We landed and got our bags with no problem and started looking for our driver. It’s weird, but in Canada, you can get a limo service for just a little more than a taxi.
We found the driver holding a sign that said “Mr. & Mrs. Vandervort” which we got a total kick out of. I think he thought we were a little off, but I guess we kind of are. Of course, I made him stand there and let me take a picture of him which he thought was really strange. He asked me why Will couldn’t just hold the sign and I told him that wouldn’t be the same.
Then I asked him to take a picture of us in front of the car and he thought that was weird too.
Will helped him load the luggage, because that’s how we roll and we were off. The drive to the border didn’t take long. We had been instructed to look the border officer in the eye and answer all questions directly.Well, Mr. Driver decided to act like he was confused as to which lane he should be in so he could skip ahead. He drove down a closed lane, then rolled down his window and asked a guy in line if he could get in front of him because he messed up. Guy in the pickup truck said, “That is NOT my problem, but go AHEAD!” Wow, welcome to Canada.
We got up to the window and the first thing the border officer says is, “Have you not driven this route before? Why were you driving all over the lanes?” My heart sank, because I just knew he wasn’t going to let us cross or something. The driver made up some nonsense and the officer turned his attention to us.
--“You two in the back, where are you from?”
--“The States-South Carolina.”
--“What do you do for a living?”
--“Sports writer and nurse.”
--“What is the purpose of your visit?”
--“Vacation.”
-- "How long are you going to be here?”
--“5 days.”
--“Do you have any weapons?”
--“Nope.”
--(Inspects our passports) “You may pass.”
Phew! That was kind of scary. The driver handed our passports back and for some reason I looked at them. Good thing, because he had given us his passport and mine. He accidentally kept Will’s. That would have been a total disaster.
We made it to our hotel, which used to be a factory. http://www.sterlingniagara.com/ The outside looked like a factory and had a large door in the shape of a milk bottle. It was pretty cool. The hotel employees were pretty rude, but we had been warned Canadians aren’t known for their hospitality.
Our room wasn’t ready so we left our luggage with the hotel and had lunch at the closest place. It was a little Italian place and we were the only customers. It was decked out in tacky decorations. Will ordered tea. I knew better and ordered water. We both tasted the tea and it was sooooo disgusting.
I got french onion soup and Will got a turkey sandwich with fries. We had to ask the waitress about the currency. We used an ATM machine at the restaurant which automatically exchanged our money to Canadian. They use loonies which are $1 coins, toonies which are $2 coins, and then bills $5 and up. They also have quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. We saved some of the coins to give our nieces and nephews.
We went back to the hotel and the room still wasn’t ready, but I had a spa appointment. I was very excited about it. Y’all may remember my last spa appointment. This one, I hoped, would be a little different. It was all about chocolate! Here is the spa's description--
Chocolate Embrace--A Spalicious Experience for the Mind, Body and Soul.
Chocolate "Truffle" Indulgence body treatment, begins with a coco and brown sugar body exfoliation, then the body is wrapped in a warm milk chocolate and Vanilla bean body mask then finished with a 1 hr aromatic vanilla body massage. Continue the Chocolate Embrace with a creamy white chocolate & orange facial, peppermint chocolate spa pedicure, vanilla cream spa manicure and chocolate covered strawberries with herbal Tea Blends.
Phew! What an experience! I could get used to that kind of treatment.
After that ordeal, I headed to our room. Will seemed disappointed in the room, but I thought it was kind of cool. It was more like a loft than a hotel room. It was huge. Will’s biggest complaint was that his neck had been hurting while trying to find a place to watch the television! We had a plasma TV above a fireplace. See Homer laughing at him cause his neck was hurting?
The bathroom was huge and I hate that I forgot to get a picture of it. It had a very large steam shower with a rain shower head and 3 jets. Um…I tried the jets and almost got knocked down and drowned. I think I was too short for them. I didn’t like turning on the steam either. It made me feel like I was suffocating. Will loved all of it.
We got ready for dinner at AG. http://www.sterlingniagara.com/dining/ It was REALLY good! Really! It was different. The one thing we didn’t like was the “palate cleanser”. It was some sort of strawberry soup and it was pretty terrible. I had beef tenderloin and Will had ribeye.
We took a lot of pictures!
We had strawberry shortcake for dessert.
After making our poor waiter take even more pictures, we headed back to our room to rest before day 3!
