Eats, Shoots and Breathes

There’s not much you can buy for 5 cents these days. That fact was just driven home when I looked for and couldn’t find the cents symbol on my keyboard. I suspect your best 5 cent deal is the ride on the Lakeside Park Carousel in St. Catherines, ON. The carousel is over 100 years old and has been restored to beautiful condition. It’s not in perfect condition. There are signs of wear and scratches here and there. That’s because there are kids (young and old) on it all the time. Not all the rides are horses. There’s a menagerie of animals including the lion. This guy is an original. There is another lion on the carousel that is a modern replacement for one that was destroyed. I hope he didn’t have to be put down.

We actually hired a guide today to take us around the area and show us some things we might not otherwise find and to drive my car so we could taste wines without any DUI risk. We visited the Ravine Vineyard for lunch. They don’t have a large selection of wines yet, but their Cab Merlot was very tasty. They also have a bakery and the restaurant that is normally open only for lunch, has a BBQ every Friday and Monday evenings. I’d definitely go back there if the chance comes along.

We also visited Jackson Triggs winery for a tour. It was the first winery tour I had ever done and it was mildly interesting. The tour included a wine tasting. The wines weren’t as interesting as the tour. The winery was interesting from a photographic perspective, especially all the stainless steel vats and piping in the fermentation room. The image above is of the stainless steel fermentation vessels with their cooling jackets that keep the must at a constant temperature. The temperature depends on the type of wine fermenting.