Special Session
Tues. Day 1 - Mom met us in Oxford. Drove to Nashville and enjoyed an evening with Beth and Hunter.
Day 2- Drive all day (about 12 hours) to Niagara Falls, NY. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe because Joe had never eaten at one. It was not terrible but it was not delicious. We walked down by the falls and got to see them from the U.S. side at night. Everyone told us that the Canada side is the side to see. But the U.S. side was still beautiful and made me excited to see what the more awesome Canadian view would offer. We stayed at the Comfort Inn which we exclusively referred to as the Comfort Dump after a night with a dodgy air conditioner. The room stunk from the large amount of perfume they had sprayed to cover up the cig smoke. But the continental breakfast the next morning was more than decent.
Dumb tourist moment. We had NO idea that Nik Wallenda was planning on doing this big tight rope walk. Beth and Hunter are the ones who informed us. I blame this on Mom. Joe and I had been at camp and Mom watches 3.3 hours of morning television every day. Sooooo, she should've heard about this I think. Either way, we lucked out. We JUST missed the over-hyped "historic" event by one day, so we successfully avoided the crowds but still get to claim we were there.
Day 3 - Niagara Falls day. A friend of mom's (Mike--she knows from horse stuff) drove up from Rochester, NY to show us around the falls. We drove across the boarder-- a process which took no time at all. Joe accidentally and unknowingly lied about us having alcohol in the car. Oops. We parked and walked along the falls.
The mist began to pick up. This makes pictures pretty difficult. We went a tourist stop to buy some ponchos. We walked along the side walk enjoying the view.
Then it was time for the Maid of the Mist-- the boat that you stand on and drive straight into the falls, sit there and get wet for a few minutes, then turn around. Before you get on the boat, you take a picture in front of a green screen so you can buy a pic of you on the boat after. Forget the fact that you're about to actually be on the boat with your own camera. And even though the Niagara falls' rain and windstorm you drive into headfirst makes it impossible to take pictures, there are still plenty of opportunities to snap a picture before and after the down pour.
Even though we had our own, we couldn't resist purchasing this one...so silly
The best part of the boat (besides watching Joe Sabatier giggle and jump around) was this group of black ladies who were just laughing and screaming their heads off. At one point (while we were in the very midst of the mist) one yelled-laughed "You can't take no pictures!" True. You couldn't.
After the Maid we now had 2 ponchos to walk back through the misty side walk. We had lunch, said goodbye to Mike then drove to our next tourist attraction....
The Butterfly Conservatory. Joe's comment gives the best summary/reaction to this place-- "Well, if you weren't sleepy before... there's nothin like a good butterfly conservatory to get you ready for a nap." Yeah, after a warm room of flittering butterflies and then a walk through the rose garden we were done. Especially Joe.
Next we drove to Niagara on the Lake, a cute nearby town that sits on Lake Ontario. My godmother told us to go here and it is hands down our 2nd favorite part of the trip (after Niagara). It's a small town with a historic district of cute houses and carriage tours... much like Charleston, SC. We found a hotel completely OPPOSITE from the Comfort Dump, The Prince of Wales hotel! Super fancy and nice. Had a towel warmer in the bathroom. We walked around, ate at a pub, then took a carriage tour and learned how much we didn't know (or remember) about the War of 1812.
Day 4 - I treated myself to a massage the next morning.... or rather, Joe went down and signed me up for one while he and mom ate breakfast. We hit the road for Honey Harbor, where we were to meet my godmother Lou. She met us with a small boat (to which we all hung our head in embarrassment at the amount of luggage we'd brought.) Joe's bag got splashed the most... not really splashed...more like flooded. After about a 10-15 minute boat ride we got to Lou's house.
I am not sure what I expected. I'd been planning to take this trip for almost a year. And when I started the stressful school year I REALLY wanted this trip to happen so I could just sit on an island in Canada and do NOTHING.
Boat ride
Lou's House
View from the house
You had to climb up a hill of big rocks to the cabin. After struggling my way to the top (due to all the unnecessary luggage) Joe and I started laying our wet clothes out. The cabin was perfect. A porch on overlooking the lake being the best part of the whole thing. The inside Lou has turned into a charming and rustic little get away.
Day 5, 6, 7 -- The next three days can be summed up with few words: coffee, reading, napping, cocktail hour, dinner. The first day was so warm Joe and I jumped in the water after a hike. The water was still shockingly cold but refreshing. Day 6 was drizzly and was when we started to get a little cabin fever. But Day 7 we were able to sit out in the sun and enjoy the last full day of island life. Day 7 was also a little traumatizing for me. We were sitting around having drinks when Lou discovered a baby mouse in a side table drawer. We proceeded to find 4 more baby mice in the drawer. One at a time I poked them out of their fluffy nest (which apparently momma mouse built from Lou's couch cushion stuffing), they fell to the floor and scurried around until one of us trapped them in a cup. Mom, Joe and I released them into the wild a.k.a. sent them to their death not too far from the cabin. That night thunder woke me up and if the mice had even made it til then, they were definitely goners after the storm.
inside the cabin
Rewind a little to another related traumatizing moment...One the very first night we were there we think momma mouse was the one we saw scurry into the wall. Later that night a heard a WHACK sound. When John (Lou's hubby) held up a full mouse trap the next morning I realized the sound had been the trap snapping the momma mouse's neck. Transitioning into the country life takes more than 3 days I think.
Day 8 - Time to go. We had stayed the perfect amount-- enough to enjoy and relax but not too much as to ware out our welcome or get too restless. Lou boated us to our car then we drove to Toronto. We checked into our hotel and grabbed lunch at a pub-ish restaurant near the hotel. I wasn't even warm. It was HOT. We couldn't believe how warm it had been this entire time. After a hefty meal we walked to the CN tower... or the needle. It was neat but not amazing. Unfortunately it was hazy and we couldn't see that far.
At one point we had considered staying in Toronto 2 nights but the more we asked people about what we should do the more we began to wonder if there was that much to do. People said the CN tower, the science center, and the Royal Museum. The CN tower was really the only one that interested Joe and me. One waitress mentioned going to baseball games and other sports things first on her things to do in Toronto. It seems like a city as big as Toronto would have more MUST-DO tourist attractions than that, but we just weren't gathering that there was enough for us to stay long. So we cut it short.
CN tower in back. (Where they also had a green screen photo opp... I guess it's a Canada thing.. We didn't buy that one)
CN Tower views from the glass floor
Kids on the glass
walkin on the glass
You could also pay 170 dollars to get in a harness and just hang off (only about 2 feet out) the side of the tower backwards. We just watched the people from above who had paid that much money. We stayed one night and then got up and drove forever on Day 9.
We (and by we I mainly mean Joe) drove from Toronto to Bowling Green, KY on Day 9. We had planned on stopping in Louisville but were finding a lot of the hotels were booked, so we kept going a little longer to Bowling Green. We had a reservation at La Quinta. We pulled into the parking lot at 10:30 ish and literally, right as Joe turned the car off, the lights at La Quinta went out. All the lights. Confused we got out of the car and realized that the lights of the entire town had gone out. Seriously? We were NOT about to stay in a air-condion-less room. We waited around a little to see if they'd come on but decided no. Mom got out of the reservation and we were on our way to the interstate to travel another 45 minutes to Nashville when we saw a Quality Inn sign on. Hey how do they have power? They were on the county system so they were spared and we were in luck.
Lights out at La Quinta... people slowly started coming out of their rooms. Women with their hair in rollers and their little dogs in tow.
(on the way home we saw a Jellystone Park sign... had to stop)
It's funny. We went to another country but it didn't really feel like we were abroad. First, we drove there. 2nd, we didn't have to exchange money. Everywhere we went pretty much took American dollars or our credit cards. There's no foreign language. A lot of stuff is in French and English but no one is speaking French. Around Toronto and Niagara there were lots of people from different countries speaking different languages, but that's it. (I did get super excited when I heard people speaking Spanish-- uh my Spanish heart)
Bye bye Canada... fun trip. Next time we'll fly though.
