Niagara-on-the-Lake - A playwright & peanuts

Monday May 25, 2009

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a charming little place. Neat and tidy. I think no poor people live there.

Even the side streets are tidy.

The Shaw Cafe & Wine Bar.

And the Shaw statue. The plaque with it reads:

George Bernard Shaw

1856 - 1950.
Born in Dublin, Ireland
Noted spokesperson and playwright,
awarded Nobel Prize for literature 1925.

Amazingly I didn't buy anything in the bakery but we had just eaten lunch in a place called Bistro Six-One. I did buy some nicely boxed jars of jam in another store.

Although we had to get back to London because my brother's wife's (M2) parents were bringing back their little daughter and staying for dinner, my brother (M1) left enough time for a visit to Picard Peanuts. Who knew they grew peanuts in Ontario? I've never seen or heard of so many different types of peanuts: beernuts, honey roasted copper kettle, Virginia fancy redskin, jumbo cocktail peanuts, Ontario grown Valencia salted and unsalted....

And then there were the chipnuts: original regular, BBQ, ranch, white cheddar, nacho cheese, blazin hot, sour cream, onion & garlic, etc. You can sample all these nuts as you tour the store.

Lest you go away thinking we ate nothing but poutine and chipnuts on this trip, that really wasn't the case. We only had a few bites of those things and ate good food most of the time. For instance, we had a very nice dinner at M1 & M2's the night before. We could probably learn a thing or two from them about healthy eating. On this night, after being out all day, they picked up Chinese food, which was a refreshing change for us because we don't often have it. We visited with M2's parents a while before zipping off with M1 to buy lottery tickets. People at work are always commenting that winning tickets are so often from Ontario and Quebec. Unfortunately, ours wasn't a winner.

So that was our last full day in London. I realize now that we have no pictures of London itself. M1 took us on a little driving tour down tree-lined streets of pleasant neighbourhoods that made me think of 'Leave It To Beaver' days. The next morning we would hop on a train to Toronto and begin the journey home.