Our only stop on the road Wednesday was at the Fruit Stand in Hancock, Maryland. We hung out in front of the store and had a snack before taking off again for our lovely evening in Altoona, PA. We had a decent dinner at Joey's Seafood and Grill (which I didn't realize was a nationwide chain) and stayed at the Super 8 Motel which I would not highly recommend. But, what do you expect from a Super 8? Unfortunately, Drew could not settle down when it was time to go to bed. I guess he was a little excited about being on vacation especially because Hailey was with us. Adam wound up putting him in the car and driving around until he fell asleep sometime after 11 pm.
The next morning (June 28th) was kind of rainy and nasty, and we hit the road after breakfast at Cracker Barrel. The drive from Altoona to Niagara Falls is pretty much back roads until you get to the outskirts of Buffalo and seemed to take forever (to me, anyway). We stopped for lunch in Bradford, PA for lunch, and finally got to Niagara Falls around 4 pm. Since it was a weekday, we got right on the Maid of the Mist which was a lot of fun. Adam's comment was that it was just a cheesy as he thought it would be, but I know he enjoyed it anyway. Hailey took lots of pictures with her waterproof camera, and she had to keep her trash bag, I mean raincoat, as a souvenir.
The falls are so beautiful, they almost don't look real to me. We walked around in Niagara Falls State Park for as long as we could after the boat ride, but Drew was not cooperating with the walking plan (he started with what became a familiar refrain as the trip went on -- "I feel sick!") and Hailey was about to die of thirst so we headed for the car and Canada. We didn't really have any trouble getting over the border, the guard just wanted to make sure we didn't have any weapons. Luckily, Hailey didn't mention the (chef's) knife until after we were through the checkpoint.
After we checked into our hotel (the Country Inn and Suites, which we highly recommend), we headed out to get some dinner. We had what was probably the worst meal of the trip at the Rainforest Cafe on Clifton Hill. Hailey and Drew enjoyed the atmosphere, but, as I would have expected, the food was overpriced and bad. At least the service was friendly. After dinner, we walked along the promenade almost all the way to the Horseshoe Falls and back which was just one gorgeousl view after another. The people watching was pretty interesting as well -- it was a very international crowd. I really wanted to see the Falls illuminated at night, but we just weren't able to stay out that late. The kids really wanted to get in the pool (who cares about a bunch of waterfalls?) so we headed home for the night.
On Friday (June 29th), we had breakfast at the hotel and Adam, Hailey and Drew went for a swim before we packed up and headed for Toronto. We took the scenic tour, stopping at the Floral Clock and then driving through Niagara-on-the-Lake which seems to be worth a trip all by itself. We did our drive-by gawking, but didn't stop except for lunch at the Harvest Barn Farm Market where we got to try some Ontario cherries. Hailey and Adam were quite happy since they are both love cherries (Hailey still talks about her 140+ cherry day last year at the National Cherry Festival).
When we got to Toronto, both Hailey and Drew were asleep so we drove around for a while just to let them sleep a little longer. Toronto is very easy to navigate so we had no trouble finding our hotel. We stayed at Ryerson University International Living and Learning Centre in what is basically student housing. We lived and learned that we didn't want to stay in a space that small again. However, the price and the location were fantastic. We didn't really have enough time in Toronto so we just picked a couple of things to do First, we went to the CN Tower where you can see Drew and Hailey had no problem lying on the glass floor 80 stories up. Then, we went to the Harbourfront Centre where we walked along the water and stopped to listen to some music that was part of the Canada Day weekend activities. If we had it to do over again, we probably would have stayed 2 days in Niagara Falls instead of going to Toronto. Another live and learn experience.
On Saturday (June 30th), we went to the St. Lawrence Market for breakfast. The place was fabulous, and I could have stayed there all day, but we needed to keep moving to our next destination. However, our breakfast was great. We each had "Breakfast on a Bun" which is peameal bacon (they don't call it canadian bacon in Canada, imagine that), egg and cheese on a kaiser roll. It reminded Adam of a New York "egg special". Then it was back to the hotel to pack up and hit the road again.
We had a fairly quick trip to the border until we got about 3 km out and then it took us 2 hours to get through the security checkpoint at Sarnia. Things got a little testy, but we made it back to the U.S. in time for a late dinner -- Uncle Jack's beans and cornbread!
3 comments:
Glad you finally posted! It was nice to hear all about your Canadian adventures!!!
I completely stole the idea of the slideshow from you. It just seemed like a great way to post all of those pictures!
Thats ok, I stole it from your friends Josh and Megan! It is pretty cool!
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