Falling for the Falls (October 22nd)

TAXI! TAXI!
Take us to the airport please. .....not the scenic route, no time for this at 5:45 a.m.

Now we are at the airport and have a moment to soothe Shannon's coffee craving, but where to find Timmie's. Well when all else fails "ask directions", after all we're not men. So Shannon walks right up to Starbucks and asks where we can find Tim Horton's.

Shannon witnessed a bolt of lightning, forever to be known as Gloria-Rose, when they announced general boarding and she gathered herself to get into line only to look up and see that Gloria-Rose was already at the front of the line and ready to board.

Shannon had the most delightful seat companion on the plane. He slept most of the way with his aroma permeating the area with a strong mixture of stale lysol and whatever else was served at the party the night before. He must be a well-loved person to have had such a grand fairwell party held before his departure. Are we ever jealous?

We reached an altitude of 41,683 ft. travelling at 631 miles per hour.

When we landed, after collecting our luggage and our rental care we made our way to the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) and drove to Niagara Falls, Along the way we were regaled with beautiful fall colours on our right and Lake Ontario to our left. Shannon commented several times on the colours of the leaves. They are stunning right now. Our trip took us past several fabulous looking golf courses and for two girls who were missing their guys we were very tempted to go a round in honour of them. We considered bringing back our completed score cards as proof that we had missed them enough to make this sacrifice, but feat that our scores would be wonderfully low we thought it might make them too jealous.

Once in Niagara we found a hotel room a couple of blocks from Clifton Hill and the Falls themselves. Now if mention of Niagara Falls conjures up images of romance and classy rendez-vous, it was rather shocking to see the Falls as backdrop to Clifton Hill, a cheesy replica of something from an amusement park. It strongly reminded Shannon of Universal Studios or Disneyland. Her exact words "It doesn't fit the image of Niagara Falls. The two don't go together." Only in Clifton Hill would you see a pirate flag on top of the House of Frankenstein. As this is Shannon's first visit (Mike note, she may want to come back) we will use her words, "Wow! It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The shear size of it was much more than expected and the power and amount of water continuously flowing is tremendous. We were running short of time before attractions would close so we had to make a choice of the tunnel, the butterfly conservatory or the maid of the mist. We chose the latter. Much to our delight a sales gimmick they practice for this attraction is to take your photo before the ride and print it with the falls as a backdrop, ready for you to pay $$$$$$$ for upon your exit from the attraction. Well to two photo freaks this was a great idea. Before leaving we double backed to have an "after" picture of us taken in our drenched, bedraggled state so we could compare the before and after effects of the falls on our countenances. We are stunning I might add.

Back to our room to freshen up and then a short jaunt down Clifton Hill to find sustenance and here we sit sipping a Shandy, oops that was another trip, another country, another girlfriend, we are actually sipping wine.

The lessons learned for the day were: don't over dress (Shannon overheated) and bring flip flops so you don't need bandages for your toes. And finally we cannot believe how hard it is to find internet access, and when you do, blogging is blocked. What century is this here in Southern Ontario?

After supper and a night time viewing of the Falls, we dragged our sorry asses back to the hotel room ready to crawl into bed, have a little more wine and pass out, only to realize that the clock read 9:49 pm, which would be 7:49 pm in Alberta. What losers!