My sister and i have been planning to go to the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory for a while, and we finally did it this week.

First stop was a winery tour, Hillebrand to be specific. I've been there before, but i thought it'd be good to go to one i knew had a decent restaurant. I think this tree is chokecherry.

Here's the winery's 'main street' - store to right, restaurant behind the people, my sister waiting on the bench for a bus.

That truck is unloading, vines in the background.

That's the Skylon on the Escarpment (actually, quite a ways back on it). I didn't realize we were straight north of Niagara Falls.

I forget what that tower is for, ha ha. These must be icewine vines, because they have the plastic that can protect them.

Grapes being dumped with stems and such, headed inside to the de-stemmer.

Our tour guide, Daniel. He was very animated, and very informative. We didn't really believe he was married with kids, ha ha. Easily the best winery tour i've had.

Those giant towers are filled with fermenting grape juice - there are little pipes of cold water that can cool the towers down (as fermenting create heat).

The restaurant from the outside.

Down in the 'champagne' cellar (i think). The first wine we tasted, Trius Brut, outside, was the champagne-like sparkling wine. Very tart, acidic - i liked it. Then we tried a white, unoaked chardonnay, i think, by the vineyards. The guide taught us how to sample the wine, and why. Here we're trying an oaked red, a cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot blend.

The French oak barrels cost 1000$ a piece (the American ones cost half as much, and can overpower the wine).

Sparkling wine bottles - one was missing (because it sploded).

The machine that removes the leftover yeast inside the sparkling wine bottles.

We went back up outside and into the store, and tried the icewine. I haven't quite enjoyed icewine, because i found it cloyingly sweet, too much like lychee. But the riesling icewine was very good, more like pineapple (so i assume it's the vidal i've had before). I was surprised we had 4 tastes of wine, equivalent to at least a glass.

My sister paid the 10$ (5 each) for the tour, and said i could pay for lunch - she laughed at time, ha ha. For lunch, my sister had the daily soup, something tomato and red pepper, which came with an unfiltered chardonnay, and for main 'Hand Cut Pappardelle Pasta', with smoked chicken, spiced pork sausage, artichokes and sweet peppers, in a tomato sauce, which came with a merlot. I had the peach and watercress salad (with radish, fennel, and prosciutto), which came with a glass of muscat (say what? never heard of muscat wine being made in Canada, and it was a little bland). For the main, i had the 'three sliders' (mini-burgers), with icewine onion marmalade - one was chicken, one was very sweet pork, the other was beef. I enjoyed my previous meal at Hillebrand more. With tax and tip, lunch for the two of us cost 130$, so my sister offerred to cover me at the Butterfly Conservatory, ha ha. And why did i only photograph my appetizer?

Outside the Butterfly Conservatory. As we headed towards the entry, some women asked us if we were going in, and gave us a couple of spare tickets she had, so we got in for free, ha ha.

Stay still! There was not enough light for good photography inside - most shots were at 1/8 of a second.

Half of these ones are pale brown inside, the others bright blue - but they hardly flapped once down.

There were hatching butterfies too.

My sister's fancy camera.

I tried the flash - ick.

How rude!

Sister (left) and butterfly.

One landed on my sister's butt.

See? Blue inside.

Bum buddies - they must be sharing a small office.

Not the same as the blue ones above - this is a swallowtail.

This looked like a pale blue monarch.

After, we had to run through the rain to get back to the car, and then went to Niagara Falls. The sun came out for a bit, but then went hiding.

A composite of three shots (i'm getting better with this).

Very grey out.

Sister!

Ha ha, very specific signs.

Maid of the Mist.

Rocks below the American Falls - i liked how the sheets of water came over the rocks,

In summer, this place is packed with tourists.

On the way back, the rain started coming down hard - luckily, i had my umbrella, and my sister had a hooded nylon jacket.

Sometime, i'm going to come down to Niagara Falls and visit all the cheesy places on Clifton (Castle Dracula? Louis Tussaud's? ha ha). About halfway home, the radio said traffic was still bad in TO, so we went off the highway looking for some place to eat - i was hoping for a Lick's, until we finally gave up and went to McDonald's. Ha ha, my sister said she'd cover it (she also paid for parking at the Falls). Turns out it costs less than the tip on lunch. On the other hand, we got to enjoy the McDonald's food over and over, ha ha. Fun day.