Sunday, September 24, 2006

Grape Growers Luncheon

This past Wednesday, we went to the Grape Growers of Ontario luncheon. It was in St. Catharine's and the guest speaker was Dan Aykroyd who has recently become very involved with some Ontario wineries.

These pictures aren't the best because the lighting was poor and I didn't have a super-duper flash. He gave a good speach about Canada and the wine industry.


As you can see though, we had pretty good seats. And we had great table mates. We were seated with a bunch from Niagara College and the Dean of the Enviroment, Horticulture & Agribusiness Division was seated just to my right. He's the dude in charge at the Wine School! He gave me his card and said "When you're ready, give me a call." SWEET! Jim was talking to another guy from the Teaching Winery about satellite internet and this gentleman has a friend who needs internet. He took Jim's card and the friend called the next day. Jim's got the job for next week.

The food was really good too. To start we had a lovely salad of mixed greens (no spinach - I checked) & almonds with little grapes and a red wine vinaigrette. Everyone got chicken, but I had wonderfully seasoned vegetables in phyllo pastry and we all had little baby potatoes and broccoli with red peppers. Wine was served from Lakeview Cellars and EastDell Estates which are two of the wineries that make up part of Niagara Cellars of which Mr. Aykroyd has invested in. For dessert we had a plum tart which was really good and some late harvest wine from Birchwood Estate Wines also included in the Niagara Cellars group.

When lunch was finished, mostly everyone started to leave. A lot of the people that were there were grape growers of course, but also the usual local politicians, business men, etc. and they all had to go back to work. Some people were hanging around to get photos and autographs, and Jim & I were just sitting at our table finishing our drinks. I had to go to the bathroom and we were going to decide what to do next. When I came out, Jim was in the lobby saying that Dan was leaving. We got the door as he was getting ready to get into his car.

I didn't want to miss the opportunity to say hello so I gave Jim the camera, and just walked up to him and introduced myself and we had a little chat. He was so nice and very friendly and approachable. Such a super guy. He even called me Sweetie! That's been the most exciting lunch I've had in a long time. Probably ever.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

How cool that they made you a separate lunch without meat! It sounds like a wonderful meal from start to finish. Yay for progressive people!!! Glad to hear you had such a great time and that you were able to get some photos to capture the event.

Anonymous said...

Great pix, Carrie!! I love you and Dan, that is a keeper. SWEETIE! We all know you are, nice that Mr. Aykroyd "gets you" too.

I love that you had veg food there, way to prepare.

And happy (belated) anniversary to you and Jim. Lucky Jim to have you!!

Harmonia said...

YAY! Glad you had fun! Oh! I responded to your latest comment on my blog. ;)

Tanya Kristine said...

no shit.

NO SHIT!!

how cool is that???

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

what an amazing experience!

Anonymous said...

You met Dan Akroyd! How cool is that?

What a great day!

Anonymous said...

Now you can say you met a celebrity! Glad to hear that you had a great time and enjoyed every bit of it.
"Happy Anniversary"

Anonymous said...

Lucky you! I'm so glad you caught him before he left and got that photo!

The whole event sounds great and your veggie food does too!! That's great you got the separate lunch veggie-style!

Anonymous said...

What a great experience!!!

Megan the Vegan