We left at 4 am on July 16 to head out to Maine. We arrived in Buffalo, NY around 6 pm and decided we really needed a meal with real food... So we went to Bob Evans for dinner. It was next to the Red Roof Inn we stayed in. After dinner the adventure to Niagra Falls began!
We found it on the map and headed out. Finding parking was crazy!!! So, I see this little lot and hardly any cars. I told Boyd to pull in there.. well, bad plan. We were now in Canada! LOL No passports, no visas... no id for the kids except for their health insurance cards. So, we couldn't just pull out of the lot, we had to go into Canada.... Funny, yes and no. Kaci was scared to death, Kole was saying, why are we here for? Kali was embarrassed. I was so tired I could have cared less. Anyway, we had to go through immigration in Canada to come back to the US. Apparently we are not the only ones to do something like this! So we did see Niagra falls from the Canadaian side, but saw most of it from the New York side in the dark.
We returned to our hotel around midnight to wake up around 6 am to leave for Maine. We found one way to get across to Vermont. A ferry ride! It was so cool. You pull on this ferry and across you go and then you drive off. We arrived in New Hampshire late and called Wanda to see how far yet and she told us to call her when we reached Farmington, ME for directions to her house in the middle of nowhere. The lady at the Mobil station where we stopped for gas in Gorham, NH was very helpful. She told us how to watch out for Moose. Did you know that a Moose's eyes do not glow like a deer's does? You just watch for a hulking shadow up higher than a deer. By then it is pouring down rain, road construction, new blacktop with no lines, oncoming traffic.... then we saw a frog hop across the road, a few miles later, a fox ran out... Then a few more miles a racoon with a fish ran out! No moose... whew! We made it to our home away from home late that night, then off to bed!
While we were in Maine we went to the big birthday bash for Boyd's Aunt Jerry. A huge success with many members of the family from Boyd's mom's side. The kids had a blast meeting all these relatives that they didn't realize that they had! The next day we had a really nice picnic with relatives from Nova Scotia, California, New Hampshire, Massachuets, and Maine. We played washers (also called ring toss), drank and ate and laughed until after dark. The next day it was off to Sugarloaf mountian resort and touring the mountains and streams. We visited little falls. We had to hike up into the woods to get there. It was so pretty... And yes, I did take a small tumble trying to climb up there.
The kids of course had no problem at all! After that we went to a mountain lake for the kids to swim and us to just enjoy the sunshine. We visited family some more and went back and chatted into the night. Then the next day was ocean day! We took the kids and others all to the Atlantic Ocean! We went to Pemaquid Point and saw the lighthouse and climbed the rocks. The coast is very rocky and just beautiful!
On Thursday we packed up and headed to Easton, MA to drop off Garnet then on to Washington, DC! We spent a day site seeing and just hanging out. Then we went the next morning to see VIVIAN!!!! We couldn't have been any happier than to see her well and good.
The kids were in total shock when they saw her! Kaci said, I thought I knew who it was, but then she spoke and I knew!! Kali said "I am in so much shock!" And Kole says "That's not Vivian!" But we knew it was her and she is here with us now!
We arrived home last night around 11 pm after 16 hours on the road!
Pictures can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbringolf/?saved=1
Look for the saved set Vacation 2009!
