as part of #12 on the 30 Before Thirty, michelle planned a date for this weekend. i was expecting “let’s go for dinner” or “here’s tickets to that thing you like.” i should have taken into account that michelle is naturally an overachiever and all kinds of thoughtful and awesome.
SO, it started friday, and basically just concluded. from friday until now, we were:
1. at a blue jays game!!! drinking beer! one of my fave toronto dates!
2. at the reenactment of the battle of 1812 in fort erie, drinking lemonade, vineyards, and wine tastings, and meandering around niagara-on-the-lake, and niagra falls, and dinner at the Stone Road Grille (a meal that will forever be filed away in my food-porn brain fantasies)

3. at the most honeymoon-y hotel in all of niagara falls. yes, that is a red, heart-shaped hot tub. flanked in mirrors.

4. and today, we spent the day at the Aberfoyle Antique Market!!
wait, did i mention we even had dogsitting for the weekend? spending 48 hours without any dumpling drool stains on our clothes went a long way in bringing the sexy back.

sooo ya. “date night.” the bar is high. i’m already scheming for next month…!
but, now that i’ve suffiently waxed romantic here, i mostly want to pump up how amazing and fun the Aberfoyle Antique Market was — so many treasures, not too far from toronto, GO THERE!
we got there reasonably early, a bit after 9, and some vendors were still setting up. if you are into refinishing furniture, fun antique treasures, obsessed with finding oddities and unique one-of-a-kind things for your home and loooOOoove to haggle, you must get yourself to this market!
if not for the treasures, for the poutine. with a side of pickles!

you know it’s a good weekend when you average a poutine per day. or that’s my measure anyways.

michelle and i wandered through all the stalls for literally hours, and still hadn’t even seen everything. there were so many treasures, all across the price board. i made off with a few treasures (a mini fur stole, antique wooden picture frame, and an adorable old cheesebox i’m going to repurpose), all for under $50!
i don’t haggle, but i do hum and haw an awful lot before deciding to buy something, which vendors seem to take as haggling. however, without fail, i did not pay full price for anything — as i stood there, brow furrowed, trying to decide whether or not i needed yet another ornate picture frame, the vendor bustles over — “it’s $10, and $10 is a great price. it’s a great frame. look at it! i mean, but, you know, i guess i could do $8 , but $8 is the lowest i could ever go. yes, $8 is the lowest.” indecision pays, people!
from antique pinup nudie art, to bureaus, to chairs, to books, to picture frames, to kitsch, to to shabby farmhouse — it is totally worth the hour & a half-ish drive from toronto to check it out. you can seriously spend your whole sunday here, and it’s a really fun thing to poke through all the treats, chat with the vendors, score something you didn’t even know you wanted, and it’s even more fun to do it with a cute girl on your arm.