August Vacation - Day 4

Today is Jim and Chris's last day in Toronto. They didn't see anything from the Hippo bus that they wanted to do today, so we went to the CN Tower. It is the tallest tower in the world! I got dizzy looking up at it!

They had special security in place. These boxes are called "sniffers." We file through one at a time, it shot air at us, and then checks that air for explosives residue.

It's a strong blast of air... I was glad that I wasn't wearing a skirt!... think Marilyn Monroe, LOL!

The bottom level of the tower had a glass floor.
The kids and Jim were standing on the glass floor when I jumped from the sidelines onto the glass... It scared Jim silly! It's been a while since we've seen him move that fast! We were all falling down LAUGHING!

It was a great time! After the CN Tower, it was time for Jim and Chris to leave us. Jim couldn't get the entire week off and Chris had to get back home because he was still in summer school. We pointed Garmina to the Toronto International Airport, and off we went! Bye, Jim, Bye, Chris... we'll miss you!

After Jim and Chris took off, Cheryl and I were on our own. We made it back to the hotel on the first circut around the block (yeah, I'm GOOD, LOL!), parked the car... valet of course, since we never found that self-park lot. AND jumped on the subway to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

The ROM is an amazing place! We really wanted to see the Terracotta Army when they were at LACMA, but unfortunately, we missed it. Luckily for us they are here at ROM!

Here is our photo of the Terracotta warriors, lol! Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos in the exhibit, so this is all we have. We spent all afternoon at the museum. They had a great dinosaur exhibit, ancient art, wildlife and the highlight were the bat caves!

We didn't know where to go next, so we decided to ask someone... On the recommendation of a salesman in the museum gift store, we jumped on the trolley to Kinsington Market.

Kinsignton is a GREAT outdoor market... LOTS of food, and LOTS of places to eat. What great timing, we are just in time for dinner!

We located the Tapas Bar recommended by the guy in the gift store! What a treat! We ate out on the patio and sampled several Tapas dishes! YUM! The waiter recommended that we checkout the Distillery... We put that on our list of things to do tomorrow!

After getting so stuffed that our stomachs hurt, we had a nice long walk back to the hotel along the water front! I've said it before and I'll say it again... Toronto is a beautiful city!

Now Cheryl and I have the HUGE room to ourselves... nothing like living in luxury! hehehe...

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!