yesterday was a fantastic birthday, and was our “tourist” day on the trip. first off, thanks to all of you who called or emailed for helping make it an extremely special day.
our day started off rather early with a trip to st. jacobs, a local mennonite village and market. it was a neat little town and a fun market. there was a wide variety of food available for sample. most people tried apple fritters, but i was drawn to the egyptian pastries (quite tasty, i might add). After purchasing some maple syrup that was made earlier this week and some raspberry rhubarb and black currant and crabapple jam, we proceeded on down to downtown st. jacobs.
bell peppers at the outdoor market, st. jacobs
in st. jacobs, we ate at a local mennonite restaurant called the stone crock. there was an all you can eat buffet there that was fairly good. the dressing was without doubt the most dense food i’ve ever eaten. it seemed to grow on your plate. certainly it was exactly what you wanted before a nice afternoon drive…
rainbow at naigara falls
we drove the hour and a half down to naigara falls, which was, as always, very impressive. it was made more impressive by the large amounts of ice at the bottom, frozen over from the winter.
on the way, we made a stop at tim horton’s. i feel this might be an appropriate time to rag on canadian coffee. tim horton’s is basically the canadian equivalent to krispy kreme or dunkin’ donuts. the main difference is that tim horton’s is everywhere. i mean everywhere. think starbucks in america and multiply it by three or so. the canadians love it. i suppose it’s not *that* bad, but out of the three tim horton’s experiences i’ve had, only one has been good, and the one time was when i got apple cider.
first the positive: it’s cheap. really cheap. large cafe mocha for 2.50 (canadian). when measured against a 5 dollar mocha from starbucks, you think you’re getting a great deal. then you watch them make it. there is no espresso used in the process. neither do they use milk. the tim horton’s process of making a mocha is to take some hot chocolate, and pour in drip coffee, at which point we all can see why it only costs 2.50 to make. i think the best way to convey the taste would be to say that it’s very similar to going to an american gas station, filling a cup halfway with the cappucino machines that are there, and then pouring in drip coffee for the other half. clif’s description of “hot chocolate watered down with coffee” is fairly good as well. bottom line: it isn’t a real mocha.
end rant.
naigara falls was beautiful. our group had a great time just looking at the falls. it’s difficult to take in how big they actually are, and how much water is going over them.
group overlooking the falls
katie at the overlook point.
when we came back, most people went over to the toohey’s house to watch the ag’s beat up on syracuse, but some of us decided the day had been long enough and headed home to get some sleep.
today we’ll be working with some of the youth in the local area, and tomorrow we get on a plane to head back to america.
hailey and katie