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Published: July 26th 2009
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The Claridges at Niagara Falls.Wednesday we headed off to Niagara Falls, its about an hour from here.The motorway is called the QEW, Theyre widening it though, so that causes a few slow downs along the way. We drove down the main road beside the Falls , through the mist that comes up off the falls. Found a carpark area for $20 / day at the south end. Walked over to the Falls and got wet walking through the mist . At least we were prepared and bought rain coats. From the Welcome centre that is right by the Falls , You just sit there watching the water go over the Falls and are mezmarised by the shear volume of water that flows. We went and got tickets and waited in a reasonably long line to go on the 'Maid of the Mist' boat trip to the bottom of the falls. They took our cheesey photo in front of a blue wall then issued us with our blue ponchos. Packed us onto the boat like sardines as there was such a queue. We did manage to get next to rail so that was good until we got close to the falls, they drive the boat right
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Looking over the falls. into the mist. It is like being outside in the rain. The wind blows and the rain just pours in, Tori and I ducked for cover behind the boat drivers box and becuse we were on the bottom deck we had a roof over us , we stayed quite dry. I'll put photos of Kylie and Josh on here though. It only lasted for about a minute but everyone was just laughing and yelling for that time. They told the story of a 7 year old boy who fell out of the boat he was on , on the lake above the falls and couldnt be rescued before going over the falls!!! and lived , he was picked up by one of the "Maid of the Mist' boats .The Main Falls are called " The Horseshoe Falls ", the one on the way back is called the "American Falls" funnily enough its on the American side of the river. We got off, handed in our ponchos ( you could keep them for a souvineer if you liked ) Checked out our family photo with the falls in the background, No thanks !!. Then we carried on along the river to
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Josh and Tori at the top of the Falls. the touristy part of town. WOW that has certainly changed since we were here last. Its one street up from the falls road, so it doesn't detract from the Falls experience. But once you walk up there its like downtown Orlando. 'Ripleys believe it or not' building, a ride that drops you from 7 stories high, Guiness book of records shop, Arcade game places, Harley Davidson shop, Wendy's, Dairy Queen etc. then we walked a bit further down to Starbucks, Hard rock cafe, Planet Hollywood, Hershey chocolates !!! We did get free samples at Hersheys though. Sat and " Enjoyed the moment of sharing a COKE with my family" in the Coke Cola shop. So I should for the price. Its not just a drink , its the times you have when drinking a Coke that makes the difference. Can you tell ive been to the 'World of Coke ' in Atlanta and remeber their vision.LOL
So once we had lightened our wallets and felt we had done our part in boosting the Canadian economy. ( Funnily enough the Canadian economy has picked up since we have been here, Their dollar has gone up 3cents to the USD) . We
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The Horseshoe falls. went for a drive out towards Fort Erie towards Buffalo along lake Niagara. Some very nice houses along there. Found a Wendys for tea. Tori and I tried having a 'baconator' but just threw away the bun. So good so far. That makes life a bit easier for options at food time. Then we found a Walmart ( fancy that ) so we amused ourselves there for awhile. Then headed back to the carpark we had been in, $12 to park in there again. Luckily for us our funny accent got us in for free once I showed her our ticket from earlier in the day and told her we didnt know we couldnt go out and come back in. She said " just dont tell anyone you went out and came back in". We got back just on 9pm, thats when they turn on the lights on the Falls. We parked ourselves on a block wall not far from the lights. They change colours and look awesome. It started to drizzle so I had to do a run back to the car to get the umbrellas. At 10pm they had a fireworks display over the falls. Very cool. About
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Kylie and Josh at the base of the falls, Tori doing a runner. on par with Manfield. Still pretty good.As we got back to the car the heavens opened up and we had thunder and lightning ( good timing !! ). Not very nice to drive in when we weren't to sure where we were going, but we got home alright, just after midnight.
Thursday, we slept in again. ( had a few of those) At least it is quiet here at the campground, they have about 200 permanent residents here. The guy next door lives about an hour away but works about 10 minutes away. So they stay here during the week and go home in the weekends. The neighbours on the other side have 3 girls , so Tori has been playing with them abit. Josh made us all pancakes for breakfast this morning, hes getting pretty good at it now. We went into Hamilton today to have a look around. It rained for most of it , so we didnt really get out and have much of a look around.Josh and I went for a bike ride around the campground when we got back.
Friday we headed off into Toronto. We were going to get on the train at the
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Kylie and the Falls. closest train station I had found on the net. I stopped at the office on the way out and they said to just drive into town and park in there. Sure enough it was no hassle at all, found a $10 park all day parking place.beats paying a fine again !!
On the net I red that 250,000 people use the subway a day in Toronto, it has a population of 2.5 million .Thats probably why there are bugger all cars in the city. We walked around in the drizzle for awhile, headed up into chinatown. Uumm that takes us back !! that smell is unmistakeable. For about 500m it was like we were back in China, the meat hanging in the windows, the veges being sold by little old women squatting behind their little boxs of goods. The noise of the haggling going on. And of course that smell.I still dont know if its the dodgy food they are cooking or the urine and rubbish and spitting in the street mixed with cigarette smoke that makes it smell that bad but you shoul have heard the Claridge kids. Even funnier when Kylie went and bought her lunch there, she
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American and Horseshoe falls. wasnt sure if it was chicken or fish or what it was, but she said it was nice. Josh wasnt hungry for some reason. Tori and I said it doesnt look Gluten free to me !!! Lokked around the shops as there is always a bargain in there somewhere. A couple of the shops would have to have been about 4 ft wide with a little counter at the end of them . Josh found a hot dog truck on the way out for his lunch. We walked down to the waterfront, where we caught a boat to do a tour of the harbour. Kylies 'Lets Go' book said dont do the tour , get a ferry across. But they are all on strike at the moment due to the city wants to not pay them for their sick pay that they have saved up and want to be paid out on. Theres no rubbish collection either due to the strike.The lets go books have been great, just to know what things to go and see when you get to a city that youve never been to before. So off we go on the boat tour which was very nice.
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Niagara falls skyline. Kids got a bit bored, but the view back at the city skyline was worth it.They have the CN tower which at 300 and something metres was the tallast building in the world for years. Also the 'Rogers centre' which is an oval stadium with a fully retractable roof. The Toronto 'Blue Jays' baseball team was playing there that night too, but we decided to head home. Once again it started to rain on our way home, we hit the 5 oclock friday traffic going home. So had our 1st real stuck in traffic jam. It didnt take too long, the traffic was at least moving.
Saturday we loaded up the bikes on the back of the car and headed off into Niagara. We parked further down the south end this time. Still cost us $10 to park in a family Park, like the Esplanade. We take so many things for granted in NZ. Families were having picnics there and playing on the playgrounds. One large group was having a churchy sing-a-long, I offered to take Josh over there but he wasnt keen.So we set off on our bikes for Niagara Falls, It wouldn't have been a minute into our
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Niagara Falls. bike ride when Tori is on the ground and crying, her handlebar had hit a barrier arm as we rode past it and tipped her off her bike. good one !!. We rode down beside the Niagara river towards the falls, Tidied our bikes up to a tree by the welcome centre and walked down to the 'Rainbow bridge' . 50c each to get out of Canada to walk over the bridge to the USA. We just went half way and took our photos with the sign that is in the middle of the bridge. One foot in Canada and one in the USA. Had to come back through customs and explain that we had only been out of the country for 5 mins but they still give you the same "how long are you here for ?" "what is the purpose of your trip ?". By this time Mrs C needed a coffee, Starbucks it was again, Kids reckoned they needed an ice cream for energy to ride back to the car. What an awesome way to see a city though. We went way further around than we ever would have if we were walking, and got a bit
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Tori in the Coke shop enjoying her coke float. of excercise doing it. On the way back Josh said "Can we go to Tim Hontons for tea ?" What ? who is Tim Hontons ? you know the takeaway place ? You dick its Tim Hortons !!!! So that has been the joke of the day, Lets go to Tim Hontons aye Josh!!!! LOL .When we got back to the camp they were having christmas in July here, people had decorated their campers. They were having a potluck dinner over by the pool. The owners of the camp were taking kids for rides in a trailer behind his truck. Its like it's own little comunity in here, I guess most people know each other pretty well and then they get a few drifters like us every now and then.
Sunday, were just having a day of rest. Josh got up and cooked us pancakes again. I think I need to buy more gluten free pancake mix.Tori has just watched a dvd and now they all are watching one. We are having an awesome thunder storm. Thunder and lightning is un real its right over top of us. I was telling the neighbour that we rarely see thunder and lightning,
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Josh whipping us up a batch of Pancakes. he said they rarely see a rainbow. Its something they see like twice a year. We take it for granted , I thought everyone saw rainbows. His wife was telling me she comes from northern Canada where you can see the northern lights in about september. Its when the sun reflects off the snow and ice glaciers and a rainbow of colours dance in the northern skies. She said it is definately something to see in your lifetime .
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anonymous
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The pancakes look very good Josh.....and your trip to the falls sounds great For you GF people .......you can not order a bacon burger and toss out the bun...the meat is already contaminated........just ask for the filling to be put in a take-away container...minus the bun. you may be lucky and not get sick......(for now)