One year later….

Well – its official. It has been one year since we packed up our place in T.O. and drove down the 403 to settle in Hamilton.

Does this mean we’re no longer newbies here?

I don’t think so. Sure – I know a lot more about the ins and outs of Hamilton than I did 12 months ago, but there is still a lot to learn…

I started this blog with the goal of documenting our travels as we explored our new home – everything from restaurants to tourist attractions and day-to-day Hamilton experiences.

Ultimately, we didn’t want to be hermits in our new town. So we made a point of seeing and experiencing everything we could.

In the last year, this has included, but is not limited to: skating, Dundurn Castle, the farmer’s market, trails, art crawls, the art gallery, Dundas, Ancaster, Ottawa Street, Locke Street, the waterfront, Supercrawls, festivals galore, Legions, Tweet ups and parties, rock climbing (and of course, the dog parks.)

We also found great Ethiopian food, BBQ restaurants, Japanese restaurants, coffee pubs, regular pubs and more. We’ve met loads of awesome people – some that grew up in Hamilton, others that are newbies like us – all intent on enjoying this city and making it the best it can be.

And to top it all off, we literally became invested in Hamilton.

We haven’t seen it all. Not by a long shot. Hamilton is a smaller city, sure. And after a year of serious exploring, we’ve scratched the surface. We’re comfortable – we know where to go for groceries, a beer, a fun Friday night, or to get out into nature for an afternoon.

But there’s more. For instance, I learned the first week we were here that Hamilton is a city of waterfalls. I will sheepishly admit that I haven’t yet gone to see one of these. Definitely on the list for 2012.

There are loads of great restaurants that we’ve yet to try out – in all corners of the city. There are more trails to discover, some festivals to attend that we didn’t make it to in 2011.

In short, it has been an eventful and busy first year for us in Hamilton. Much like the city itself, we’ve had good times and bad. But our quest to find the best that Hamilton has to offer is far from over. It seems we’re here for the long haul.

Spectacular, Christmas Spectacular

UPDATE: So, remember how I was looking for the perfect holiday event to get in the Christmas mood? Last week, I found it.

After hearing all of the hype about this event on social media, hubby and I decided to buy tickets to Kitestring creative branding studio Christmas Spectacular event.

Now, we’ve been to a couple of events run by the Kitestring crew before, and they are a fun, ebullient bunch. We always have a good time and needless to say, we had high hopes for this event.

It didn’t disappoint.

So what made it so great?

In my post-party analysis, I came to the conclusion that this particular event ended up being the perfect blend of what many people are looking for this time of year, namely: 1) fun (including good food and drink) 2) giving back and 3) supporting local business.

First of all, it was held at the beautiful, grand old Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts building on James Street South. I had never been inside this building before (truth be told, I didn’t even know it was there until I spied it while walking to the GO station one day earlier this month).

Once inside, we were greeted with comfort food a-go-go – I’m talking Red Hill coffee bar, candy bar and Cake & Loaf COOKIES AND MILK bar (hubby’s fave). All hopped up on sugar and caffeine, we headed to the Christmas Pageant part of the evening’s event.

Yes, this was not a typical mix and mingle/drinks and hors d’oeuvres holiday party – the centrepiece of the event was a Christmas Pageant in the Conservatory’s theatre.

As the show went on, I mentioned to hubby that it felt like we were at a school Christmas play (in a good way) – we were entertained by local professional performers, young and old, with fabulous voices, dancing skills or musical talents (with one of our faves being blues guitarist Rita Chiarelli).

While we thoroughly enjoyed the pageantry part of the evening, the after party was where the event seemed to truly shine.

The Conservatory houses a fantastic loft space, complete with outdoor, rooftop patio (a little chilly at this time of year, but I got the picture.) A live rockabilly band was playing, party-goers were lined up to taste the alcoholic snowcones and a snack table that took me back to birthday party days (think chips, cupcakes & little sandwiches). Essentially, we were surrounded by food, drink, music and new friends. What more could you ask for from a Christmas party?

To top it all off, the event was for the greater good – each ticket paid for one month of after school arts programming with Culture for Kids in the Arts.

I could go on and on about this event, but you get the jist. If you get the chance next year, make sure you go!

The End of Summer (or Hamilton's endless summer?)

In Toronto, the “universally” accepted definition of the end of summer is the arrival of the CNE – the Ex. Personally, the Ex has never really been a part of my end of summer traditions (ie: I’ve obviously been, but its not a tradition), but without fail, when it comes to town, talk of school starting and the arrival of fall are not far behind.

This led me to wonder about the equivalent “end of summer” sign in Hamilton. What I do know is that Hamilton had a ton of summer festivals, and we managed to make it to a great deal of them, as mentioned in previous posts – Its Your Festival, Festival of Friends, BuskerFest and most recently, the Augusta Block Party (awesome chili cook-off!) and the Winona Peach Festival (which, as an aside, was much bigger than we thought it would be!)

My conclusion is that Hamilton doesn’t really have an end of summer tradition (not that I’m aware of anyway), but the party seems to continue into fall, with exciting events like the Locke Street Festival and the James Street North Supercrawl to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, along with all of the usual pumpkin and apple-related events that fall seems to bring. I’m particularly interested to see how James Street North hosts such a large event, with concerts and the like.

Looking forward to our first autumn in The Hammer! If you know of any other great end of summer or early fall events that we should check out, please let me know!