O Canada

How more patriotic can you be than by leaving your country for independence day? Don't worry though, it was just across the border and I don't think that there was any point at which I couldn't turn my head and see the good ole' US of A.
So Thursday afternoon the second car of our group left to the great white north. By the time that we got onto the beltway, however, it seemed that everyone else in the DC Metro Area was on their way out as well

This was after one hour on the road and only 5 miles-ish

In my car was me, Jess, Annie in back and behind the pillow was Cat. The four of us were in for a long, long, drive.
Somewhere near Altoona (actually, I don't know where, but I wanted to mention Altoona) we saw this sign. I don't know about you, but it sounds amazing. I want to see it for sure.

Finally, at 1:30 a.m. we reached the foreign land. I was so slap happy by then, that everything was making me laugh hysterically.
I learned they do things differently in Canada. They call them washrooms instead of restrooms, they don't call it macaroni and cheese, but rather, Kraft Dinner, and they eat some horrible things like these:

Ketchup Potato Chips (I bought them for your sake Shelley) . They made me gag a little.

Does anyone find this sign as funny as I do?

The next morning, we woke up, made a trip to the Wal-Mart (now their Wal-Marts in Canada are the 1980s style here--at least the one I was at), made breakfast and then went to see the falls.

They're amazing!!

We went on a "Maid of the Mist" boat tour--fascinating did you know a little boy fell down the falls in only a life vest and survived? One of these boats picked him up.Another fun sign, what exactly is he falling on?

Whole group photo front to back left to right: Annie, Jess, Cat, Amy, Reed, Me, Brian, Sundee

On our boat tour . The Line to get there was horrendous, but the actual ride was worth the wait.

After the boat ride, we went up to see the city of Niagara Falls, and to ride their giant Ferris Wheel. It was nice, sort of. Kinda like Las Vegas, but more tacky.

View from the ferris wheel

We went back to camp and hung out for a while, playing games and waiting 'til dark to watch the fireworks. We went across the street to the river and had a nice view to see no less than six fireworks shows from the Falls to Buffalo, NY. This is us waiting for the fireworks to start.


The next day was really laid back. We didn't do much but play games. Reed's birthday was on the 4th so Brian, his roomie had bought him this game, mostly as a joke. Though the 40-something creator who surely lives at home in his mother's basement must love this game, I did not find Dragon Land and it's many complex rules all that exciting. However I enjoyed that the dice were called "destiny cubes."The next game was Ticket to Ride, and I enjoyed that a lot. Having previously told myself that I would not enjoy it, I was pleasantly surprised.

That night we went to the falls again to see them illuminated. After parking, while walking back down, we came across this lovely car. Definitely the closest I have ever been to a $200,000 sports car.This is the city at night (like I said, like Vegas...)

I got some really cool pics of the falls at night, but am tired of trying to make this work, so this is all I will put here. But it looks super-cool at night.Me in front of the falls--I didn't take the picture (obviously) so don't blame me for it's blurry quality.

Both nights, we had fun with glow sticks, The pictures aren't nearly as cool with the flash, but this one kinda made me look so cool, I posted it (no, I realize that I don't look cool at all).

This is our Rave:

And:


We're awesome!!

It's funny to watch and see when people hit themselves with the glowsticks. ("Thud, Ouch")

We woke up early Sunday and headed off. I got the biggest prick for a border patrol agent. I can't even do justice to his doucheyness by writing, just suffice it to say he was a jerk.
We left Canada and then went to Palmyra NY, but that will be in a follow-up post.

Bye Canada

The ride home was nice, little traffic until we got here. Awful little town.

All-in-all, Canada was great. My Canadian friend (pay attention to #6) would say to not judge Canada by the little towns near the falls, but I must say that they were some friendly folks there. I would guess that this part of the country is similar to our hillbillie parts in the States, but it was a lovely area with some fine folks. Canada is O-K in my book Eh'