Canada Eh?

So, I am not quite sure how it happened, but I was able to convince Kevin into crossing the border into my home and native land. Oh yeah,  now I remember.  As long as he could still see America, he was fine. None the less, I was able to venture into Canada.  Not Raymond, unfortunately, and not for Canada Day, which would have been amazing, but beggars can't be choosers.
 We were off to embark on another fun road trip! Niagara Falls!!! We stopped by South Bend to wish the Kelly and her family goodbye.  Those lucky rascals got to move to home. I am not gonna lie, I'm jealous. Very early the next morning we woke up, said goodbye, and we were off.  First stop; Ann Arbor,  home of the 'Big House'

I am only slightly in trouble for getting this picture with his eyes closed. It was a dream to visit the home of the Wolverines, and I ruined it.No pressure eh?

So after a brief stop for a picture, gas, and an opportunity to empty my bladder, we were off again. We next went through Detroit. Not much to see there.  We thought about stopping by the 8 mile, but I already live in the ghetto adn I think they must all be the same? They did have a nifty tunnel though.  We drove through the magical tunnel and just like abracadabra, we popped out at the border. What a heavenly sight! It was as though angels were descending in song and everything was glowing. I was so excited, I took a picture

What a beautiful sight. I love the maple leaf.  I think Kevin started worrying about this point and second guessing himself for bringing me back home. Tee Hee.

After getting lost only once ( I had to turn my phone off for fear of 'substantial charges', I couldn't have access to live google maps).  We finally got back on track and started making our way across Ontario. We drove through Hamilton and my old home, Stony Creek, and then headed down to the Falls. 

We checked into our seedy hotel (I am on a budget!) and were pleasantly surprised with how close we were to the Falls.  We were only about a block and a half away.  The reviews didn't lie, and we decided after a half a bottle of Fabreeze and some airconditioning that if we didn't walk in bare feet or sit on anything, it wasn't so bad.  Kevin was not impressed with TSN and the Hockey draft instead of the USA world Cup game.   Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the place, and the one from priceline website with the little Indian kids in the hot tub is gone :(

We headed down towards the falls, and just as Kevin was mentioning an urge for soup and doughnuts, we saw Tim Horton's.  OK, he was kidding and he thinks that is the weirdest, maybe even grossest thing in the world. Then, we saw the mist rising in the air, and the falls were visible. 

The view from the Canadian Side is AMAZING! This is Horseshoe Falls

Then, we had to check out the Maid of the Mist.  We are almost as romantic as Jim and Pam, so we, after a bunch of pictures, headed down to board the boat.

Apparently these sexy blue poncho's are all the rage in Raymond.  The Mountain Mamma's requested we go dumpster diving for enough to outfit their entire possy.  Well, that was a little below me, but I did keep mine and Kevin's.  Now, Jackie can pick her favorite friend to share with. 

It was a very fun boat ride.  Much cooler, wetter, and even more scenic than the riverboat cruise from St. Louis.  Who knew. We parked in the middle of the falls for quite a while and got blasted by water, but it was a hot day, and it was so pretty, that we didn't mind.  The blue poncho's worked well.

After the Maid of the Mist (you can see a boat right by Kevy's neck) It was time for some more pictures.  We were challenged to beat Jenny's 1400 from her Canada trip, but we came up short.  We only got about 350.  Not even close. I can't believe Kevin let that happen.

I think about half of them are of this Rainbow in the falls. It was pretty cool.

At some points, you could even see 2  rainbows going into the falls

Later that evening, we heard that they were going to do fireworks!!! I love fireworks.  We went back to the inn and slipped on some flip flops, showered, and headed off in search of food.  After opting against soup and doughnuts again, we finally found something, and then set off to explore Niagara.  After a beautiful scenic walk, we figured it was time to locate a spot to get the best view of the show.  We parked at the top of a hill by the falls.  We waited for a while, the crowds gathered and sky grew dark.  Then, after we were entertained by a fabulous pyrotechnical display over the falls. It echoed so loud, we kept looking for them on the American side.

They also light up the falls every night and do a light show.

Which of course we enjoyed.

And took lots and lots of pictures.

They had a whole circle of lights that shone on both the American and Horseshoe Falls and would change and bedazzle all the watchers. 

I was freaking tired at this point, and my head felt like I had midgets inside of it slamming sledge hammers on my temples.  I was tired enough, that I was going to get  a good night's sleep.  Even in the Knight's Inn.  Kevin settled in and found his new favorite show, R.J. Burger, or something. Much Music totally redeemed Canadian TV...who would've guessed. It was a LONG day. I was exhausted. 

The next morning we woke up still unsure what we were going to do.  We knew it was supposed to rain, and we hadn't really decided what our plan of action was going to be.  We thought we might go check out Toronto.  The CN Tower is taller than the Willis Tower (Sears Tower), but the G20 was going on and half the city was shut down.. After we turned on the News and got word of all the riots, we decided heading to Palmyra New York might be fun.  We also still needed to check out the American side of the falls.

Reluctantly, we crossed the bridge, and headed back into the USA.  Kevin's first time to the Empire State. It is now documented. He was there!

After mentioning on our drive to Niagara that the wild rose is Alberta's flower, we stumbled on one.

We walked around.  Took some more pictures.

American Falls, From America.

After completing our Niagara visit, we were off to visit Palmyra

Unfortunately, my phone died, but we made it, without getting lost! Here is Kevin at the top of the Hill Camorah.  We were 2 weeks early for the pageant, but we did see them setting up the stage. It is the larges outdoor theater event in America.

He might be slightly inappropriate, but really funny. He's looking for gold!

We followed the maps that the sisters at the Visitor's Center gave us.  We stopped to check out the temple.

Kevin must have been summoning his native American ancestors again, because the rain kept letting up when we would stop to look at these sights. It was a drizzly/raining miserable day, but we are troopers and had a wonderful time in spite of it.

We continued on our tour of Palmyra.  We stopped at Joseph Smith's home and the Sacred Grove

It was a very large area, and we did get pretty lost. after a good 30minutes, Kevin's Eagle Scout kicked in, and he found our way out.

We didn't know that they offered tours, and so as we were giving ourselves a self guided one, a sister missionary had just finished another with a big group, and gave Kevin and me our very own private tour.

80% of the house is original, including the hearth.  This is the original brick that Joseph hid the plates under. 

We even got to go upstairs.

Us in the dining area.

We figured our stop would take maybe an hour or so, after being in Palmyra for a little over 2 hours already, we thought we would make 1 more stop, take a few pictures, and then be on our merry way.  Little did we know....

We made a stop at the BOM publication site.  We were in a slight hurry, but thought we could make it through the tour quickly.  I am all for history and spirit, but we had a first day missionary that took EVERY opportunity to bear her testimony and she forgot her lines to most of the stuff on the tour, bless her heart.  (Angie says that you can say that after or before you say anything mean about someone and it makes it so it wasn't mean. I did not intend to be mean, only to mention that we were in a hurry) 2 hours later, Kevin and I split early and got back on the road.

We passed through Pennsylvania (check that off his list) and found ourselves in Ohio, (check both of ours).  Well, since we had already had some church history, it didn't seem right to pass through Kirkland without stopping.  So we did.

And we would NEVER miss an opportunity to take a picture of a National Historic Landmark. 

Unfortunately, it was late and so we were not able to go inside. Although, we would have liked to. We were there for about 10 minutes and on to our last stop.

Now I am unsure how this happened, and I am not sure when in my family this became a tradition, but I only became aware of A Christmas Story about 3 years ago. This shocked not only my Kevin, but my family as well.  I am not sure why they were excluding me from their family traditions, but apparently was was not invited to join in these family Christmas bonding sessions. But, since I am now familiar with this bit of history, and since Kevin is a big fan, how could we pass through Cleveland without stopping at A Christmas Story House and Museum.

We could not.  We had to stop.  I am not sure why they put the house in the Cleveland ghetto, but I am convinced I heard gunshots while we were down there. We posed and took a few pictures for posterity, but our light was fading quickly and it was time to get out!

It was late, and we were not about to stay in Cleveland any longer than we had to. We did not get to go inside and see the snowsuit and other things, but we did get a picture of the coveted leg lamp...

In ALL her glory!!

It is a good thing we got a good night's sleep at the Knight's Inn, because Kevin decided it would be a good idea to drive all the way home that night.  So we did. We got out paying for another hotel.  Love my accountant.