Canada Travels

Wow, what a weekend!  Unfortunately, I did not get to do everything I wanted to do...but then isn't that the way it always is?  I was exhausted after an afternoon of walking the Falls and hit the hostel in Niagara Falls.  Cute little place, and I only had one roommate in a 4-bed dorm.  She was from Japan and had no idea what a legal secretary was, who attorneys were, or even what a law firm was.  Needless to say, the conversation ended quickly.  She had been working the last couple months in Vancouver and was going to spend the next couple months traveling before going home to Japan.

The next morning I made a plan and wandered around the gorgeous botanical gardens before it got too hot and found the floral clock.  The day would eventually get up to 85 degrees and the day before had been hot also.  Then, before I could chicken out, decided to take a helicopter ride over Niagara Falls.  I got some GREAT pictures from the air and even caught a rainbow in the mist.  There was a gentleman from Sydney, Australia, also on our flight and he wasn't too sure about the ride either as he had never been in a helicopter.  He said it was a "worry."  :0)  I loved the ride; the only time my stomach lurched was when the pilot took off and landed when banking the helicopter.  Yikes! 

I decided I wanted to also cross the whirlpool part of the Falls, so I hopped on an Aero car, a contraption that flows from one hilly bank to another by cable.  If you look straight down, you can see the swirling clear water.  Awesome.  Got some great pictures there also.

My last stop was, of course, the store with the chocolates from around the world.  OMG, I had a hard time choosing some fudge, but finally decided on Snickers fudge and Mint/Chocolate fudge.  On my way out I saw a sign for Rossi Glass and decided I had to see that.  I didn't buy anything, but watched a glass blower and his process of making a vase.  It was cranberry colored, and according to the narrative that played while he worked, the only way to get the cranberry color was to add 22k gold to the mix. 

Getting back over the border to the U.S. took longer than I expected.  I had a hat and sunglasses on and was told to remove them; much to my chagrin as my hair looked like sh*t.  I was so embarrassed.  I guess he had to make a positive identification though. 

This morning I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to take back the rental car.  That was fine, except I couldn't find the rental place in the pouring rain and had to call them.  Turns out I hadn't gone far enough to the airport to actually see them.  Good, I thought, got to the airport on time, and I can be home by 9:00 a.m.  No sweat.  I tried to do the self-check in, but couldn't as they had postponed the flight until 9:00 a.m.  Dang!  It turns out the President was in Chicago and we had to wait until he cleared the airspace.  The people waiting to check in were irate.  There was a large contingency of Chinese people traveling also headed for Chicago and the airline gave them a separate unmarked check in window to handle all their needs.  Some other people got in that line, thinking they could also avoid the long line we all had been standing in for 45 minutes, and copped an attitude with the check in clerk when she told them they had to get to the back of the line.  "You can't make someone wait in line and then suddenly tell them they're in the wrong line!"  Huh?  She told them at no time was there a sign that it was a check in station and the line before them had been a group.  They walked away complaining the lady at the counter had an attitude!  Cracked me up.

So, they continued to repeat that our flight was delayed until 9:00 (okay, we get it!), but they forgot to tell me they put me on an earlier flight at 7:04 a.m.  I'm goofing off at the gate with my iPhone and suddenly realize that my ticket says my flight leaves at 7:04, NOT 9:00.  Thankfully I was at the right gate.  I was in the last row, aisle seat surrounded by mostly Chinese people from the traveling group.  Interesting.  There must have been a language barrier (ya think?!) as the flight attendants more than once scolded people in the group.  We were landing and there was a lady in the restroom and they knocked on the door and told her they were landing and to get back to her seat.  Then, a gentleman comes strolling down the aisle from the front of the plane heading towards the bathroom.  The flight attendant stood up and yelled for him to take his seat several times.  He finally got the message.  Like I said, it was an interesting flight with interesting people. 

When we finally arrived in Chicago, I tried to get an earlier flight to Madison, but, in order to do so, I would have needed to pay $50.00 as a stand-by fee, even though the board indicated there were 14 seats available.  I didn't get it either, and I was in no mood to argue with them.  So I found my gate and waited until my 10:30 flight, which left at 11:30 due to mechanical problems, a change in flight attendants and a change of gates.  I think I'm tired of flying for awhile.  Sheesh!

It is another adventure I will never forget!  :0)

Oh Canada!

Yesterday was a travel day.  Interesting people  were met along the way; a guy on my flight from Charlotte to Buffalo I thought at first was deaf as he used his hands so much when he spoke.  It turns out he was just a jerk.  One of the passengers told him to pipe down after he got a little noisy with his seat mate, a man I felt entirely sorry for during the entire 1 1/2 hours to Buffalo.  The gentleman was from India and the jerk made such a big friggin' deal about it, it was embarrassing. 

That was the only strange thing that happened during travel, as I met some very friendly people from Chicago to Charlotte.  The plane was full and I had a hard time finding a place for my backpack in the overhead.  The guy in the seat next to me actually got out of his seat and helped me find a place for my pack.  When I later dropped my water on the floor, he retrieved it for me.  I gotta say, Jackie has told me about southern hospitality and now I really believe it exists.

I arrived in Buffalo, New York at 11:45 p.m., picked up my rental car and found the hostel in Buffalo, but had a few problems with parking as the hostel does not have its own parking.  Finally found parking a few blocks away, but found out this morning I needed to check the tag a little better....I paid $5.00 for 5 minutes of parking, instead of 24 hours....don't know how that happened, but it did.  I came out in the morning and found I owed another $8.00.  Dagnabit!  I'm going to complain when I get home, that just isn't right.

Caught a few hours sleep and headed to the Canadian border to Niagara Falls.  This is the second time I've been to Canada and all I can say is I want to be a Canadian!  This city is beautiful!  Very much like Vancouver as there is lots of green space and a very park-like atomosphere.  Lots of places to walk, and believe me, I sure did walk, along the Falls.  The falls are gorgeous!  Imagine beautifully clear water rushing down hundreds of feet and a mist rising out of the whole thing.  It is breathtaking and I took tons of pictures.  I was on the Canadian side, but got some pictures of the American side also.  After I took pics of the Falls, I wandered up and down the boardwalk all afternoon, stopping along the way to sit in the shade and people watch.  There was a gentleman there who was walking his three dogs, two smaller and one HUGE dog, Isen.  Isen looks like a small horse.  I sat under a tree and watched as crowds of people would stop to admire Isen and then have their or their children's picture taken with him.  With children standing next to Isen he looks like he could take the kids in one gulp!  I, too, have pictures of Isen and will share them when I return home. 

I finally found the Niagara Falls, Canada hostel and thank goodness, the room has air conditioning.  It is hot, hot, hot here.  Tonight I may just stay at the hostel; I've been told they have a bonfire outside tonight and I may join them.

I'll write more tomorrow before I leave Canada.