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.

Day Trippers

FINALLY!!!! After 9 very long months, Kevin has officially finished his first year of Law School!!!   Except for a paper he is writing to try to get onto law review.  I am so proud of him, and FINALLY, we get to spend some FUN time together. Not that watching him study isn't thrilling, but most people who know me, know I LIVE for good road trips.
Kevin and I are planning a trip to Niagra in 2 weeks, but last week he suggested a spontaneous trip to St. Louis.  How could I say no. I looked at the forecast, and it was supposed to storm most of the weekend, but most thunderstorms occur in the afternoon, so we decided to get up early yesterday and spend the weekend down there. Here is a TON of pictures of our fun road trip.
***Warning: Long Post***

At the base of the "Gateway to the West"

Another must do/see would be a riverboat cruise along the muddy Mississippi, so of course how could we pass that up? We didn't

Mark Twain would've been so proud, we boarded our Riverboat 'Tom Sawyer' and took off to see the sights of St. Louis, on the muggiest day ever!

 

Side view of the riverboat

The scenery from our boat...the only scenic part.  This as a deceptive cruise. St. Louis has a nice downtown...everything else along the water scared the snot out of me.  Itl looks like there could be all sorts of shady activities going on.

This is a picture of what our Riverboat looks like from the back. We had Jazz music blasting, and I felt like I was in the 'Dirty South'

Look at all that muddy water.

It was then time to go up the arch.  We didn't know what to expect or how we would get up there, but we were assigned a boarding pass, and waited to see what was behind door #8.

Then, like magic, a little capsule popped open in front of us.  The doors were 4 feet high, and there was seats for mini butts, mine barely fit in there, so I am not sure if any of those 'southern'girls could squeeze their bam into it.  It was a tight fit, and luckily one of the other guys who was assigned our little capsule with us, chickened out. We would not have fit in there with him.

The view of St. Louis from the top.

Kevy peering through one of the mini windows in a clausterphobics nightmare. While we were up there, a fire alarm went off...can you imagine being trapped 630 feet above the ground in this tiny little arch and it were to burn down.  We were soon reassured that it was someone opening the door to the stairs.

Looking straight down you can see the base on bith sides.

The Arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide

Both of us at the top

A better picture of the capsule

Kevin was summoning the spirits of his ancestors.  Its a good thing, we needed them later. He is something like a 62nd seminole.

If you look really close, you can see the itty bitty windows.

Kevin thought he was Atlas.  It took something like 30 tries to get this right.

We then checked out downtown, and found that the best thing to do as a local is go swimming in the many fountains along these parks, this one had the fewest.

We checked out some of the local art

Kevin was a little disturbed by this one, for good reason.

The view of the arch from an alley.

It was still early when we finished downtown and figured we could see everything we wanted to in 1 day.  After the skies opened, and we were victims of a downpoor that got me wetter than a shower, we decided to continue on our trip. We were off to see some mounds.  As we exited of the road onto the next leg of our trip, we ran across a cute little turtle in the middle of the road.  Kevin stopped and I ran out and rescued our little friend. We then, put him back in the brush. Poor little Speedy.

When we pulled up, you can see, it was still raining, but just this week, Yahoo! had mentioned that it was a place you should take your children before they grow up.  It is the largest archeological site in America, and it is remnants of religious grounds and a civilization from back in the days of earlier native Americans. So, we had to see them rain or shine.

Kevin, earlier in the wig-wam, did a rain dance and summoned the Native spirits of his ancestors.  They listened and the skies parted, and the rain stopped for a few moments. Long enough for us to climb to the top of 'Monk's Mound' and check out the rest of these piles of dirt (did I just stay that?).

From the top of Monk's mound, we could see a few more mounds, but we also got a great view of a very cloudy, rainy, downtown St. Louis.

Yes, you are reading correctly, these natives had their own Woodhenge. Maybe not quite as impressive as Stonehenge, but these wooden poles had the same idea

I am trying to see what astrological info I can find in the middle of Woodhenge.

We then had to stop in Springfield.  Home of our State Capitiol, and Abraham Lincoln. We rushed there and got in while there was still a few moments of light.

They restored the entire block where Lincoln had lived, and all the houses are museums that you can tour. We got there a little late, but we still got to see where his home was.

There is Kevin, Resting on the stoop of Abe's home.

We then, checked out the Presidential Library and Museum, but only from the outside.

Outside the Library. We may have to go back so Kevin can go in. He LOVES presidential libraries.

Outside the old Capitol Building. They were even doing a reinactment of civil war camps on the grounds.

Inside the old capitol building, we got there JUST as they were closing. We got our own private tour.

We even got to go into the Supreme Court room.

And a look at the new capitol building.

It was a busy day. It started at 6am, but we made it home by midnight. Our weekend outting, turned into a day trip. Why not.

Reality Rocks!

I love trashy reality TV.  For some reason I cannot get enough of the drama... and I do like to believe its ALL REAL.  Why else would it be reality TV.  My guiltiest pleasure happens to be starting back up again in 6 days... THE BACHELORETTE
  I have been a huge Bachelor/Bachelorette fan for years.  I have even tried out to be a contestant.  Kevin supports my love for this(he is even a closet fan). He used to send me links to a sports-writers Bachelor blog during Andy's season, He even drove me to my audition for Brad. He enjoys the drama, the more the better, and really loooooves when the men bring on the drama in Bachelorette seasons. 
I have been slightly dissappointed in the most recent seasons, I just have not been falling in love with the Bachelors or Bachelorettes except for Jillian...(Canadian Shout-Out), Kevin, however, thought she looked like the girl from the Family Guy.  I am not a huge Aly fan, but of course, I will watch and I will enjoy it, even without a TV.  Thank goodness for HULU.

Fancy

Kevin and I both enjoy the Shrek movies, so we were watching the new Shrek 4 trailer, it is very funny (see below). We laughed about it and thought it was great... Until recently, when I became the butt of that humor.


So, in the clip, Puss packed on a few pounds. Shrek, astonished by what he sees, tells puss that he looks "fa fa fa fancy".

I had been working, and running around all day in my heels and dress pants,  luckily I was wearing a long lab coat that day because it was a bit chilly. I was organizing the lab area at work and bent over to pick up some lost supplies. As I was squatting down I heard a loud RRRRIP. Eek, Immediately I flipped my head around to see if anyone had heard or seen what had happened. I was safe for now, no one was in earshot, or close enough to notice the brilliant shade of red that my face had become.  My pants had ripped, and I was just starting my day. Luckily, I was able to wear my lab coat for the rest of the day and kept my secret to myself.

After a long day of positioning myself just so, and not bending any more for fear the rip would continue to spread, It was finally time to go home and rescue myself from this embarrassment. I walked in, exhausted and still licking my wounds, and proceeded to tell Kevin, my ultra compassionate husband,  what had happened. He glanced up over his law book and with a look of pure disgust, told me I was fa fa fa fancy. That was not the response I was looking for.
He has been trying to get me to work out with him for a while. I guess I caught the hint. I am dertermined to become un-fancy.  Whatever it takes.


 

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

Kevin enjoys a little spousal rivalry, but sometimes he takes it a bit overboard. One of Kevin's favorite pastimes is to create rivalries for us. He enjoys setting up fantasy leagues, college bowl pick 'ems, tourney pick 'ems, and sometimes, he even goes so far as to actually make up rivalries and/or facts.

Since we live in Chicago, there are 2 baseball teams. The traditional and fan favorites; the Cubs, a cute cuddly little bear or, the Sox, a smelly piece of gym wear. The Cubs are synonymous with the the strong sports history of Chicago, they are seen as Chicago's team.  The Sox are the 'South Side' team, that would make it synonymous with crime and Obama. (I will leave interpretation for that up to you).

So, Kevin has decided, since I had been to a Sox game, that I was a fan, and he would be a fan of the Cubs. Well, you have to understand, before January 7th 2010,the days when we still had a TV, (yes, I am still suffering without one. and you wondered why I blog so much these days) I was once, and would still be, a Fox News watcher. Seething hatred for Obama, who does he think he is? Robin Hood? Its bad enough that we live a block and a half from his home, but there is NO WAY we could share a love for the same baseball team. Although, Kevin may have be coming around to the Sox. We did enjoy a lovely day at US Cellular field.

Here is my case for Kevin becoming a Sox fan. You get to be the Judge. Get out your gavel.

Exhibit A: Kevin looks good, and HAPPY in black and white

 

Exhibit B: 'The Chicago Dog' Kevin's new favorite way to eat a hot dog. His first experience with one, was during the Sox game. Good memories for him. I personally think there is WAY too much going on, and the relish has a very radioactive green to it. SCARY! This may go against everything Chicago (but I never claimed to try to fit in), I like ketchup, and ketchup only on my Dogs!

Exhibit C: He got to spend the game with his favorite person...ME!

Final Ruling: Kevin is the Sox fan of the house (or apartment).

1 YEAR!!!

It has been a crazy year, moving, starting a new school, a new job, a new state, a new roomate (sorry, to all my previous ones, but so far, he's the best). Best of all,  We are still happy!!!