Columbus, OH - October 20

It is time for the long awaited, greatly anticipated Columbus, Ohio post!

The story actually starts the night before we headed out.  While doing my tip preparation, I called a random Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream store and asked them which location would be closest to the airport.  I explained why I was asking and what we were doing.  The employee on the phone advised me that the Bexley location was the closest and that they thought the whole thing was cool.

As I mentioned previously, Big Boy had arranged for a hang-out day (too old for "play dates") with his friend from school and Cub Scouts.  I asked the parents if they minded me taking their son for ice cream and they gave me their blessing.

We picked up the self named "J Dog" at eight o'clock and headed out for the hour long drive to the airport.  We made it with plenty of time and breezed through security.  We got on our first choice flight with no problem at all.  J Dog has flown before so he was a seasoned traveler.  No need to worry about nerves with him. 

The flight to Columbus was short and sweet.  After picking up our rental car, Enterprise again, we headed straight for the nearest fast food joint.  It ended up being a McDonalds.  Now, in hindsight, I should have just bought the kids a large snack or a small meal, knowing how filling the ice cream wold be.  Also, we were very short on time and I should have nagged them to eat and go a little faster. 

 

Luckily, the closest Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream shop was less than fifteen minutes away.

We raced over to Jeni's as I nervously kept my eye on the time.  We would have just enough time to grab our ice cream "to go".  We parked down the street and raced into the store.  I had my camera out and was snapping pictures for the blog.  The woman working the counter immediately figured out that we were the travelers she had heard about from the other store.  She announced that her manager said to give us free scoops and to also offer us half price on quarts of ice cream.

We each ordered our scoops, stopping to taste several samples each, and we also purchased quarts of ice cream to go.  I have to say that I had been told at eh Nashville store that they are very patient and will let you try as many samples as you wish.  This is true for the Ohio location as well.  They never seemed to tire of us asking for little samples of each flavor.  The customer service is as good as the ice cream.

 

I texted my husband, who was at work at the airport back home, to ask him about carrying on ice cream packed in dry ice.  he said it would be no problem at all so we purchased four quarts, three for us and one for J Dog to give his mother.  The employee asked us how long we would be traveling and I advised her that with the flight time and commute home, we would need the ice cream to stay cold for four hours.  She consulted a chart and weighed out the right amount of dry ice.  She packed the ice cream and dry ice in a Styrofoam cooler free of charge.

Sadly, we could not it there and savor the ice cream as we had to race back to the airport.  I ate mine with one hand on the bowl and one hand on the spoon and steering with my elbow.

The kids had filled up on McDonalds so they did not have room to finish their bowls.  It is a very  rich ice cream and three half scoops is plenty to fill you up and satisfy the sweet tooth.

Next:  The crazy race to the airport

Oh my, oh my

I am exactly two trips behind on my trip reports and am already on the brink of leaving town again. If I keep this up, I am going to have to invest in a tablet... something light enough to travel with but robust enough to write my blog(s) on.

I am in the middle of putting together our next trip.  The kids only have two days of school this upcoming week (Monday and Wednesday - go figure) and my court is only open one day (Thursday) and I don't work when the court is not open.  So, I asked for the day off and decided that the kids would not be harmed too much by missing two days of school.  The stars aligned even further when we figured noted that we have a rare occasion of my husband being off for two of the dame days as us (Thursday and Friday).  We never have overlapping days off.  The one rub was that he is on call for jury duty but one phone call later and we discovered that the trial schedule is already set and there are no jury trials scheduled for this week.  All he had to do was take a letter tot he courthouse asking to be excused and he is now free and clear.

So, the kids and I are planning on going to Bridgeville, DE on Saturday and then off to a city still to be determined from Sunday through Wednesday.  So far, it is looking like that city will be Denver Colorado but don'[t hold me to that.  Then the rest of the week will be spent in a surprise location.  OK, a surprise for the kids but anyone who know us, knows where I am talking about.  The plan is for the kids and I to arrive sometime Wednesday and for my husband to join us first thing Thursday morning.  He is hoping that someone will take his shift Saturday evening so that he can stay an extra day.  The rest of us will fly back either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.  Sunday morning is looking a little better flight wise. 

So, funny thing about the way this trip is being planned.  I literally searched for flights into our destination city of Wednesday and planned our trip backwards based on what flights I could find.  I only found a handful of cities with empty enough flights that direction.  Now that I have narrowed it down, I am looking for flights to that city on Sunday.  Like I said, Denver is looking most likely right now.

I guess you will have to stay tuned to see where we end up.

Buffalo, NY - final thoughts and budget

Before traveling, I did a little research and discovered that you can take a combination of two buses from the airport to the Niagara falls area. from there, you can pretty much walk anywhere you want to, including into Canada. The buses are inexpensive and the walking toll to Canada is somewhere in the neighborhood of a dollar.. I made the decision to rent a car and drive, though because we would be lugging all of our bags and a stroller, on and off buses. Also, while the walks would not be unreasonable, you never know when the kids will conk out on you. As much as I enjoyed Chicago without a rental car, I did realize pretty quickly that despite trying to travel light, we have a lot of stuff. First off, there are the electronics to entertain the kids on the plane. Then there all the power cords for said electronics. Add bathing suits and a change of clothes and, of course, don't forget my cooler full of food and snacks. Well, we can pretty much fill the stroller leaving no room for a tired child.

I am very glad we did all of the activities that we did but wish that we had the energy for just one more. I would have liked to do the tunnel behind the falls on the Canadian side. I also regret not seeing the falls at night.

Big Boy said that they had learned about Lake Erie in school and if we were not in such a hurry to get on the earlier flight, we could have driven by the shores of the lake.

Gas was ridiculously priced in the US side (I didn't pay attention in Canada). I saw prices in the $4.16 range and I usually wince when I see our $3.49 per gallon at home.

The car rental was supposed to run me around $75 but a) we returned it a few hours early and b) upon returning he car, I whined about the fact that the cigarette lighter didn't work and it almost left me without a GPS and phone. The guy immediately took the second day off my bill. I love companies that empower their employees to keep the customer happy. I am very loyal to enterprise rental now for that reason and one from our next trip.

As much as we enjoyed our meal at Margaritaville, I wished we had instead dined at the Skylon Tower restaurant. I initially vetoed the idea out of fear that it was cost prohibitive but after it was too late, I discovered that the buffet was comparable to what we paid for dinner at Margaritaville.

And, it goes without saying that I wish I had walked out of IHOP before paying that obscene amount for breakfast.

Here is where the money went.

amount	category	note
$        99.24	accommodations	hotel
$          8.00	attraction	park entry
$          4.00	attraction	trolley
$        27.00	attraction	cave of the winds
$        18.00	attraction	maid of the mist
$        13.80	food	lunch at airport
$        11.40	food	lunch at airport
$        72.62	food	breakfast IHOP
$        20.20	food	Chinese buffet
$          8.00	food	two sodas one milk
$          5.47	food	milk at airport
$        68.03	food	margaritaville dinner
$        12.00	souvenir	souvenir currency
$        14.56	souvenir	shot glass and ornament
$          6.46	souvenir	shot glass and bracelet
$        16.00	transportation	parking
$        37.53	transportation	car rental
$          3.25	transportation	toll rainbow bridge
$          1.00	transportation	toll
$        16.00	transportation	airport parking
$      462.56		Total

Ontario Canada - the way home

We woke up early and decided to walk to a nearby IHOP for breakfast.  They are usually reasonably priced and who doesn't like pancakes?  The IHOP was attached to another hotel about half a mile from ours.  We were seated and started looking at the menu.  I almost had a stroke.  They wanted $18 for an omelet... and that is Canadian dollars.  Add about 2% to that for the currency exchange.  I should have gone with my instinct and walked out but Big Boy had such a great memory of his recent IHOP breakfast with his father and, I don't know, I wasn't thinking straight.  We ordered breakfast and endured sub par service.  Someone had switched the caps on two of the four flavors of pancake syrup so Big Boy accidentally smothered his pancakes with blueberry syrup - which he hates.  We waited a ridiculously long time for our waitress to come by but in her credit she did quickly agree to bring him a new serving of pancakes.

When the bill came, I was sick to my stomach.  I could have fed my kids for three days in DisneyWorld for what I paid for breakfast.

And that was before tip!

We walked back to the hotel with a smile pasted on my face, determined to make sure that the kids continued to have a good time.  Along the way a cat jumped out from behind a shrub and immediately introduced himself.  He ended up following us for a few blocks while the kids made ridiculous pleas to take him home with us.

Although it was a gorgeous sunny day.. and so far, we had only seen the falls when it was overcast, my kids seemed to feel that they had seen enough of the falls.  The wanted to spend the morning in the pool.  It was still early and the pool was not due to open until 10:00.  We were originally scheduled for an evening flight so that we could spend some more time exploring the area but that expensive breakfast was still in my head and the kids had seen enough water so we decide to head back home early.  There was a noon flight that was wide open so we decided to try for that.

Crossing back over the border was as uneventful as entering Canada.  A quick glance at our passports and a few routine questions and we were back in the USA. 

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Lil's Bit mentioned that she was hungry and then immediately segued into a full uncharacteristic meltdown.  I don't know where she thought I was going to find food on the middle of the highway.  But, we survived the meltdown and went to our rental car return.  While returning the car, I mentioned that the cigarette lighter was not working which caused me much angst as I was using my phone for the GPS and was watching my battery slowly dwindle.  Now, this is why I am loving Enterprise.  Without hesitation, the employee noted that I only had the car for a couple of hours on my second day and he agreed to waive the second day altogether, cutting my bill in half.  That is good customer service.

We easily got onto the early flight.

And, it is a good thing we did.  Storms later in the day caused delays to our original flight.  We would have made it home but is would have been late.

Ontario, Canada - October 18 & 19

After our Maid of the Mist ride, we spent a few minutes on the observation tower and bought a couple of trinkets in the souvenir shop.  While waiting for our purchases to be rung up, Lil' Bit played with and subsequently dropped a small glass souvenir.  She was so upset that she quickly made a grab for the broken glass in an attempt to pick it up.  She cut her thumb on the glass and, after receiving a band aid, posed with her injury.

We caught the trolley back to our car and headed out of the park.  This trip, we had brought donuts but had not packed a lunch.  We quickly found a cheap Chinese Buffet in the area.  It was cheap, very cheap, and not very good.  But we are on a budget and it was food so we made do.

Lil' Bit had to go to the bathroom and since the bathrooms were very close and the place was deserted, she set off by herself.  After a while, I thought I should go check on her as she was talking a wee bit too long.  As I got closer tot he ladies room, I could hear her cries and her desperate pounding on the bathroom door.  She had gotten herself stuck in the restroom.  Not one to miss an opportunity to laugh at one of my children;'s misfortune, I totally cracked up.  But she was none the worse for wear.  We finished our meal and set off for Canada.

We quickly found the border crossing at Rainbow Bridge and upon showing our passports and answering a few cursory questions, we were allowed to cross the border.  Our first stop was the Holiday Inn where we had made reservations.  It was straight up the hill from the American Falls,  The hotel did not have a view of the falls but was within walking distance.

The room was nice and clean

 

The room did not have much of a view though.

What the hotel did have was a pool and a hot tub.  On the list of favorite things, a hotel pool and hot tub rank 1 & 2 on my kids' most favorite things.

 

After a quick swim, we headed out on foot in search of inexpensive souvenirs (we struck out)  and then off to see the falls from the Canadian side (where the view is best)

 

The walk was a comfortable downhill walk a little less than a mile.  It started getting chilly and drizziling during the walk down but the view was worth it.

 

 

Attached to our hotel was a Margaritaville.  The neon and music caught the kids' eyes so we decided that this was the spot for dinner.

 

By the time we finished dinner, the kid were tired, we were all just now drying off from our walk in the drizzle, and it had gotten even more chilly out.  Despite the fact that everyone says you just haaave to see the falls at night... we headed back to our room and straight to bed.

Here are a couple of pictures of what we missed (stolen from the Internet)

Buffalo, NY The Maid of the Mist

I do have one regret from my childhood trip to Niagara Falls.  I remember looking at the passengers of the Maid of the Mist boat tour with envy.  I wanted to go on the boat ride so badly but my parents told me that it was too expensive.  Traveling with four kids and having to multiply every expense by four did rule out cool things like the boat trip so I do not begrudge my parents for not taking us on it but I was determined to give my kids hat experience.

The Maid of the Mist departs from just off Goat Island but a distance from the lot we had parked in.  For $2 for adults and $1 per child, we boarded the trolley on an all day wristband.  The trolley runs around Goat Island and to the Maid of the Mist and the observation tower.

The boat cost us $18 and included a second set of decks and stairs at the other side of the American falls and free run of hte observation tower which extends over the river.

We received a second rain poncho and boarded the boat. There is no way to describe the sound of hte falls and give it justice.  It was such an impressive roar of water.  As we approached the falls, it was like being in the middle of a torrential rainstorm.  The water came in gusts and as soon as I got the confidence to pull out my camera, another big gust of water would envelope us.  Here are the few pictures I could manage.

 

I cannot describe how impressed I was with the falls and I strongly recommend that anyone traveling to Niagara falls budget the money for the Maid of the Mist boat trip.