Then we headed north. The boys surprised us by being excellent travelers. We stopped for a picnic lunch in a little park outside of Columbus, OH. They boys enjoyed the playground and a break from the van. After that we loaded up and headed to Niagara Falls, NY. We got a lot of giggles out of the fact that rest areas were called service areas in NY, and our favorite was the Angola Service Area. Parker was sure that was where the government did something to your butt. We couldn't stop laughing.
We arrived at Niagara Falls NY late in the evening, but we had to walk to the falls. The night pictures aren't the best but the view was incredible. It was cold and rainy, but the view was so powerful that no one seemed to notice. After that we crashed in our cozy beds, and slept until the boys were ready to go again.
We went out the second day and headed down to the Maid of the Mist. It is a boat ride that gets you as close to the falls as possible. We all really enjoyed the ride. When we were putting Andy's poncho on him he said, "Trash Bag" so that is what I called them for the rest of the day. Here are some pictures of us in our trash bags.
Joe had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe, so we ate dinner at Hard Rock Niagara Falls. We did some sight seeing around the city, but really there wasn't much there other than Indian restaurants. It was kind of strange.
Our last day there we headed down to see Luna Island before we left, and then we took off for Canada.
We headed straight for Toronto, which is about 2 hours north of the falls, and arrived around dinner time. We stayed at a Homewood Suites, which served complimentary dinner and breakfast, and we loved every minute of that stay. We ate dinner that night and then took our first subway ride. The boys loved it, and Andy insisted it was a choo-choo train bus. After some ice cream at Union Station, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
Day 2 in Toronto found us heading to the ROM, Royal Ontario Museum. We had 2 things we HAD to do there. One was to see the dinosaurs and the other was to see a real live(dead) mummy. We got both of our wishes.
Downtown Toronto was incredible. It was very clean, the people were friendly, and it was easy to drive around. Most of their trash bins had a place for waste, recycle, and compost. There was even a guy whose job it was to clean gum from the sidewalks. Neat City!
The second day we headed to the CN Tower in Toronto. It is the world's largest radio tower. The boys loved the views, the glass floor, and the elevator that shot up at 23 mph. From the top of the tower, you could really see the immensity of the city of Toronto. After that day, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a swim.
The third day in Toronto we headed on down to Niagara Falls Canada. We wanted to see the falls from the Canadian side, and I am so glad that we did. The tourist industry on the Canadian side is BOOMING. It was such a neat town, and the view of the falls was breathtaking.
We loaded our gang up and headed back to America after that, destination Gettysburg. We stopped for a quick bite of Canadian fare on our way out of the country. A plate of poutine! Basically the dish is french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. The drive through NY and PA was eye opening for us. There was tons of farmland and beautiful views along the way. The area was much more open and agricultural than we had expected.
We were truly exhausted by the time we arrived at Gettysburg. We went to bed the first night, and we spent the next day touring the battlefields and downtown Gettysburg. We all want to go back to Gettysburg when we have more energy. We wrapped up our second night in Gettysburg by swimming at our first rooftop pool.
We left early Saturday. All of us were definitely ready to be back home. Unfortunately our van didn’t make it quite that far. Thankfully we have AAA, and our van decided to break down 206 miles from home. We have a 200 mile tow plan with AAA. So the ride home only cost us 28.00 plus tip. We are
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