Canada Trip August 2013

Okay, I am going to go through my drafts folder and get some things posted before 2013 is over!  Aaaaand GO!


We went to Canada in August, staying in a cabin with my parents and my uncle, stopping overnight in Niagara Falls on the way up.  We had read books and watched videos about Niagara Falls before going, and the boys enjoyed seeing the stuff we'd learned about in person.

The hotel we stayed at was right across the street from the whirlpool aero car ride, so it was the first place we went.  Shane was not interested in riding the car (His response when asked if he wanted to ride it:  F#ck NO!) but we still enjoyed the views from the observation deck.

A kind stranger offered to take our picture.  I wish he'd have gotten more of the falls and less of the sidewalk in the pic but oh well.

The boys with the American Falls in the background

After strolling along the walkway near the falls, the boys started to lose interest.  After hours and hours of me painstakingly researching and planning which activities we were going to do, we scrapped my plans and decided to go up in the Skylon Tower instead.  (Except for Shane - see his response above to the aero car ride.)

There's the Rainbow Bridge in the distance.

Looking down at the Horseshoe Falls

View of the American Falls from the top of the tower.

View of the Horseshoe Falls from the top of the tower.  You can see the Maid of the Mist down be below.

After arriving at the cabin, the boys were ready to have some lake fun!

Boat ride with Grandma & Grandpa

Fishing with Daddy

and more fishing, this time with Grandpa...

and more fishing...

and more fishing...

Love that smile!

and more fishing...

Monkey lost a tooth while we were up there and we learned that the Canadian tooth fairy leaves loonies instead of silver dollars like the U.S. tooth fairy does.  We decided each country has its own tooth fairy.

All we had was one bathroom with a stall shower, so we had to improvise a bathtub for Bug.  He was okay with that.

My favorite misty morning shot.

My little fishie

Family pic right before we got on the road to leave.

The trip was a lot of fun, but also exhausting.  By Thursday the boys were really acting up - which we realized was their way of saying that they were homesick and missing the routine of home.  So we decided to leave a day early, so the other adults could have one day of peace, and so we could get back to home sweet home.

On the way there, we were detained while going through customs for a little over an hour.  We were directed to park our van and told to go into a waiting area which was absolutely crammed full of people.  I have never experienced being deprived of my freedom and I did not like it one bit.  My heart was hammering as I worried about how the kids were going to behave while waiting and wondering why we were there and how long it would be.  Amazingly, the kids did very well.  Finally we were called to the counter.  It turned out that another car near us had set off the radiation detector and they weren't sure if it was them or us, but it wasn't us so we were free to go.  Words cannot describe the relief we felt as we drove away and crossed the border back into our home country!


PS.  Good grief, I can't believe how long it took me to get around to posting this!