Day Four: Waterfalls, Flat Tires and Haunted Hotels

Okay, just FYI, we are home now, but I still want to share our vacation with you, so here is day four.


Can anyone guess how day four started? If you said: "You woke up late" you are right! Today was worse in that regard than any day so far. In fairness, we had been up pretty late the night before and we were still adjusting to being an hour off of St. Louis time. In any case, we hit the road sometime around 10:00 am.


As we left Toronto we snapped some pictures of the city... These are from a fast moving vehicle, so they do not do it justice.





This is one of the sites that every website suggested that we see - evidently it is the biggest, or oldest, or some "-est" retractable roof stadium in the world? We did not visit, but we saw it from the highway.

The colors of the trees were awesome... as is NOT evidenced in this picture... ha. I am not sure why they look so dull, but trust me, it was beautiful.

I should issue this warning to any so inspired by my pictures of Canada as to want to visit themselves: Google Maps are not nearly as reliable in Canada as they are in the United States. Really. Get an actual map. Everything started out okay, although we realized immediately that the directions were not going to be much help. We made it to the highway with very little problem, and then we set in for the longest stretch of the trip. After about 86 km (about 50 miles) we stopped for gas and I asked the clerk about how much longer we had before we reached Niagara Falls. She pulled out a mini file box filled with directions to various destinations, organized by landmark name, and gave me a copy. It turned out that we had gone the entire 86 km in the wrong direction.

We took a deep breath (and expelled some obscenities) and turned around. Very frustrated. We got about 15 miles when we started to feel strong vibrations. I figured it was the road, but then it got worse and we pulled over to check the car. We had a flat tire. It was a BRAND NEW TIRE! Here is Bryan changing the tire at km 60.4. We had to take all of the luggage out of the trunk to get the spare out.

It was time to reevaluate our plan. According to the schedule we were supposed to be done with Niagara Falls and heading to Salem by this point, and we had only scheduled a half a day in Salem as it was. New goal: Get to Salem by nightfall, spend the entirety of day five there, and go to Boston for only two days instead of three.

So, we hit the road again, at the 50 mph maximum allowed by the donut tire, destined for Niagara Falls.

The falls were beautiful. I cannot imagine that the pictures here will do it justice.

The area around the falls is very commercialized, but I didn't mind.

Outside of the few streets shown above, there is a walkway and a park that go along the side of the falls. We did not have a lot of time to spend in Niagara so we paused to take a few pictures and then found the ticket booth for the Maid of the Mist.

Using my awesome zoom I was able to snap this picture of the U.S. side of the falls.

The boat in this picture is the Maid of the Mist. It looks tiny but it really is pretty big.

Here we are in line waiting to board...

Then we got these great ponchos that were like trash bags with hoods. I think we rocked them out pretty nicely.

This is just a pretty picture. That is all there is to say about it.

I had to decide whether or not to take my camera aboard the Maid of the Mist - it seemed that about half of the people did and half did not. The people who appeared to have come off of a tour seemed dry, so I decided to go for it. I am still not sure it was a great idea, but I got some great shots.

At this point in the tour we were dry and all was safe.

Then we rode right into the spray of the falls. Seriously, the water was so strong you could not really open your eyes and I got soaked. I was trying desperately to keep the camera dry, putting it under the plastic of the poncho, but the water was running down my clothes and I was SOAKED. Luckily the camera survived.

Every time the ship turned a rainbow formed. I took great risk in taking this picture, and Bryan almost killed me for taking the camera out again in the middle of the torrential waters, but look how cool it was!

These birds were scary.

We were no longer dry at this point.

Also, there were Cuban cigar shops all over. Canada must not have any trade sanctions with Cuba.

And the concrete that held the trees lining the road had maple leaf imprints.

It was funny to see a sign to the U.S.A, like it is a highway exit.

Here is the aforementioned bridge, connecting America to its hat.

A word about border crossings: When we crossed into Canada (see Day two) Bryan was driving. We approached the window and the agent said to Bryan "citizenship?" - to which Bryan replied with nothing more than a blank stare. The guard repeated himself, "citizenship?" - and Bryan's blank stare continued. So the guard said "Did you still not hear me?" Fearing that he might think I was kidnapping Bryan and forcing him into Canada, I leaned over and said "We are United States citizens." He asked for our I.D.'s and then asked why we were entering Canada and where we were going, to which Bryan - no lie - raised his hands, palm-up, and shrugged, as if he had been transported to our Kia from the planet Melmac. Seriously, it was hilarious.

That being said, when we crossed back to the U.S., Bryan was driving again. This time it went smoother, though I jumped in with answers before much silence could elapse.

So, we entered New York in search of a place to buy a new tire. I was nervous about doing it in Canada because I would have no consumer protections there. Is that ridiculous? I can't decide. In any case, that is what we did.

It was a scenic drive on the highway, although by now I bet all of our pictures of water look about the same. (and there are more to come!)

We got off of the highway in Buffalo, home of the late Tim Russert (I kept thinking of him while we were there) and took our car to Mr. Tire. Oddly enough, I did not take any pictures of Mr. Tire. They checked out our old tire and said it could not be repaired (of course), so we bought a new tire and got back on the road, our wallet a little lighter.

We did pass the University of Buffalo.

After getting gas and re-icing the coolers, we started on the long trek to Salem. We had reservations at the Hawthorne Hotel, which Bryan thinks is haunted. I am sure that he will post his own entry or comments about that aspect of Salem. The hotel was very pretty, and very old. They have different room types and the prices of each type vary widely. We got the cheapest type (the next one up was over $200.00 more) which boasted views of the parking lot and other walls of the hotel, and a stall shower. It ended up being very nice. VERY SMALL, but very nice. We did not arrive until 11:30 pm anyway, so we just took a look around the hotel and went to bed.

At the elevator on each floor there was a hutch filled with books which you could borrow. It said in our room that we were welcome to take a book home with us to finish it, so long as we mailed it back. It was all on the honor system - I wonder how many people do it?

That was it for day four. A full day in Salem tomorrow.