Niagara Falls

---

DAY 4/240 - Tuesday, July 17, 2007

We spent the day today at Niagara Falls (Canada side). In the morning, the tour we have been on continued with a trip around Niagara (i think). However the family decided to skip this part and have a sleep in, and the rest of the morning to ourselves. For some reason though, i still woke up at around 7, and put my bags on the bus with the rest of the group, so i wouldn't have to drag them round (like Chris and Michelle) later on. Spent the morning chilling in starbucks on the internet with an orange juice, before me dad and Meathead went to a factory outlet mall.

Funny story: when we were at Macy's in new york, the check out chick didn't take off the security tag on a pair of jeans that we bought - then meathead lost the docket, which aside from everything else, we needed for insurance purposes to claim for the lost bag. So the purpose of the outing was to go somewhere, prove we hadn't stolen the jeans, and to get them to remove the tag for us. It was one of those things where at the time it was pretty annoying and was the source of a lot of frustration but now looking back it was pretty amusing.

So anyway at the factory outlet, i bought myself a pair of Levis for 34 canadian dollars, which is around $40 and a pretty nice button down shirt (i wore it to the wedding) for around $25. the only problem is that my bag is starting to become too full, and that i now have 4 pairs of jeans - i think that i will send some home with meathead on sunday!! We called for a cab to get back to the hotel, but we were in a hurry so when this unhired cab came into the complex we just thought we'd grab that. Just as we were getting in the cab we ordered came speeding up - and started yelling at the cabbie who we were about to go with saying things like "THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING WITH ME" etc etc. And then when we were on the way he sped past us making rude gestures and still visibly abusing us. That was quite comical to watch.

Then we walked down to the 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride, and met up with the rest of the group who had been on the tour in the morning. When we couldn't find one of the guys on the trip i was momentarily put in charge as the tour guide ran around tyring to find the guy. I did a steller job, and my german was flawless - i just kept saying 99 luftbalons. The 'Maid of the Mist' ride was pretty awesome. They took us down past the USA owned falls and up to the more famous Canadian owned ones which are in the shape of a horseshoe. We all got very wet from the spray, but it was great to see both falls from so close. Apparently a 7 year old kid went over them and survived in the 60s. I am trying to upload some photos but at the moment i can't really work out how to do that.

On the way out of the boat ride they make you walk through the gift shop to get out (Carey would have fallen for the marketing) and there was this big bear there - which looked for all money to be a statue, but i wanted to find out for sure. So i went up to it and looked in its mouth and inspected whether it was moving or not - satisfied there wasn't a person in there i made out as though i was going to punch it in the gut to find out for sure (i did a big wind up and stopped just short of its gut). Lucky i didn't end up hitting it because as i was turning around to walk off the "statue", scratched the back of its head and looked at me funny. The bear must hate me.

After the boat ride we piled up and got back on the bus and headed off from Niagara to Corning (apparently they make glass here). This was the most unsuccessful leg of the tour as we were running late (due to not being able to find that guy earlier - bloody kiwis) and we only got here around 6:30. We were supposed to go to the glass museum but it was closing 30 mins after we arrived, so most opted to give it a miss - which pretty much negated all reason for the tour to come here. However we did have a really got steak in the local diner and bar. Also i got the opportunity to go to walmart - which is like the combination of my 5 favourite stores in australia all in one (so i love it) - to get some razors shampoo and gel - which i have been wanting ever since i mistook moisturiser for conditioner and put it all through my hair in Niagara - so the stop in Corning wasn't a total failure.

Me Chris Dad and Meathead played poker tonight and i smashed them all - all the free tournaments have now paid for themselves.

---