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teddogThe details of the trip. 0_0 Links are photos.
Our family went with Terry, Janet, Lisa and Mike (who no longer wants to kill me). We decided to do a road trip in what could be considered a "car chase" style. One car leads, the second follows the lead car, the third follows the second, etc. This way of doing a trip is a seemingly good idea if you don't know the route (like Mom) but is completely insane to pull off in practice. You need to set up frequent regrouping points.
We were only traveling in a three car line, but that was bad enough.
Well, the first part was fine. We've travelled enough to the border to know the way to Fort Erie, so we didn't have to follow too closely.
The scenic fruitland/wine country of Ontario. (the tan station wagon is Janet and Terry's car)
You gotta love the Niagara area. Outsiders make a huge fuss about "Wine Country! OMG!" but it's our backyard. It's like... nothing really special. At least I know where the local fruit comes from. I used to do volunteer work in charity fruit farms when I was a kid.
Okay, so we plowed through to Fort Erie and the Peace Bridge. In Southern Ontario, the border between the United States and Canada is in the middle of the Great Lakes. You have to cross a bridge or go through a tunnel to cross the border. The Peace Bridge connections Buffalo and Fort Erie.
The mid point of the Peace Bridge is marked by three flags. The middle flag marks “neutral” territory.
US customs at Buffalo.
Welcome to beautiful Buffalo, New York! Yeah.
Then the fun part came – chasing Terry's car down the New York State Thruway while he weaved in and out of traffic! Ah! At least it was daytime.
An hour or so later, we reached Palmyra. Terry took us over to the Chill & Grill. This is the place of legendary large ice cream cones. I got this blueberry and graham crackers ice cream, kiddie sized, and...
THIS IS A KIDDIE CONE. (Katers is in the background)
Mike's small (bigger than a kiddie) chocolate chip cookie dough cone was starting to flip over, so Lisa got him a cup for it. :D
Janet got the official Chill N Grill t-shirt. (Lisa is in the background)
The restaurant has a map for customers to put little star stickers to mark where they're from. Victoria and Thunder Bay didn't have stars, so Mike and I got to put them up. I'm only up in Thunder Bay for college, but hey! I'm up there half the year. :P
After ice cream, we drove down to Canandaigua to go swimming. Only the skies opened up and it poured!
RAIN!
We went to the beach, though, and here's the proof:
Country, family, beliefs.... and swimming?
We stopped at Walmart and Wegmans. Walmart is “meh” because there wasn't any material items I wanted. Mike, Lisa and I got a laugh out of the gun section, though!
Wegmans... that was another story. Mike and I agreed that it was like all the products you saw on TV as a kid but could never find were suddenly there in front of you! Mike went nuts, freaking out at the sizes of the baked beans (he had to get Bush's). And the cereal aisle! He died!
Money limits meant that I missed out on Grasshopper cookies, Cookie Crisp, Dannon Sprinklins, ice cream for dogs and road flares (they were on sale!). But I did get:
Fruity Pebbles
Various types of Chips Ahoy I've never seen before
Variety pack of Kudos Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop Tarts (Sugar to end all sugars)
Bag of Salt Potatoes
Salt potatoes, for the uninformed, are a food that you can only find in the area surrounding Syracuse, NY. Basically, they're small potatoes boiled in water that laced with salt. You put so much salt in the water that the salt doesn't dissolve any more. The potatoes are served with butter and are soooo good. When you buy a bag of salt potatoes, it comes with the potatoes and a huge package of salt. It's a “build it yourself” thing.
BTW, Americans pay too much for Pocky and really eat too much processed food. I was in awe of it.
We went to hill for the pageant. Protesters where back AGAIN, but this time they were in sectioned off areas. The rumour I heard is that the protests got violent last year: the protesters took over a large section of the road and were attacking people walking by. Local protesters were complaining that the shipped in protesters were ruining the protest for everyone. WTF?
Please. I'm a peaceful little person, but stand between me, a happy place and my $2 salt potatoes and I will kick your butt!
Pop Tarts of DOOM!
We had Pop Tarts at the hill. They weren't as good as I hoped. The sugar is there, but the filling blends in too much with the pastry. I got my salt potatoes from the food services and got to talk to a nice person in line.
Salt potatoes! ZOMG!
No more salt potatoes! ZOMG!
The pageant was fine, but the protesters were much more aggressive when we left. I like northwestern New York state, but the protesters make me happy to get back up to Canada. They can call me various words that my mother would slap me on the upside of the head, push me and block my way, but the police will stop me if I fight back. If this is the new, modern face of Christianity, I'm glad you don't consider me Christian. Yay for “tolerance” in American society. Kiss my hell-bound maple leaf behind.
Janet: You'd think that these people had better things to do.
Me: I guess there's no good reruns on. (for Katie) Only CSI: New York repeats on Saturdays and not even the protesters will watch that!
The trip home was rough. YOU try to follow a car in the darkness. We got home at 2am, so... whoo.
....
I swear I'm going to egg the protesters' cars next year.
Our family went with Terry, Janet, Lisa and Mike (who no longer wants to kill me). We decided to do a road trip in what could be considered a "car chase" style. One car leads, the second follows the lead car, the third follows the second, etc. This way of doing a trip is a seemingly good idea if you don't know the route (like Mom) but is completely insane to pull off in practice. You need to set up frequent regrouping points.
We were only traveling in a three car line, but that was bad enough.
Well, the first part was fine. We've travelled enough to the border to know the way to Fort Erie, so we didn't have to follow too closely.
The scenic fruitland/wine country of Ontario. (the tan station wagon is Janet and Terry's car)
You gotta love the Niagara area. Outsiders make a huge fuss about "Wine Country! OMG!" but it's our backyard. It's like... nothing really special. At least I know where the local fruit comes from. I used to do volunteer work in charity fruit farms when I was a kid.
Okay, so we plowed through to Fort Erie and the Peace Bridge. In Southern Ontario, the border between the United States and Canada is in the middle of the Great Lakes. You have to cross a bridge or go through a tunnel to cross the border. The Peace Bridge connections Buffalo and Fort Erie.
The mid point of the Peace Bridge is marked by three flags. The middle flag marks “neutral” territory.
US customs at Buffalo.
Welcome to beautiful Buffalo, New York! Yeah.
Then the fun part came – chasing Terry's car down the New York State Thruway while he weaved in and out of traffic! Ah! At least it was daytime.
An hour or so later, we reached Palmyra. Terry took us over to the Chill & Grill. This is the place of legendary large ice cream cones. I got this blueberry and graham crackers ice cream, kiddie sized, and...
THIS IS A KIDDIE CONE. (Katers is in the background)
Mike's small (bigger than a kiddie) chocolate chip cookie dough cone was starting to flip over, so Lisa got him a cup for it. :D
Janet got the official Chill N Grill t-shirt. (Lisa is in the background)
The restaurant has a map for customers to put little star stickers to mark where they're from. Victoria and Thunder Bay didn't have stars, so Mike and I got to put them up. I'm only up in Thunder Bay for college, but hey! I'm up there half the year. :P
After ice cream, we drove down to Canandaigua to go swimming. Only the skies opened up and it poured!
RAIN!
We went to the beach, though, and here's the proof:
Country, family, beliefs.... and swimming?
We stopped at Walmart and Wegmans. Walmart is “meh” because there wasn't any material items I wanted. Mike, Lisa and I got a laugh out of the gun section, though!
Wegmans... that was another story. Mike and I agreed that it was like all the products you saw on TV as a kid but could never find were suddenly there in front of you! Mike went nuts, freaking out at the sizes of the baked beans (he had to get Bush's). And the cereal aisle! He died!
Money limits meant that I missed out on Grasshopper cookies, Cookie Crisp, Dannon Sprinklins, ice cream for dogs and road flares (they were on sale!). But I did get:
Fruity Pebbles
Various types of Chips Ahoy I've never seen before
Variety pack of Kudos Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop Tarts (Sugar to end all sugars)
Bag of Salt Potatoes
Salt potatoes, for the uninformed, are a food that you can only find in the area surrounding Syracuse, NY. Basically, they're small potatoes boiled in water that laced with salt. You put so much salt in the water that the salt doesn't dissolve any more. The potatoes are served with butter and are soooo good. When you buy a bag of salt potatoes, it comes with the potatoes and a huge package of salt. It's a “build it yourself” thing.
BTW, Americans pay too much for Pocky and really eat too much processed food. I was in awe of it.
We went to hill for the pageant. Protesters where back AGAIN, but this time they were in sectioned off areas. The rumour I heard is that the protests got violent last year: the protesters took over a large section of the road and were attacking people walking by. Local protesters were complaining that the shipped in protesters were ruining the protest for everyone. WTF?
Please. I'm a peaceful little person, but stand between me, a happy place and my $2 salt potatoes and I will kick your butt!
Pop Tarts of DOOM!
We had Pop Tarts at the hill. They weren't as good as I hoped. The sugar is there, but the filling blends in too much with the pastry. I got my salt potatoes from the food services and got to talk to a nice person in line.
Salt potatoes! ZOMG!
No more salt potatoes! ZOMG!
The pageant was fine, but the protesters were much more aggressive when we left. I like northwestern New York state, but the protesters make me happy to get back up to Canada. They can call me various words that my mother would slap me on the upside of the head, push me and block my way, but the police will stop me if I fight back. If this is the new, modern face of Christianity, I'm glad you don't consider me Christian. Yay for “tolerance” in American society. Kiss my hell-bound maple leaf behind.
Janet: You'd think that these people had better things to do.
Me: I guess there's no good reruns on. (for Katie) Only CSI: New York repeats on Saturdays and not even the protesters will watch that!
The trip home was rough. YOU try to follow a car in the darkness. We got home at 2am, so... whoo.
....
I swear I'm going to egg the protesters' cars next year.
