Things That Are Not Driving

Today we did hardly ANY driving at all.  We didn't cross any state/province boundaries, and we didn't see any ridiculous signs.  We only drove from London, Ontatio to Niagra Falls, Ontario, for a grand total of two hours of driving.  It was very exciting for us.

Before we get into what we did today, let's talk about what we haven't done all trip, which is see any great lakes ever.  We drove all along Lake Michigan, but we never saw a hint of it the whole time, because you don't take an interstate to see anything interesting, apparently.  Today we saw Lake Ontario for about thirty milliseconds.  We were pretty happy about it.

Look!  It's Lake Ontario (look closely) It's nearly as majestic as the praries.

This morning, we visited Darcy's grandmother in her retirement home, which was nice, as Darcy had not seen her in something like ten years.  We had a nice chat about our wedding, and showed her some pictures.  We also found out she had been to China, and had most of the same opinions that Daniel did (nice country, icky food).

We had some super big drama today!  The car has been making some creaking noises around corners and over bumps.  It has been getting worse and worse, so we wanted to get it looked at, but we also wanted to make it to Niagra Falls where we had a hotel reservation, and also because it is Niagra Falls.  So, Daniel did some research to see what the problem might be, and it seemed like we probably would be OK, although there were some pretty dire things that might happen to the car if we didn't get it looked at.

It turns out that our atlas had poor directions for the Niagra Falls area, and we made a wrong turn, which wouldn't have been a problem if we weren't running on empty AND worried about the wheels falling off.  We did eventually make it into the city, with who knows how little gas left in the tank, and we could all breathe a sigh of relief.

Daniel took the car in to a mechanic, and it turns out that our ball joint is worn down, which if it had failed completely WOULD result in the wheels coming off on the highway.  So it's a good thing we got it looked at.  So, we have to stay an extra day here in Niagra falls, which some of us (Darcy) are extremely excited about.  Daniel is just happy that the car did not explode while he was driving it.

At any rate, we spent the evening wandering around Niagra falls.  I hope you guys like pictures of Niagra Falls, because that's what you are about to see:

Here is some dork on the road down the the falls

 Our first view of the American falls

 This guy keeps being in all of our pictures!

Darcy sitting next to the American falls

 The (of course superior) Canadian Falls

 We are here at the second most romantic spot in the world, and taking the classic couple picture

Darcy has been here a number of times before, so she's bored of the falls (or pretends to be)

 Some birds hangin' on a rock

 This is how people on the American side get down to the Maid of the Mist (on our side, they just walk down a long ramp)

 You can play golf between the falls.

 If you like, you can walk down to right beside the falls.  They rebuild that EVERY YEAR.  They so CRAZY!

 The rainbow bridge (that we will take in two days to cross into New York)

 Sick of the falls yet?

How about now? 

 We're not!

 See, Darcy loves the falls!

After the falls, we ate supper, and wandered around the tourist area.

 We also played Dinosaur minigolf, which is about the greatest thing in the world.

After that, we went to an arcade, and then checked out the falls at night.  Turns out, they are pretty great, but we are bad at cameras and so can't really capture it.

  Tomorrow, we are spending the whole day here, so expect more raving about the falls.

Lastly, joke of the day: "Doctor, Doctor I keep thinking I'm a wigwam and a tipi"  "Calm down you're too tense"