On the Way Home

We, reluctantly packed our bags and got ready to leave Niagara Falls for home.

Both of us were sad to see this vacation end, it had been such a fun adventure bringing back the memories of the many road trip vacations we took with the girls when they were growing up.

While sitting on an ocean beach is a very relaxing vacation, a road trip adds some excitement.  Both serve different purposes.

Anyway, John went out to start loading up our car and came in to report that our headlight was completely missing, yep, we had a big hole in the car where the light should have been.  We figured it must have fallen out somewhere in Niagara Falls, NY on our drive back here last night.

Well, the car would still run without that headlight, so we headed out in what we lovingly called "Our Wreck."

We joked about what might fall off next and karma caught us just east of Cleveland when our low tire pressure light came on.

We had our very faithful mechanic give our car a great bill of health prior to this trip, so it is not like we neglect our wreck, but no one can predict tires.

We decided to find a Walmart where we could have the tires looked at and repaired if necessary.

There was one five miles up the road off the exit but it took us 20 minutes to get there only to discover they had no auto center.  Now what, you ask.

Well, while driving to the Walmart, I had noticed a Mr. Tire.  If you know me and my one eye eyesight, you know that me spotting anything is a miracle in itself.  I feel God led my good eye to spot that Mr. Tire.

John called and the friendly employees at Mr. Tire told us to bring the car right over.

I asked John if he was going to mention the missing headlight to them, but he said they would notice it on their own.

They diagnosed the problem when they spotted a large split in the front tire and very unusual wear, so the remedy was two new front tires and an alignment to the tune of $400.

Now this could have been a turning point for us.  We could have started blaming one another for lack of any other outlet for our stress, but we didn't do that, instead we took the nice Mr. Tire man's advice and went for a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe just up the block while they fixed our car.

In one hour, after a very good lunch, we were back on the road with two new tires and $400 more dollars on the charge card but still no headlight.  And, by the way, Mr. Tire did notice the hole left by the headlight.

So, we also had a few toll troubles on this return trip, but we handled that, too, not quite as nicely as the tire situation, but it all worked out okay.

I (Sherri) had made a reservation when we left NY for a motel in Michigan City, Indiana.  Our plan was to get there by 3:00 to have plenty of time to explore.  I picked Michigan City because I really thought it was the city we went to with our friends Patti and Tom and our granddaughters a number of years before this.  I loved that little town and wanted to return.

Well, when we finally got to Michigan City, nothing looked familiar at all.  No big splash bad, no children's museum, no outdoor cafe and that is because we had been in St. Joseph, Michigan not Michigan City, Indiana. Oops.

Well, Michigan City was beautiful and right on Lake Michigan so we pressed on.

We were able to enjoy a gorgeous sunset over the lake and had dinner on a rooftop.

It was actually a fantastic way to end our rather stressful day.

 Our Wreck but we still love her, missing headlight and all.

 John Carroll University, our view from the outdoor cafe where we had lunch.

Michigan City, Indiana's beautiful beach boardwalk and sunset.

 Our final dinner of the vacation up on a rooftop overlooking Lake Michigan.

I cannot end this post without mention of that lovely motel I reserved online somewhere before our tire predicament.

I chose another "old school" motel and I will be honest here, I was going for low price without reading a lot of reviews and this is what we got!

It was something from the low pressure shower to the wrinkled pictures on the wall to the sponge painted walls which really look like something I would have done!

Ugh, we were lucky we were tired and were able to sleep with all that business going on.

Anyway, the next morning we were up and out of there by 8: 00 and home in Watertown by noon.

We thank God for a safe, fun adventure and for the patience to deal with the loopholes that made the trip memorable and exciting!

Until our next adventure...

Niagara Falls

So, today we are on the last leg of our adventure that took us to Niagara Falls, NY.

Expired passports, so before you ask, we only did the American side and thought it was absolutely gorgeous.

We arrived in Niagara Falls about 5:30ish.

Checked into our cute little "old school' motel.  They are still my favorite as long as they are well kept and clean.  John's folks owned and operated a motel in Janesville, WI, for years and I saw the love, sweat, and tears that went into that kind of motel.  I have a lot of respect for the small business owners and am happy to stay in their motels when we are able.

Our room was small, only one queen bed, but it was very comfy and clean.  The  owner was very friendly and helpful.

There was a cute small swimming pool, but we did not use it.

#5 at the Swiss Cottage Inn.

The pool.

After checking in, the owner directed us to the visitor information booth just up the block.

We were interested in the boat tour of the falls, but the man there was a great salesman and before we knew it, he had sold us two tickets on a six  hour tour the next day which would get us up-close and personal to so many areas of the Niagara Falls.

It did turn out to be a great tour and we would do it again and highly recommend it to anyone going to that area.

We then proceeded to look for a restaurant.  Well, our first impression of Niagara Falls, the city, was not good.  We found ourselves in some rather bad neighborhoods and could not find the touristy section.  We headed back to our side of town and chose a Duf's Wings place.  Neither of us are particularly fond of wings but we figured we would find something on the menu.

We walked in, we walked out.  We didn't like the feel of the place.  It was a seat yourself joint where no one seemed to notice we were there plus the tables seemed sticky and it smelled so on to find something else.

Next we tried we a place called Buzzy's.  We walked in and we stayed.  Great menu, reasonable prices, and very friendly service.

We had pizza and a few beers.

Headed home for a good night's sleep to get ready for our big tour.

The next morning we joined 26 other tourists on Art's bus for our tour.

Art was a great tour guide.

We started out with a little driving tour before heading to Niagara Falls State Park  

Our first tour was Cave of the Wind, where we were given sandals and raincoats to protect our clothing and shoes for the water.
Yep, we were going to get wet!

We took an elevator down to the bottom of the falls and were given time to explore and photograph.

It was wet and both of us spent a lot of time looking down so we wouldn't trip on the wet steps.

When we were able to stop in a corner and look, it really was beautiful.

John was able to get some nice photos while protecting the camera:

 Our cool sandals and of course you can keep them.  They were actually quite comfortable.

 They were not lying about this!

 In my cute raincoat.

 This is the boardwalk that you walk along as you view the falls from the bottom.

 We found a dry spot to take this selfie.  That's Canada across the river.

 There were quite a few steps in this part of the tour and they were wet, so if you have bad knees or are no good on your feet, you might want to skip this area.

We survived the first area.

After the cave of the winds, we went for a lunch at a food cart in the touristy part of Niagara Falls!  We were so excited to see this area.  We now feel that Niagara Falls, NY is quite a nice tourist area.  Not near as busy as Wisconsin Dells which only adds to its charm.

After our lunch we got back on our bus with Art and returned to Niagara Falls State Park where we were able to observe and photograph Horseshoe Falls which are the Canadian Falls.

 The Canadian Horseshoe Falls from upstream.

The Rainbow Bridge to Canada

Just some fun photos at the visitor's center.

After the Horseshoe Falls, we were ready to ride the Maid of the Mist, a boat that would take us under the falls!

This time we were given blue raincoats, but no sandals.

It was such a fun ride.

Here are some photos:

 This is the type of boat we were on for the tour under the falls.

If you want to stay relatively dry, stay on the lower deck under the roof.

 We will be going up on this observation deck after our boat ride.

 Blue raincoats for this trip.

We discovered that photos can be taken with an SLR.  Merely pull the camera through the arm hole of the slicker and wrap it around the lens, allowing only the lens cap to be visible.  It was necessary to look through the slicker to the eyepiece, but it was all worth it,

At the right of the photo you can see spots of yellow.  Those are people walking on the stairs under the American Falls where we were just about an hour and a half before.

Some beautiful photos of the falls.

Back on dry land, we took the elevator up to the observation deck and saw some awesome views.

Then on to Whirlpool State Park.

The observation tower from the river.

The boat loading area from the top of the deck.

The Canadian boat launch.

The Horseshoe Falls from the tower.

The downstream end of the Niagra River leading to the whirlpool.

The whirlpool.

This is a gondola on the Canadian side that transports people across and over the whirlpool.  There is also a speedboat ride into the whirlpool from the Canadian side.

The exit of the whirlpool.

After Art dropped us back off at the visitor center, we decided to go back to the touristy area we had discovered and do some touristy type things.

We found some great shops filled with every kind of souvenir one could possibly want.  One shop called "American Made" had many items that were made in China which seemed odd to us.

We then went in search of a place to eat dinner.

We found the Anchor Bar, which was a great choice, we both had Italian in a wings restaurant, but it was good Italian.

We debated going and seeing the lighted falls, but opted to have another beer instead.

We got to our car, kicked the headlight to make it work, (remember this, it will be important later),

and had a good night's sleep in our cute little motel.

The last leg of our adventure begins tomorrow and you won't want to miss it!

It is not smooth sailing.