O Canada!
We headed toward the falls and the border. Border crossing was quick and easy, and we opted to go right to our inn...it had been an early day! The inn where we stayed was about 15 minutes from the falls, in Thorold. The Keefer Mansion was built in 1886 by a prominent businessman in the area. See the review for the inn. Scott definately made the right choice of the accommodations! I LOVE places like that! It was perfect!
We checked in and laid around and napped a little untill we got hungry. So we ventured out to find something, although we had no idea where we would go! We started plugging things into the GPS in the car, and ended up about 20 minutes away in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The only thing that was open was Tim Hortons, a coffee shop that is literally on every corner in Canada. We had soup and sandwiches, and strange looks from the locals. The coffee shop was filled with everyone from a cluster of little old ladies just from church to college students studying.
Our room was the Jacob Keefer Room, 302, on the third floor. This was not the room that Scott origianally booked, but they let us look at several and pick the one we liked best. The inn is furnished with period-correct reproductions. A lot of the original woodwork does remain, and has been painstakenly stripped and refinished.
They have a restaurant that has been open about 18 months, and is doing very well. The downstairs common rooms have the bar, breakfast room and main dining room. Breakfast is included with your stay and is served each morning in the breakfast room. The innkeeper serves it herself, and is a light, Continental-style.
All the innkeepers we met during our visit were very pleasant and happy to give advice on where to eat or go. There were, however, curious as to how two people from Alabama found their inn!
Scott found the inn reviwed by Lonely Planet's website. It is off the beaten path from the tourist trap surrounding Niagara Falls.
We ate dinner there for our anniversary. We both had the beef tenderloin, and it was very good, very tender. Their wine selection is dissappointing, featuring mostly local wines (which we were hesitant to try). We settled on the one California cabernet sauvingnon that they had. The rest of our dinner was nce, but not outstanding.
