Day 2 – Girls’ Weekend in Niagara Falls…

It’s really foggy this morning, although it could be the mist from the falls blowing back this way towards our hotel. Sometimes it seems to clear somewhat then we’re totally socked in again.

So since we’re on vacation we decided to start the morning off with mimosas. Okay, we already had coffee and muffins.

The plan for today is go for a ride on The Maid of the Mist this morning and then our wine tour is this afternoon. Then later tonight, we’ll check out the falls again and hopefully the fireworks and finish our night with a wander through the casino.

Shortly after boarding, an older gentleman from Korea came over and spoke to us. In the sea of blue, hooded rain gear he soon vanished in the crowd.

The American falls from the Maid of the Mist

The ride on The Maid of the Mist was quite the experience. Even with our lovely, fashionable blue rain capes, we got soaked. The force of the water cascading over both sets of falls blew water drops practically sideways, whipped our hoods down, our raincoats billowed up. We stayed on the lower deck but right next to the railing. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be on the upper deck.

After our boat ride, we walked through Oakes Garden Theatre. A wedding party was there and they were either getting set up for the entire event or perhaps just wedding photos. There were two small children dressed up in their best bib and tucker running around having a blast and giving the older folks a great deal of grief. Somehow, a white dress with a pink sash wouldn’t look very nice with a big grass stain down the front of it.

Our original plan was to wait and walk through the casino at night but because we were right there, thought we would do it on the way back to our hotel before our wine tour. Inside the main doors, it almost looks as if the building was built around a historic one and they left some of the original features intact. We walked up a grand sweeping staircase and made our way to the “official” casino entrance. A waterfall cascaded down on both sides of the escalators. Before them, a huge metal structure with changing colour lights, is in the ceiling and goes up at least two levels, if not more.

Looking up through the metal and changing lights

I stood directly under it and took a photo. It was really something to see.

Back at our hotel, we had a snack while we got de-frizzed, dressed and our makeup reapplied. We certainly couldn’t have gone in the state we were in. Quite surprised we didn’t frighten the folks when we wandered through the casino.

We were the second “couple” to be picked up by the bus. Then we went to another hotel here in the city for another couple. They weren’t there yet. When they finally arrived, we headed off to the home base of the wine tour company and picked up more people. Once everyone was aboard, we were fourteen couples.

Inside the barrel room

Our first stop was at the Niagara College Winery & Brewery (although we didn’t tour that part of the business). Our guide was a young girl who will be getting her degree in tourism in a few short weeks. She led us through the various stages of the wine making process and then it was off to the sample room where we learned how to properly drink wine so take advantage of all the complex flavours going on in it. We sampled a white, a red and an ice wine.

After the structured tasting, we were led into the gift shop and sample bar where we were allowed to taste many of the other wines made there.

Our next stop was at Hinterbrook Winery. This operation has only been open to the public for tours for less than one month! They are also an eco-friendly business. They have a huge bank of solar panels, and also use geo-thermal technology.

At the Hinterbrook Winery

Here we sampled a number of white wines as their reds weren’t ready yet and a rose. I shouldn’t say we didn’t sample any reds. We sampled one but it was a darker white, made from red grapes but the skins were separated from the juice so it didn’t turn red.

Vineyard at the Hinterbrook Winery

I don’t normally drink a lot of white wine and can honestly say, I’m not that stuck on it. But, I found two here that I enjoyed a great deal – a Reisling and a Sauvignon Blanc.

Reif Estate Winery

Our next winery was Reif Estate Winery. Here we were led through a structured tasting of a white, a red and an ice wine. After this was over we were free to go to the sample bar and taste on our own.

In the herb garden at Reif Winery

This winery also has an herb garden so we wandered through it and discovered they had Patchouli plants growing. We had to ensure this was the real deal so rubbed the leaves and then sniffed our fingers. It was. I think we rubbed every leaf on one plant between Mary and Yvonne and MJ and me.

Our tour wrapped up with supper at DeLuca’s. We didn’t get the three course meal, but we could choose any two options from the menu… starter and main course, main course and dessert. I had the spring mushroom and goat cheese salad and organic BC salmon. OMG! They were so delicious! MJ and I shared a bottle of red wine with our meal as did Mary and Yvonne.

Mary and Yvonne at DeLuca's

Then the four of us split on another bottle. You’d almost get the idea we liked our wine.

Al and Heather at DeLuca's

The other couple at our table was Al and his wife Heather. We were all in agreement that it took too long between courses to get us our food but had it not, we wouldn’t have had the time to chat and get to know each other.
After returning to Niagara Falls after dropping the other couples off, we suggested we meet up with Al and Heather on a patio for a beer. We would meet at TGI Friday’s in about an hour and go from there.

We settled on the patio at the Casa ‘doro Restaurant right next door to our hotel. We stayed and chatted with them until about midnight and by then it was very chilly out and time to get inside where it was warm.