Vacation

This past week James and I got away for four nights of vacation. It was lovely.

We jaunted down to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a beautiful little town that is packed with tourists from April to November, and absolutely empty in the winter. The locals kept asking us if we were bored with nothing to do, and we kept replying that with three young boys at home, "nothing" is exactly what we were looking for.

We stayed at the Harbour House, a luxurious yet cozy inn rated among the top places to stay in the province. During the summer, rooms go for almost $400. We scored it for $100 a night.

Because the inn was all but empty, they upgraded us to their best room. Very spacious, which we appreciated since we knew most of our time was going to be spent in the room, just relaxing. A toasty fireplace and jacuzzi tub, with a little Juliet balcony overlooking the harbour and lake.

Every morning they served a European breakfast - cereals, homemade granola, French toast casseroles, ham and cheese stratas, fresh baked bread, home made jams, petit pains au chocolat, scones, rolls, meats, fresh fruit salad...it was such a spread that we were filled enough to skip lunch and go right to dinner. We always sat at that little table right by the french doors, with the sun streaming in and the blue sky blanketing overhead.

We pampered ourselves with two spa treatments on two different days - massages and pedicures. I've never had a pedicure before. I will now be getting more of them. We don't usually indulge in luxuries like these at home, and it felt so "upper class."

Every evening we escaped the inn to the various fine dining restaurants around town. With only four days, we only visited four restaurants of the many, many that are around. But each was lovely and unique in its own way. And because we are early diners (at home, we usually eat around 5pm) the first two night we had the restaurants completely to ourselves!

The Charles Inn:

Zees Grill:

It was a little funny to be hauling in my IV pole, pump and two boxes of medication and supplies, but the hotel staff didn't blink an eye. I wasn't feeling at my best all week, but luckily there wasn't much on the docket. One day we walked the main street and popped into the stores, two different days we visited the spa, and one day we took a drive down Niagara Parkway, a gorgeous stretch of road along the Niagara river with houses that will take your breath away.

We caught up on sleep, watched movies, played games, conversed, and read to our heart's content. We both agree that it was the perfect little getaway for us, and we even preferred this time that there wasn't the stress of airports and taxis and buses getting us to our location. A short, pretty two hour drive and we had arrived in our own little Canadian paradise.