Hiking, spa, and vineyards

A good friend of mine came down to visit from London, Ontario. She made her way here Thursday and left this morning. We had a amazing long weekend! She got here close to supper, so we chatted a while and then made some pizzas for supper. I used a naan bread pizza dough, the sauce was roasted peppers, pureed, and some hot sauce, then topped it with saute onions, peppers and mushrooms, then added some shredded chicken with bbq sauce, and added goat cheese. It was so good!! We then decided to take a nice long walk, we were gone about an hour and a half, and walked down a trail near by that my neighbor told me about.  I have gone down a small part of it, but then it goes quite a bit into the woods so waited to finally have someone to walk down there with me, and it was beautiful.

Friday we started our morning with a very hearty breakfast of oatmeal with cinnamon, almonds and maple syrup, and also had a smoothie. We packed up a lunch and made sure to have plenty of water, and got ready and headed out to Mer bleue. I found it online at some point and new I had to take her there. The trail and bog was about 10 km, and it was the perfect day for a hike. The trail started off with a nice wooded area

That led us to a picnic area, with tables, and also information about the bog. It was just about that time for lunch so we sat down and ate. We had left over pizza, some coleslaw, and for dessert the gluten free chocolate quinoa cupcakes. We then set out to walk along the bog

It was pretty amazing to walk along the board walk through the bog. The way they set it up it loops around back to the picnic area

Then we walked back along the hiking trail to get back to the car. Since we got plenty of exercise, what better way to finish the day by going to Le Nordic, it's a spa in Chelsea, Quebec.

They have added more cabins, and have relocated their entrance. We only went for the pools, saunas, and also their floating pool called Kalla. I have gone a few times but could never try Kalla and apparently it's like you've slept for a few hours, some really do fall asleep also. We started with the hot tub, then went into the sauna with eucalyptus, then went into the cold pool, which was very, very cold! Then went for the Kalla. It was weird seeing people just floating there, but it was an amazing experience. They have cushions that you can put to support your neck so we grabbed that, but it was hard to get comfortable with that, it was to thick, and it started to give me a headache, so I got rid of it, but I couldn't seem to shake off the headache so it was hard to really enjoy the experience. They do say for your first time it's hard to get the full benefit, they suggest going in a second time but we didn't go. I'll have to try it again some other time. We then went to get something to drink, then enjoyed the warm pool, then laid down for a while on the beds that they have. We were hungry at that point so we sat down to eat

We shared an appetizer of a 3 year old cheddar cheese, some toasted nuts, grapes, bread, and a few slices of strawberries, one blackberry, and a yellow cherry. I had the red wine and she had white. It was so good!  Our main meal, which we got the same, but I had smoked salmon and she had the chicken, it was a beet and spinach salad. Our dessert was a smoothie with chia seeds, an orange compote of sorts, and a blueberry tart. The meal was delicious! We then got ready and came home, we both were pretty tired, but it was an incredible day, and so glad we had beautiful weather.

Saturday wasn't quite as nice. The morning started off ok cause it was cloudy, but we again had a wonderful breakfast of an omelette with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and feta cheese and topped it with some salsa, and we had toast and a smoothie. We then set out to go to a vineyard called Domaine Perrault in Navan

It was beautiful there, and they were preparing for a wedding outdoors, they had tents set up and we could hear the band preparing. Inside they had a beautiful little store were the lady there talked to us about their land and their wines. We got to try a few, and I bought 4 different wines, 2 white and 2 reds, and Dallas bought a few as well. She also told us about another vineyard near by, they help each other out when needed, and since they were out of the rose wines, she suggested we go there cause they had some in stock. Since we were in the area, we thought why not. It was a beautiful place as well called Etter

I absolutely love that sign that they have!  We got to try a few of their wines as well including one that is almost ready, but not quite ready to sell yet. It was a white wine and it was so good!!  I'll have to go back to get that one. We also got the opportunity to know about their land, which they only have been open a few months, well they have been there for years, but could only open a 4 months ago once they had a good amount of bottles ready since it does take time to prepare wine. We got a tour of the back as well, he explained how it all works, and it was very interesting to know the process and how it all works. I also bought 4 bottles there, I got 2 reds, a rose and a port. We left there and headed for the butcher's so we can get beautiful steaks for our supper, and I bought a few other things I needed. We then stopped at a stand along the way to pick up a basket of apples. We stopped off at home to drop everything off, then headed out for a late lunch at Panera, which I also bought one of their loaf of bread, the honey wheat. We then went to the movies since it was raining. When we got home we cooked a delicious meal of steaks and potatoes on the BBQ, yes I barbecued in the rain, but it wasn't that bad. We had saute onion and peppers with red wine and the vegetable spice from Epicure. We opened one of the red wines and supper was delicious!!  Dallas prepared the dessert, we had an apple crumble.

Before she set off to go home, we had another amazing breakfast. We had a BLT with bacon I got at the butcher's, it was a molasses black pepper bacon, and we had that with a smoothie. The weekend went by way to fast, but it was an amazing weekend! It's another gloomy day outside, so I'm working on some laundry and will probably keep busy with getting things done around the house. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

End of summer fun

I know it's been a while again but I've been busy. We took two weeks off and spent most of our time in Sudbury. The first week, we went to his cousin's beautiful wedding and had an amazing time. Then we stayed at camp. Here's part of the view they have

Yes it's the lake through those trees. I got the chance to sit back, relax and read, and play some cards. We had a bit of a family competition of three different games. We played horse shoes, badminton, and the other game I forget what it's called, but we had a lot of fun. My brother in law and niece won the game. There was also a fishing derby going on, to see who can catch the smallest (don't worry we let them go after), the  biggest and the weirdest. I won for having the 2nd biggest fish at 19 inches.

I went with my father in law and we had a good time and caught lots of fish, we only kept the 2 biggest and the rest were let go. We thought they had a prize for who could catch the most, but they didn't.

They were announcing quite a bit of rain for the second week so Sunday we headed to my in-laws home to spend some time there. My hubby and his dad went out the Monday with some friends for a long drive to get to a great spot to go fishing and they ended up with 15 of them. Of course we did a fish fry to enjoy all that wonderful fresh fish that were caught.

It was delicious! My father in law cleaned all the fish and fried them up. The top one is with a breadcrumb, and the one at the bottom is a beer batter. The rest of our week, I spent some time with my family, I also went to Chapters twice with my cousin. We had a great time and got back home Friday to have the long weekend at home to unpack, and unwind before going back to work.

Since our fridge was nice and empty, I washed the inside of my fridge, then went to get groceries, which was an expensive trip but it was great having food in the house again. I prepared some salads for my lunch, and I also saw a recipe on Joyous Health that I had to try and they turned out really good

They are gluten-free chocolate quinoa cupcakes, you can find the recipe on her blog right here.
They are a must try, cause they are delicious and so easy to make. I ended up with 55 mini cupcakes so since we were going to visit some friends, I brought some for them.

It's been a great summer, and it's not quite over yet. I do have a long time friend coming to visit, in fact she should be showing up here in about 1 hour or so. I could have gone to work today, but I'm glad I decided to take the day off. I did a fall cleaning of the house, so  now the house is looking great, and now I can really enjoy the extra long weekend with my friend. It's a little cool out today so I have the windows open and it's great having fresh air flow through the house.

For this long weekend of ours, we will be going hiking, going to the spa at Le Nordic to enjoy their pools and saunas, go to a vineyard, try to go downtown to walk around the market, and we also plan to go see a movie. If we have time, we will probably go to Chapters, and see what else we can do while she's here. I haven't seen her in a while so I'm pretty excited, and can't wait for her to get here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!