{"id":787723,"date":"2026-07-08T07:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787723\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T07:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:06:16","slug":"keep-exploring-canada-our-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787723\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep exploring Canada \u2013 Our Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. James<\/p>\n

Most people have heard of Niagara Falls, but have you heard of nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake? They are a mere 22 kilometres apart, but are uniquely different.<\/p>\n

We recently travelled to Ontario for a family event, and started the holiday with a visit to this lush region. Aptly-named the \u2018greenbelt,\u2019 there are orchards and vineyards as far as the eye can see. In fact, there are 55 wineries listed in the Travel Guide, each with their own history and flavours.<\/p>\n

As a Slurpee connoisseur, I was intrigued by De Simone\u2019s roadside ad for wine slushies. We were treated to the family history of the vineyard and atmosphere of another world. I\u2019ve never enjoyed \u201cnotes of peach\u201d in a slushie before. Let\u2019s just say I may now be in a different bevvie bracket.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Photo
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Wanda Prychitko<\/p>\n

The Prince of Wales Hotel sits prominently in the centre of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., which community correspondent Wanda Prychitko recently visited.<\/p>\n

Further down the highway we entered the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which also has an \u2018old town\u2019 section filled with historical buildings and mercantile of an era gone by. The Prince of Wales Hotel sits prominently in the centre of town. Even if you don\u2019t stay overnight, you can enjoy a cuppa in the lounge and soak up the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

If you fancy some theatre, the Shaw Festival is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America and has been performing since 1962. Reserve your tickets early \u2014 they sell out fast.<\/p>\n

We were impressed with Lake Ontario, which actually has a smaller surface area than Lake Winnipeg but is much deeper. From a lakeside park we viewed both the distant Toronto skyline as well as Fort Niagara, which is actually on U.S. soil just a few hundred metres away. We also noticed a boat and helicopter seemingly defending their border \u2014 but maybe that was just our imagination.<\/p>\n

Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Absolutely everyone we came into contact with was lovely and happy to have us there.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The 401 is NOT as scary as I\u2019ve always imagined.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Audio Google Maps is so much easier than reading a map while driving.<\/p>\n

\u2022 When you find a location that resonates with you, take your time there.<\/p>\n

Our only regret was that we didn\u2019t stay longer. Our next visit will be in the fall, to enjoy the colours my mother used to cherish while growing up in Oakville, and to experience as many of the 15 apple varieties as possible.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Wanda<\/p>\n

Wanda Prychitko
St. James-Assiniboia community correspondent\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wanda Prychitko is a community correspondent for St. James-Assiniboia.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Read full biography<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. James Most people have heard of Niagara Falls, but have you heard of nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake? They are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-787723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}