Oh, Canada!

Yep, now it's time to talk about our little venture into another country.  The girls were unbelievably excited to go!  We first stopped off to hang out with Mike Donovan and his girlfriend, Barb on the Waterfront.  The girls were hungry, so it was a great time for some famous hot dogs!  The place was called Old Man River, and we had a hell of a time trying to find it, but once we did - awesome!

I can see why Barb loves to hang out here.  Gorgeous!

Did I mention we ate a TON of ice-cream on this trip?

Jordan loved hers until she failed to lick it on all sides and it fell

Once we left the Waterfront, we drove into Canada.  Ken was NOT happy with the Border agent's sense of humor.

Agent, "What is your purpose of visiting Canada?"

Ken, "Tourism"

Agent, "Tourism or Terrorism?"

Ken, "Tourism!  Holy crap - TOURISM - here...for...fun."

The agent then broke a smile and told Ken to relax, but Ken was really not happy with the joke and said that the fear of secondary was not a nice one!

One thing about traveling to somewhere you are not familiar with is booking the hotel.  I found a great Hilton that said it was "near the heart of Niagara-on-the-Lake."  I'm thinking just on the outskirts when I book it.  Reality - no!  We were not completely near the Falls, but we weren't near the main Niagara-on-the-Lake either.  If we had wanted the wineries, we would have been in the perfect spot, but it was still a nice hotel.  

We got settled into the room, and then took off to walk the main street.  We found a place to park where we wouldn't get charged an arm and leg for parking - our American dollar was actually underneath the Loony.  Yeah, not a proud realization for the US.  We're losing to a currency called "The Loony".  Ugh.

I have a picture of this lightpost from my first trip here, and now I got the photo with the girls in it.  

Unfortunately, there was not a shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake called Amanda's or I would have gotten her picture there as well.  We did not time this trip as best as we could have.  Both Ken and I totally forgot that most everything is closed on Sundays in Canada.  We were able to get some souvenirs and the girls got a great sense of what it was like here, but the history and the fact that we were in a different country did not really set in with them.  The girls had more fun playing at the park than anything.  


One of my favorite questions came from Taylor.  She was eating a bag of chips and was staring at the bag.  I asked her what was up, and she asked about the funny writing on the bag. She could understand the English, but she didn't get the other one, and she said she knew it wasn't Spanish.  I laughed when I looked at the bag.  It had French underneath the English.  I tried to explain to her that the two national languages of Canada were French and English, and while she understood that there would be two languages all over the place, she figured it was like So Cal where Spanish is just said because that's what people speak.  One day, she will get it.


We got some sleep and then headed to the Falls.  I managed to find a really great parking spot that was close enough to the Fall so the girls wouldn't complain about the walk back.  It also proved to be the best location for the Shock and Awe effect.


As we walked down the sidewalk, we crossed the street and the girls saw the American Falls.  They were speechless for a few minutes, and then they couldn't get enough.  "Oh my GOSH!  Niagara Falls is GORGEOUS!"  

We took their pictures and oohed and ahhed with them, and then we had them walk with us.  The girls kept wanting to know why we were walking away from the Falls.  Then, they saw this...

This was when the girls just lost their minds!!  THIS was the most gorgeous they had ever seen...they couldn't believe that was a BOAT out there....OMG (and yes they were screaming "OMG" rather than Oh My Gosh!), and then they were running towards the rails to look more.  We had to remind them not to climb up and not to bend over the rails so they wouldn't slip and go over the Falls.  


Now, there wasn't the ability to get enough pictures.  They had to have all the pictures they could get because NO ONE was going to believe that they were here and it was so amazing, and on and on they went.  

I made sure that we took the girls through the gift shop where they eagerly spent some of their report card money.  I had to direct some of their purchases away from the rocks or other items that we could easily get at home, but they were so happy with their purchases once they had them.  However, Mandy's most prized purchase was a calendar which we realized was missing once we were back in Buffalo.  I am happy to report that the gift shop made it right - after it took Mama 5 weeks to get the right phone number for them. Mandy was so very happy to get her calendar in the mail!  

I had no problem giving Taylor money for this - she exchanged $4 US for one Looney ($1 Canadian) and a Tooney ($2 Canadian).  That's right folks, it's a Looney and a Tooney!  The Canadians
just didn't get the joke despite me talking about Bugs Bunny.

After the shopping, I wanted to let the girls have the full view of the Falls like Dad gave to me.  Once we were in the people mover, they were excited to get moving, but they had no idea what they were in for.  As we climbed, they looked out and saw the full view, and each of them had a sharp intake of breath and then "WOW!"