August Vacation - Day 8

Do you know the name of the United State's newest National Park? It's Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Do you know where the entrance to Cuyahoga Valley National Park is? It's in Independence, Ohio... and we just happen to be staying in Independence, Ohio (just outside of Cleveland)! We can't pass up a chance like that, and Mary and Carley have never been to a National Park.

Today is our last day... we got up early and grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's. There is a train that runs the entire distance through the park... up and back in 3 hours! It seemed like a great way to see the park.



We talked, enjoyed the scenery, and talked some more! We took a walk through the train to, it was very rocky... Cheryl had trouble walking a straight line... that's my girl! LOL!





It was a very beautiful park. Everything was so green and wet! What a change from here, where everything is brown and dry...





After the train ride, it was time to say good-bye. It was very sad to think that it may be years before we see each other again :o(

I gave us three hours to get to turn in the car, ride the shuttle from the rental car complex to the airport, get our tickets, go through security, get lunch and find the gate. Well, all of that took about 20 minutes. We had lots of time to explore Cleveland Airport, lol!

We found a mini-Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... and we discovered that Dunkin Donuts really does have great coffee!



What a long flight home! Jim and Chris picked us up at the airport! We had a GREAT time, but there is no place like home!

August Vacation - Day 7

The hotel comp'd our room for last night. I bet the bed bug infestation to the USA must be really hard on hotels. That was really nice of them!

Today is the DAY! The day we meet Mary and her daughter Carley! We've arranged to meet at noon at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Mary and Carley have a 4.5 hour drive to get there. Cheryl and I are less than an hour away.

We had breakfast at the hotel and had Garmina take us to Cleveland. The Cleveland Botanical Gardens is in a cultural park area. We were able to park at the botanical gardens and walk across the street to the Cleveland Art Museum. As we were enjoying the museum, poor Mary and Carley were stuck in construction traffic. When Mary and Carley were about 15 miles out, Cheryl and I finished at the museum and walked back to the botanical gardens. We tried to get a map of the gardens to look at while we waited, but they wouldn't give us one without a ticket. So we bought our tickets and was in the process of getting a map from the docent, when Mary and Carley walked up! What perfect timing!

Mary is adorable with the cutest mid-west drawl... Carley is adorable, and not at all shy about meeting us! We all hit it off GREAT! It's like we've been friends for years (which we actually have been)!

The gardens were beautiful! These are all Mary's photos. My camera was missing at the time (lost at the bottom of my backpack), DOH! The Rain Forest and the butterfly gardens were great, but it was so hard to get a photo of... Those butterflies are FAST!

It was FUN walking through the gardens. The flowers that Mary knew I didn't know, and the ones that Mary didn't know, I knew...

This is a photo I took of Cheryl as we were travelling through New York. When we were at the botanical gardens, I asked Mary what they were. She said, "We call them weeds..." LOL! Ohio has very pretty weeds!

We parked Mary's car at the hotel and then drove together to.. ARCHIVER'S! (For those who don't know, it's a scrapbook chain superstore which is only on the East coast). You think LA traffic is bad? We were dead stopped on the Interstate. It must have been a really bad accident because they were routing all traffic off the highway. Well, we sure had a nice long time to talk and to get to know each other better!

After shopping and dinner, we went back to the hotel and Mary showed me how to make my mother-in-law's postage stamp afghan! YAHOO! Thank-you, Mary for figuring that out!

Wait until you see what we have planned tomorrow!

August Vacation - Day 6

Things have been going smoothly so far, but that ends today! We stayed in Geneseo, NY last night so that we could drive right into Letchworth State Park in the morning. It turned out that the Geneseo entrance was closed. Letchworth is long and thin (following the canyon, along the river). Driving around to the other end was not a short jaunt.

It was a very beautiful park. It featured three waterfalls... The UPPER Falls...

... The MIDDLE Falls...

... And the LOWER Falls...

... AND of course, the GRAND CANYON of the East!!!

Okay, so whoever named this one obviously has never been to the real Grand Canyon... It was very pretty, and we spent the morning hiking all around the river trail!



Now it's time to leave Letchworth, but where are we going? We pull out the guide book... Since we have to go South to get out of the park, we will continue South to Jamestown, New York (the birth place of Lucille Ball) and have a late lunch. There is a lot of farm land between here and there! Cheryl took this one... she loves that it says "MILK" on the roof, lol!

There was nothing in Jamestown. Even with Garmina's help, we couldn't even find anything to eat. We wanted pizza... can't leave New York without having pizza! The restaurants were closed (only open for dinner), no longer in business, or under new management. After searching for half an hour, we left Jamestown behind. We looked for pizza around the finger lakes, and again, came up empty.

Since we didn't have a Pennsylvania tour book, we decided to head back toward Ohio and find a place to stay along the shore of Lake Erie. Erie, Pennsylvania sounded like a good place. OMGosh, what a scary place that was! Cheryl and I switched places and we got out of there FAST. We continued on to Ohio. Cheryl drove while I poured through the tour book and found a town with lots of hotels and lots of restaurants. We finally stopped at Mentor, Ohio (on the shore of Lake Erie). It was a full day of driving, but what a pretty spot!

It seemed our luck was changing... BTW, have you heard about the bed bug outbreak in the East? Uh yeah, you guessed it... Cheryl and I changed rooms at 11pm.

Cheryl keeps saying how excited she is to meet Carley, and I've texted and talked to Mary to on phone! We are all set to meet TOMORROW in Cleveland... the Cleveland Botanical Gardens at noon! WhooHoo!

August Vacation - Day 5

Today is the day we need to checkout of our hotel in Toronto... Thank goodness checkout isn't until 11am! We have time to grab a taxi to Distillery!

The Distillery is as its name implies; an old distillery. In its day, it was the largest distillery in North America. The buildings have been fully restored and it has evolved into an artist colony. So it's a funky blending of old brick buildings and contemporary art.



It really is a charming place; great for an early morning latte and croissant. I wish more of the shops were open, but most didn't open until 11am.



We were running short of Canadian funds. So we took the trolley back to the hotel. We are getting to be pros at the trolley! Or so we thought until we missed our stop (it's a good thing that the blocks are short), lol! We checked out of the hotel with only a $2 coin and 6 pennies left. I had planned to give the $2 coin to the valet, but after waiting 40 minutes for our car, I gave the coin to Cheryl as a souvenir. With 6 pennies in our pocket we headed by to the Good Old USA!... and got stuck in the border crossing for 45 minutes.



Our first destination was Goat Island! It's the island situated in the middle of the Niagara River, separating the American Falls from the Canadian Falls. Since Goat Island didn't have an address that we could give Garmina, Cheryl had to navigate us there with a {gasp} MAP! We made it there on the first pass. She was so proud of herself!

While we were there, we had to go down to the Cave of the Winds! It's the same principle as the Behind the Falls tour on the Canadian side, but a lot more INTENSE! Even wearing the yellow slickers, it was impossible not to get soaked! What FUN!











We took in the view and then tried to decide where to go next.

One of the Goat Island pamphlets listed all of New York's state parks. There was one park which touted itself to be the "Grand Canyon of the East Coast." How could we resist? We've seen the "Grand Canyon" and the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific," we must see the "Grand Canyon of the East Coast"! So we headed for, Geneseo, New York, the town nearest the entrance to Letchworth State Park.

We stayed in the cutest place ever, the Big Tree Inn! The price for staying in this historic building was the same as staying at the only other place in town, the Quality Inn. Where the Quality Inn was next to the truck stop, the Big Tree Inn was right in the middle of town. How could we resist?!!! There were only eight rooms in the hotel; ours was called the Seneca room and it was on the third floor. It was a fun place, trying to get to our room was like trying to navigate through the Winchester Mystery house!

It had a great outside porch were we kicked back and did a little research... Where are we going tomorrow, Cheryl?

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...