Mmmmm coffee

Yesterday was a full day. We started with some shopping for B.’s nephews who we are visiting later today. Eventually we found something for each of the boys. Afterwards we drove down to Oakville to meet up with Brian and Marnie who we spent the day with. After a quick stop for a bite to eat at a underwhelming pita place we drove down King St. through Dundas towards Niagara. The drive was quite nice. There looks like some very interesting shopping along the route that we will revisit when we have more time. The first stop was at Detour Coffee Roasters. A cute little shop with a select assortment of premium coffee beans. Mmm. Then we made a quick stop at a Canadian Tire to pick up a replacement gas cap for B.’s car, somehow it went missing over the past two weeks.

The drive then continued down to the Vineland area for some wine tasting. I don’t drink wine, which is a shame, but everyone else seemed to enjoy numerous wines from Featherstone and Creekside Estates. Evaluating wines certainly seems to have a flair to it, describing the wine can entail commenting on an incredible variety of a wine’s attributes. Wine has its own vernacular. I don’t know what all the terms mean, but I heard terms such as its bouquet, clarity, complexity, finish, length (etc. etc.) tossed around. It is curious to see a beverage described with such elaborate detail. True to form we made it to both of the wine Estates in the last half hour they were open. Thanks to David from Creekside who stayed open so we could sample wines and get some great advice. Cheers mate! There was so much more we wanted to do in the area. Hopefully we’ll get back to Niagara sometime soon to spend a full day or two. By this time however we were starving, and wanted to get back to Oakville for dinner.

The Tour de France continues. Frankly it has been pretty uneventful. The top places remaining the same for several stages. Ho-hum. It was a shame that George missed taking the Yellow Jersey by 3 seconds. It seems his own team kept him out of the jersey. Yikes. It seems unlikely he will get another chance at it in his career. Shame. George is an interesting character.