Port Huron to Niagara-on-the-Lake

I departed Tuesday morning for a rainy drive over the Blue Waters bridge into Ontario. It rained most of the time, and the three and one half hour drive to Niagara-on-the-Lake was uneventful. There is not as much signage on Canadian expressways, and they don't put their gas stations and hotels just off the interstate.  That gives you some more pastoral views. I arrived at my hotel in Queenston, Ontario, around eleven thirty. My quarters at the South Landing Inn and its 1970s vintage appliances are shown below.

There I met my friends Jean Anne, husband of my colleague from Notre Dame Rich Strebinger, Jean Anne's sister Agnes, and Prof. Lewis Nicolson, now 90, and Jean Anne's Ph.D. advisor at Notre Dame in the 1980s.  Jean Anne and Agnes have been coming to the Shaw Festival for many years, as their father was a Shaw scholar.  Prof. Nicolson is a grand man, moving a little slowly these days, who is a linguist for many years in our English department.  His refined taste does not extend to Shaw, but he tolerates this so that he may attend the nearby Shakespeare Festival later with Jean Anne and Agnes. After a quick lunch, we took in the 2:00 PM offering of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler."  It was the best of the four plays I saw here.  We sat close to the projected stage, and the actors were wonderful, along with the sets and music.  I ran into a colleague from Ohio State, Prof. Bob Brodkey and his wife Carolyn, who I discovered was a Shaw enthusiast.  For dinner we were joined by a retired Notre Dame faculty member from anthropology, Prof. Ken Moore, who lives in the area now. I had not known Ken, but we had many mutual friends.  Ken had a lot of stories of his many literary friends who he had known over the years.  At eight, we attended Shaw's "The Millionairess".  I had not seen it, and would rate it as a "B" effort.  It was written in the 1930s and focused on money.  We all turned in around eleven.

On Wednesday morning, we all had breakfast in the Inn, and then drove to town for a bit of shopping and lunch.  The 2:00 PM show was another Shaw offering, "Misalliance" which was about how people choose to marry and problems with families.  It was a typical Shaw farce and very funny.   After the play we all took a look at the robust Niagara River and the nearby Fort Niagara.   The Fort and then Jean Anne, Prof. Nicolson, and Agnes are pictured below.

After a fine Italian dinner, we took in Inge's "Come Back Little Sheba."  It had a full load of family troubles mixed in with Jim Beam whiskey.  It was well acted as well.

I write the following morning (Thursday) from the breakfast room's WiFi, waiting for Jean Anne, Agnes, and Prof. Nicolson to join me.  They will move on to Stratford's Shakespeare Festival today, and I will make my way back to Michigan to renew my Chevrolet Heritage tour.