August Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 we leave Niagara Falls behind and head to Toronto... We tried to find something do so or see between Niagara Falls and Toronto. We stopped in Burlington which was right on the shores of Lake Ontario. They were having a Children's Festival featuring a pack of clowns singing, "There was a farmer had a dog and BINGO was his name, oh..." Cheryl took one look and said it was the reenactment of her worst nightmare. LOL! For those who don't know, Cheryl is afraid of clowns... There was nothing else of interest on the way to Toronto.

It was too early to check into our hotel, so we stopped on the way into Toronto at Casa Loma. It looked like a real medieval castle! Very cool, until we started reading about it... it was built in 1914, and completely modernized in 1937. I was having flash-backs to Bodie (the old west ghost town from the 1930's) What a tourist trap! It would have cost almost $100 for the four of us to tour the inside of the castle, so we just walked around the outside and then left. It was an amazing building... no gargoyles, but there is an angry looking unicorn on the tower.





Getting to the hotel was a bit of the challenge. The streets were narrow, and there were pedestrians, bikes and taxis everywhere! Garmina goes haywire around tall buildings, and we didn't have an exact address for the hotel (only the street name). She sent us around the block three times before we figured out that we were driving right past the hotel... Then we drove around the block three more times trying to find the self-park garage, (we also ended up getting lost in part of the underground city). We finally gave up and used valet parking. lol!

Our room at the hotel was AMAZING! Thank-you AAA upgrades, yahoo! There were two queen-sized beds and a sitting room with desk, couch, a couple chairs, coffee table and BIG flat-screen TV!

We had no idea what to do next, so we started with a bus tour... the Hippo Tours to be exact! It's similar to the Duck Tours, but without the "quacking." We take a bus tour around the city, then the bus drives into the water and becomes a boat; and we take a boat tour of the lake shore area. Toronto is a beautiful city!

We had dinner from a side walk hot dog vendor, and went exploring in the underground city (this time on foot). It's kind of spooky down there when everything is closed!

We found an open convenience store, got some snacks and went back to the room to watch soccer for the rest of the evening. Hey, this is Canada! They show soccer on non-cable channels! LOL!

August Vacation - Day 2

I hope you are sitting comfortably and have a nice cup of coffee, because I have a ton of photos to share with you today!

Day 2 finds us with a full day of Niagara Falls fun! A real Niagara Falls marathon!

Isn't Niagara Falls beautiful?!!! There was a great river side trail, full of beautiful flowers, and lots of runners. Made me wish I brought my running shoes... well, maybe not...

The Maid of the Mist was our first stop. We were told to get there early to avoid the crowds. We got right on the second boat leaving the dock and experienced the full force of the falls close up, with a couple hundred other blue people, LOL!



That's the American Falls behind us... it's kind of hard to see...

See that big white area behind Chris? That's the Canadian Falls. We got right up to it! We got so close and the mist was so thick, all my photos of the falls are just white.. like a polar bear in a snowstorm.

Check out this rainbow!

After the Maid of the Mist, we walked down the waterfront to the Behind the Falls tour. The stairs along the side of the falls was fun. The cave behind the falls was a tunnel where you can see the backside of the falls. Just between you and me, the backside of water looks a lot like the front side.

In the next photo, I'm the yellow ghost on the left... I was having issues with the one-size-fits-all poncho.



After that, we jumped in the car and headed to Niagara on the Lake, and got our first look at Lake Ontario. On the far side of the lake you can see Fort Niagara in New York.

Surprise! This is the weekend of Niagara on the Lake's Peach Festival. Look how cute the town is! We had some GREAT peach ice cream, YUM!





Cheryl and I just LOVED it there! Jim and Chris were ready to go right after eating lunch. The reason we are Niagara on the Lake is to take Whirlpool Jet Boat.

It's me again... still having issues with "one-size-fits-all."

Here's the rest of the family looking stylish in their orange life vests.

We went jet boating over class 6 rapids! WAY FUN!!! You should have seen the smile on Chris's face, it couldn't have gotten any bigger! It was the highlight of his trip.



After our full day of sight-seeing, We spent another night in Niagara Falls. It'll be time to say good-bye to Niagara Falls tomorrow, but tonight, we can still enjoy this view!

August Vacation - Day 1

We've been offline at home. Our internet has been down all week. Jim and Chris just got back from cross country camp, and got the internet back up and working again. YAHOO!

I just finished posting about our July vacation and already we are back from our August vacation. Summer is just flying by! Cheryl already started fall semester. Chris goes back in a little over a week.

Well, on to the fun stuff! VACATION!!! Cheryl finished school on Thursday and we packed up and left 4:30 the following morning for LAX! We flew 4.5 hours to Cleveland, Ohio. We picked up a nice Subaru Impressa and drove 4 hours over the Canadian border to Niagara Falls. We lost three more hours because of the time zone difference, and got our first glimpse of the falls in the evening.

I didn't know there were two Niagara Falls... the American Falls which splits into two falls, and on the other side of Goat Island is the Canadian Falls (also called Horseshoe Falls).

It was nice that we didn't have to change money. We paid for our dinner at TGI Fridays with US dollars. What we got back was a mix of US and Canadian... Chris says it's like speaking Spanglish, LOL!

Everything in Canada is very expensive. There are so many TAXES! We got 4 sandwiches at TGI Fridays (and 4 waters) for $78 Canadian. The exchange rate is $1 US = $0.90 Canadian. It was nice that in Niagara Falls, the businesses do a $1=$1 exchange. That saved us some money!

We spent the night on the 14th floor of a hotel with a GREAT view of the falls, the city lights, and the fireworks show. What a VIEW!!!



It's hard to get to bed early, because of the time difference, but we need to get a good night sleep... We have a full day of tourist-ing planned for tomorrow!!!

July Drive Vacation - Day 3

So, we are up to day 3... the day we are to return home...

We overnighted in Sonora in 110F heat. In the last two days, we have seen very few people traveling in the Sierra Nevadas. We try and catch a glimpse of Yosemite before we headed home.

We drove right up to the gate! There was no one there!!!

We rented a couple of bicycles and rode all over the valley floor...

We rode to Mirror Lake...

Yosemite Falls...

It was really beautiful! What a way to end the vacation! By the time we were ready to leave, the park was PACKED! It took a while to drive around the loop and out of Yosemite... Then 6 hours to home!

We had a great trip without the kids, but I really missed them...
Have a great week everyone!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

This morning Jim said, "Happy Anniversary!" ... and I was thinking, "Uh oh, is that today?"

YEP!!! That's TODAY! 25 years today!

We met at a party when I was 19yrs. Jim was there with his girlfriend and I was there with my boyfriend. The Monday after the party, the OCTD bus drivers changed schedules and Jim ended up being the driver for my bus to UCI. What a coincidence! We talked throughout the semester, laughed a lot, and enjoyed each others company... but after that I didn't see him for years. Then I was in an accident and had to take the bus to work while my car was being repaired. Guess who I saw again at the bus transfer station in downtown Santa Ana... Yep, Jim! He was no longer going out with his girlfriend and I was no longer going out with my boyfriend. So we started going out January 2, 1983. Our first date was roller skating with beer and pizza on the Newport Beach boardwalk.

Through the years we've had good times and some not so good times, but we are always together, always in love, and always best friends... I LOVE YOU, Jim!

Look what my fabulous hubby arranged for us! He knows how much I love a good show! We haven't been to a show since Cheryl was little (that was before Chris). Jim got us all tickets to see Young Frankenstein (the musical) at the Pantages! YAHOO!!! I am so excited! I can't WAIT!!! LOVE YOU, Jim!

July Drive Vacation - Day 2

Finally on to July Vacation, Day 2. First I want to mention that we missed Chris and worried about him too... love you, Boo! {grin}

The end of Day One had us overnighting in Bridgeport. The sky was getting dark and threatening as we found a tiny motel and took one of the two rooms they had left. It poured that evening complete with thunder and lightning.

Day 2 started bright and sunny as we headed over the Sierra Nevadas on Hwy 4.

Our destinations today were Big Tree State Park and Columbia (I still wanted to see an old gold town!). Driving over Hwy 4 sure was beautiful! It's been a while since we've been to the mountains. We only saw a handful of cars/trucks/campers on Hwy 4.

I forgot to mention that we are traveling in a rented Ford Escape, 2-wheel drive cross-over. This was because the mini-van was in the shop and we wanted to leave the kids with a car each while we were gone. Jim wanted to rent a 4-wheel drive truck, but did you know that they don't rent 4-wheel drive trucks in southern California?

The Escape was a cushy ride! Jim couldn't resist the pull of all those little dirt roads off of Hwy 4... So, we went 4-wheeling with a rented 2-wheel drive truck into the backwoods of the Sierra Nevadas.

After driving a ways on some nice dirt roads, our Garmin (fondly known as Garmina) plotted a circular route back to Hwy 4. Putting our complete trust in Garmina... off we went! The dirt roads started getting smaller and less traveled. When we were within .25 miles of the highway, the trail was blocked with a fallen tree and rock slide. We turned around and Garmina plotted us a new path.

At this point it started to rain... Jim couldn't get the Escape up one muddy hill and had to back it down and out. Again Garmina dutifully plotted us a new path. Our way out involved a shallow creek crossing and a trail so narrow that the bushes scraped the Escape on both sides of the path... but we made it! Yahoo! A BIG cheer and sigh of relief, lol! Our off roading adventure took a few hours, but we finally made it to Big Tree State Park. What a treat!

We went hiking through the forest... there was hardly anyone there... it was beautiful and quiet (well, at least it was until the bus load of school kids showed up). I LOVE the redwoods! The first camping trip that I can remember was up in the coastal redwood forest with Dad, Mom and Ran.


As we were leaving Big Tree, Jim's phone beeped... voice mail? It was from Cheryl... in a very bummed out voice, she said, "Dad, call me back when you get this..." PANIC!!! There's no signal!... As Jim drove, I watched the cell phone... "I see 2-bars! Stop here!" Jim pulled over and called... Cheryl had been in an accident. She was rear ended when she was stopped at a red light. There was no more damage than a couple scratches on the bumper. No one was hurt. We were thanking God over and over that it wasn't anything more serious! {whew}

Our next stop was a place that we discovered by picking up a random flier, called Moaning Cavern. It was a hole in the ground big enough to drop the Statue of Liberty into. There was a 3 hour long tour that would take people through wonderful treasures like "The Roach Motel," "The Meat Grinder," "The Pancake Room," and finally out through "Godzilla's Nostril." We gave that one a pass and did the 45 minute tour to the cavern floor and back.

Some people were repelling the 165' down into the cavern, but we opted to take the stairs, all 234 steps! The top half of the stairs were cut into a narrow crevice in the cavern wall. The bottom half was a spiral metal staircase. Jim learned that heights are bothering him more now than when he was younger... a good thing to know, but not so good to learn it halfway down a metal staircase...

Our last stop was the old gold town of Columbia. Columbia was definitely not a ghost town. It was a town with old style buildings, selling tourist items... a total bust (we didn't even take any photos there).

After coming down from the Sierra Nevadas, we hit 110F heat in the central valley! Time to look for a motel with a POOL and cool down... So ends July road trip, Day 2!!

Stay tuned for the last day of our road trip.

Our new family member...

Well, it's NOT this girl... she's just a weekend visitor, lol! This is Jammer, and she lives down the street. She is just a sweetie! We all enjoyed having her over.

Here is my new baby... a baby blue Honda FIT. Here it is next to Jim's Matrix. Cheryl said that it's a blue jellybean, lol! It looks a lot like the Matrix.

Chris got his drivers license over two weeks ago, and we have been making due with three cars since then. Chris had to get up early and take me to work so that he could have the car to go to cross country practice. Then someone would have to pick me up after work. He is sooooo HAPPY that I have a car!

I knew what I wanted and Jim shopped around on the internet for the best price. He found a GREAT price in Loma Linda, Spreen Honda. He called, they said they had the car, we drove over 50 miles to get there, and found out that they didn't have the car.

We expected them to try and sell us something else that was more expensive, but they didn't. Dennis Anderson took great care of us. He gave us a $25 Target gift card for our inconvenience, and found the exact car we wanted. We picked it up the following weekend and paid the exact price that we were quoted!

We are now a four car family...