Our Anniversary Trip to Belleville, Ontario

This year was our 12th anniversary and we decided to escape to Belleville, Ontario! A month ago, as a matter of fact. So yeah, I'm super on time with getting this post up. Ha! Anyway, if you're new here, we go somewhere every year on our anniversary that we've never visited together. Since we have Indy, I try to find places that are super dog-friendly. Not only did I manage that this time, but I found a hotel that actually has an in-house dog. The best!

Upon checking in at the Best Western in Belleville, Ontario, they gave us one of the coolest tour books I've seen. It's in the form of a story book and it is full of guides to food, shops, and sites. We only got to do a few of the things, so we're already thinking about making a day trip this summer!

The pool at the hotel was amazing. There were motion-sensored lights in the area and the change room. There was a nice TV that faced the hot tub and the pool and lots of seating. The hot tub is pretty small, but I was in the pool area by myself most evenings so I didn't mind. The hotel was quiet during our stay, though we were there on a Sunday and Monday night.

The rooms have a coffee maker and a mini-fridge, which is in that little cabinet on the bottom left. There was also a couch, perfect for eating our meals and propping up my iPad for some Netflix viewing. A table on the other side of the room had wheels that made it easy to move in front of the couch. The bed was pretty comfortable, coming from someone who has a bad knee and lower back pain after accidents. It was too high for our dog to jump up on, so he was slightly less of a happy camper about the bed. Sorry to all the short pups! Indy did make full use of the chair and couch, but not after sulking that he couldn't get on the bed. Dogs...

Breakfast was included and not too shabby. I say yes to any breakfast that I don't have to wake up and personally cook. We were able to load our plates up and bring them back to the room. They had muffins, waffles, eggs, sausage one day, bacon another day, cinnamon buns, toast, yogurt, and the like.

One really cool thing in the lobby is that they have a popcorn machine! You can come in the afternoon and evening hours for free popcorn. They have little bags set up to scoop some out. My husband is a popcorn fiend so he utilized this option on both nights. Bob's Burgers on Netflix and popcorn in hand and my husband was good to go!

The popcorn was cool, but not the best thing about the Best Western. Nope, not even close. That award goes to Jam, the cutest hotel employee around. Honestly, I now think every hotel should have a dog on their employee roster. Look at that face! Indy and Jam enjoyed bumping noses and it did not take long for Indy to realize that going into the lobby also meant treats from the staff. Every time we went out to fill the ice bucket, he'd keep leading the leash to the lobby door.

While reading the discovery guide, it mentioned a ghost town. Fun fact: I love abandoned places! So we drove to Point Anne. It was a little hard to find, but we got there. Pretty neat to see the ruins of buildings and what once was.

We also went to Zwick Centennial Park for a nice long walk with Indy. We couldn't find the right road and it took far longer to get there than we originally intended. Belleville has some streets where they are labeled on one end and not the other. It made navigating difficult at times. But we found it! The lake was starting to thaw and the sun was shining. There were loads of benches facing the water to sit and enjoy the view and they were easy to get to on a paved pathway. A huge playground and dog park are also in the park. Highly recommend for a nice day out!

Now for the food. Ahhh, the best part. We really splurged since it was our anniversary. Go big or go home! We tried Toppers Pizza the first night and ordered enough to have dinner for the next day, as well. We got the pepperoni and the veggie and both were good. For lunch the next day, we went to Burger Revolution. As a huge fan of Food Network, I haaaad to. It was featured on the show "You Gotta Eat Here!", where the host travels Canada and showcases various restaurants. It was Monday and I do Meatless Monday, so I really appreciated that they offer veggie patties with all of their options. I ordered the Propaganda Burger with a side of onion rings. Not bad!

On our final day, we stopped in Reid's Dairy which is built to look like a giant castle. I learned that they offered the chocolate vanilla swirl and I am telling you right now that I find it so hard to find these days. Just give me a good chocolate vanilla swirl, people! We got it in a cup because we were on the road and I had rather not attempt eating a cone while moving in a car. And I'm pretty sure it's a proven fact that Oreos just make everything better.

So there we have a few highlights from our trip! It was cool to explore a ghost town and eat at a place that was featured on Food Network and be checked out of our room by the furriest hotel employee in town. You don't always have to go far to have an adventure!