Niagara-on-the-Lake

Debbie and I spent an amazing weekend at Niagara-on-the-Lake.  We arrived Friday night to a very warm welcome at the Historic Lyons House Bed and Breakfast.  Howard and Yolanta are fantastic hosts and made us feel instantly at home.

I didn't have time to paint full paintings but I did some sketches.  These first two are the front and back of the B&B.  I would stay here again in a flash.  Everything about our stay was absolutely perfect.

If there hadn't been so many things to do in town we could happily spend the long weekend in the back garden.






On Saturday we wandered the town and then visited Fort George which was an interesting step back in time.  We wandered some more and ended up at The Queen's Royal Park which had a magnificent view of fort Niagara across the river.




From here we headed to the Prince of Wales Hotel for high tea.  They were full and there was an hour wait until we could get a seat so Debbie went shopping and I plopped down on my stool across the street and sketched the hotel. I was getting tired so this is a pretty weak sketch of a very busy building.  The huge pick up truck that parked in front of me didn't help.

After high tea we went back to our room for a nap before heading to the Shaw Festival Theatre to see Cabaret.  It was incredibly well done but a bit macabre for vacation watching.  We spent Sunday on a delicious wine tour that took us to five wineries followed by seafood pene in The Old Angel Inn for supper.  The inn was very British and was established in 1886.

It really was an amazing weekend and even better since it was a Christmas present from our children.