We just got back from a lovely weekend in Maine.  My father was kind enough to treat us to a nice weekend at the beach.  He asked me to take care of all the bookings for him so I immediately turned to Trip Advisor.  I was booking on pretty short notice so I did a bit of research and decided on Old Orchard Beach as it was such a family friendly location.  I started calling the list of accomodations with good reviews on Trip Advisor until I found The Alouette Beach Resort that had availability for the nights we needed.  The reviews for it were all good except one so I decided to take a chance.  Oh my, did I make a mistake.  We arrived in a massive rain storm which did nothing to make it look more inviting.  From the outside it was grubby and rundown.  The inside was actually worse.  My parents’ room  was absolutely tiny, and so old and in need of updating we would have gone elsewhere if they hadn’t already charged us the full amount.  There was no screen door, the fridge was rusty and broken, it reeked of smoke, the bedspread and carpet looked like they may have survived World War II.  It was so awful, we had to take pictures.

Now looking at those pictures, think about the fact that we spent $192 US a night for that dump.  Oh my!  People actually walked up to us on the beach just to tell us how bad our hotel was. 

The weekend was wonderful, the beach was great, we had a really nice time.  I just wished we had stayed elsewhere.  I am hoping people will see this post before they book there…and also, please post other suggestions of better places to stay in Old Orchard Beach.

Okay so I am a terrible blogger!  I am so sorry that I didn’t update my blog after last Monday.  We went on vacation and I thought I would be able to update and I couldn’t log on…sigh.

We took a lovely trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario to do some yummy wine tasting.  We hit some fabulous wineries, standouts were as follows:

1 – Lailey – This was a small vineyard where we got a great tour and really learnt a lot about the process. We got to taste a wine that was still in the fermenting process and wasn’t even close to being ready, it was incredibly tannic.  They make an ice wine that is not nearly as sweet as most ice wines and we really loved it.

2 – Cave Springs – This was one of the last wineries we went to and we bought three bottles!  Their Reislings were terrific – we bought a Reisling Dry and a Reisling Dolomite, as well as their Late Harvest.  Late Harvest is almost an ice wine, but not doesn’t meet the strict requirements to be called ice wine and is usually less sweet and syrupy.  This late harvest was full of fruity flavours and truly outstanding.

3 – Vineland – This was the last one we visited and it was just a beautiful location and building.  The staff were super nice and their Reislings were great, as were their ice wines.

4 – Thirteenth Street – We had to hunt for this one, which is not along the main strip of wineries.  My sister-in-law recommended it for sparkling wine.  They make it in the traditional method and it is superb!  We bought 2 bottles, but I am sure we will order more online.  You should definitely check this stuff out if you like a dry sparkling wine.