Aug 23, 2012 - Niagara Falls, in all its glory!

We gave ourselves one day to explore Niagara Falls, and decided taking a tour would be the best way to hit all the highlights. We didn't have identification for the kids so we were limited to the American side, which turned out to be perfect. Visiting both sides would have been too much for one day. Our tour picked us up at the campground at 11:00, which was great because it gave us time to have a nice grilled egg & Spam breakfast. The Spam was not a big hit, but the kids were troopers and ate it anyway. George had taken a trip to Dunkin...

Aug 22, 2012 - New York, New York!

Another late wake up, maybe we need to start setting the alarm clock. Luckily everyone has the routine down pretty well and we were on the road by 10:50 today. At least we beat yesterday's time. Our destination today is Grand Island, New York. We stopped for lunch in Pennsylvania, so the kids could remember their time in this great state. This is where Karissa was born, but we weren't anywhere close to where they lived. Though we did talk about the time they lived in PA and tried to retrieve some of their memories. George and Lisa recalled...

Oct 1, 2011 - Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada

The weather was still miserable this morning. We had planned to go to Ft. Niagara which is north of the falls on the U.S. side of the Niagara River where the river joins Lake Ontario. We decided a tour of the fort would not be much fun today. We chose to go back to Canada over the Lewiston bridge and drive north to Niagara-on-the-Lake. We had heard that it was a pretty drive and a pretty town. The town sits across the Niagara River from Ft. Niagara. The drive was beautiful. The parkway has a wide bike/walking path along the river. In some...

Sep 30, 2011 - Buffalo, NY

Rain, rain, rain! We had rain all night and into this morning, so we decided we would do some driving sight-seeing. We headed down to Buffalo. We were looking for lunch and a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) houses. We drove right downtown and to the waterfront looking for a place to eat. We found a great place...Templeton Landing. The restaurant has an impressive outside entranceway complete with fountain and fireplace. The view is of the marina with boats all bobbing in the water. Lunch was very good...soup (seafood soup and...

Sep 29, 2011 - Erie Canal

The weather has turned much cooler. And, today turned out cloudy and rainy. But, we drove on to Lockport. There we had lunch and rode on the Erie Canal tour boat. Lunch was at Molinaro's, a family owned Italian place with a great bakery. The boat ride was not crowded, and we immediately met a couple who had been in our home town on vacation last week and are the way back to their home in....North Carolina. The cruise took us through two of the locks on the canal. The rain held off until we were through the locks. The rain even held off...

Sep 28, 2011 - Niagara Falls - U.S. and Canada

This morning was bright, sunny, and not too hot. We headed to Niagara Falls to ride the Maid of the Mist boat to Horseshoe Falls (Canadian Falls). Everyone gets a blue poncho to wear. The boats leave the dock about every half hour on the U.S. side. The Canadian side has a dock with the Maid boats leaving there. We were amazed at how many people were there to ride the boats. We left the U.S. dock and rode by the American Falls. The spray was amazing. It was like we were in a rainstorm. The boat road up to Horseshoe Falls and steadied itself...

Sep 27, 2011 - To Niagara Falls

We had only a little over 100 miles to travel today. We chose to drive the state roads as far as we could. Then, we took the NY turnpike (I90) to I290 and I190. We have found that the state roads are often much better than the interstates and turnpikes. We went through lots of small towns, and we saw two more of the finger lakes from the northern end. The countryside was beautiful with lots of farms and fields. While dairy cows and horses are in the majority, we also saw goats and sheep. The fields were mostly corn and hay, but we also saw...

Sep 25, 2010 - Chapter 12 Campout Branches of Niagara-Saturday

The wind blew all night but the temperature stayed up in the 70's so we had the windows open. The wind blew hard all night and blew my glasses on to the floor. When I got up to close the roof vent I of course stepped on them and bent them. This morning I was able to bend them back and they are working just fine. One of our club members in an optician and he said I did a good job. After a great breakfast we headed over to the zip-line to watch Alexus ride it. She had a great time and even inspired one of the 70+ members to take two rides,...

Sep 24, 2010 - Chapter 12 Campout Branches of Niagara

Well here we are at the Branches of Niagara. This is a new camp ground that has only been here for a year. It is a nice park but the spots are a little short where we are. We have 6 units here in all. We picked up Alexus from school at 1:30 today, Bonnie had to answer a few questions about the MH in the office. Then headed up here and we arrived here about 2:30. The rest had gotten here shortly before us. We got together for snacks and talk about 3. Then off to the Riverstone Grill for a fishfry. Its been really windy here today. We got a...

Sep 4, 2010 - NY Balloon Festival-Saturday

Bummer rain and wind again this morning. So all we have out in front of us is an empty field. It has rained off and on and it is in the low 0's but we have plenty to do and will sit it out and hope for better weather. It must be a good day for soaring as we just saw one get towed up. It turned out to be a decent day and while very windy not much else. Bonnie went into town and toured a bunch of yard sales and of course found some real treasures. Then we napped and read for most of the afternoon. Alexus and Elizabeth were supposed to be down...

Jun 24, 2010 - One night to go

Its our last night at home before the camping season kicks off. The MH is powered up and the freezer pops are in the freezer cooling down. The systems have been checked out and we are loading up for the weekend and several more weekend trips to follow. Its been a long time since we have been out and I am ready. Looking forward to seeing the HR Chapter 12 friends we have not seen since December. If we can connect I will update this over the weekend if not when we get home.

Jul 28, 2008 - Grand Island

Yippee!! Today I am going to see Niagara Falls. I am very excited so woke up early this morning. We should be ready to leav by 9am and get there about 11.30am. That should give us time to set up, go to cave of the wind and ten do a bit of shopping before going for dinner with Margie and Ray. We still had some firwood left from the load that our neighbours gave us so we have packed that ready for more fires!!! No Internet for the next few days so you will have to wait for photos and info about Niagara Falls. Not sure when we will have it...