Falling in Love with Niagara

After visiting both Iguazu Falls in South America and Victoria Falls in Southern Africa, I have now finally made it to Niagara Falls a few hours from NYC.  The biggest hurdle to visiting Niagara was that most of my friends made the trip as kids, but luckily my dear friend Norm was up for the adventure.  We dubbed this our honeymoon and rented Marilyn Monroe's classic "Niagara" for the road.

A one hour flight to Buffalo and a 40 minute cab ride to Canada was all it took to get the perfect view of Niagara Falls.  We went all out with a top floor, balcony room at the Sheraton-on-the-Falls.  The view of the American Falls was spectacular!  The Canadian, or Horseshoe Falls, was shrouded in mist most of the time, but lovely just the same.

Norm and I spent a sunny day walking all around, behind and in the falls. The only view we missed was from a barrel going over, and we saw a video of that.  The area surrounding the American Falls is a state park, the most visited in the nation, and it is truly the best way to enjoy the area.  We heard that the town nearby was sad and not worth stopping so we didn't.  The Canadian side boasts the best views of both falls and the cheesy but fun attractions of the Maid of the Mist, and the exhilarating Journey Behind the Falls.  Unfortunately, the Canadian side hotels and restaurants are frighteningly touristy.  At least we were treated to perfect views during all our meals.  Our favorite dinner was in the new Niagara Fallsview Casino.  While we didn't hit the jackpot gambling, we did at Noir 17 with an amazing meal and beautifully paired wines.

On Sunday we headed a half hour north along the river to Niagara-on-the-Lake, called "the prettiest town in Canada." It's indeed adorable.  Our walk around Lake Ontario with a view of Toronto was amazing.  The real attraction here is the local wine country and their specialty, Vidal Icewine.  We visited Peller Estates and were treated to a behind the scenes tour and tasting.  We could hardly carry all our Icewine purchases!  We also stopped at Reif Estate Winery on the way back to the falls and add more bottles to our collection.

Niagara Falls Honeymoon--check!  Next stop Angel Falls...Anyone want to go to Venezuela?   

Luck of the Irish

Last week I had the difficult assignment of accompanying a group of journalists to the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery.  It was a rough job, but someone had to do it!  Without a doubt, this trip is one of the highlights of my MMC travel assignments!

Here’s my taste of Ireland…

Dublin

From the Fitzwilliam Hotel on St. Stephen’s Green, everything looks beautiful!  Our merry band of nine started off with lunch at the Old Jameson Distillery (first Jameson and Ginger consumed in Ireland). The Irish Whiskey making history tour and “experience bar” set the tone for our trip—we would be eating and drinking constantly!    

We had wonderful meals including a tasting dinner at Chapter One, which goes on my list of most fabulous meals.  There was Pub crawling, Temple Bar hopping and the best nightcap spot, No. 27 Bar in the Shelbourne Hotel.  I also had a chance to shop Grafton Street, visit the Irish Writers Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland, where I fell in love with Jack B. Yeats, and The Hugh Lane gallery.  Of course I made it over to Trinity  College to see the ancient Book of Kells and even took in a comedy “Grumpy Old Women” (not comments please!) at the gorgeous 140 year old Gaiety Theatre.  In sum, even in the cold rain, Dublin rocks!

County Cork

Our group took the train for a couple of hours south to County Cork to experience the current Jameson Distillery and meet with the men behind the whiskey.  We had behind the scenes tours of the whiskey making operation and got to meet one of Ireland’s three remaining Coopers.  A Cooper is a chap who makes the wood barrels that store wine and spirits.  Today most barrels or casks are made by machine, but it still takes a Cooper to repair them.  He was charming!

All full of whiskey expertise, we had a special dinner in the Jameson Master Distiller's cottage.  Barry Crockett, the Master Distiller, was actually raised in the cottage since the honor was passed down from father to son, like the Cooper trade.  I started to wonder what I'll do back at home without a perfectly paired tasting menu presented to me for dinner each night.  Oh, and did I mention that I’m falling in love with Irish Whiskey?

OK, if I had to cook these fabulous meals myself, I'd enroll in the Ballymaloe Cookery School (http://www.cookingisfun.ie/) which we visited before another fabulous lunch at the Ballymaloe House.  Ballymaloe is an Irish manor house on a rural 200 acre estate.  I would say it doesn’t get much better than this, but it does.  The highlight of our trip was our stay in Castlemartyr Hotel (http://www.castlemartyrresort.ie/), a classic 18^th century manor house located next to the ruins of an 800 year old castle built by knights.  The history is presented in five star luxury.  The bar was formerly a chapel, but the spa and swimming pool were all brand new.  They opened the hotel just for our Jameson group, so it felt like we all had a private staff.  My Irish country experience is complete!

Sláinte!