SATURDAY - JULY 1, 2000

WE LEFT REALLY EARLY this morning  (around 6:30) for our long trip to Niagara Falls. Mom and Dad are also leaving this morning and the plan is to join up at the U.S. side of the Peace Bridge before crossing over into Canada. The weather was beautiful and the drive was really nice. We stopped for lunch at the Dixie Truck Stop outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. That's where Ryan learned that if you 're just going to take the lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles off of your California-style Deluxe Cheeseburger, you're better off ordering the plain cheeseburger from the children's menu, where you get a free dessert...  like Rachael did.

We arrived at the Duty-Free store at Peace Bridge around 2:45 in the afternoon. Grandpa and Aunt Linda called Mom and Dad on their cell phone. They had left a little later than us this morning, and they also had to drop our other car off at the mechanic’s for inspection, so they expected to be a little late. Well, they certainly were a little late. They got lost. Their directions were to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, New York, and they kept going the wrong way, then back, then forth, etc. We waited for 2½ hours for them to arrive. At least we had some good entertainment; today is Canada Day, and there is big military air show going on at Fort Erie. So we got to watch lots of airplanes doing aerobatic tricks. And of course we were constantly in touch with Mom and Dad as they tried to get directions to Buffalo.

Once Mom and Dad showed up, we rode with them as we proceeded into Canada. Grandpa drove ahead and led us to Niagara along the scenic Niagara Parkway. This is a major holiday weekend, since it includes the independence holidays of both Canada (Canada Day - July 1st) and the U.S. (Independence Day - July 4th). The streets in downtown Niagara Falls were absolutely jammed. Fortunately, Grandpa remembered how to get to Lundy’s Lane via the back streets and we had no traffic problems. I think that was, however, the last time anyone knew where they were or which way they were going the whole time we were here.

The Blue Moon Motel is a friendly, family-type motel without many frills, but with a certain comfortable charm. It isn’t the cleanest place we’ve ever stayed, but it also isn’t the dirtiest. While we were all in our room, Dad tossed a "two-y" (a Canadian two-dollar coin) to Grandpa to look at, and it rolled under the bed. Mom was a little concerned when a search for the coin turned up a plastic bottle cap, a pocket knife, and a pair of ladies’ slippers – which left little doubt as to how thoroughly the room had been cleaned. To her credit, (Grandpa doesn't know how she did it.) Mom endured the situation without complaint, even though we all had to wear socks at all times because the carpet was dirty enough to leave black deposits on the bottoms of our bare feet.

Our rooms on the second floor are adjoining, but with a small galley kitchen separating them. Both rooms open into the kitchen. This is a real convenience, although the only things we actually used were the refrigerator and the sink. That’s because outside by the swimming pool is a small yard with grass and bushes… and a gas grill. Except for tonight (since we have no groceries and don’t feel like shopping right now), we had cookouts here every day. Tonight we went swimming with Dad. After awhile, he got out and went to sit with Mom and Grandpa and Aunt Linda. They met another family who are from Philly, and Dad got to talk with them about familiar experiences in the K&A neighborhood, Catholic schools, and so forth. They are good friends of the manager, Mrs. Thompson, who was also sitting by the pool. It's very family-like here. She is from Puerto Rico, and Dad had a chance to practice speaking Spanish (although of course Mrs. Thompson speaks English just fine).

For dinner tonight, we ordered pizza from Boston Pizza and had it delivered to our rooms, and planned out what we want to do and see tomorrow.

SUNDAY - JULY 2, 2000

WE DIDN'T GET a very early start today, but at least we’re all refreshed. Dad drove out and bought coffee and donuts for everyone and we left the motel around 11:15, heading for Niagara-on-the-Lake and Historic Fort George. This past school year, Ryan studied about colonial life and the American Revolution in 5th grade; it was his favorite subject and he is really interested in it. Next year, Rachael will be studying the same things. Fort George (which is actually from the War of 1812, but represents pretty much the same time period) turned out to be one of the vacation highlights for both of us. We spent the afternoon at the fort, where we saw how the soldiers lived and fought their battles. We watched a demonstration of how the fife and drum units were used for communications, both in day-to-day fort activities and on the battlefield. We saw another demonstration of how a flintlock musket was used in battle. Ryan was so fascinated he even asked the demonstrator a good question. He asked how far the musket fires (the answer is, about 75 yards accurately, 100 yards overall). (And no, Mom, it wasn’t "Ohhhh, about three…fitty").

Coming back from Fort George, we spent a long time driving around in circles looking for a supermarket to shop for groceries. We had our first example of what would become familiar to us as our normal method of getting anywhere in Niagara Falls. And of course that would be, driving off in the exact wrong direction until we realized it, then circling around and heading in still another wrong direction and continuing in this fashion until we accidentally came upon a road we recognized. Once we found our familiar road, of course, we were then able to turn the wrong direction on it and drive a few more blocks before turning around. This became a normal pattern for whoever was driving or leading. Of course, as we got further into our stay the time before coming upon a familiar road decreased, as fewer and fewer un-touched roads remained. By the way, we did locate a supermarket not far from the motel, and we bought lots of stuff for a cookout dinner tonight.

After dinner we split into two groups. Dad and Aunt Linda headed out to visit the Niagara Casino, where Dad actually left with winnings! He was going to buy Mom a bottle of Chanel #5 with it, and he and Aunt Linda walked over to the Rainbow Bridge Duty-Free Store. However, they learned that he couldn’t buy anything there until they were ready to leave Canada, so he told Mom about it and gave her the money to hold until we leave on Wednesday. He’ll buy the perfume then.

We went with Mom and Grandpa to Clifton Hill. At first, we were thrilled with the idea of going to all those really cool Haunted Houses. But after thinking about it awhile, Ryan decided he didn’t really want to go, and Rachael didn’t want to go without him. We did visit the Louis Tussaud Wax Museum, which included a chamber of torture (and that was horrible enough for us). We also went through the Fun House, which was really pretty lame, and the Mystery Maze, which we both enjoyed a lot. Grandpa had us pose for a photograph going over the falls in a barrel, just like the one he and Aunt Linda had taken on their honeymoon thirteen years ago. We hammed it up beautifully and the photo is really cute. We walked down to the base of Clifton Hill and looked at the Falls. The street was incredibly crowded.

MONDAY - JULY 3, 2000x

TODAY WAS ANOTHER split-destination day. This time we went with Mom and Dad to take in the Niagara Falls sights and Aunt Linda & Grandpa were expecting to do some whiskey-shopping and possibly visit a couple of distilleries in the area.

But first, Aunt Linda had to break her toe.

While everyone was getting ready this morning, Aunt Linda accidentally walked into Dad , kicking his shoe with her bare left foot. There was an audible "snap" and Aunt Linda yelped sharply. It later became apparent that this wasn’t just a stubbed toe… her little toe swelled up pretty badly. Before long it began turning an ominous shade of purple. Of course that immediately brought back memories to Grandpa of having broken his own little toe (on Mom’s baby stroller, no less) so long ago. He also remembered that there isn’t really anything you can do with a broken toe except secure it to the adjoining toes to keep it immobile and take lots of pain reliever. That’s what he did to Aunt Linda’s toe, and she was able to walk without it being unbearable. In fact, the swelling wasn’t so bad that she couldn’t get her sneaker on, so she did. Needless to say, how much walking was to be done now became a consideration in all our plans. But Aunt Linda really didn’t slow up all that much, and only a couple of plans had to be altered.

Unfortunately their day continued to have some disappointments. All the places they wanted to visit were either too far away or not open today. They did have a nice lunch at Jack Tanner’s. The restaurant is directly across the street from the Blue Moon, so this was the only time anyone managed to get back from somewhere without getting lost.

We took the Falls Shuttle bus into town. It picked us up right in front of the motel and took us down to the falls area, where we got all-day passes to the People-Mover bus. We visited the Butterfly Conservatory, which was another of our favorite places in our whole vacation. You walk around and the butterflies are with you and they land on you. They're so beautiful.

Then we went to the Daredevils Musuem at the Imax Theater and saw all the various "barrels" and Falls-conquering devices. That was really neat. And we watched the "Niagara - Miracles, Myths, and Magic" show on the giant screen. We ate lunch at Denny’s Restaurant near the Casino, and then went to see the falls close-up at Table Rock. After that we caught the shuttle bus back to the motel.

By this evening, Aunt Linda’s toe is still purple, but the discoloration isn’t spreading any further and the swelling appears to be down somewhat. She bought a cold pack and put it on her foot to further reduce swelling.

For dinner, we again had our cookout by the pool. This time we met a woman and her daughters traveling from Quebec province. One is older than us and the other is younger, and they spoke only French. But we had a good time in the pool. Did you know that "Marco! Polo!" sounds the same in any language?

TODAY WE ALL WENT to visit the American side of Niagara Falls. Aunt Linda says her toe is about the same, maybe even a little better. We left this morning and drove over the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls State Park in New York. We parked the cars at Goat Island and bought all-day tickets on the view-shuttle, which we took to the Prospect Point tower and the Maid of the Mist excursion. We thought that, with the holiday, the boat (and the rest of the park) would be really crowded, but it wasn’t as much as we’d expected. We could go to any part of the boat we wanted, and we did move around a little. But mostly we stayed around the middle where you can see the best.

After the boat returned to the dock, we climbed the stairs that skirt the edge of the falls here. Grandpa and Aunt Linda didn't come with us because that would have been too much for her toe. We got to see the falls really close-up. You could almost reach out and touch the water.

Once we’d elevatored back to the top, we took the shuttle to the Top of the Falls Restaurant for lunch. Both of us kids ordered, along with our lunches, cappuchino. It was delicious, but we were sure ready to take off and fly by the time we left the restaurant!

Once outside, Ryan ran a couple of laps around Terrapin Point, which helped burn off some of his energy. Here we were able to get up close to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls. After seeing the IMAX movie, we had no trouble imagining the native princess or the little boy being swept over the brink.

We waited for the shuttle to take us to the Three Sisters Islands, but when it got there it was full. Only about five people got off, and there were twenty people waiting to get on. We waited for the next shuttle and the same thing happened. We gave up and walked to the islands, arriving only a little after the shuttle got there. It was a lot more walking than Aunt Linda wanted to do, but she hung in there. We wandered around exploring the islands a little, and then caught the shuttle back to the parking lot. Of course, since it’s only a short stroll to the parking lot from here, we had no trouble finding seats on this one.

From here, we went back to visit the Niagara Park Greenhouse (on the Canada side), and Grandpa and Aunt Linda drove the other way so that they would have an opportunity to get lost while looking for a gas station.

Again this evening we swam in the pool and ate grilled burgers, sausages, and hot dogs.

Around 8:30 tonight we drove down to the falls to watch the lightshow and fireworks. We started out at one end of Victoria Park until it began to get dark. Then a test firework showed us that we had trees in our way, so we found a better place to watch from, along the wall overlooking the American Falls. By now it was getting darker, and the colors on the falls were looking much brighter. And when the fireworks started, we had an excellent view. Far away, behind the Days’ Inn across the falls on the American side, there were other fireworks going on as the Canadian ones ended, so we stayed and watched those as well. Then we walked up toward the street at the Queen Victoria Center. Here, a laser show was going on and we stood in the middle, watching the razor-sharp beams of green light shooting out to mirrors placed all over town. The effect was beams of light criss-crossing the whole Niagara Park area (not the falls themselves, though). They were also projecting moving images onto the hillside, although it was hard to see exactly what they were. Aunt Linda bought us goofy, flashing lighted headbands. Pink butterflies for Rachael, purple aliens for Ryan.

After a long walk up  the steep Murray Street hill, we got to the Skylon Tower where Dad and Grandpa had parked the cars. All this time, Aunt Linda was able to walk without much problem. And from here it was an easy drive back to Lundy’s Lane and the motel.

And we didn’t even get lost!

It figures... Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Aunt Linda finally know their way around here, and tomorrow we'll be leaving to go back home. We really enjoyed Niagara, and the whole rest of the vacation, too!

All text and photos ©2000 by John Lipman, Marnie Teterus, and Tom Teterus, except as noted. All rights reserved.