Spring Break Special!

Hi-ho Rosey-readers! Just an update as to where Marylee and I went this spring break...and you get 3 guesses. The beach? A cruise? Anywhere down south? NOPE! Try the opposite; we headed to wonderful wintry CANADA! Why you might ask? Just because. Really. She said, "Hey wanna go to Canada?" I replied, "Sure." And thus led us hundreds of miles from pretty much any other Hokie migrants! So long story short, we went to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City, and here are some of the highlights:

Wine Tasting / Beer Flights on the first night!

Dunno if this is up to my standards...

We tried 3 flights of 3 wines each and a flight of 6 beers. Oh, and some food haha, we had curly fries.
But we were more interested in the drank. Here's what we tasted and some comments on each:

• Wonder from Down Under (Australian)
• Shiraz / Cabernet, Angove
• Merlot, Tall Poppy, Victoria
• Pinot Noir, Wyndam Estate
• Comments: Shiraz was hot and peppery, and I liked it. Merlot and Pinot were more tame.
• Italian Romance
• Chianti, Leonardo, Vinci and Cerreto
• Primitivo, Piantaferro
• Montepulciano d'Abruzo, Masciarelli
• Comments: First-time Chianti, and it was definitely fruity and spicy. Wasn't a fan of the Montepulciano, but it was better than the one last week. Primitivo was my favorite, and it had a big chocolatey body.
• Tour de France
• Chardonnay, Miquel, Languedoc
• Sauvignon Blanc, Lurton, Bordeaux
• Muscadet Sevre et Maine, Loire
• Comments: The Chardonnay was interesting, with mild melon and spice aromas, while the Bordeaux was potent with grapefruits and bitter flavors. The Muscadet was dry but crisp, and not what I was expecting since it sounded like Moscato.

Wine labels are pretty cool table decor.

• Bonus! Beer tastings:
• Steamwhistle Pilsner - quality Pilsner, was pale and crisp, plenty of hops and citrus.
• Perth Honey Lager - Marylee liked this one, I thought it was a little too light.
• Mill St. Lemon Tea - light, refreshing, enjoyable, but not what I want in a beer.
• Ashton Coffee Porter - huge coffee flavors, almost overpowered the beer.
• Spearhead Moroccan Brown Ale - not too hoppy, but full flavored, second favorite.
• Old North Mocha Porter - intense, chocolatey, dark enough to be a meal, my favorite.

Other fun parts of our trip:

Hmm, this looks like wine, let's check it out!

Finding what we thought was going to be a wine super-warehouse, Vin en Vrac was actually a bulk wine distributer, selling only by-the-case or self-service-filling of bottles from a tap!

Snagged from this link, thank you Google images

Since we weren't about to drop a couple hundred dollars in a place that only spoke French (hello, Quebec), we grabbed a couple solo bottles at the check-out counter and continued further into the frozen, snowy north of North America.

Next comes a Canadian snow-tubing park built on ski slopes. 

They tried to make a waterpark in Canada, but soon found out it was too cold. The solution?

Turn your slide into this snowy deathtrap! The safer slide we found was at the ice castle.

Of course we had to treat ourselves to the ice bar, with glasses made straight out of ice.

On the drive back home, we saw these goodies, which sounded pretty gross.

Ended up buying them, and the sure were bad. I ate them anyways.

It was an amazing time had by all, but seeing this was definitely a relief after 5 days in America's hat.

Until next time, eh?