RAINY DAYS

Wednesday we woke up to our first rainy day. I escaped to do some shopping for camp supplies. By afternoon Carol also needed to escape from the aluminum can we are calling home this summer.

So we did a little more shopping and went to Applebee's for dinner.

Thursday promised more showers but it looked pretty good in the morning so we got up and out. Tom had told us about Niagara Glen, a great park on the Canadian side of the river.
After a short drive, quick visit in the gift shop and a long, long walk down the steps, we were in the Glen. It's a fairyland of jumbled rocks, some the size of houses, mixed with beautiful flowers, green plants, huge trees and wonderful views of the raging river.





It sprinkled just a few drops of rain during our 3 mile hike but it looked like more was coming so we escaped to the truck. When I visited Tom and family here a few years ago we always went to The Silo to eat at least once. It's an old coal storage/shipping facility on the NY side of the Niagara river in Lewiston. It was unused from about 1938 until 1999 when the restaurant opened.


After pigging out on the specialty - The Haystack, sort of a cheesy roast beef sandwich topped with French's French Fried Onions, we drove back across the bridge to Canada.

The package tour we purchased included 4 of the most popular attractions, free use of the buses for two days and a whole bunch of half price coupons to other attractions. Since it was raining pretty hard by now, we chose the Butterfly Conservatory. It took almost an hour for Andrew to get bored. Amazing place. I could have vegged there all day.







NOTE - Emily and I both took lots of pictures in Niagara Gorge and at the Butterfly Conservatory. But ALL of the pictures above are Emily's. 'cause they were ALL better than mine.

Rainy day equals shopping opportunity. We had passed a tourist mall several times but were always in a hurry to get someplace. One of the places in Canada that made us feel like we were in downtown Gatlinburg, TN.



We bought some postcards and fudge, but saved the T-shirt purchases until we were riding the bus. There is a discount place under the Rainbow Bridge but there is no parking there.

Friday didn't look much better weather wise so we decided it was the day to take a ride through the Canadian countryside and go to Welland Canal and see one of the sets of locks.

It was fascinating, we saw a large barge go through Lock #3 and enjoyed the museum. And the first glitch of our trip we've lost those pictures somewhere in computerland.


Then it was on to
Inn on the 20 in Jordan, ON. Tom and Ann stopped there, I think the first time was 9 years ago and all I've heard since then was how wonderful the food was and how incredibly unpretentious and reasonably priced it was for a gourmet meal. They had "dropped in" on their way home one Friday night. The place was full of people in suits and tuxedos and they had no reservation. In spite of the fact that they were in casual travel clothes, with a couple of little kids, the Maitre d sat them immediately and apologized for putting them in the lounge section. THEN he sent someone across the street to the Inn to get a high chair for Casey. AND THEN they had the most wonderful meal they'd ever eaten. I told the Maitre d this story and he said something like, "OK. No pressure here. But we'l try to live up to your expectations." And they did.

The kids each had Chicken Fingers and Fries. But they'd never had Chicken Fingers before where the dipping sauce was plum.

Here's what Carol and I had. She had the hen and I had the trout.

WINEMAKER'S LUNCHEON
Today's Soup or Green Salad
___
Chardonnay Poached Game Hen
puree of potato, wild watercress, natural juices
or
Pancetta Veiled Huron Trout
baby carrots, turnips, purple potatoes, leek veloute
___
Blueberry & Lime Cheesecake
with sour cream and currant compote
$30 without/ $35 with wine

Oh MY ! I've searched their website for pictures, but there aren't any of our dishes. EVERYTHING - the service, the food, the location were as good as Tom had said and since we're on vacation, we could say, "What a wonderful lunch for only $120. !" AND it dropped to less than $100. in US dollars.

OH - and we ate on the patio overlooking the street because the rains never came.

A beautiful ride along the north shore of Lake Ontario brought us back to town where we sat our lawn chairs up on top of the Maid of the Mist building and watched the fireworks.

Life really is good!

NIAGARA FALLS

Cinderella RV Park is just 10 minutes from Niagara Falls in a quiet grove of trees on Grand Island, NY. We stayed there a week and probably spent less than 60 hours total in the Airstream. This may be a theme for our trip. Out early, back late, see and do a lot in between.

We went to Niagara Falls, Ontario Tuesday morning. We had purchased a package "tour" on line Monday night. We paid our $18.00 parking fee - shouldn't have paid anything, more about that later - and walked around enjoying the views and getting wet.



Our first adventure was Niagara Fury. For those of you who don't "click around", here's a quote from their home page:

"Experience the Creation of Niagara Falls in 4-D! The temperature will drop 20 degrees. Water will bubble and spray while snow falls all around. Standing in the mist on a massive platform you will feel the full wrath of Mother Nature as the floor tilts and trembles beneath you. You'll never look at the Falls the same way again!"

It was impressive, informative and the first place we got really wet. We should have figured it out when they passed out rain ponchos for a movie.

On to Maid of the Mist, The boat ride up the Niagara river that has been astounding and drenching tourist since 1846. Again, we got ponchos. While on the cliff above the falls watching the boats we noticed that every third or fourth one went into the "mist" and stayed what seemed like forever. We could hear the screaming above the tremendous roar of the falls. Carol and the kids called him the "mean captain." I called him "the one who gave you your money's worth with a much longer ride." One chance out of four, guess who we got! It was probably something like being in a Class 4 hurricane except the wind swirled and blew water at you from all directions. Facing the falls with your hood off made it almost impossible to breath. And the ponchos were blowing around so much that there was as much water inside as outside.

Here are pictures taken after the drenching. It was impossible to take pictures during the "mist" part of the ride without a waterproof camera.





Then we got on the bus - which was included in our package price and rode down the river to White Water Walk where we found lots of FREE PARKING. Where we could have parked FOR FREE and rode the FREE bus to all the attractions. Oh well, at least we learned in time to use our new found knowledge before we left. This walk, after an elevator ride down 229 feet of sheer cliff, is along the wildest rapids in the Niagara Gorge.






After a 1/2 mile round trip hike on a boardwalk right on the riverbank, we took the elevator back up the cliff and hopped the bus to what I knew as the "Spanish Aero Car". At least that's what I remembered from when I was here 50 years ago. Sometime in the last 5 decades it's been renamed the Whirlpool Aero Car. It's a great ride high over the whirlpool where the Niagara River hangs a 90 degree turn in the gorge.







That was the first day. Six more to go !

JUNE 12th AND WE'RE ON OUR WAY

Carol and I spent several days emptying the Airstream - it was still full of my stuff from 3 years of fulltiming. Stuff that a "vacationer" doesn't need - Christmas cards, tuxedo, winter clothes, boots, etc. etc. etc. Then we loaded it back up with all of the stuff the four of us need for our trip. We were pleased that so much fit. Like all of our clothes. We expected to have a couple of plastic totes in the truck but we have drawer and closet space to spare.

We were waiting for Emily to get off the school bus on Friday afternoon and by 3:30 we were on our way towards State College, PA. We fixed a hot dinner at the PA Welcome Center and spent the night in a WalMart parking lot in Bedford, PA. We arrived in State College Saturday morning in plenty of time to attend Casey and Sarah's ballet recital. Then we went to dinner at Olive Garden (Casey's choice since June 13th is her birthday) and back to Tom and Ann's for a birthday party. We included Emily and Andrew in the celebration since their birthdays were only a week away.

Dairy Queen cake



ANOTHER Dairy Queen cake - one just wasn't enough


Andrew


Emily


Casey


Ben and Sarah. NO, it's NOT their birthdays, too. They're just too cute to leave out.




Quieter day on Sunday, Big breakfast at the Waffle Shop. Church. I grilled dinner while Tom and Ann took Casey off to her first time ever sleep away church camp.

Monday morning we left for Niagara Falls, NY. Lots of mountains, farms, and beautiful scenery. In Buffalo Carol had her first experience in city traffic with the Airstream. She survived but it was a good primer for New Jersey metro area in a couple of weeks.