Niagra and back in the USA

Monday 27th May

Canada really put on a show for us today - a beautiful 25 degree day with not a cloud in the sky.

We woke up quite early and Della put on a feast for us for breakfast. Fresh fruit, yoghurt, muffins and omelettes - yum yum! Once almost everything was eaten we got back into the car and took the 20 minute drive to Niagara Falls.

Getting Steve to keep his eyes on the road was hard as we could see the falls when we drove up but once we parked the car it was a free for all.

The Falls are amazing - just awe inspiring. The first thing that hits you is the sound of the water falling over the edge and hitting the water below. The spray that comes up creates this mist around the area and the seagulls drop down into the pools to grab fish and other food that falls over. It is the best view I have ever seen in my life.

We headed down the cliff to the Maid of the Mist, a boat that takes you to the bottom of the big falls. After following the hoards of tourist we found a spot of the bottom floor and started to take a bucket load of pictures - till the camera got too wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots and lots of water here - so much that there are power stations set up all around the area. The Maid of the Mist is a must of you come here and it's the cheapest tourist thing we have done - only $20 per person.

 

 

 

 

 

After we got back to the dock we took a walk along the water way. The area is done up really nice with a lack of tourist things trying to sell you cheap trinkets to take home. Then you walk up the road and it all changes. It turns into the Gold Coast, with amusement rides, side shows and Dairy Queens.

 

 



 

 

Liquid peanut butter - yum

 

 

The extra waterfall created by the backhoe working on some gardens

 

 

 

Once finished at the falls we headed back to the B&B. Steve and I decided to go visit one of the wineries down the road. This area reminds me of the Swan Valley, suburbia everywhere till you drive a few kms out and it's wineries galore.

 

The area is really pretty and the winery we visited was gorgeous. They do a product called Ice Wine, The grape can only be picked at -11 degrees and it is processed straight away. Because only a few drops of nectar is created a lot of grapes are needed to produce the wine. It is really expensive but really nice, like a desert wine. We ended up buy a couple of bottles of cheaper but still nice wine.

 

Dinner tonight was at a pub called Murphy's down by the harbour. The harbour here is for Lake Ontario and it is the flattest lake I have ever seen. Not a ripple unless a boat is going across it. The funniest thing was even though it was a nice day, the night was getting a bit chilli for us. Not the local teenagers who all came out in their bathers to swim in the lake and play volleyball. Very pretty and made us want to spend more time here.

 

 

Tuesday 28th May

 

 

We got up at 4am this morning so we could get across the border in time to catch the 7am flight to Los Angeles. Della had left us some fruit and muffins for breakfast which was awesome and the trip over the border was a lot easier at this time of the morning.

 

It was dark, gloomy and raining but we were happy to be heading to our last part of the trip. The flight to Chicago and connecting to Los Angeles was pretty standard and Shaye wasn't sick. The 2 hour wait in Hertz for our hire car was frustrating but there was nothing we could do about it. I was driving for this part of the trip so onto the 405 and to Santa Monica we went.

 

 

We are staying in a hotel called The Georgian Hotel. It is on Ocean Blvd which runs parallel to the Santa Monica Beach. This hotel room was the best one we have had all trip. Two real queen size beds that aren't saggy and soft with a really big room to fit all our luggage in. Heaven.

 

Since we hadn't eaten since muffins in the morning, we had lunch at 3pm at a place called Johnny's on the 3rd Street Promenade then went for a wander through the shops. Back to the hotel for some much needed rest - Baseball tomorrow.

 



Finally caught up

Sunday 26th May

Today was spent driving from New York to St Catharines in Canada.

The country side is really pretty and so totally not what I had in my head. Lots of rolling hills, green fields and lakes. We stopped for a stretch and when we got back in the car Mavis the GPS changed the course on us. She ended up taking us through these small country towns which were really pretty. The high schools were the biggest buildings in the area and the advert for chewing tobacco reminded me of where we were.

Going over the border wasn't too bad. I think we waiting for about 45 minutes (because Steve picked the wrong lane) but that time was spent by me worrying that we wouldn't be allowed in the country. You see I hadn't really researched if a visa was required to enter Canada, I had a vague recollection of reading a forum that said you didn't but I wasn't as thorough as I usually am. Luckily we didn't and after getting our stamp we were back on the freeway and making a turn onto Dorothy Street St Catharines.

Our B&B is awesome. Two bedrooms (thank GOD!!) with a small living area and bathroom. Good work Steve, you did well with this one. Della the owner is really lovely and she even looked after my load of washing for me. Legend.

I spent a bit of time looking for a restaurant for dinner. Once I picked it, we headed down the road and as we passed the building there were cops and fire engines in front of it. Someone went through the lights and ploughed straight into the alfresco area of the place where we were going to have dinner! So in the end we ate at Montana's cookhouse and had an awesome feed of pulled pork sandwiches and rib eye steaks.

Tomorrow is Niagara Falls which we are all looking forward to.

How far behind are we!!

I am currently sitting in our B&B in St Catharines Canada, sipping a really lovely glass of Vidal that we bought from the winery down the road and I thought to myself - I had better catch up on the blog.

So where were we? Oh right Friday.

Friday 24th of May

The weather had decided to turn today and it got no warmer then 10 degrees. Fine for New Yorkers I'm sure but we hadn't packed for this sort of weather. No problem for us as the boys were going to go to 'Upper Ninety' a soccer store that was down the other end of town. When they got back to the hotel Steve, Shaye and I headed into the cold to shop on Fifth Avenue.

Jackson and Steve with their jackets from the soccer store

 

 

 

The closest I got to trying something on

 

 

 

We made it to the H&M store when I started to shop. This place is huge - it's three stories tall, it has it's own DJ and the prices are cheap. For Steve and Shaye it got too much so they left me and went back to the hotel. One hour later I made it out of the shop and headed up Fifth Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fifth Ave runs up the side of Central Park (the Met is half way up) and my walk was 20 blocks long. Not a problem at all but it was raining and I had no umbrella. Oh well, getting wet doesn't matter and I got to take lots of pictures. I walked past the hotel from Sex and the City where Carrie runs into Big outside his engagement party and she says to him "Your girl is lovely Hubbell". Awesome.

 

 

By the time I made it to the Met I was knackered and it was 3pm so only 2.5 hrs of looking I could do. I thought it wouldn't be enough but I was so wrong. The place was packed unlike when we were in Washington so it was frustrating to navigate around and my brain had gone into information overload.

 

 

 

I was seriously all informationed out. I couldn't do any more museums. So I caught a cab back to the hotel and collected our tickets for 'The Lion King'.

The Lion King was awesome! So many puppets and costumes and songs that Jackson and I sang along to. Two parts in the play were disappointing, when ZaZu sings 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts' - he didn't and when Timone sings 'Are you aching? Yup Yup. For Some Bacon? Yup Yup" - he didn't. But apart from that it was great.


Saturday 25th

Saturday was a very lazy day. The only thing we did was go to the top of the Rockefeller Building. Oh My God I was so scared. I'm not good with heights at the best of times but being up that high in a building in New York and considering what happens to tall buildings in New York it was lucky I wasn't in the foetal position in the elevator on the way down. Everyone else loved it. The view is amazing, the wind is very cold and Steve made a friend with the cop at the top level.

 

 

 

 

Me shitting myself and them capturing it

 

 

 

Our scared faces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was all we did for today. Tomorrow we are leaving early to head to St Catharines in Canada. Another stamp in the passport.