(click here for today's pictures)
Buffalo, New York to Niagara Falls, Canada
I do think that we all slept incredibly well last night. We knew that breakfast would be at Paula’s donuts this morning so we didn’t rush around at all. We even pulled out of the hotel a bit earlier than we had planned. It was a good thing that we did since as we finished loading up, it really started raining.
Our first stop was Sams to buy a few things to prepare for tomorrow’s birthday. Keaton said early this morning that she wished that this day would hurry up and be over! I think that she is pretty excited about her birthday.
Next up, was Paula’s Donuts. We had been waiting for Paula’s Donuts for well over a year. It did not disappoint. Most everyone opted for an M&M donut. I had a pecan log along with some hot chocolate. When we walked in a man handed us a coupon which we of course used. Somehow we ended up walking out of there with 2 dozen doughnuts.
My car is completely full-birthday cake and muffins for tomorrow and 2 dozen doughnuts. Yesterday, I had told Robby that if it was just us in a car, we could fill it up with lots of souvenirs. I could have bought a few dozen apples yesterday and even walk through a few gift shops.
We then drove by the Martin House which was a Frank Lloyd Wright complex. I have always wanted to learn more about architecture, but I did pass on the 20 dollar tour of the house. We did jump out and take a picture while Robby read us info about the homes.
Then we drove through Forest Lawn Cemetery. There are over 100 thousand folks buried here so finding Fillmore’s grave was like finding a needle in a haystack, but we did it. The kids enjoyed picking out places where they wanted to be buried and telling us where they would bury us. Whitman shouted through most of our cemetery drive through that he was going to “heaven” and not here. Campbell assured us that she would be in Hawaii!
From the cemetery, we moved on the Theodore Roosevelt’s Inaugural Site. We had already done this Jr. Ranger book at home so we quickly picked up our badges once we were there. Robby and I had taken our picture in front of this site on the day we flew out of Buffalo when we came. Then a few years ago when we were here with the Wilsons, we just looked around the gift shop and did not take the tour.
Despite the overbearing worker people there, the tour was actually fairly neat. It was pretty interactive but still a guided tour through the house. We went through the different rooms while watching videos and listening to recordings about what we were seeing. It was a pretty neat stop-neat enough that I bought an ornament.
As we walked to outside to take a picture, we discovered that it was still raining outside. Not only was it raining a bit, but it was coming down pretty good. Once in the car after the picture, we ran to Anchor Bar to pick up some chicken wings to eat on the road.
Our plan was to eat them on the road, but the massive amount of boxes and bags and buckets that Robby came back to the car changed those plans. We did stop at a 7-11 for everyone to get themselves a slush. So as we drank our drinks, I passed out chicken wings. They had actually given Robby at least a whole extra order of wings. We had wings everywhere in this car!
The favorite by far was the boneless wings. The kids were unimpressed with the real bone-in wings. I am really not too impressed with any of the wings. That is one meal that I could pass on. However, when you are in Buffalo you must eat as Buffalo-nians do!
Then we headed on towards Niagara Falls. On the way there, we made a wrong turn an ended up in Canada. That was fine since we had passports, otherwise, I don’t know what we would have done. It was fine though because we just made a big loop on our way to Lewiston, NY.
The kids played on their ipad during our trek through Canada. There was a short line coming into Canada, but a few miles down the road when we crossed back across, the line was sure a bit longer. The US Border patrol take things a lot more seriously than the Canadian side.
Once we made it back to the Land of the Free, we headed to The SIlo. We had seen that they would be closed, but we still went. As we drove up, it looked like they possibly might be open. There were people around stirring but unfortunately, they were just cleaning up.
When we did see all of this, Anderson shouted, “I know where we are.” And yes, he could anyone forget us eating a bucket full of ice cream! We walked around some and then headed off to find some gas since our gas light was already on.
From there, we drove to where I thought I could pick up Jr. Ranger books for Niagara Falls. I was mistaken because we found no place to get those books. However, we did get to discover Niagara University for a little bit.
Then since we had struck out on the ice cream stop, we headed towards another iconic Niagara ice cream stop. It too was also closed. There season ended just a week or two ago when it officially became fall. Robby even drove around some looking for ice cream, but we had to settle for a doughnut from this morning.
From there we crossed back into Canada and drove to our hotel. This hotel is pretty near the falls. Robby checked in, and we unloaded the van. After a bit, we headed down the hill towards the falls. We rode the Niagara Falls Incline. On our way down, I was texting Candice and they were at the bottom of the incline waving at us.
We walked by the falls with them. The kids enjoyed taking pictures with their friends. After a bit, they headed to a souvenir shop while we headed to Clifton Hill to do some sightseeing. We walked through the Hershey store. I could tell that Robby wanted to buy something, and the kids definitely wanted for him to buy something. After doughnuts, wings, icees and an upcoming bit of supper, I shook my head no!
We moved on up the hill. We did stop at Tim Horton’s for a bite to eat. I learned today that he was a hockey player who played in Buffalo and Canada. I found that little nugget interesting about the famous Canadian chain. Even though they are famous for their breakfasts, we ate mostly supper food-we had some sub sandwiches along with a wrap. Robby also bought a few sausage biscuits. I was not hungry at all since those doughnuts from earlier were absolutely huge, however the kids devoured our snacky supper like they hadn’t eaten in weeks or even months.
After we ate, we had to walk back down the hill and along the falls to our incline. It closed at 9:30, and it was important that we didn’t miss it since we would have to walk up the hill! We hustled along the falls stopping long enough to take a few more pictures.
Thankfully, we made it in time to ride the incline. A man, who must not have spoken English, motioned for Campbell and Whitman to come and sit by him on the incline. They did. When it was over, the man tried to give Whitman a high five. Whitman declined and said, “I’m not giving you a high five, you are a stranger.”
From there, it was a short walk back to our hotel. We ran to the car first so the kids could pick out their drinks for tomorrow. While Robby kept them busy with that, I loaded up on Keaton’s party supplies that I would need in the morning.
Back in the room, we changed clothes and for the first night on the trip, we did not do laundry. We let the kids stay up a bit later since I was busy blogging and Robby was busy working. Once it was bedtime, the kids went to sleep pretty quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment