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August 14, 2006 - 9:58 a.m.
"niagara falls, part 3"

Hey Journal!

I am writing this morning because I got home late last night, and was sooo tired!

We got up yesterday for our last day of Falls-fun and we took showers, and got ready to go out.. then we ate some breakfast. We had bought some cereal and milk the night before, so we had a nice quick breakfast in the hotel room, and then headed out.

We walked over to the Skylon Tower and we bought tickets for the "Ride to the Top." We headed up Elevator #2 which has a great view of the American Falls! We got to the top and took many pictures with my camera, and then switched to my new zoom lens! It was great, but a little TOO zoomed! Wild!

We perused the gift shop up there, and looked at all of the signs they have which tell you what you're currently looking at. It was funny cause the Hilton hotel still has a plaque that says, "HOLIDAY INN BY THE FALLS"! We had a fun time up there looking all around, and it's definitely a great view!

We headed back down in Elevator #3 which faces the Canadian side! I tried to take some pictures, but the windows were very glarey. Also, the elevator smelled like someone crapped in their pants! One of our fellow elevator riders was not so considerate. It was sad. lol

After we returned to the ground level, we walked down for one last look at the falls from the Canadian side, and a trip over to the Table Rock gift shop.

Dan got a magnet for his parents, and then we departed. We went to the Duty Free to buy a few things before leaving and also to claim our $25.00 GST rebate from our hotel bill.

There was a long line for that, but we moved along and as soon as we were done we had to go out to the parking lot and get into the car and pick up our duty free goods at the pick-up window!

We headed slowly across the bridge, and over to the American side. We parked and went over to the Cave of the Winds line! The line was much shorter than the day before.. it was only 10 minutes long! We got on the line at a position further up than the place where we had gotten off of the line the day before. It was great.

We got into the elevators and descended into the cave! (Which was built in 1922/1924...fyi) The elevator man was weird and he talked funny, also he faced the elevator door the whole time he was talking, and it was weird that he was like, literally talking to a wall. lol

Now it's time for FUN!! We went outside and on the the little wooden walkways...and off we went. It was soooo great! It was even better than I remember it being the last time! The guide man said that they dismantle and reassemble the walkways every year before the ice/snow would destroy them! That must be some job! I can't imagine getting in there to build a walkway under a waterfall!

We went up and the mist was crazy, then we ascended to the hurricane deck where Dan and I got SOAKED! It was so cool! I got some great pictures, too! (With my little camera, of course.. the big one sat this out, in the car.)

After the cave, we went to the car to change our shorts which were more than damp! lol. We left them to dry and headed on over to the Top of the Falls restaurant for lunch. When we arrived, the woman was about to walk us to a table when her "friend" told her that we had to wait. She told us 10 mins. Then changed it to 20-30 minutes! Now, we waited 25 minutes, and let me go into a little further detail.. there were PLENTY of open seats, more than half of the restaurant was empty.. but they said "the kitchen can't keep up." Whatever.. So after waiting, she told us it would be 25 MORE minutes!!! LOL Dan asked to speak to the manager, and magically, before the manager could come speak with us, we were seated.

I got a really good grilled chicken thing. It was a Sandwich with all kinds of crazy stuff on it, but I ordered it plain, just the chicken and the bread, with fried. Dan got a Taco thing, that he said was amazing. The lady looked at me like I was crazy for ordering that thing with nothing on it! LOL My favorite part though, was that a family sat at a table near us pointed over at me to order what I had! It was funny.

After our lunch, we went around by the overlooks on the American side and took some pictures, and enjoyed the falls one last time! It was sad leaving, I wanted to stay longer! lol

We departed at 4:15 from the American side, and headed home. We made pretty good time the whole way.

Let me tell you about an INSANE thing that happened on the way home... A little past Cortland, this white jeep passed us with a kid with a bandanna driving and a girl in the passenger seat. We looked over and they were looking at us, so Dan gave them a "salute" and we drove on. THEN the next thing you know.. the guy gets in front of us, and keep motioning with his hand for us to drive next to him. We were sufficiently confused and a little weirded out by it, so we didn't.. and we also thought it was weird that he wanted us to come up next to him.. if he did, then why didn't he just slow down and then he's come back to us? Weirdness. SO eventually he DOES slow down and we come along next to him, but as we pulled up to his window, he was talking to us, saying something out the window... but our window was closed.. and when I went to open it.. the wind was too loud to hear anything anyway, so I closed it again!

Okay.. so we hung back and he drove ahead of us. So then we come to the next exit, where Dan and I contemplated getting off and getting some food.. so then we see THIS car start to get off at that exit, so we said, "nah.. we'll wait for food." So as this kid droves off the exit.. he slows to a crawl and is WILDLY waving for us to get off the exit with them!! SO WEIRDD!! Certainly, we did not.. but WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON!! and the one thing that really annoyed me is that we'll never know what the heck was going on there! At the next rest stop we looked at the car, and nothing was weird (like we thought maybe he was trying to tell us something...?) But no.. I have no idea what was going on.

So anyway, we made a thee stops on the way home.. a rest stop for the bathroom, a gas stop (where we bought some snacks), and finally one at a rest area in New Jersey that was such a random place, and it had a sign-in book, where people wrote things like, "Nice place" "So much to do" "Very Exciting" and "I pooped here." SO strange.

We ran into some major traffic on the George Washington bridge. We turned on the Sirius traffic just a second too late learning that the "EXPRESS" lane had a delay of 90 minutes, and all other had about a 10 minute delay! GREAT! Just as we had gotten stuck in the express lane! So we illegally crossed out of the express lane at a little opening, and we seriously saved ourselves about an hour of traffic or more! We took the lower level across and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way!

We finally got back to my house at 11:59, making our trip just under 8 hours long.

I got home and first off.. my uncle and "the beast" are staying over until Tuesday... grrr. At lest I missed out on their presence for a few days while I was in Niagara Falls! LOL

Now for the biggest upsetment...they decided that since it was soooo cool outside, it would be nice to turn off the air conditioning and open the windows. Did you realize that it was nice and cool outside, but the AC thing said it was 81 in the hallway and most rooms upstairs? Okay...81 is comfortable for you? FINE, but my bedroom was 88 degrees and UNBEARABLE!!

I couldn't sleep and I didn't even have my PJs on. I couldn't put the covers on me, and I can't sleep without a little covering. UGH.. so I get fed up and left and went over to Dan's house. LOL I got a much better night's sleep there!

Anyway, that was my crazy story of our trip home from Niagara Falls!

Adios for now. :)