Happy

Birthday...

Happy 12th Birthday Nick...

Splish Splash

Picture if you will a house... a house that was built in 1889.  A house that was built with the finest construction ingredients of its day.  Plaster walls, hardwood floors, limestone foundation... clapboard siding.  Not just any house built in 1889 mind you, but the one that rested at 621 Western.

Ahhhh...

That's right... 621, that's what the number used to be that hung over the door.  I'm thinking that they changed it to 605 to remove any bad juju... it's not working.

So... 4:30 in the AM... I wake up to some thunder and lightening, oh and rain too.  I figure... well, now that I'm awake, I may as well hop on the old computer to check the radar and see how much rain we were in for I mean at that time, it didn't seem like it was coming down too heavy... but first a trip to the turlet.

Okay, let's have a look see...  Boy... that's a lot of dark green out there... and some yellow and orange and red.  Man... that's a lot of rain headed this way... nothing I can do about it and I'm certainly not going to be getting up now with only being 4:45am and all.  Close the lid on the computer and settle back in to cop a couple more hours of some zzzz's.

One bright lightening flash and (nearly simultaneous) sonic boom later and it's lights out... as in no power.

Fast forward to a little before 7am and still no power.  Need to get the kids up soon as they all have a date with the dentist.  Julie goes off to work a couple of hours and calls me to ask if I've been in the basement yet.

I have not.

I think you can see where this was headed with the title.  I open the door to the basement (and it's dark down there... still without power) but I can see that the cat carrier that is down there has floated over to the bottom of the stairs.  This also meant that the cat boxes and plastic totes were either floating too, or had capsized and taken on water... so much for plastic totes.

DAMN!

Okay kids let's finish up and make sure that we're ready by 9:30... that's when Julie was coming home to pick us up.

Power comes back on at 9:00... so it's been out for like 4 hours.  Now I have light and can make my way down to assess the mess/fallout of that charming limestone basement turned marina with all the floating things.  So 5" of rain and no power for 4 hours can make an awful mess.  In all the years that we've lived here and the multiple times that the basement has flooded, this is the most water we've taken on.

So signing off now (after letting the pump do it's thing for a while) to go down and clean up the marina... I mean basement.

Where's my snorkel?

KEIYH

Don't hold back...

So earlier today, we're all getting ready to meet up with Julie's mom and sister (who's in town) for dinner.  After I got out of the shower and was getting my sandals on, I had called for Julie to see where she was and if we were ready to go... so I called out for her.  Ana was standing at my side (waiting for help getting her sandals on) and she chimed in with, "I hate when you call Jeff and Julie... it's so annoying!"

KEIYH

This must be the place

This better be the place...

Finally... this is the place!

I will now heed the calling of the bed, willingly rest my road weary bones and give my spine a chance to straighten out some and regain a little of my height back.

I know that we are accustomed to camping (and for us that means tenting it… and basic cabins from time to time) but even so, our room was really pretty posh. The only thing more beautiful than that bed was the view out our window. As I’m lying there straightening out, we begin discussing what to do. We have the rest of the evening (including finding something suitable for dinner) that we needed to fill and we needed to “fill up” the next day as well.

First... some pics from the ride in, our view and the "filling" of our evening...

Okay then, let’s see what there is to do around here other than the falls. I wonder if there’s a wireless network? I mean with a place as swanky as the Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel & Spa there's got to be something. Ahh… there is and… what! We have to pay?!? And it’s only good for 24hrs!?! Man… that sucks!

I did notice though, on their “get your internet here” page that certain “member types” got complimentary internet. So I thought maybe perhaps the “family and friends” might get some type break too and suggested to Julie to give a call to the front desk. Nope… damn! Oh well… all right then, we still need to figure out what there is to eat around these here parts. Well, since we can’t check online (and can I just point out how much we depend on the internet and it’s connections… just to have all that information at our fingertips… I do declare… it’s enslavement) it was decided that Julie should go downstairs and do some touristy recon.

Warning:

For those of you with a greater sense of conscience principals ethics… scruples, you might want to skip over the next few paragraphs.

Not having too many options, Julie opts to go down to the front desk to see about acquiring info or recommendations for eats. The girl motioned Julie to the other end of the counter for a list and right there in front of Julie (in plain view) was a little square of paper that read internet access code. The temptation to memorize those digits “for hire” was overwhelming. So Julie being the fast on her feet thinker that she is said to the girl, “Hey, isn’t that the Queen Mother over there?” She’s so smooth… Okay, she really didn’t do the old “hey what’s that over there” shtick, but she did her best to casually memorize those numbers. As soon as Julie saw that code… her focus was no longer directly on food, but to memorize those prized eight numbers. 

In spite of playing Big Brain Academy on Rachael’s Nintendo during the drive to help her (semi successfully) stay awake, she was in quick need of a pen and paper. So being the international continental traveler that she is, she blended in undetected and her casual slide over to the tour package counter to quickly write that number down went unnoticed. Naturally she had to converse with the tour counter person… well she was going to do that regardless of getting that code or not.

She then came back to the room and gave her intelligence report which included the untested internet code. So as she began to explain that there was a bus tour… that took you to several places and admission to said places was included in the price of the tour… I punched in the code. She also found out that there were shuttle busses that we could use as well to get around town… kinda nice cuz that meant that we could keep the truck put away. Oh yeah, those digits for hire, passed the validity test… they were good. Free internet! Do I feel bad? Kinda… I really (kinda) do, but honestly McDonalds has free Wi-Fi… hell… rest stops along the highway have free Wi-Fi. You’d think that a company as large as Marriott could shell out free internet for their guests.

Okay… now we (as a rule) like to blaze our own trail and tend to shy away from the touristy trap like bus tours and things of that ilk. This tour, the one in question, would take us to four main points of interest. One of the selling points was not really knowing how to navigate the city and surrounding area and we wanted to “see” as much as we could without the aggravation of figuring all that out and having to figure out the parking, that and we were to get “preferred” treatment and not have to wait in any line that might exist. I suspect that this was an isolated incident, but we caved in and got on board. Okay, we’ve got tomorrow figured out, what about tonight? Taking advantage of the free shuttle, we took a ride into the thick of it.

Now the Canadian side of the falls is fairly commercialized… especially the further away from the actual falls you move and nowhere was that more noticeable than the area known as Clifton Hill. This is where we were told to head to and this is where we were dropped off from the shuttle.

Julie compared it to being like “Daytona Beach”… I'll have to take her word having never been to said beach. In any event, there were people everywhere and there were tourist trap shops at every turn of the head. It was loud and blinky and so not what we were looking for. Why’d we go? This is the area that was suggested to find food, but most of what we saw (food wise) was chain type places. Additionally, as with any good tourist trap, the price of the food was overblown. Seeking a quieter and more serene setting, we abruptly left this area and headed back to the shuttle stop.

Once back on the shuttle, we managed to strike up some conversation with the driver and asked him for his opinion on a good family place to eat.

A bit of a side note here, Julie and I… in our travels and if we can help it… like to stray to places with more a local flavor. That is to say someplace that is not a chain. Of course at times you have no other choice, but when we do, we like to find the “local”.

Our bus driver echoed on how pricy the restaurants are in the area and did offer up a local place Zappi's that was within walking distance of the Marriott. (Perfect since the day we arrived in Niagara Falls, it was Victoria Day and that meant fireworks over the falls starting at 10pm.)  The fare was fair, but it had more to do with it not being what we were accustomed to or expecting. Julie ordered “hot” wings… medium… and what she basically got was more like BBQ wings and never does one miss Chicago style pizza more than when you can’t get it. Their pizza wasn’t bad… it just wasn't like true Chicago style… then to be fair, no place else is.

I guess my pizza snob is showing.

So after food was consumed, and the tab paid, a short walk put us back in our room. As 10PM approached, there was a bit of a scrum at the window as everyone was jockeying for premium viewing position.

See, we managed to still have a relatively full half day.

I was going to try and upload a video of the fireworks here, but something went awry.  I suspect that the video was too large... well, I knew it was, but I thought I try anyway.  Too bad too, because it was complete with a flushing (the audio) in the background.

Is it bed time yet?!?  For me, that came and went over 24 hours ago.

KEIYH