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?