Buffalo, NY - October 18 &19

One of my vivid childhood memories was our family trip to Niagara Falls.  I remember taking a tour where you walk through a cave and actually come out behind the falls themselves.  I remember being impressed at the amount of water rushing over horseshoe falls.  I wanted to share this memory with my children.

The kids were out of school on a Thursday and Friday due to teacher conferences and I took off of work rather than find a sitter.  We were flying our usual standby and managed to get on a flight that was empty enough that we didn't have to worry about getting on it.  Of course, this meant our usual pre dawn departure but the kids and I are getting used to that.  We got on our first choice flight with seats to spare.

We picked up our rental car and headed straight for Goat Island which is a New York State Park.  We had a comfortable half hour ride to get there.  Upon arrival, we paid $8 to park in the first lot we came upon.  I later leaned that the other two lots are $10 apiece so we got lucky on that one.  Our first mission was to go beneath the falls.  Now, my childhood memory was of walking through a tunnel and coming out behind the waterfall.  And, with a name like "Cave of the Winds"  I full expected that this was what we were about to do.  We paid our $27 and received three thin rain ponchos and three pair of sandals and a plastic bag for our shoes.  We took an elevator down to the baste of the falls but instead of a tunnel behind the falls, we came out next to the falls.  There were a series of stairs, decks and catwalks running alongside the base of the falls and up along the side of the rushing water.  It didn't take long to figure out why we needed sandals and ponchos.  There was water everywhere splashing around us and spraying as it hit the rocks.  I should mention that Lil's Bit has this thing about getting wet.  She adores the pool and swims for hours but the idea of getting the tiniest little bit wet in any other circumstances makes her insane.  She took one look and refused to go any further than the very first platform.  I had no choice but to wait at the bottom and send Big Boy up on his own.

We were directed by one of the guides to walk the wrong way through the area so that we could meet Big Boy as he came down but also get a little closer without Lil' Bit getting too wet. 

from this vantage, we could easily watch Big Boy and he looked like he was having a blast.  I told Lil' Bit to stay where I could see her so that I could walk part way up.  After watching us for a few minutes, Lil' Bit decided that a little water would probably not kill her after all.

Rain ponchos or not, we got wet.  Especially the bottoms of our pants.   Big boy was so enthralled with the falls and he declared me the best Mom ever for bringing them. 

And the fun was just beginning.

Just how far....

will Maria drive for ice cream?

By now, most of my readers know that I like good ice cream.  I have been raving incessantly about Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream online and in person for months now.  My co-workers mock me for traveling to Nashville for ice cream (when in reality, we did several things on that trip)

My one co-worker, Ginger volunteered that she knew of a great place to get ice cream locally.  It is made fresh at the Vanderwende Dairy.  Ginger swear that this ice cream is worth the drive and that it would make me forget about Jeni's.  She described it as "Past Walmart, then past the produce stand, on the left"

So, I decided to take a drive.  The Walmart is in Denton, MD which is about 25 minutes East of my house.  I took route 404 and proceeded through Denton and past the Walmart.  After passing the Walmart, I kept my eyes peeled to the left for this infamous produce stand.  What did Ginger say the name was?  Oh yes, Adams Produce.  I drove and drove and drove.  No produce stand, no dairy farm, no ice cream.  And then I remembered, I had forgotten about the "country mile".  Ya see, I hail from the suburbs of Washington DC where a mile is a mile.  You can actually measure it on your odometer.  If someone tells you to go one mile and turn left, then the left turn will be within a few feet of one mile.  But nooo, out here in the countryside a mile  is closer to ten miles.  And after driving past cornfield after cornfield, ten miles feels like 20 miles.

I called Ginger in a panic when I passed the "Welcome to Delaware" sign.  She assured me that I was right on track.  The fruit stand was coming up. Ha, that Ginger is such a trickster.  She failed to mention that there would be no fewer than three produce stands between the Delaware State Line and the infamous Adams Produce.  Well, in all honesty, she also failed to mention that I would be going to Delaware.

I finally passed Adams Produce and fell right upon the Vanderwende Ice Cream Store.  It was on the left, just like she said it would be.

I will say that the ice cream was good.. very good.  Much better than grocery store ice cream.  And it was priced very well.  Where Jeni's gives half scoops at the price of $4.50 for two or $5.50 for three, I paid $3 for a giant, made in the store, waffle cone full to the brim with delicious, creamy ice cream. There were no exotic flavors like Jeni's but it was creamy and delicious. 

 

 



Stay tuned for how far I will fly for ice cream



Sometimes you are too busy traveling...

to blog about traveling.

I owe posts on about four trips now but I just got the laptop working (in Disney) and am hurriedly uploading pictures before I lose it again.

In a nutshell, I am currently at EPCOT enjoying the Wine and Food Festival, alone...sans family.  While I do miss having them around, it is just as great doing what I want to do for a change.

A shout out to Jeni's Ice Cream

It is going to take me a couple of days to get caught up on all the trip reports as I am several behind right now.  But in the mean time, I wanted to give a great big shout out and thank you to the crew at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream in Bexley, OH.  I had called another store the night before to find out which was the closet location and apparently, they thought our story was cool and alerted the Bexley location we were coming.  The ice cream was awesome and the hospitality was even better.

Pictures, details and the Ohio trip report are coming.

Another state visited

35 to go.    We are back from our Niagara Falls trip.  The trip report will have to wait until we get back from Ohio tomorrow.  We cu the trip short by several hours due to several things one of which was money.  Although I have not finished logging in all the receipts, this is looking to have been one of our most expensive trips yet... and I am including trips to Disney World in that statement.

Loved the falls.  Loved watching the kids loving the falls.  Need to find another job to pay for the falls.

Tomorrow:  Going to Ohio for literally an hour and a half... just enough time to get ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.

Packing and running around

We are throwing together our overnight bags for our trip to Niagara Falls in the morning.  There had been a later in the morning direct flight that I had hoped to take.  I am tired of getting up at 4:00 AM to travel and then being tired all day.  But it looks like that flight has booked up a little bit more than our comfort zone so we are headed out on the 7:00 AM flight.  This means a 4:00 AM alarm for me again, out of the house by 5 and an hour drive to the airport.

The good news is that last time I checked, the plane was almost empty.  We will have no problems getting on.  Coming back on Friday, I booked a late flight and we won't be home until after 9:00 PM but that gives us a second full day in the area.

Big Boy said that he wanted to have a friend over on Saturday so I called the parents and made the invite.  I then asked if they would be OK if I took him out for ice cream...in Columbus, OH.  Yes, I still have Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream on the brain.  I found a late morning flight that puts us there at 11:30 AM.  We would have to get back to the airport by about 1:00 for our 2:00 PM flight home.  So, I am really not kidding when I say we are going just for ice cream.  That will literally be all we have time to do.

The father thinks this is a super cool idea but has to run it by the mother.  I am waiting for a yes or no from them.

We won't be taking a computer so the blog will have to wait until we get back.  Stay tuned.

Changing plans

Although we are still planning on heading to Niagara falls on Thursday, Big Boy and I decided to scrap the plans to head to New Mexico on Saturday.  (We didn't give Lil' Bit a vote - she always goes along with whatever we decide).  I was on the fence with the ambitious plans.  It would have meant a very long travel day on Friday only to spend a long time in the car and then turn right around and fly back on Sunday.  Also, the flights are getting pretty full which puts our travel plans at risk.  Additionally, I have a quick trip planned for Monday and any delays getting back from Albuquerque would interfere with that.

Big Boy had to miss a cub scout camp out last weekend due to a family outing with cousins, aunt uncle and grandmother so he wanted to make pans to spend the day with one of his friends.

So, we will only hit one new state and one new country (Canada) this week.