Windsor, Ontario (7/5/2015)

Although we considered just taking the day off, we decided to drive into Windsor and check out a couple of the things Collins had listed for our stop here.  Dave and Mazie decided to skip our adventure and trim and wash the dog, then drive out to a couple local wineries (where they bought 3 bottles of wine, but who's keeping track).  So off we went, first to the Canada Club Brand Center.  On the way we spotted a Best Buy so Marilyn checked in there for her Canada GPS software, but they didn't have it, so we continued on.  The guided tour started at noon, so we spent a few minutes wandering around the gift shop, then began the tour.  It was interesting, covered the history of how Hiram Walker decided to start this whiskey business in Canada, and continued through the prohibition years that, while was incorporated by Canada, did have an effect on the whiskey business across the River.

Our tour guide was good and made it very interesting.


This is now a museum, but a lot of the furniture, the walls, floors and ceilings, and the craftmanship of the carved wood are all original.  I sat at Mr. Walker's desk, and his ledger (original) is right there to look at.

You could see the Detroit River, separating U.S. and Canada, right through the windows in this building.

We stopped in the Speakeasy in the basement, and Joe made friends with Al Capone, who was a repeat customer of Canadian Club (no surprise there).

Then we ended in the tasting room, where we were each served a sample of their two new flavors, only available in Ontario, since October 2014.  A 100% rye and a maple rye.

So here's my very first ever taste of rye whiskey.

You can see that I thought it was yummy.  The second sample, the maple, was a little more palatable.

We left there and took their recommendation for a lunch spot -- Kildare's, a pub down the street.

Then we went to the Willistead Manor, the mansion one of Hiram Walker's sons built, 36 rooms for him and his wife (no children, but lots of servants).

The house and grounds were beautiful, on 15 acres I think, which is now a park, and the house is used for weddings, etc.

We probably got to see about half of the rooms, which did not contain much of the original furniture but did have period-authentic furnishings which were all donations.

The house was lovely of course, and our tour guide there was also very good.  I learned that the "drawing room" is the room the women withdraw to after dinner when the men went to the buillard room for their whiskey and cigars (or whatever).  So I have decided to name my scrapbook room at home my "drawing room" because it is where I go to withdraw (sounds better than "woman cave").

We finished that tour and headed back to camp.  I kept trying to get on the internet to work on the blog and finally went down to the office and sat in a chair for an hour and got one day posted.  Hopefully our next campground will have better internet, and we will be back in the U.S. so I can use my own Hotspot.

After dinner, we gathered again at the picnic table for a few games of 99.  The weather today and this evening was absolutely lovely, nice to sit outside, and I think we can open the bedroom window tonight.  I hope we can make it across the border tomorrow without getting searched again, but we will see.