lots of time to buy a bottle of NS dessert wine before my connection back to Toronto. I watched Warfare (imdb | letterboxd) on the way.
I spent a lot of Friday trying to figure out why I felt so tired when I got back. Flying and driving (or, passenger-ing, really — someone else did all the actual driving) doesn’t really tire me out, but I guess wall-to-wall socializing with a lot of people I don’t know still does.
One very bumpy flight (due to a windstorm which knocked out power all over the province) later, we were on the ground in Halifax. The 20-minute drive to Bedford through rain and wind was even worse than the flight, but we made it. We tried to sleep, but a disruptive cat made it difficult.
Sat Dec 20 – Mon Dec 22
After a bit of shopping we drove to the farm, arriving just minutes after brother #1 and his progeny. Brother #2 was laid up in hospital, but sister-in-law #1 and their kids came over for a big feed. The next day brother #1, my dad, and I drove to the hospital visit the missing brother, then got home for lunch just in time for brother #1 to head back to Halifax. After that, many games of crib ensued. On Monday brother #2 was being discharged so I picked him up and drove him home; afterwards, there was more crib and a movie (Secondhand Lions). A typical quiet time at the farm, less the nightly visits next door to sip some wine.
Tue Dec 23 – Thu Dec 25
On Tuesday we drove back to Bedford, stopping at Truro along the way, which included lunch at the Nook & Cranny, coffee at NovelTea, and a lot of one-way street confusion. A few more errands along the way and we were back in Bedford, eating dinner, drinking eggnog, and listening to East Coast Christmas.
We spent the 24th (mostly) chilling, eating lobster rolls with grandparents, drinking wine, and watching Die Hard.
Moving day. I got up and went to a light version of the Dickinson family reunion, this time hosted by brother #1 at his new place. It was fun to see some family, even if illnesses and travel meant the crowd was diminished. Someone even brought a rare curiosity: Cumberland (County) Trivia!
From there I drove down to St. Margaret’s Bay to meet Lindsay and her brothers at their dad’s. Seafood chowder, Dubai chocolate, lots of animal interactions, and a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck.
From there, the brothers went back to Bedford while we drove to downtown Halifax, checking in to our Halifax home: The Muir.
Sat Dec 27
God, we missed a king bed. Best sleep in a while. We eventually headed downstairs to Drift for breakfast, ran out to do a couple errands (nearly freezing to death while doing so), had a coffee at Café Lunette, and went back to the room to relax. I watched the three Stranger Things episodes that came out Christmas Day; Lindsay Stardew’d.
The only solid plan we had in Halifax before we arrived was a dinner reservation at Mystic, recently named the best new restaurant in Canada by En Route. We arrived for our reservation, and things started off a little shaky — our cocktails (Yellow-Eyed Grass for Lindsay, Silverweed for me) took a weirdly long time to arrive, but they were taken off the bill. Once the food started, though, we quickly realized why it’s garnered so many accolades.
Fauna (Lindsay)
Snacks (cheese gougère, cheese and zucchini tart, corn crema)
chocolate w/ koji caramel, ganache, pineapple weed cremeux miso, black honey ice cream
20 Year Old Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port
Honestly, every course was amazing. Incredible flavours, perfect balance, strikingly presented. Lovely staff, especially the sommelier, who we ended up chatting with quite a bit (we knew some people in common). I even bumped into a colleague there. Anyway: one of the best meals we’ve had all year, for sure. Maybe the best.
Sun Dec 28
We didn’t stay in bed too long before ordering breakfast up to the room. After a while we struck out to meet up with Patrick for a quick (and awful) coffee at Cafe du Port, then collected their mom and walked back down the hill to Darya for brunch. We all had their buffet, and left stuffed to the gills with delicious food. Those two left to go about their days; Lindsay and I crawled back to the room and had naps.
Dinner that night was at Peacock Wine Bar, and it was basically a reunion of five of the six people who had assembled Friday night…just with different drivers. Here’s what we had:
Shared plates (everyone):
Focaccia w/ fermented chili butter
Burrata w/ lavender, sichuan, plum, black sesame toasts
Got up (not easily), packed (not carefully), ate some breakfast (not bad), checked out (not a hassle), had a quick coffee date with friends and their new baby (too cute), picked up Lindsay’s mom nearby (too easy), saw Lindsay’s grandma (too briefly), drove to Bedford (too fast), ate a donair (too messy), re-packed (too painful), and then waited to find out how long we’d be delayed due to weather (too stressful).
VERY frustratingly, Porter was playing like everything was okay, so we made the very treacherous drive to the airport thinking we were only 40 minutes delayed. Just as we checked in, they closed the runways at the airport, but they wouldn’t officially cancel our flight. Everyone knew the flight wasn’t going to leave, but they wouldn’t formally cancel it, so we couldn’t rebook or get our bags back. A plane full of people sat in the airport for hours, with no information, no updates….just a bunch of meaningless “your flight has been delayed by 15 minutes” emails, stating to times that had no basis in reality. I know the weather was the root cause of this situation, but Porter fell down INCREDIBLY hard on the job when it came to looking after its passengers.
Finally, around 8:30pm, they officially cancelled our flight. The email confirming this wouldn’t arrive until 1am, but right away I could see that we’d been rebooked on a flight the next morning. We walked down to get our bags, which came out at about 9:55pm. Then it took us forever to get an Uber in a brutal windstorm. The driver got us back to Lindsay’s mom just as her power came back on from a 2-hour outage. We crawled into the house, weary, but glad we had a booked flight and a place to sleep. Other people were being booked for flights several days from now, and every hotel around the airport was totally booked.
Tue Dec 30
Woke up to emails saying our flight was already delayed from 9:15 to 10:00 — not exactly surprising, since there’d be such a backlog of flights trying to get out. But then it kept going: 11:40, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30. We got nervous. But eventually the delay notifications stopped, so we went to the airport, and finally got on. Glory be.
2025 wasn’t done with us yet though. Our flight was another half hour delayed, ans then — after a landing almost as bumpy as the one in Halifax that started this trip — we, along with about a dozen other people on the plane, realized our bags never showed up. Most of the passengers got theirs. Us lot didn’t. The Porter baggage desk was uniformly unhelpful — they just told us all to scan a QR code which led to a third party app.
So we’re home. But our luggage isn’t. Bianca’s happy though, and that’s all that matters.
UPDATE 1: bag #1 arrived around 5pm on Jan 1. No sign of bag #2.
UPDATE 2: bag #2 arrived around 5pm on Jan 2. Much to our relief, the bottle of Lightfoot & Wolfville 2017 Brut sparkling inside had not broken or exploded.
I followed up a trip to Moncton last week (trying two new places during my visit: Taverna and Bâton Rouge; the former is pretty good, but the latter was as meh as I expected and twice as weird) with a one-night trip to Montreal. I had a plan to see my fifth-ever Canadiens game in Montreal in 2025, and just snuck it in before the end of the year.
After a couple nice days back home in Toronto, I headed back to Billy Bishop airport. It was snowing in Toronto, but my flight hit the goodness trifecta: left on time, arrived without incident, and the seat next to me was empty. Can’t ask for more. (Also, the flight attendant on this flight gave me a whole can of pop, while the flight attendant on my Moncton->Toronto flight two days ago gave me a heavy pour of red wine and offered me a second class. I guess I look thirsty.)
I landed at YUL to find a new Uber setup, which I think every airport should copy. On the drive into downtown, I saw some “FUCK ICE” graffiti, which obviously speaks to our political moment in North America, but is probably also an annual sentiment in Montreal.
I arrived at the Centre Sheraton, a location chosen only because I had enough Bonvoy points for a free night, and because it’s about as close as you can get to the Bell Centre, otherwise it would not be on my list. But it was fine for a night, even if the elevators made constant noise.
In search of coffee and tide-over snacks, I popped around the corner to Melk for a cortado and a scone. I finished the book I’ve been reading (Terror from the Air by Peter Sloterdijk), bought some beans to bring home, and walked back to the hotel.
After a couple of relaxing hours I went for an early dinner at Bar Edicola, not far from the hotel. (Thank goodness; it was a full-fledged winter storm now.) It’s essentially a long counter, but the vibes were pretty great. I had a glass of some weird Italian Pinot variant, some heavy soft warm oily bread, a glass of Trebbiano, a plate of ricotta agnolotti, a glass of Nebbiolo, and espresso. Solid meal all around, and perfect for a snowy night.
It was almost time for the game, so I stopped back at the hotel to change into my Montreal jersey and add some extra layers. A short (but cold & snowy) walk later I was settled in, watching the Canadiens take on St. Louis. Now, the curse of my presence at a Montreal home game — once at the old Forum, three times at the Bell Centre — is well documented, so I was a little nervous to go. Sadly, I was right to be nervous: they lost 4-3 to the middling Blues. Apart from a 65-second span to start the second period the Habs outplayed and out-chanced them, but that brief lapse was enough to give away the game. Dejected, I walked home through the snow with the crowds. At least I got to have a Bell Centre hot dog.
The next morning I woke up and had some pretty friggin’ delicious pain perdu downstairs at Stanley. (I’d thought about venturing out for some breakfast, but it was -25° with the windchill.) Some showering, packing, and relaxing later and I was on my way to the airport for my flight home. Not so lucky with the flight this time — it was on time and relatively uneventful, but someone sat next to me, and a lady right in front of me just opened up a can of flaky salmon and ate it with a fork like as if she hadn’t set up a stink bomb in the pressured tube of an airplane. Stunk harder than the Habs at the start of period two last night. (Hey-o.)
I’m glad I’ve gotten to see the Canadiens beat the Leafs here in Toronto a few times, because I’m starting to think I’ll never get to see it happen in Montreal. Frankly, I kind want to give up trying — not because I believe I’m actually unlucky for them, but because it’s kind of a bummer to keep experiencing losses and never get the win.
We were so enamored of the fall colours on our Ottawa trip a few weeks ago that we decided another weekend in the Ottawa countryside was in order. And so it was that we booked a couple nights at Langdon Hall, just outside Cambridge. I’d been there a few times for work functions, but never as a regular guest. Lindsay had never been there at all. So Friday afternoon we packed up the car and drove there.
Friday
After quite an easy drive, we checked in. Our room had a fireplace, which we were pretty excited about, cause fall had definitely arrived outside. Unfortunately the wood in the fireplace had been there a while, with the flue open, so we couldn’t get it to light properly. We gave up, as we had to be downstairs for an early dinner.
We started early because we’d booked something called the Grand Tasting Menu, a 9-course “specially curated selection of dishes you won’t find on [their] à la carte menu. In honour of his 10th anniversary at Langdon Hall, The Grand Tasting Menu is Executive Chef Jason Bangerter’s most elevated and exciting menu.” Elevated is a word we heard a lot that night; the server used it at least three times per course.
Overall, I’d say it was an exceptional meal. Maybe not the most innovative tasting menu we’d ever had, but remarkable in its precision, presentation, and local flavours. The lobster dish and pasta course were exceptional, and foie gras amuse-bouche was one of the best things I’ve eaten all year.
Cocktails
Hauntwood (wild apples from the Langdon Hall property, quince, Boulard Calvados, Island Diaz spiced rum, Astoria)
Closing Remarks (flavors and aromas of the surrounding forest, Reid’s Gin, Vermouth de Forcalquier, Luxardo Del Santo, lime)
Grand Tasting Menu
snacks: sunchoke and winter truffle; foie gras & grapes
greenhouse citrus: buttermilk panna cotta, all the LH citrus plants
caviar + onion: blanc de blanc bubbles, onion crème fraîche
taste the ocean: golden king crab, scallop, urchin
raspberry + rose: heritage rose jelly, berry crémeux
pear + hazelnut: poached pear, ginger leaf nage
petit fours
wine pairings (I did not, unfortunately, write them down)
It’s a good thing we started at 6:00, because we didn’t wrap up until after 10:00, which meant I barely made it back to the room in time to see the Jays lose game six, and then we crashed.
Saturday
Okay, so it’s possible we overindulged the night before. Oy vey.
We got ourselves downstairs for breakfast, ate a lot of it, and then took advantage of their walking trails. We covered pretty much the entire grounds, soaking in the quiet, the scenery, the bird-watching, and the dogs out on the trail. As much as the rest of the grounds are probably better in the summer, I think the trails are perfect in the fall.
On the way back we made a quick stop at their wine shoppe, picking up three bottles to bring home, then went back to the room and ordered room service. While Lindsay showered I figured out a fire strategy and, by the time she emerged, I had it crackling away.
That afternoon we’d booked one activity: a wine tasting. There were supposed to be ten of us; two people showed up, but one person did who wasn’t meant to, so nine it was. It wasn’t exactly a somm exam, so all three wines were pretty easy to guess (Cava, Riesling, Cab Franc), but it’s always fun to taste with nice people. We ended up figuring out that the couple next to us (a) live quite close to us in Toronto, and (b) know some people I worked with at Arterra — in fact, someone that used to work for me now works for her. And there was another guy in the tasting who looked very much like him! Weird, weird coincidence.
We made our way from there another early dinner — this time in the bar instead of the restaurant. We got a simpler meal, but splashed out a bit on the wine. (A small aside: the server sent the somm to talk to us, but she looked at the couple next to us and decided that surely they were the ones looking for a sommelier’s expertise, not us two ruffians. By the time our server tracked the somm back down and sent her round to find us, our apps had arrived. By the time she came back with our bottle, the apps were gone.) Anyway, here’s what we ate:
red wine marinated chicken w/ creamy polenta, sauce coq au vin
bottle of 2011 Pommard, 1er Cru, Clos Orgelot, Clos du Moulin aux Moines
Dessert
sticky toffee date pudding w/ soft caramel, rum raisin ice cream
gourmand cookie w/ all the chocolate, fudgy ganache center (which we took to the room)
This time we got back to the room plenty early enough to build another beauty fire and watch nearly all of game seven, which of course ended up in a heart-breaking loss for the Jays. I’ll have more to say about that later, once the sadness wears off.
Sunday
We woke feeling a little extra-refreshed, which I realized later was because of daylight savings time. (The good one.) We grabbed a lighter breakfast, packed up, and drove home.
We just spent a long weekend in Ottawa. It got built around a single concert, but we ended up packing in a wonderful few days.
Friday
What a beautiful drive. There was no traffic to speak of getting out of Toronto, and we had smooth sailing – not to mention some beautiful fall colors – the whole way. Google Maps suggested we take a different route into the city, so we got to drive up the Colonel By and explore a little on the way to meet Lindsay’s brother Patrick.
After a slight detour, we parked and met him at Black Squirrel Books. I left with one book (a novel by Kevin Patterson, whose book The Water In Between was important to me when I read it 25 years ago) while Lindsay left with…well, many. I had a cortado, too, which was served in the right glassware, but fell prey to the same pitfall that most coffee shops do: they made it too hot.
We left there and drove to our hotel, The Metcalfe. A new boutique hotel downtown, I’d never stayed there…except, once I stepped in, I realized I had stayed there. Sixteen years ago, when it was the Indigo. Anyway, it’s much nicer now.
We needed food, so we turned on our heels and went straight to Raphaël, which Patrick picked. We had no reservation but they plopped us at the bar. It was really delicious too:
Amuse bouche of some kind of fish consommé with ají limo tiger’s milk
Tamalito De Pato: Sous Vide Duck Thigh, Mote Corn Tamal, Salsa Criolla, Ají Drizzle
Anticuchos: Ají Panca Flank Steak Skewers, Mini Potatoes,
Brussels Sprouts, Chimichurri, Rocoto Sauce
Dessert: petit fours of some kind of tiny cookie and Peruvian flan
It was all excellent. Nice Ontario-forward wine list too.
Afterward Lindsay and Patrick went to a concert at the NAC; I fell into a protest march up Elgin for a while before wandering back to the hotel and catching the end of the Jays game.
Saturday
Boy, did we have a lazy morning. The room was too big and comfy not to. Eventually I went out for coffee, but found that the local Morning Owl is closed on Saturdays, so I got coffees from the lobby cafe instead, and regretted it almost immediately.
Eventually we walked down Elgin to The Manx for brunch. I had fond memories of it when I used to visit in the…mid-to-late-90s, I guess? It hasn’t changed much, which I loved. I had the banana bread French toast; Lindsay had the eggs benny. We both had a Caesar and a beer.
We walked back along the canal on a perfect fall day, and relaxed in the room for a bit before walking back down Elgin for an early dinner with Patrick & Maeve at TOWN. It was fantastic:
Apps
house focaccia w/ whipped brown butter
butterbean, date and apple salad w/ arugula, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, herbed goat feta, Greek yogurt dressing, wheatberry
glass of Rosehall Run Chardonnay for me, and a cocktail for Lindsay
Mains
Dan: cumin-honey glazed and grilled pork chop w/ confit carrot and roasted pepper purée, polenta batonettes, shishito peppers, chai pickled peach, charred corn salsa
Lindsay: house-made cavatelli w/ saffron, corn and miso cacio e pepe, cornbread pangrattato, pickled jalapeños, pecorino, chives, ½ tare glazed duck breast
two glasses of Saumur Cabernet Franc
Dessert
tiramisu
glasses of Frankovic Luna Blanca for Patrick and I
Then, the reason we were in Ottawa: to see a symphony playing music from Stardew Valley, aka Lindsay’s favourite game. I’ve heard her playing the game enough that I recognized some of the music, but wasn’t as in on the jokes as everyone else. But she loved it, and that’s what matters.
Sunday
Up quite a bit earlier, as we were meeting CBGB for brunch. I pre-gamed with cappuccinos from Ministry Of Coffee. Side note: early Sunday morning in downtown Ottawa is an unexpected mix of dead quiet and aggressively weird.
When they texted that they were en route we drove out to Hintonburg and met them at a Bridgehead nearby. After chatting and catching up we walked to Chesterfields. Lindsay had a jerk chicken benny; I had a classic breakfast. Mostly we were just there to catch up with friends, who I miss so much. After brunch we went for a group stroll, then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.
We weren’t there long, though – we had stacked some plans. We walked to Majors Hill Park to meet Patrick and Maeve again, on what had turned into a very sunny and warm late-October day. We had plans to spend it inside though, at the National Gallery of Canada. We NAGged it up for a few hours.
After that we spilled down Sussex to the market and found a table at Beyond The Pale. P+M ate lunch; we snacked on duck drummies and beers and many bottles of water. After sitting and laughing for quite a while we parted ways; Lindsay and I walked back to the hotel, stopping along the way at Little Victories for some fuel to get through the evening.
A teeny rest in the hotel room later and we were ready for our dinner at Arlo, which ended up being fantastic.
Starters:
Tomatoes + rosamarina w/ fresh coriander, capers
Scallop tartare w/ black garlic, kohlrabi, cilantro, mushroom vinegar
Dan drank: Crémant de Loire (Les Athletes du Vin “Gardien des Bulles” NV) and Garganega (La Biancara “Masieri Bianco” ’23)
Lindsay drank: House Martini (gin, apple eau de vie, dry vermouth, manzanilla sherry) and a Gruner Veltliner that isn’t on their online menu so I can’t remember what it was
Main:
Porcini Crusted Ribeye For Two w/ frites, marrow, chimichurri-stuffed portobello, arugula
a bottle of Sangiovese (Pacina Donesco Toscana Rosso 2020)
Dessert:
Lemon Posset
A glass of not-quite-Tokaji Hungarian Furmint for me
The steak was cooked perfectly, tip to tail. The scallop tartare might have been one of the best things I ate all year. The wines were all delicious. The vibe was loud at first, but pretty great. In a weekend full of outstanding meals, this might have taken the prize.
Clearly we used up a lot of our driving luck on Friday. After packing and scarfing down some room service breakfast we drove back to Toronto, and the rain started almost immediately. Several times it escalated to the point where we could barely see the car in front of us, which made for some pretty tense driving. Luckily it cleared up around Gananoque, and we had clear weather all the way into Toronto. We arrived home to find a very happy cat.
All in all: pretty awesome weekend. Perfect weather. Time spent with family and old friends. Incredible food. Memorable experiences. Good birthday trip all around!
I turned 50 last week. The day itself wasn’t very remarkable — I worked a full day, and we just ordered some dinner. No big blowout trip, and even the little long weekend getaway we planned didn’t start until the next day.
After another full workday we drove crawled to Elora, arriving at the Elora Mill just in time for our dinner reservation. We sat outside and ordered the Celebration menu, which was a four course tasting menu — or rather, two different versions, so we could share. I can’t remember all the details of each course, but here it is to the best of my memory:
Strawberry basil gazpacho amuse bouche
Tomato tart // duck terrine
Lobster in a tomato sauce // sourdough angel hair pasta
Seared scallops // venison
Black forest cake // pistachio cake
Wine pairings
Birthday cannoli
We went for an after-dinner walk, enjoying the temperate evening when such things have been in short supply.
I got back in time for some room service breakfast to arrive. We savored yet another kickass meal from downstairs, and enjoyed the view from our room.
We needed some exercise, so we walked up the hill to Victoria Park, took the stairs down to Irvine Creek, and took in the view of the gorge.
Once we ascended, it had warmed up quite a lot, and a drink was in order. We fancied a cocktail, so we went to The Lobby Bar. I had a pineapple vanilla sour; Lindsay had a hillstone crisp martini. Both were too sweet, and the vibe in there was weird, so we decamped for the Elora Brewing Company up the street. We took a patio table in the shade, and drank beers and ate pretzels and admired patio dogs.
We walked back to the hotel and just relaxed in that palatial room for a few hours. We’d liked dinner so much the night before we booked again for night #2. Our table wasn’t ready when we got there, so we killed time in the bar with glasses of Moet & Chandon Champagne. Once we had our table, we enjoyed yet another outstanding meal:
Grilled Lake Erie Pickerel for two w/ soused tomatoes, frites, watercress aïoli
a bottle of Cremant d’Alsace Blanc de Blancs
No late-night walk this time — it had been a long day, and we were spent.
Saturday
Alas, it was time to leave Elora Mill. Not before another room service breakfast though — their apple cinnamon scones are ridiculous. We cleaned up and packed up and left Elora for part two of the long weekend: Niagara-on-the-Lake.
We headed merrily down highway 6 before getting caught in the predictable misery of QEW traffic. We scrapped lunch plans and picked up our wine order at Five Rows (and there ran into an old Arterra colleague). We stopped for groceries in Virgil and late lunch at Silversmith, then drove to our AirBnB.
See that pool? We dropped our stuff and jumped straight into it.
It was a big beautiful house, so we relaxed, opened a bottle of 2019 Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos Pinot Noir, made nachos, played some trivia, and crashed.
Sunday
Another sleep-in. Another dip in the pool. Coffee & breakfast nachos. A few errands: two nearby fruit stands, more groceries, and a stop at the Pie Plate.
Back at the house we opened a bottle of 2024 Five Rows Pinot Gris, played a round of Pandemic, snacked on fresh local fruit, had a wee nap, and then jumped back into the pool. Over the course of the day we drank a bottle of 2024 Five Rows Sauvignon Blanc while Lindsay made me a big dinner: caprese salad w/ local peaches, shrimp + chorizo fajitas, and peach pie & ice cream. We paired all that with a bottle of 2021 Leaning Post Clone 548 Chardonnay.
We somehow digested all that enough to go for a chilly night swim.
Monday
First order of business: get up, get packed, and get out of the AirBnB. But not before one last swim in the pool. We took the leftover pie & ice cream and ate it in the park across the road.
We’d been wanting some sparkling so we drove to Trius. Not a good experience. We paid $25 for three of their premium wines. The premium sparkling was flat — they acknowledged later it was the end of a bottle that had been opened the day before. The other two wines were meh. Given all that maybe we shouldn’t have bought any, but we didn’t want to leave empty-handed, and I know their top-end sparklings are good, so we held our noses.
We drove back to NotL for lunch at Treadwell, a ritual when we’re leaving town. We still don’t know what was going on in the city, but there was no parking anywhere. We ended up parking ten minutes away – illegally, mind you, but so was everyone else’s parking spot.
Lunch was, surprisingly, just okay: my scallops & pork belly were decent, but Lindsay’s mussels were underwhelming. Then we split a lobster club that did NOT feel worth the $49 price tag. It used to be cheaper and better, TBH.
We walked back to the car and braced ourselves for our commute home. Happily, it went about as perfectly as could be: no traffic jams (other than the Gardiner, where it’s always bad), no accidents…just smooth sailing. We were home in less than two hours, where we were greeted by a yelling cat.
Epilogue
I have heartburn from all the rich food & drink, and my muscles are sore from five swims in 40 hours, but other than that…50 feels pretty great.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 