Niagara Falls

After a nice relaxing day yesterday, a spot of shopping for Sue and I while the boys looked after Bella, today we headed off for Niagara Falls. We drove via St Catharines and then we stopped in Niagara By the Lake for a walk through the town and to have some lunch. The town was beautiful and really quaint, stopped in a few stores for a look, bought some fudge from the fudge shop.

Niagara was truly amazing, and just the sheer magnitude of the falls is mind blowing. We spent so much time just standing there staring. Being on the Canadian side was the best as the American Falls are small compared to the Horshoe Falls, which is something we had no idea about.

After having a good look around we headed up the street and sat and had a coffee in Tim Hortons, where Simon treated us to a Canadian Special a French Vanilla coffee. Then we headed back down the hill and got on board the Maid of the Mist for our boat trip into the falls, and what a fantastic trip this was, just absolutely brilliant, we got a little wet, thank goodness for the ponchos though, it was refreshing and definitely worth it.

Mount Nemo, Lake Crawford

Today we had another relaxing morning and then we headed off in the car for Mount Nemo and enjoyed a nice stroll through the forest to the escarpment. It’s not well known to most Torontans but Sue and Simon were intrepid tourists to find it in the first place. It’s on the Niagara escarpment and offered beautiful views of Toronto and Lake Ontario in the distance. When we first started walking through we heard the tap tap tap sound of a woodpecker hard at work, was really cool to see it in the wild. Saw lots of beautiful trees and flowers on the way.

Afterwards we headed off to Lake Crawford a volcanic lake and enjoyed a picnic lunch and then a walk around the lake which was really beautiful. Saw some fish in the lake and a huge tortoise swimming.

The boys went to the pub when we got home and us girls enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Well a nice quiet start to the day today, was nice to have a sleep in and have time to chill out a bit and not race off anywhere. Lots of time to chat and hang out was lovely.

Tonight we headed off by train to the Rogers Centre to watch a baseball game, the Toronto Blue Jays played the Tampa Bay Rays. We got there in plenty of time and watched them practice, was great there were balls flying everywhere, and well Simon caught one and got to keep it, how cool is that.

We grabbed some dinner, Bella had popcorn and boy what a big bag it was, never have I seen one that big before.

Bella met the team mascot and had her photo taken with him. Bella told the security guy that she was from Australia, and they had a little chat. Later on in the night towards the end of the game, he came over to Bella with a ball that had been used in the game, she was so excited.

The game was fantastic and we had a ball, there was action at the end of each innings a bit of dancing here and there. Got to sing Take me out to the ball game, and a couple of others during the night, Bella was cheering on the Blue Jays and having a blast.

Happy to say that they won 3-1 and were thrilled.

Oops - Right Royal F#*#( Up

Okay so this is where I stuff up slightly, all along I have been convinced that our flight to Toronto is at 6.30pm, umm no it isn’t it is at 1.40pm, so at 11.15am when Andrew and I are checking he said to me that his worldmate on his Blackberry is telling him that there were no delays and it was at 1.40pm, oh dear panic set in right about now along with the stomach churning. I have what would you say royally F##(* Up here. (I had gotten the flight mixed up with our next one to the UK). So we call the Valet for our hire car to be bought around, madly pack up couple of things, call for concierge to pick up bags, I run down to reception with Bella to pay bill. Car is bought around Bella is thrown in, along with small luggage, Andrew took for ever to come down with the big bags as no Concierge to bring them down, so he makes 3 trips and we load up the car and drive at speed to the airport.

Had a good quick trip missed a big accident that happened in front of us, roll up at Avis, load our bags onto the bus and head to AA check in, can’t check in curbside as our bags are too big, ok this has to do with round the world ticket so head inside to 1^st class check in, get through no problems. We race through the airport, running to Gate D50 which is right at the end only to get there and be told that our flight had changed gates, since checking in mind you, so we run right back to where we started from and head to Gate E2, we get there and find out our flight was delayed, ok so that was cool but we were hot and sweaty after our running, so sat down and had a cool drink and let the heart rate drop a bit.

We get on the plane and think thank god we made it, only to be delayed for 40 minutes as someones baggage was there and they weren’t, well they turn up and we wait a bit more before we finally take off.

Oh add to the day that we were waiting 1.5 hours at the airport for one of our bags, which didn’t turn up as it was still in Miami, great!!! Anyway they organized to send it out to us the following morning, but it really just topped off a really bad day.

My thoughts on Miami in general is that it is overrated, at least we can say we have been there, but its not really somewhere we would go back to. Though we did enjoy what we did while we were there, just found the people really rude, the hotel was a dud.

Boy it was great to get to Toronto, Simon met us at the airport and we had a great time chatting all the way to their home. Sue met us at the door and we had a tour of the house and some dinner, followed for us that could with a session of serious drinking, it was a great first night.

The Florida Everglades

This morning we set off for The Florida Everglades and for a ride on an airboat, we decided to go to the one which was run by the Miccosukee Indians which was a bit further into the Everglades.

Wow it was fun and something I had always wanted to do, the ride was fast and smooth and very noisy. Our guide let Bella wear his earphones which was good, the rest of us just had good old cotton wool.

We stopped in the middle somewhere at a walkway and lookout which was great, we saw a few alligators and one that was nesting, some fish and birdlife also. Then it was back on the boat for the trip back to land.

Tonight we headed back to Bayside for dinner, Andrew wanted to go to Hooters but it was too packed so we walked around, he did some more shopping (he is getting very good at this now). Then we went past the Scarab Thriller which was due to go out on the water shortly, so we thought about it and decided what the hell great way to end the evening and our trip to Miami, it was 30 minutes of pure adrenalin and loads of fun, Bella was squeeling and laughing the whole time (she is a bit of a daredevil our girl). It was fantastic to see the city by boat at night. We stopped by the island where all the mega rich people live, saw houses where Sylvester Stallone, Will Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Shaquille O’Neill, Gloria Estefan live, also where Bad Boys I & II was filmed.

We ended up having dinner in the food court which was great and very cheap. Then we headed back for a big sleep.