Canada Trip, Day 1

August 4, 2008

Welcome to the Neumeier's Family Vacation Blog for 2008. First attempt at blogging, so bear with us here...

8:40 AM

Day 1 got off without too much tribulation. We decided to hit McDonald's drive through on the way out of town, but the call for sticky rolls and hot cakes required this to become our first stop of the day. So there we were at 8:45 AM on Bellefountaine St in Wapak, for a 20 minute breakfast start.

Once we were on our way, we settled in for the 406 mile drive to our hotel (the Doubletree by Hilton) in downtown Niagara, Ontario.

4:00 PM

Very nice, newer hotel with 13 stories, with the unfortunate side effects of

A) they only allow 4 guests, and

B) 1 of the 2 elevators was broken.

Of course, we were on the 6th floor, so this presented a bit of a logistical problem (a.k.a. herding cats with luggage).

Nice room, spacious. A bit warm, as the air conditioner just doesn't seem to keep up.

Kierstyn and I returned the luggage cart to the lobby (and found the super secret service elevator for another option) and checked in the with concierge on the evening activities.

First order of business, Maid of the Mist. Apparently the first Monday in August in Canada is a national holiday. Ask the locals, and they are not sure what it is, just that it is. It's a civic holiday, and the weekend here was busy. There was still a crowd around the falls for a Monday.

We also decided to book dinner reservations for 8PM at the Skylon tower, which has a revolving dining room some 500+ feet (what is that in meters??) above the falls.

4:30 PM

We headed out on the short walk to the Maid of the Mist, as there are no reservations, only waiting in line. The short walk, as I was told, was not as short for those that were wearing flip-flops. Sounded like a good idea since we were going to get wet, but not so good for the mile and a half walk (a kilometer or few?). Either way, it was all down hill, so I think some were fearing the walk back.

We ended up walking down a street filled with people and activity, museums, games, shows, etc. But we were on a mission... to the Maid of the Mist!!

5:30 PM

Well in line now, moving briskly. Not a bad wait at all. 55 bucks and a blue raincoat later, and we are ready to board. We stayed on bottom of the double decker, hoping to not get too wet. Covering camera gear, et al, we set sail.

First to the American Falls **GUSH*** everything wet. What fun!! Lots of pictures, frantic children, scurrying bodies, more pictures!

Now, to the Horseshoe Falls. How incredible! More pictures, more scurrying! Shot a movie with the little camera. Great skyline, great view! Well worth it.

It was a bit overcast, the sun would have been nice for the pictures, but still, a great time and view!

6:30 PM

Do we walk to the hotel? Uphill? Lets walk the stretch to the tower, just in case. We need to be there 15 minutes early.

Not a bad walk at all... Tower looks close to the hotel, so we walk on back, power nap for 15 minutes and dress for dinner. We are back at the base of the tower ready for our ride up at 7:50 PM.

8:00 PM

Reservation for 5? Right this way! Majestic view of the surroundings. The restaurant revolves once every hour. We got to see it all. The falls, the casino's, the city, the parks, the sunset. Sipping on a Molson, just relaxing, Elisha with her Daiquiri in a souvenir glass. Kids tired from the day, so even they are calm.

View was much better than the dinner. But they comp'd us deserts for the chewy meat incident, so that was nice!

10:00 PM

Up to the outside observation deck for the fireworks show over the falls. Too many people, too short a show. Still, great view! More pictures!

10:30 PM

Hike back to the room, and call it a day.

11:00 PM

Good night all.

See you tomorrow.