UM....DAY.....UM...NO IDEA!

Ok, so reading this blog will take some imagination on your part. Not only did I forget which day this took place...it wasn't day 5....I also posted the pictures from the day in reverse order. You'll have to put your mind in a backwards state and I guess I will have to see if I'm smart enough to write it backwards. :-)

This was our final picture of whatever night this was...lol. We were in a beautiful building on a very high floor that overlooked the falls. There were lots of places to sit and hang out. The picture below was in a little side room that had its own little fireplace, couches, and curtains. I guess it was supposed to be all lovey-dovey like and stuff. :-)



This was outside on the balcony. It was such a beautiful night. We enjoyed the view immensely.

This is Will looking very guilty. Right?

The picture below is after a meal we had in a little village type place called Niagara on the Lake--NOTL. It was a beautiful little town. We had to take a cab to get there. We also walked to the restaurant below from the lake and it was at least two miles. When we finally arrived, I demanded a pitcher of water and drank it like I hadn't seen water in months!

We sat by a group of about 10 that were celebrating a birthday. They were a RIOT! They included us in much of their conversation and insisted on taking pictures of us, because "we were just the cutest little things with our southern accents."

They wanted to take this one too after they saw our coffee and cookies.

I was worried about what I would eat after I saw the menu. Cause I'm a little picky like that. But, they had half sizes on their menu AND steak. My kind of deal. Isn't my meal beautiful. I didn't leave a bite.

Will wasn't worried about what to pick and probably just selected the first thing he saw so he wouldn't have to read the menu. He got lamb, if my memory is correct.

Do I look worried? This menu was so weird. It even had cotton candy as a choice. I kid you not. I seriously considered getting that.

What is this foreign object?

This picture makes me laugh until I hurt. I mean, really laugh. Do I or do I not look like a crazy naked lady in the park??? Bahahahaha! I promise I am wearing clothes. Promise. And, I was very seriously trying to explain to Will that these berries can't be eaten and I hope little kids don't try to eat them.
This is Will being a tree hugger. :-)

I'm quite proud of the locust shell I found on the tree above. As a kid, I used to get very excited over them. Grandaddy, if you are reading this...Remember how many we used to find on the tree in your front yard? There were always a lot!

"Will, take my picture as if I suddenly popped out from behind this tree and you caught it on camera!"

This is Will's supermodel pose by the lake. It was a beautiful place. Very peaceful.

Two sweaty people...it was a lovely place, but very hot. I considered jumping in the lake.

My supermodel pose! Haha!

We asked two ladies to take a picture of us in the gazebo. They took it waaaay too seriously. They took a million pictures! They wanted it perfect and I wanted to...well...hurt them a little

This is in the heart of the village. Lots of shopping. Did you notice my belt changed? I bought the green scarf at one of the little shops.

Getting ready to go out, but not wanting to leave the view...

Day 5....the last day....to follow soon.

VACA--DAY FOUR

Ok, so three months later…day 4. :-)

We got up and dressed pretty quickly, ready to conquer the day.

We walked around a bit, and I met the tall fella in the picture below. He called me short. I called him freaky. Then we made up and he invited me to sit in his chair a while.

We had an early lunch at Rainforest Café. Will had never been to one. It’s one of those theme type places that grossly overcharges for the food, but I think they are cute. You eat in a jungle like setting, complete with random thunderstorms. There are mechanical jungle animals, waterfalls, overhead vines, etc. The food is pretty good as well. I got some type of pasta and Will had ribs.

Next, we headed to a place called White Water Walk that allows you to walk along side some rapids. Some very intense rapids. The ride to the location, as well as the wait in line, was torturous. It was SO hot.

The long line led to a tiny elevator. I mean, tiny. They crammed us in there like sardines. Will and I were both pretty grouchy at this point. But, we later discovered the aggravation was worth it.

Here I am, walking through some tunnel we had to go through to get to the water. Adventure time!

The water, the cliffs, the intensity of the rapids…all worth it. It was very peaceful to walk along the trail and just stare into the water. One gross thing…at the end of the walkway was a gum wall. People just put their gum there and it’s gross. My cousins and I had a gum tree when we were little. I wonder if it’s still there. Kristy?

We were supposed to go horseback riding next, but we received a call that it was too hot to take the horses out that day. We were disappointed, but of course wouldn’t want the horses to suffer either.We killed some time just walking around and seeing the sights until it was time to get ready for dinner.

This is a little incline railway that we had to ride to get to higher ground.

We ate at a place called Sandstone Grille. For some reason, the owner took a liking to us. He chatted with us for a long time and made sure we were well taken care of. The food was very good.

On the way back home, we ventured into a wax museum. Picture it…Will…Cindy…wax museum. Yeah, it was a little crazy in there. We had a good time.

We even had a wax figure made of our hands. People, it HURT. I mean, I was dancing and my pain tolerance is very high. They first dip your hands in warm wax. No problem. Felt good. But then…they PLUNGE your hands into freezing, freezing, freezing water and force you to hold them there. It felt like what getting stung by 1,000 jellyfish might feel like. I was jumping around trying to hold my hand still and this lady was just not letting go of my arm. It was a sight. I wanted to hit her. Here's the end result...sweet, right?

One final stop by the falls and then we called it a day.

CALLED OUT BY MY SISTER

So, my slackness regarding this blog has been pubicly called out...by my own sister. I, Cindy, promise to try much harder to update this blog more often. And, as an apology to Kelli, I will post one of her Mr. Clean pictures.

VACA--DAY THREE

Day Three, we got up fairly early with plans to ride Maid of the Mist (http://www.maidofthemist.com/) and to tour Journey Behind the Falls(http://www.niagarafallslive.com/journey_behind_the_falls.htm). I was very excited about Maid of the Mist as this is supposed to be THE thing to do in order to get a full appreciation of the falls themselves.

We made our way fairly quickly to the line for the boat. We were handed ponchos and told not to put them on until we were ON the boat, as they were worried about heat exhaustion. So, naturally what did people start doing? Putting the ponchos on and taking pictures of themselves, of course! Will and I were a good girl and boy and did as we were told.

When we boarded the boat, I realized pretty quickly that we had a problem. I am barely 5’5” and there was no room left on the boat to get up front. It was standing only. I am sure I ruined most of the trip for Will as I complained non-stop about not being able to SEE. I really couldn’t! Most of my view was comprised of blue ponchos! I was so upset! You’ll notice a bit of disappointment, in the pictures, hidden in my smile. As we got closer to the falls, though, I got quieter and quieter.

As we reached the nearest point to the falls, the announcer yelled out, “THIS IS NIAGARA FALLS!” and all 5 of my senses were very aware. It was truly amazing!!! I wont be able to describe it here. It is just something you have to experience for yourselves. We sat there about a minute with our mouths wide open and nobody was saying a word. It was, as if, we were inside those falls.

As we started backing up to go back in, I must admit I complained a little more and Will promised that we would go again and I would get a front row seat. (side note—we never went back on it, but I was being kind of a brat..I said kind of...;D)

We then headed to find some lunch. We found a place near the falls and took the food outside. When we were finished, I started feeding these little birds my hamburger bun. Soon, I had a small flock around me. Yes, I have become THAT lady. The one you see in the city parks on TV with all the pigeons. Well, I would just feed one and then feel sorry for another because he didn’t get a piece, and so it went.

During this feeding, Will noticed a woman inside the restaurant who he said was either sleeping or passed out. I watched her a second, then noticed the alarm on her family’s face. Nurse Vandervort took over from there and next thing I knew I was standing over her. She apparently had a stroke. Myself and another nurse did what we had to do until rescue arrived. It was sad and I wish I would have gotten an e-mail address or something from the family so that I could follow-up. There was no time for that though.

A bit shaken up, we headed for Journey of the Falls. It is a series of underground tunnels that take you out to different areas that are very close to the falls.

We found out pretty quickly that it is not for claustrophobic people. Thankfully, neither of us have this condition.

We were given yellow ponchos this time, instead of blue, to use on our “journey.” It was pretty cool, but wasn’t quite as awe inspiring as the boat ride and we were still a bit shaken up. We still managed to take a few good pictures.

We headed back to the room for some R&R before dinner. A well-meaning friend of mine mentioned that we sure have a lot of pictures of us sitting at restaurant tables. LOL! I guess that is a true statement. What can I say? We love to eat and love to eat at different places. That night’s dinner was at Fallsview Rainbow Room (http://www.niagarafallscrowneplazahotel.com/dining-fallsviewrainbowroom.php).

We had a very nice dinner, including some great coffee and dessert with a window view of the falls. Believe it or not, you never tire of the view!

Ok, so this is where the trip sort of fell apart. In a major way. We had obviously been saving for months for this trip. I called our bank ahead of time and informed them that we would be travelling out of the country. They advised me to use ATM machines to withdraw money from our account. That way the money would automatically be exchanged into Canadian currency and we would not have to carry a large amount of cash. That worked great with the first ATM machine.

The ATM machine we used after our dinner was located in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Rainbow Room is on top of the Crowne Plaza Hotel so we thought nothing about using this particular ATM machine. We put our card in, put the amount we wanted to withdraw, and we received a note on the screen that said, “Error.” Ok, ok, ok…this will be fine we thought. We did not receive a receipt or any sort of paper that said anything, including money! All we had was an error message that was on the screen that quickly disappeared and went back to its main screen.

In a slight panic, we phoned our bank. We were informed that $500 was taken out of our banking account. We informed them that we did not receive any money. They informed us that we must file a paper dispute which might take A WEEK to investigate. Oh so not good.

Not only were we out the $500, even temporarily, but we were afraid to use the ATM card in any other machines. We got the hotel manager and asked him to make an out of order sign as other people were trying to use the machine and I was stopping them. Will had a very not so friendly conversation with our bank for an hour.

We finally left feeling very much defeated.

It was very disheartening and the whole process ended up being a complete mess. We did, in the end, get our money back. However, we used our credit card the remainder of the trip and, as a result, were charged with lovely foreign transaction fees.

We were a little broken hearted as we headed back to our room. We didn’t want the night to end this way. I noticed that we were near the Niagara Skywheel (http://www.cliftonhill.com/attractions/niagara-skywheel). I suggested to Will that we ride it as a way to end the night on a lovelier note. We did and it was very nice, although a little scary at first. Ha, ha.

It was an enclosed seat, with music playing overhead, lighting that you could control, and classical music playing. And, of course, the view of the city and the falls were amazing.

We made it back to our room, worked on some paperwork that had been faxed to us by our bank, and prepared ourselves for Day Four!

CONGRATS TO WILL!

(I AM going to finish my posts on our Niagara Trip. I AM. Soon, I hope!)

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