Back in early January, I received a brochure from the local bus company with their 2011 tours. The last weekend in May caught my eye. It was exactly the trip my girlfriend from Kingston and I had planned on doing for years. Niagara Falls and tour some wineries. I tore that page out the brochure, scanned it and e-mailed it to her. It was agreed, we would go.
A couple of days later, I booked our vacation and we began planning what we would do in our free time. Until the trip hit my credit card and even from then until the invoice arrived, the whole thing seemed totally surreal.
Then on May 5th, the unthinkable happened! The trip was cancelled. Only twelve people (including the two of us) had signed up.
What can I say, we were handed lemons. But, what do you when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade. A couple of quick text messages back and forth and we decided we would still do it but on our own.
So by May 6th, I had a room booked for the two nights at the same hotel my husband and I used the year my friend from Wales came over and we were tentatively booked on Grape and Wine Tours Best Kept Secret Dinner Tour (wine tour with tastings and 3 course gourmet meal at an undisclosed restaurant) on the Saturday. They come and pick us up at our hotel and bring us back afterwards. I confirmed our booking by phone the following weekend.
While in Niagara, we’re going to do something that one of us has never done before. We’re doing the Journey Behind the Falls which I’ve done but not my girlfriend and the plan is for the Saturday morning before we head off on our wine tour, we’re going to go for a ride on The Maid of the Mist which she’s done but I haven’t.
Weather permitting, on our way home we’re going to stop in St Catharines at Lock 3 of the Welland Canal. With any luck we’ll see a ship going through.
All in all, it promises to be a wonderful weekend. I think I made us a fine jug of lemonade.
And before anyone gets any ideas about our houses being empty during our absence… forget it. Our husbands are staying home and we each have a large dog.
Excellent! you will have a wonderful time! And any would-be criminals… don’t worry about the dog, but be very afraid of the husbands..
Dot
Very nice Mel…we are going to have a blast. So you can give a full report as to how our weekend in Niagara went (edited version of course) when we get back!
Cheers, and lots of them,
Mary-Jane
Maybe even when we’re tucked up in our hotel room at night with a glass of wine, I can blog a bit about that particular day.
Wow !! Excelloent Mel !! Sounds like a good plan !! Go for it and when u come back, let us know about the trip . Hope I would like to do that too some day !!!
I will! It’s something we’ve both wanted to do for a long time and it’s finally happening.
That sounds fantastic – Niagra is on Mr JH’s & I’s To Do list – I’ll be interested to know how it all goes. I love the sound of the dinners, the wine tour, and the Maid of the Mist trip!
Thanks for dropping by Janice! My plan is to post the trip with photos each night. The hotel has free wi-fi, so I’ll be able to access the Internet. And who knows, maybe I’ll even be inspired to get back to my WIP.