Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Day 3, June 12, 2012

Day 3 started off with a wonderful breakfast. We took a few more pictures of McKinnon's Bed and Breakfast and then started off on our morning of more Schumacker heritage discoveries. Our innkeepers had suggested we visit the Marsh Society and Gipson Gallery, both great places for research. The Gipson Gallery is a former train station turned into an art gallery of historical significance. We found a painting of the mission church, St. Jean Baptiste, which was established by French priests in 1802. The new church was eventually built in 1844 and was the site of Thomas B. White and Margaret Colburn's wedding in 1853. We were able to find the actual church and a secretary graciously allowed us inside. What a treat! Thomas had donated the stone for the building from his quarry. He was also the Reeve (city manager) of Anderdon. The church was simply beautiful and contained many of the original mission's furnishings, including the organ. We then visited the Marsh Society, which is an historical records and artifacts house. We just kept stumbling onto more and more information about our family! We read an account of Chief Joe White and Angelique's 50th wedding anniversary celebration with great details. We had these copied to add to our own archives. Also purchased a book at the church containing the location of each grave at the Wyandotte Cemetery. The lady at the Marsh Society was very helpful and said we were "lucky we have a famous family member! We then began our travels along Lake Erie and the Essex County Wine Route. We had to make the very difficult decision of which of the 13 or more wineries we would visit as we made our way to London Ontario. Our first stop was at Sprucewood Shores Winery set amongst the vineyards and on Lake Erie. We had our tastings and then purchased our favorite kinds of wine. Next stop was Viewpoint Estate Winery. Wow what a location. Again right on Lake Erie. Again we did our tastings and bought more of our favorites! At Viewpoint we were able to have a glass of wine with some delicious appetizers. We then were off to Pelee Island Winery. This was actually our favorite as far as the wines were concerned. The actual vineyard is on Pelee Island which takes about 2 hours by ferry to get there. It is a 600 acre vineyard. We visited the retail store in Kingsville Ontario. There we again did our tastings and again bought some more wine, the best so far! By the end of our winery trip we had a nice variety of wines for this part of our winery visits. Lynn and Larry will have the ability to visit more wineries in the Niagara on the Lake area Saturday. We ended our day by driving to London Ontario about 2 hours northeast. There we stayed at the Woodfield Bed and Breakfast. A 135 year old home beautifully renovated into a great Bed and Breakfast. The innkeepers Anne and Damian are originally from Ireland, they purchased the home 10 years ago spending 2 years on the renovation. We enjoyed our own balcony with Jim and Paula and while sampling some more of our wines from the day. Tomorrow Port Stanley Ontario.

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