We're on a budget of $20 a day which allows us to do a bit of food shopping, maybe get the odd Little Ceasars pizza (seriously the best pizza I've ever had...for $5 a large one...MAN THAT ROCKS!!), and visit the odd garage sale where Jen purchased some inline skates for $2. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any size 13 (US sizing) though!
A typical day would consist of being woken up at around 7.45 by Aidan watching the TV in the living room next to our bedroom, lol, which is cool cos we're saving on alarm clock batteries so im happy with that. The day activities would then be filled with things like going to the sprinklerark (a wikid, free park with about 10 different types of sprinklers for kids...and adults like me), goind to a garage sale in the surrounding neighbourhood or taking in some rays by their pool.
However...you cannot visit either Toronto or Michigan and not go to Niagara! Oh yeah! So we set about financially planning and logistically planning a two day trip with Jen, Sar, Brad (her hubby), Aidan and Bella (niece and nephew) and my excited self! Very much looking forward to that we were...sounded a bit like Yoda didn't it...anyway, I had to pull myself away from their dog Alfie for the 5 hour trip over the border into Canada in preparation for the awesomeness that was to be NIAGARA!!!
One of the first things we had to do was go in a haunted house style area with lots of scary stuff jumping out at us and real life actors doing Dawn of The Dead-esque voices!!..needless to say Jen did not partake! But I certainly wasn't missing out. Good value for $6 each.
After the scariness we HAD to head to the Maid of the Mist boat voyage INTO the falls! Yep, you heard it...the boat takes at least a million people at a time on a 30 minute crazy boat ride almost into the heart of the Canadian side falls. Oh yeah, should clarify, Niagara Falls consists of 2 sides...the pretty lame looking American side where you cant really see anything, and the crazy Canadian side that allows you to see both..and go on the cool boat ride!
The ride was mental!! We all got sssoooo soaked its untrue! It was bumpy, windy, crazy and AWESOME at the same time. I loved it so much. Such good value for $15 each. God, I wanted to go on it again the following day, but Jen wouldn't let me, lol. Thats a lie, it just wasn't in our plans to do it.
This is a piccy I took on the way out from the Falls. There were basically continuous rainbows all day as the mist hit the sun and created them. In fact, at one point there was a double rainbow which I went on about but nobody else seemed too thrilled with.
The mist from the Canadian side went so high up in the sky we could see it from miles away! This is the view of the Canadian falls from up on the hill. Unfortunately they have made the whole area a major cheese fest, like Blackpool. But it was so good for kids. There was even a Karaoke bar which I was well up for going into as this crazy lady was butchering a Coldplay song!
One thing that goes hand in hand with cheese fest is the price inflation...man, you should've seen some of the price hikes just because it was a tourist area. But then again (no disrepesct meant) but the Americans will usually pay the prices whatever the weather. Well, thats what we observed whilst travelling in Asia.
I love this piccy! Im totally gonna upload it for my facebook profile.
The two Edmonds sisters (although legally one is now an Alt). They look very alike dont they? Great view of the Canadian Falls behind as well.
This is the total view of Niagara falls. The ones on the left are the American side and on the right is the Canadian Side. To access the US side, you do so from Buffalo I think where there is an observation deck built out a tad into the river (just left of the piccy above) to see the Falls. But the best view is from the side we were on as its opposite the Falls and you get to see both sides. If you look close enough at the spray you can see a tiny dot in the middle...thats the boat for the Maid of The Mist going right into it....>!!!!!!
A nice romantic number to almost finish off these piccies.
K, this is our Where's Wally piccy. After visiting the Falls we went back to our Hotel and crashed. The following day we went to a park and I decided to climb some trees. Can you see me in the tree though...can ya...can ya?
We leave for NZ on September 11th...which isn't a brilliant time to fly in the US but its only a short flight to LA, then onto Fiji straight away, then to Auckland. Cannot wait now as my friend Leo who I haven't seen for 12 years (!!!!) is going to let us stay with him for a while where he'll orientate us to the beautiful country!!! Cannot wait for this trip to start, its going to be amazing. For now, we have 21 days to chill out some more. Not sure we'll be going anywhere though as we're on a tight budget now, but defs could manage a few more garage sales and Little Ceasers pizza.....(been voted best value pizza in America 2008)
