Prince Edward County

Another successful MS Bike and girl’s trip in the books! I did a quick planning post late last month and I’m reporting back two successful weekends in Prince Edward County.

MS Bike 2018 

This was my second year doing the MS Bike with coworkers – last year I completed the 75 km on my old, rusty Supercycle and, while I finished it, I was so exhausted after! So, I bought myself a new bike from MEC and have been loving how much easier it is to ride around the city. (I’ve been planning on heading to Gatineau Park to attempt the hills but haven’t had a free Sunday yet this summer since they started the Nokia Bike Days.)

This year, I originally planned to do the 75 km MS Bike but only one other coworker was doing the 75 and I’m much slower than him so I decided to stick with the three others who were doing the 40. There are two rest stations for the 40 km ride (much needed, with food, water and energy drinks) and we were making good time to finish quickly. The last leg of the ride seemed to stretch on forever – and then I noticed that we were on the same road as the first leg of the ride. We ended up taking a wrong turn and did an additional 20 km (for a total of 60 km!) Turns out, the arrows that were 1 km from the Picton Community Centre were pointing left instead of right (a mix-up by the person setting up the arrows along the route) and a few people made the same mistake!

Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we made it back to the finish line and the BBQ was definitely needed!

Lavender Festival

After the ride, I was unmotivated to go to the Lavender Festival but forced myself to go: I’m so glad I did!

Admission was $10 and held at the PEC Lavender farm in Prince Edward County. The festival is a two-day event with live music, hourly draws, samples for Lavender Iced Tea and Lavender Nougat, local food, pony rides, facepainting for kids and more!

I tried the lavender gelato and bought some lavender earl grey tea and I’m now obsessed with all things lavender. The gelato was so perfect on the 30C day.

I brought my phone lenses and used the macro lens to take pictures of the lavender and bees and AM SO EXCITED about these shots. I followed bees around for about 20 minutes trying to get macro shots of them on the lavender and I got TWOthat turned out. They will be framed on my wall for sure! I immediately texted my friend C a picture of the bees and said we had to come back the following weekend when we were in town.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend I spent back in Prince Edward County with some girlfriends, celebrating a birthday but also a weekend we all managed to be free (with three nursing friends it’s hard to find an open weekend!)

We left Ottawa around 2:30 pm to drive to check in to our Airbnb in Bloomfield. As soon as we checked in, we went in search of food and drinks!

We were recommended either Agrarian Bistro (3 doors down from our Airbnb) or Waring House and we decided to head to Waring House because the food is cheaper but just as tasty. We sat in the dining room overlooking the garden and ordered some food and beer/ wine. (Funny side note, a friend confidently ordered a 13 oz. glass of wine. It was a 9 oz. glass for $13). I recommend either the fish tacos or the curry bowl. Both were full of flavour and paired perfectly with a beer.

We stopped at LCBO in Picton, quickly dropped off our LCBO bottles and walked down the block to finish up with some Slicker’s Ice Cream. 100% recommend and ALMOST as good as Cow’s Ice Cream (originally from PEI but can be found in Niagara-on-the-Lake as we discovered in February). Friday evening we spent in the airbnb having a dance party and enjoying having a night off!

Saturday morning we got up and had a group breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomato, cheese and peppers, toast, tea/coffee and mimosas. That’s what is great about an Airbnb: you can cut costs by cooking food at home!

As we were waiting for our Wine Tour pickup, we saw a Lincoln limo drive by and I thought to myself “Wow, those people are fancy!” And then the driver walked up to our group asking for me. We so fancy!

We stopped at a total of six wineries and another local shop with homemade donuts and other baked goods (nick, our driver, was the best!) Our first stop was Sugarbush, followed by the Broken Stone, Harwood, Sandbanks, Chadseys, and finally Huff Estates.

The wine at Sugarbush was trumped by the golden retrievers. The winery owner described how one bottle of wine was named after their dog “Maple” and it was a maple wine (which I conveniently bought) and that when they bought two more golden retrievers, their kids named them Acer (Latin for maple) and Taffy as an homage to Maple.

At the Broken Stone, it started pouring just as a group of bikers on a wine tour showed up and one girl completely wiped out! So unfortunate and happened in front of about 20 of us on the porch.

Harwood Estates had a great pairing of four wines with four samples of their own food. I ended up buying three blocks of cheese, the summer sausage AND the Mufflato panini to go. Clearly they’re doing something right!

Sandbanks was easily my favourite stop for the wine. I got two bottles of their Route 33, a sparkling wine and a white. Their homemade mustard was also to die for!

Chadsey’s was easily the most photogenic place on the tour.

Sunday we stopped back at the Lavender Farm in Prince Edward County. I’m so glad we got there right at 10 AM because by about 10:30 AM it was already really busy! At 10 AM we were able to hear the bees buzzing in the field and take some pretty great pictures.

Finally, we went to the Sandbanks Dunes to sit in the sun (or in my case sit in the shade) and finish a relaxing weekend relaxing on the beach.

And that’s a wrap! I will definitely go back for another weekend one day, I love exploring near home as well as overseas!

Thanks for stopping by.