A ‘Countylicious’ getaway just a couple of hours from Peterborough
The sand dunes and beaches of Lake Ontario are a remarkable phenomenon of Prince Edward County
The term “staycation” is a fairly recent coinage describing short vacations in areas adjacent to one’s home place. Such a stay includes a comfortable change of scene and a refreshing immersion in nearby opportunities.
We have used the notion to justify short vacations we take from our Nova Scotia home on the south shore in the summer. Those adventures are many and have included Halifax, the Annapolis Valley, Cape Breton, and the Northumberland Shore. In this instance, I am applying the term to brief sojourns from Peterborough, particularly in the springtime. One can go in many directions — west to Lake Simcoe or Orillia, or north to Haliburton, Algonquin Park and the Huntsville area.
In late April, we met Toronto friends in Prince Edward County for a get-together and a welcome change of pace. The county is a happening and fertile place — busy but blessedly uncrowded in the spring. The county juts out appealingly into Lake Ontario just south of Belleville and Trenton. It includes attractive towns like Picton, Wellington and Bloomfield, and smaller places like Ameliasburgh, where poet Al Purdy built his famous A-frame home and, back in the day, entertained many Canadian writers and friends.
Purdy made the Roblin Lake area an important place to visit. In the county as a whole, new vineyards, restaurants, galleries and small businesses seem to be springing up season by season. There is a lot of new money in the county these days and as a result prices for accommodation and dining are on the rise.
We made our reservation for rooms at the Huff Estates Winery and Inn. Our room was large and airy — it included a capacious suite with a king-size bed and patio. The large bathroom had a shower and Jacuzzi. Though our days were sunny, the temperature remained cool, so we ignored the patio. The Huff Estates also includes the Oeno Gallery, a sculpture garden, and a wine-tasting facility, along with its own vineyards.
Our visitors package included a daily wine tasting and our choice of a bottle of Huff red or white. A hot breakfast was also included. Best of all, we enjoyed an off-season room rate that was attractive. The first morning of our stay, we were able to watch a large team of workers carefully pulling up the vines that had been buried for the winter and attaching them to the trellises so that they would not rot in the spring rains and would have access to the sun. All this took place with quiet efficiency in a vineyard not far from our room.
The county is pleasant drive from Peterborough. Travelling via Keene, Hastings and Warkworth, we made it in less than two hours and saw little traffic on route. We had lunch along the way near Warkworth and arrived at Huff to check in and have a nap before our 3:30 p.m. wine tasting. It being early season, the four of us were able to enjoy special and informative treatment from Brian, the sommelier. It was evident from the size of the tastings area (with tables both inside and outside) that the wine tastings are very popular events here, especially during the tourist-heavy summer season. And of course there are numerous wineries in the county.
Among the many dining experiences available to us were the Drake Devonshire, the Royal Hotel, the Merrill House, the Waring House, Waupoos Estate, and Flame and Smith. They were all participating in what is called Countylicious. The promotion in place for several weeks in both the spring and the fall promises a $60 price for a three-course dinner involving selected items from the regular menu. The first night we chose to dine at the grandly renovated Royal Hotel (Picton) and the second night at Flame and Smith (Bloomfield). Both were first-rate experiences — each provided sufficient choice and top-notch friendly service. Neither was crowded during our visit.
We had one full day to travel the county and, with many options available, including several wineries. We spent our time near Picton and Wellington. In Picton, we visited Base 31 which is a large-scale reworking of what was a Second World War air force base, described now as both a business park and an airport — the developers have labelled it “the hottest new cultural destination in Prince Edward County,” with emphasis on regular concerts and events already underway.
Its scale and size are extraordinary, but there was so much construction underway when we visited that it was impossible to explore the various projects. Instead, we spent an hour in Picton’s Books and Company, a terrific independent bookstore (with adjacent coffee house), and then had lunch at the Acoustic Grill, a mainstreet pub and music venue. In the afternoon, we moved on to Wellington where toured the town, taking note of the Midtown Brewery and the Drake Devonshire Hotel (both of which we had visited a year or two ago).
Then we worked our way back and, having found an open entrance to the Sandbanks Provincial Park, we located a flat access point through the dunes to the wide and wonderful Sandbanks Dunes Beach and the shores of Lake Ontario.
The sand dunes and beaches of Lake Ontario are a remarkable phenomenon of Prince Edward County and in imaginative ways they link the ever-popular Sandbanks Provincial Park with the long-standing silting of Cobourg Harbour and the power of the shifting sand that Jane Urquhart describes so evocatively in her novel “A Map of Glass” (2005). That book is partly set in Prince Edward County during its difficult past. In it, she describes a once-flourishing 19th-century hotel that was gradually buried under the slowly moving lake sand. She calls it “the hotel that sleeps, quietly, under the dunes.” Urquhart has a vivid way of using the natural landscape and the built structures of the early settlers to evoke both irrevocable change and the human struggle to see and to survive.
What a refreshing and stimulating staycation it was for the four of us.
We were caught up in the energy and busyness of the county, attracted to its many lakes and harbours, and charmed by the spirit of hospitality we experienced on our various stops. The visit encouraged me to return to Urquhart’s novel and provided me with just the pick-meup I needed for the rest of the spring season. Prince Edward County is much closer to Peterborough than Niagara-on-the Lake and rivals that famous town in its attractions. I haven’t even mentioned the many bike trails that snake through its fertile lands.