The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! Well ... One of Them At Least!

Ever since I had the pleasure of first meeting one Miss Claire Rachel Pitt a bit over four years ago, we've been planning on her coming back over to the States for another visit.  We've talked about places to go, things to see, people to meet while tossing out one itinerary in favor of another several times over but with only two weeks before that long-awaited and much-talked-about visit actually becomes a reality, I think we have finally settled on a rather busy agenda which will pretty much fill up every moment of the six weeks that Claire will be a guest in the United States.  Six weeks packed full of activities and honestly, we could have probably easily planned out another six weeks chock full of things to do and still had more left over on our list!

So, what do we have on that oft-changed, rearranged, and busy agenda?  Read on and you'll see that I need to put vitamins on the top of the list of things I gotta pack!

October 17th - While on her side of the Atlantic Ocean Claire will arise at the crack of dawn, get herself to the airport, and travel back through time as she hurtles towards Boston at about 500 miles an hour, I'll be doing my usual work routine having hopefully gotten all of my packing done so that when quitting time comes I can run home, change clothes, toss my suitcase in the car, and head north to greet her on the other side of Customs with her requested "coffee and vodka".  Lots of coffee, a little vodka, and maybe one of those silly little signs with her name on it just to make her feel important.  Hmmm, wonder if I can find a limo driver's hat by then??

Once we've got Claire's cases tossed in the boot along with mine, I'll point the car north and set out for Bangor, Maine about 4 hours northeast of Boston.  Upon arrival we're going to check into a cheap motel that will hopefully at least be clean and comfortable, let Claire attempt to sleep off some of her jet-lag, and then head out bright and early the next morning for an early morning jaunt past the home of horror writer extraordinaire Stephen King who reportedly has some wicked cool gates that I just gotta get a photo of!  

October 18 -19th - After hopefully not being arrested as stalkers, we are then going to continue through Maine to the most northeastern town in the United States - Lubec, Maine. While there we will be staying for two nights at the lovely Peacock House, a historic bed and breakfast overlooking the Bay of Fundy!  While there we've got lots of exploring planned including a tour of the local lighthouse that has long been on my list of lighthouses to see!

October 20 -21st - Passports in hand we're going to continue heading east and cross over the Canadian border driving through New Brunswick to Hopewell Rocks - home of the world's highest tides.  During our time in Canada, we'll be guests of the Innisfree Bed and Breakfast who have promised to make sure we see all there is to see in the area - sending us out with our bellies full from a hearty breakfast first.

October 22nd - 23rd - Leaving the wilds of Canada behind, with hopefully the closest encounter with moose or bear being from a safe distance, we'll start homeward bound stopping first for a night in the area of Acadia National Park with the hopes of catching the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain before we make our way back to Connecticut.

October 24th - 25th - Claire will hang around the house chatting with the girls and keeping Tesla company while I go to work for a few days and rest up for the next phase of our wanderings.

October 26th - 28th - Back to Massachusetts and the North Shore where Claire will get her first glimpse of my beloved Salem - right smack at the peak of the Halloween madness that is the hallmark of Salem in October.  We'll be staying at Chez Lederhaus - home of my friends Walt and Juli whom I can't wait for Claire to meet and vice versa.  On the 27th of October Claire will be doing her best Simon Cowell impression as she takes on the role of judge at the uber-cool Hawthorne Hotel Halloween Ball.  As she gets to take a guest, that will be me along with my trusty Nikon and I'm sure it will be just as much fun - if not more so - than last year's Halloween Ball.  Hopefully there won't be any snow this year but you just never know!

October 29th - November 1st - Back in Norwich, Claire has talked me into a visit to Dark Manor which is supposed to be THE #1 haunted house in Connecticut. Fortunately it's located not too far from home so in case anyone needs to change clothing before heading out to the Harp and Dragon for a pint afterward, it will be easy enough to just pop by the house! I'm sure that on Halloween night, Amanda can find something spook-tacular for Claire to do - zombie makeovers may be included!

November 2nd - November 4th - We'll be trundling southwest to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and staying at the Ramada while meeting up with one of Claire's blogging buddies from Pittsburgh as well as Lisa and her Macs (both big and little!), whom I have already had the pleasure of meeting up once a few years back - of course, that was pre-Little Mac! I believe a coal mine tour and a tour of America's oldest operating brewery are on the current agenda while there, as well as meeting up with Mod Betty from Retro Roadmap who is going to point us in the direction of some of the true Americana that Claire craves!

November 5th -10th - Back in Connecticut for a breather while I'm once again off to work and Claire keeps the home fires burning as she prepares some Doodologist-type things which she'll be attempting to peddle at a craft fair in Rhode Island being held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge in Cranston from 10am to 3pm on November 10th.  We've rented a table at the annual event sponsored by the Rhode Island Chapter of the National MS Society and I'm sure as long as we have Claire do all the talking and mention that the crafts are from England, she'll sell out completely!

November 11th - Off for tea and luncheon at Mrs Bridges' Pantry in South Woodstock with Princess Patricia of Ansonia in the Valley and my friend Paula who is an amazing art teacher and occasional distracted sidekick joining us. Mrs. Bridges is an authentic British tea room but we won't know exactly how authentic until Claire gives it her authentic British seal of approval! I anticipate a jolly good time though I still think we should consider wearing proper hats!

November 12 -14th - A little more hanging around in Norwich while I work and Claire possibly meets up with another blogging chum of hers from nearby New London.

November 15th - 19th - Back up to Salem and the lovely Hawthorne Hotel for five awesome nights with lots of wandering planned so that I can show Claire exactly why I love the North Shore as much as I do.  Depending on if we can fit it into the schedule, we might even get down to Plimouth Plantation for a visit with the Pilgrims if our timing works out and we don't get distracted visiting too many retro-diners and sampling pie and coffee while Claire checks out one lunch counter after another and drops the occasional quarter in a jukebox. Diners, drive-ins, and dives are definitely on her list of "must-sees"!

November 20th - 25th - Off to the lovely Sunset Hill House located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for five nights of ...  free! As Claire says, "Who says social media doesn't get you lovely things?"  Again lots of things penciled in, but nothing concrete other than helping them to decorate for Christmas and being able to take advantage of all the wonderful hospitality of the innkeepers and their staff as we take on the role of "embedded Facebookers".  Make sure you like their page, Sunset Hill House on Facebook, as we'll be live-blogging on both their page and ours during the time that we are there.

November 25th - 26th - Before heading home to Connecticut we'll be spending one night in a place that has been on my bucket list for a very long time, the beautiful Omni Mount Washington Resort which is a member of Historic Hotels of America as it has a truly impressive history - one that Claire and I will be learning all about on our private tour of the resort on Monday morning.  As excited as I am about everything else - and trust me, I am! - I am really looking forward to our one night in Bretton Woods as it will be the perfect way to end our whirlwind touring of the northeast.

We'll be arriving back in Connecticut probably late in the day/evening on the 26th with just enough time for me to catch a few hours sleep before it's back to work for me and a couple days rest for Claire before I have to take her back up to Boston and Logan Airport on the 29th so that she can climb on a plane and jet back to jolly old England. Provided she manages to get back through Customs of course!

Like I said, Claire's going to be here just about six weeks and I've got no doubt that the time will fly but hopefully not so fast that we don't get a chance to enjoy all of the things that we've got planned.  And yes, we do have a lot but you should see the list of things we had to shelve for another time! Yikes!

Hopefully Claire won't wait another four years before she gets back here so we can start work on that next list but in the meantime, I also want to start working on my own list of things I want to see in England as it's my sincere hope to get over there before Claire gets back over here.  Provided she doesn't like it so much that she finds a job and moves over permanently!  If that happens, we'll be making even more lists!

Monday Musings by Moi!

Whoa ... who turned the heat off?  June 4th and it's a blistering 59 degrees outside!  Mother Nature is definitely back to her old tricks!  Last Monday we were all sweating in 88 degrees with high humidity and today I've got all the windows closed and am wearing my warm robe and slippers.  It gets any colder and I'll be lighting a fire in the fireplace!

Had a nice visit with my mom yesterday; Amanda and I went up and took her for a drive to get her out of the house for a little bit in between rain showers.  We'd had such a deluge of rain on Saturday I think a lot of us were looking to get out and enjoy some sun even if only briefly. Mom seems to be doing great and one would be hard-pressed to tell that she'd ever had a stroke a little less than a month ago.  Just to be safe and to give her more of a sense of security, she's using a cane which I think is a great idea - there are times when I've thought it might not be a bad idea to have one myself! - but beyond that she's doing really, really well.  Once again thank you all for the positive thoughts and prayers that I'm sure helped immensely in her recovery.

As my mom and I were talking about how quickly the rhododendrons had gone by this year it dawned on me that yesterday was the 36th anniversary of my graduation from high school - holy krap!  Where has the time gone? In just a few short days it will be another 36th anniversary - this time of the day that I left for Air Force Basic Training as I boarded a bus in Willimantic (from that very spot) for Springfield, Massachusetts and the Armed Services Center where I met up with my recruiter, did the final official swearing-in, and then got on a plane for the very first time in Hartford to make my way to Lackland Air Force Base and six weeks of hard work, discipline, and fun.  It was June 7th, a mere four days after graduation, and I was only 17 at the time - younger than both of my girls are now.

Speaking of my girls, Jamie has been up in Toronto visiting a friend and has asked if she can stay in Canada longer and go back to Winnipeg to stay with the same friend that she was visiting last year.  She's been talking about going back ever since she got home and she's already partway there so I think I'm going to go ahead and let her stay.  Technically she's almost 19 and could certainly make that decision on her own but if she wants me to buy her bus ticket to Manitoba then she needs my permission!  If she and Amanda got along better here at home then I would be more inclined to tell her she needs to come back to Connecticut but she made a lot of friends when she was in Winnipeg last year and is hopeful that she can somehow figure out a way to permanently move to Canada so I think I should give her the chance to find that out for sure.  I'll miss her but I won't miss the tension between she and Amanda.

I'm still trying to adjust to my new work schedule - as is Amanda who is totally confused on what day it is! - and I'm going to totally confuse both she and I later this week as I switched a Thursday evening shift for a Friday evening shift so I can go see "Man of LaMancha" at the University of Connecticut with my cousins and also picked up an overtime shift on Sunday evening.  No doubt we'll both be wondering what day it is by the end of the week or beginning of next week or whenever that is!

And on a final note, even though I should have been out cruising to Canada with Barb this week on the Carnival Glory (a cruise we had to cancel for various and assorted reasons that were much more important than piano bars and room service and things like that), we have booked another cruise for the first part of July.

The Prince of Whales out of Newburyport, Massachusetts may not have a piano bar but they've got wine and whale sightings are guaranteed!  Barb will be up visiting her SistersDear later on this month and we're going to get together for some fun on the not-quite-as-high seas along with a few other activities that I've yet to determine but give me time and I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Hmm, I wonder if we should wear our tiaras?!?

What's Carole Doing Now??

Find out at the third and last post of my adventurous day with Carole and Steve in the Niagara Falls area. Oh, and bring a nickel ... and some wooden matchsticks!

Where Is Carole Going?

Find out by clicking on the link and reading
From Niagara-on-the-Lake to Old Fort Erie With Lots of Places in Between, Part Two at The Distracted Wanderer.
That tunnel may just lead to a lighthouse or an old apothecary
or maybe even some of the best fudge in Ontario
- or at least that's what Donny Osmond says! 

A Timely Notice

With a slight play on words, it's about time that I posted some of my adventures in Canada with Carole at The Distracted Wanderer! 

Please join us for "From Niagara-on-the-Lake to Old Fort Erie With Lots of Places In Between, Part One" - there's a lot more to see in the Niagara area other than the Falls and this is just the beginning!

How Sweet It Is to Meet Another Blogging Friend in Real Life!

Having lost any time management skills that I might have once possessed, I am still working on writing posts about my July trip to Canada and Niagara Falls where I not only got to see one of the most amazing natural wonders in the world but also was privileged enough to meet another blogging friend.  One of the greatest things to ever come out of my having started a blog is all of the wonderful people that I have had the opportunity to meet both on-line and in real life and I was thrilled to have the chance to meet Carole as she is a woman after my own heart.  She loves history, she loves learning about history, and she loves to travel around as much as she can to find that history and share it with her readers along with all of the other wonderful things she writes about at Pea's Corner.  I always thought that it would be a lot of fun to get together with her and explore and I wasn't wrong in the least!

Carole lives in Sudbury, Ontario which is a good six hours away from Niagara Falls but she often visits the area with Steve, her special someone, and I am always amazed at how much they can pack into one day!  Sometimes I think the days are just longer up there in Canada as she manages to fit so much in and the day that she and I got together was no exception!  As a matter of fact, that's part of the reason it's taking me so long to get all of the posts written as we went to so many great places in one day that I darned near wore out the Nikon taking pictures!  Still, I will hopefully have those posts up soon at The Distracted Wanderer so I can share as much of the Niagara area with you as Carole and Steve shared with me.

In the meantime and until I can get those posts written, the picture above is of Carole and I posing in front of Lake Erie where we went later in the evening in order to take a "Ghost Walk" at Old Fort Erie. You can see the city of Buffalo, New York behind us in the picture and now that I've been there and seen both Buffalo and Lake Erie, I'm going to know what the weather forecasters are talking about when they refer to Buffalo's "lake effect" snow!

When Carole and Steve came by Kilpatrick Manor, the Bed and Breakfast where I was staying while at Niagara Falls, to pick me up on Friday morning, the first thing Carole gave me after a big hug was a "Welcome to Canada" gift which she had wrapped beautifully in Canada's red and white colors. She told me that it was maple syrup that was made by her brother and having read several posts about her visits to her brother's home and the maple syrup making process I knew that it was going to be good!


Before we climbed into the car to head out for our day of sightseeing I brought my gift up to my room and gave Carole a quick look around Kilpatrick Manor so that she could 'ooh' and 'aah' over the rooms just like I had done when I first checked in the day before. Being that I was the only guest at the house my first day there, I was able to show Carole the entire house and she just loved it - but of course! If you've not seen the post I did on Kilpatrick Manor, please feel free to click over here and check it out.

Being that we were out until well after midnight and I was totally worn out when I finally got back to my room, it wasn't until I got home to Connecticut that I finally had the chance to open my gift and to my surprise I found not a bottle of maple syrup as I expected but a short headless woman wearing a Canadian dress!

I had to laugh when I saw her it and then have her it pose prettily with some of the very tasty maple candies that had accompanied her it! 

Turns out, of course, that under that cute little dress was a jar of beautiful Canadian maple syrup just calling out for some pancakes for it be poured on.  Naturally I had to oblige! 

Let me just say that syrup was quite delicious and almost as sweet as the lady who had given it to me though not quite as Carole is definitely a true sweetheart!  I had such a good time with she and Steve seeing so many things like historic memorials and old forts and a screaming tunnel and a house where runaway slaves were hidden with so much in between that were it not for the many, many pictures that I took I'm sure I would have forgotten something from our travels!

Now to just get it all written up so I can share with you what Carole shared with me ...but this is as close to my syrup as you're going to get! Which is too bad because you have no idea what you're missing!

The Distracted Wanderer Climbs Clifton Hill

Continuing my travel posts from my July trip to Niagara Falls in Ontario, click over to read Clifton Hill - "The Most Fun By the Falls" at The Distracted Wanderer. The dinosaurs would appreciate it and so would I!

♪♪♪ ... And You Light Up My Life ... ♫♫

I'm shedding some light on how they brighten up the night at Niagara Falls at The Distracted Wanderer ... click on over and read the what/where/when/why/how of a really great show!

A Distracted Teaser

For those of you who read my travel posts over at The Distracted Wanderer there are two new posts up:

"Soaring the Gorge" on Niagara's Whirlpool Aero Car

 Of Souvenirs, Statues, and Stupidity ...

For those of you who don't read my posts at The Distracted Wanderer, here are some pictures of what you're missing:

Come on, click on the links - you know you'd love to go to Canada even if it's just virtually! Oh, and for those of you who do already read and leave a comment or two - thank you very much; I appreciate every single one of you and your support of my latest endeavour!

Trekking to Toronto

Last Tuesday evening Jamie and I began our trip up to Canada when I got out of work a little early so that we could put part of our journey behind us by nightfall.  If I was reading the maps correctly, the trip to Toronto was going to take somewhere around 9-1/2 to 10 hours so rather than get up in the wee hours of the morning I decided that we'd just hit the road Tuesday evening, drive as far as Albany which is a mere 150+ miles away, and spend the night at a cheap - but hopefully clean - hotel before starting out again in the morning.

The traffic was minimal and we made good time pulling into a Days Inn near the University of Albany just before it started to get dark.  I'd booked the hotel through HotWire and got it for a mere $40 so even though it was nothing to take pictures of or blog about, it was a decent enough place to spend the night. It certainly wasn't the type of place I've grown accustomed to lately but good enough!

Rising bright and early the next morning - some of us more bright and early than others! - we were ready to hit the road again around 8:30.  Our direction of travel took us on Route 90 West (aka the New York Thruway) before we took a turn north on Route 81 towards Watertown and Fort Drum, a relatively large Army base which is home to the Army's 10th Mountain Division.  Not too far past Fort Drum we came across the last exit in the United States and Jamie started to get excited as she's been wanting to go to Canada for awhile now.

My goal had been to reach the American/Canadian border by 1:00 p.m. at the latest and we did just that reaching the New York side of the Thousand Islands Bridge System right around 12:30.  We stopped for a little bit to fill up on gas (I had checked to see how expensive it was in Canada and decided that it would probably be a good idea to not buy gas there if I didn't have to as it was going for approximately $1.30 a liter) and take some pictures of the Welcome Center and the American span of the bridge.

Looking up at the spindly green suspension bridge that crosses the Saint Lawrence River, I was thinking that it was probably a darned good thing that my mother wasn't with us as she hates bridges and certainly would not have enjoyed this one at all!  

She wouldn't have liked how high it was nor would she have liked how narrow it was! 

The entire Thousand Islands Bridge System extends a distance of 8.5 miles running from Collins Landing near Alexandria Bay, New York to Ivy Lea near Gananoque, Ontario; in other words, it's pretty big! I wish I had been able to enjoy the view more but alas, I was busy keeping my eyes on the road while trying to adjust to measuring my speed in kilometers rather than miles per hour.  It's trickier than you might think! 

Shortly after leaving the bridge behind, we approached the Canadian Border Crossing where we were fortunate enough to get a very friendly young lady who smiled broadly when, in answer to her question about our purpose for visiting Canada, I replied "Hugh Jackman is in concert in Toronto!"  She said that was definitely worth the drive though she warned me that driving in Toronto could be tricky.  It was going to be even trickier based on the fact that my GPS went into a vast nothing-ness at the American border as if the rest of the world didn't exist outside of America. I had rather suspected that might have been the case so was well-prepared with Google maps and printed directions. I dubbed Jamie the official navigator and off we went - into Canada! 

I'm afraid my first impressions of the Great North were less than stellar as it started to rain shortly after we crossed the border and the entrance ramp to Canada Route 401 West (the only way to get to Toronto) was blocked off for some unknown reason. There was nothing for it but to take Route 401 East for close to 15 miles before we were able to turn around at the next exit and finally make our way west and in the proper direction. 

My navigator decided to take a nap about an hour into the ride but I woke her up as we got closer to Toronto as she was going to need to start reading off directions for me on how to get to our hotel for the night in downtown Toronto.  Traffic was also starting to get heavy though you can't quite tell from the picture above. 

As we drove into Toronto on the Don Valley Parkway, Jamie got a quick shot of the CN Tower in the distance and lots of power lines up close!  

We found our next stop for the night relatively easily and after parking the car in a very dark, very narrow, very low-ceilinged garage that cost $23 a night, we made our way up to the lobby and checked into our room. I had booked the hotel through Travelocity as one of their "Secret Deals" which meant I got it for a fairly decent price but again it was nothing to take pictures of or blog about. The Best Western Primrose Hotel in downtown Toronto is a'ight but that's about it.  I must say that the staff was friendly and they were good about changing our room once I told them the air-conditioning didn't work but I don't believe I'd stay there again should I ever find myself back in Toronto and in need of a hotel room. That said, it was pretty well situated in downtown and it was relatively easy to get to the places we needed to be and that had been my key consideration when booking it.

The first place we needed to be was the Princess of Wales Theater where Hugh Jackman aka Wolverine was putting on a one-man show so we hopped on a subway and then took a short walk down to the theater stopping along the way for a photo op!

As for Hugh Jackman, what can I say other than WOW! He put on an absolutely fantastic show - it was 90-minutes plus of non-stop singing and dancing and interacting with the audience. Jamie and I were sitting in what could probably be called the nosebleed section of the theater (the second to the last row in the upper balcony) but we still had a pretty good view of the stage.  No photography was allowed but my friend Jamie out in Washington state was nice enough to send me some photos to use that she got from another friend of hers. Jamie is a HUGE Hugh Jackman fan and I couldn't help but think during the concert how much she would have loved to have been there.

For those of you who only know Hugh Jackman from his role as "Wolverine" the man is so much more more than that and an amazing stage performer.  He began his love of musicals growing up in Australia and watching movies like "Sing, Sing, Sing", "Guys and Dolls", and "Singing in the Rain" with his very first role being in "The Music Man" when he was in high school.  He performed the opening scene from the show for us playing all eight parts of the traveling salesmen on the train and I must say it was quite impressive! Equally impressive was his rendition of "My Boy Bill" from the musical "Carousel". Honestly, "Carousel" has never been one of my favorite shows but if Hugh Jackman took it Broadway in a revival, I'm afraid I'd have to go see it - he's just that good!

I wasn't too sure how Jamie was going to like the show as even though she's also a big Hugh Jackman fan, I really didn't know whether or not she was going to like the music as Broadway standards aren't her usual fare and she didn't even really know that Hugh Jackman sang until I told her we were going to the show. As it turned out she loved absolutely every minute of the show and only wished that we had been able to sit closer - like in the front row! Of course, she knew how much those tickets cost and said she was just happy to be in the theater at all when you got right down to it.

Following the phenomenal performance we walked back down to the subway stopping long enough to take a picture of the illuminated CN Tower -

And a couple quick pictures of Saint Andrew's Church - 

We made it back to the hotel in time for Jamie to change clothes and make sure she had all of her stuff together before we took a taxi to the nearby Toronto Bus Terminal where she was boarding a Greyhound bus that would take her out to Winnipeg where she'd be meeting a friend of hers who had invited her out for the summer.  Her bus left at 1:00 which might seem like an odd time but it was the only schedule that didn't require her to transfer anywhere along the way.  This being her first long-distance bus trip, I wanted to try to make it as easy as possible for her - or as easy as a 1-day, 12-hour, 36-minute trip could be!

As we waited in line for her bus to board she struck up a conversation with another young lady who was also heading west and they ended up sitting together for most of the trip.  I waited until her bus pulled out taking her on the rest of her Canadian adventure before I walked back to the hotel to continue the rest of my Canadian adventure on my own.  In retrospect maybe walking alone through Toronto at 1:15 in the morning wasn't the best idea but I had no problems at all in getting back to the hotel.

Before calling it a rather late night, I snapped a picture from the hotel window and then climbed into bed and fell directly to sleep.  Ahead of me was going to be a 2-hour drive southwest to Niagara Falls but first I was going to have to navigate my way out of Toronto minus GPS and anyone to read the directions to me!  Obviously I was going to need to be well-rested!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I took this picture just before I left the parking lot at Niagara Falls State Park for my drive home and I have to say that it was fairly accurate - though it hadn't factored in a few stops along the way for gas, a Tim Horton's iced coffee, and a Roy Rogers roast beef sammich.  After all, that's a lot of miles to go on an empty stomach and even though my car gets good gas mileage, it's not quite good enough that I wouldn't have needed to make at least one stop!

It ended up being a very beautiful and pleasurable drive home as the weather was perfect, the traffic was light, and my iPod provided a good soundtrack to drive to. I pulled into my driveway at 9:40 p.m. with a grand total of 1,178 miles on the trip meter from start to finish - not bad!  All in all it was a great trip and as soon as I'm not working double shifts and have time to sort through the 1,370 pictures I took, I'll tell you all about it!

Greetings from Niagara Falls!

Sadly this is my last day in Canada and I'll be heading back over the bridge to the American side shortly. It's been a very busy couple of days filled with so much to see and do coupled with very sore feet from all of the walking but oh so worth it! Yesterday I met up with a blogging friend from Canada who could be my long-lost sister we're so alike when it comes to things like history and old cemeteries and such; Carole and Steve drove me ALL over the place and fit so much into one day that it was amazing - and I've got close to 400 pictures to prove it!

As soon as I can tear myself away from my beautiful B&B I'm going to drive over to the American side of the Falls to try to get a few pictures from that angle and then I'll start the 7-hour drive back to Connecticut and reality. In the meantime, please enjoy the picture of the Canadian falls that I took Thursday evening.  Oh ... and those things that look like black spots on the right side of the picture - those are actually birds of which there were a lot! Heck, if I were a bird, I think I'd pick Niagara Falls as my home, too!

Ah well, speaking of home, I'm outta here ... once I figure out where I stuck my passport!

Greetings from Toronto!

I've got a full day ahead of me but wanted to post at least one picture from yesterday's travels and what says Toronto better than the CN Tower? Off to Niagara Falls here shortly with fingers crossed that I've not forgotten about to navigate the old-fashioned way without benefit of a GPS device; I knew I should have brought along some post-it notes! 

Ah well, head southwest and look for the falling water ... 

Onward to Ontario

With many thanks to Frank who came in and took over for me early in dispatch yesterday, Jamie and I were able to hit the road a little bit sooner than I had originally planned for our journey north through Massachusetts and New York then onward to Canada.  The weather was great, the traffic was light, and all in all it was nice 155 miles of pavement towards our stop for the night near the University of Albany. I told Jamie to pull out the camera and take a few shots as we drove through the Berkshires but I've apparently yet to quite teach her the fine art of shooting from the passenger seat.  Still, there were a couple of decent shots.

That isn't one of 'em! 

Being that we were driving west, the sun was either doing pretty things like playing hide and seek behind the clouds or causing major road glare!

I thought I had done a good job of cleaning the windshield but apparently not! 

This was the "Welcome to New York" sign which was hidden behind a bunch of road construction vehicles.  I think Jamie did well to get any sort of shot at all considering the location and the fact that we were whipping by at 65 mph!

This morning we'll continue heading west a little bit before we take a turn towards the north and the Thousand Islands region of upper New York State en route to the Canadian border. I thought it would be nice to approach Toronto from the east around Lake Ontario rather than drive up past Niagara Falls as that area is on tap for tomorrow and the next day. So ... time to pack up and hit the road before the sun gets any higher in the sky. After all, Hugh Jackman awaits!