Niagara Falls - Day 1

Niagara Falls.  This one is Natalie’s trip. 

There are several reasons for this.  To start with, Natalie and I have always wanted to go to Niagara Falls.  It is at the top of our “Wouldn’t it be great to see…..” list.  The second compelling reason is that Natalie could have attained her driver’s license in July, but because we had two teen drivers, the older took precedence.  Her brother, Harrison, was leaving for college in August and would have limited driving opportunities, so we let him drive most of the time.  When Harrison was working on getting his driver’s license, we went on a 6 week trip around the western U.S.  He got 50 hours of driving in the first week!  So this trip to Niagara Falls, if Natalie can drive most of the way, will bring her almost to the required hours of driving.  The biggest reason we are leaving though is to take the sting out of dropping our son off at Indiana University for his freshman year of college.  In our family, we take “family” seriously.  Ha ha.  It is really going to be tough on us to leave part of our family 3 hours away. It also signifies a changing of the times.  Yes, we will see him again, but it will be a new era in our family.  The dynamics will have changed.  Harrison and Natalie have always grown up almost like they are twins so it is going to be tough on Natalie to lose Harrison to Indiana University.

Side story about being like twins:  Mike is recently working with a guy he worked with when the kids were little.  He mentioned that we took Harrison to IU last weekend.  Darren asked what Natalie was doing.  Mike said that she was still in high school.  Darren said that he thought they were twins!  Case in point. 

I am excited to see the falls because it is a classic scenic getaway that people have been drawn to since the days of the American Indian’s reign.  I love history.  I especially love Indiana history.  The Francis Slocum story is an intriguing tale.  Because people didn’t know they were making history at the time they lived and due to it happening in the native culture, there wasn’t much written down about Francis’s story. The story of Francis being kidnapped from her Quaker family in Pennsylvania by the natives and eventually ending up in Indiana was only mentioned in Indiana History books.  It was enough of a teaser to make a fourth grade student want to know more of the details.   Several years ago, I read James Alexander Thom’s carefully researched  Red Heart. Oh,my!  What a great story!  When I read about the day Francis’s mother watched the Indian warriors slaughter a few family members and steal Francis and her cousin (I think it was her cousin) in retaliation to a massacre of Native Indians.  (The American Indians believed in an eye for an eye.) my four year old daughter, who was Francis’s age was napping in the other room.  Tears were pouring down my cheeks after the first chapter! They took Francis because she had red hair, which was a novelty to them.  As the white man pushed the natives west, Francis lived with the Indians in Pennsylvania, then with the Seneca Indians at Niagara Falls, then with the Miami Indians in Central Indiana.  When I read the part of the book where she arrived at Niagara Falls, I was intrigued that she could feel the pounding of the falls under her feet as they approached that area.  I am curious if we will feel that too.  Will roads and buildings have muted that thunder under the feet of observers nowadays?

Our original plan was to take Harrison to school on Sunday then spend a few days tying up ends at home, then leave on Thursday and return on Sunday.  Natalie attends an online school, which is very, very demanding, so while it is permissible to miss a few days of school without answering to anyone, you can’t fall behind, which is a daunting caveat.  She is going to have two dual credit classes to manage this year too, adding to the challenge.  Getting the chance to travel to Niagara Falls, inspired her to start school a week early so she could get a jump start. 

Michael was able to rearrange his schedule to make the trip work too.  Although, I secretly suppose that his company will flounder and fall apart while he is not overseeing it, costing us money, time, and a good reputation, I am grateful that he always puts his family first and just resolves to “clean up the mess” when we get back. 

Mike later suggested that we leave on Wednesday morning and stay overnight in Cleveland, OH so that we arrive in Buffalo earlier in the day so as to use that day for sightseeing as well.  Since he suggested it, I was more than happy to comply to more vacation!

…..Until I couldn’t get everything done that I felt needed to be done before we left!  I don’t like leaving the house a mess when we go on vacation.  I did manage to get the downstairs cleaned and organized, since sending The Son to college pretty much left the house in tornado mode.  However, I didn’t win the war on the upstairs, garage, or outdoor areas.  There were just too many meetings and appointments scheduled into that small window of time. 

So my plan was that Harrison would be left at college having a great time making new friends and using all those amenities that they lure Freshmen with.    He would be having a great time, and we would be missing him.  So we would leave on an adventure of our own.  Everyone would be happy.  First problem:  The Bursar accidentally refunded everyone’s scholarship money to their banks before their account was charged for housing.  You we had to deal with the bank about that problem.  Then the second night Harrison called home to say that his phone screen was cracked (never heard how that happened)  and while playing basketball, the phone got wet with sweat in the crack and wouldn’t work.  There could possibly be more to the story that we aren’t getting.  You know-college boy-no details-situation.  Whatever. So to make a long story short, our inexperienced son was dealing with Verizon while we were trying to guide our teenage daughter through city traffic, so consequently Verizon charged 1,400.00 to both Mike’s Verizon account and Harrison’s debit card, and Harrison ended up with lots of stuff he didn’t know he bought.  It is an old story that many, many people have experienced! Bummer.  We aren’t done dealing with Verizon yet. 
So Mike and I were up until 1 AM finishing up packing and doing the very last pieces of laundry.  Snore….

We got up at 7:30 AM. We both had pounding migraine headaches.  I took a few Excederin to take the edge off.  Mike did the same.  Then he left………………………….What the heck?????  I thought we had agreed to get an early start.  Well, he explained, I have a few things to do for work.  Ugh!  So he came home with dirty clothes.  I have no idea why we stayed up doing every piece of laundry so I could revel in my OCD happiness.  I also decided to change out the little bag I was trying to cram everything in so I could look more stylish.  I went ahead and dragged the “refrigerator” suitcase down from the attic.  A five day vacation is heavy duty stuff as opposed to the original 4 day weekend get away!

Natalie and I had cleaned up the kitchen last night and I called the kitchen “closed.”  Would you believe that Michael had the audacity to leave a spoon he dipped some chocolate sauce up with in the sink???  Natalie and I had decided that we would just have air for breakfast so that we didn’t have to do any more dishes or mess up the kitchen.  Sigh.  Another dirty spoon?  So in the morning while Mike was gone, we didn’t really have air for breakfast!  We made some dishes.  There wasn’t much to choose as I had cleaned out the refrigerator last night.  So Natalie made some kind of tortilla breakfast thing that she microwaved on a plate.  I asked Natalie what the black stuff was on her tortilla because it looked like black beans.  I couldn’t imagine she would open a can of black beans when we were trying to keep the dishes and leftovers to a minimum!  She mumbled something like, “I don’t know.”  Mike was like, “You just made it and you don’t know what you put on it??  What is that black stuff?  Olives?”  She finally admitted it was a bunch of chocolate chips.  LOL.  That sounds healthy!   I asked Mike if he would clean up the dishes while Natalie and I finished getting ready.   As he was doing the dishes, he discovered a hairline crack in the plate.  Before he threw it away, he broke it in two pieces and walked back to Natalie and told her that she used sooooo many chocolate chips that the weight of them broke the plate!  She said the crack was made by a baked potato!  What?  She knew the plate was broken and put it back in the stack?  Teenagers!  Mike finished the kitchen and declared it “Closed.”  Copycat.

While Mike was loading the car, I put a clean spoon by the sink as if it were dirty. So when he came in, he had a fit that SOMEONE left a dirty spoon in his “Closed Kitchen!”  LOL.  I put it in the drawer and we took off with Natalie driving. 

 Mike commented that we were going to be taking a 80/90, which is a toll road.  I remembered as we were already a few miles from town that I forgot to get cash from the bank.  Whoops!  When we got to Monticello, we pulled into the bank and robbed it- I mean got 100 ones- and headed on East!

Two GPS es and  a Dirty Windshield!

When we got closer to Fort Wayne, Mike started seeing charges rack up on the phone bill. He was unable to call Harrison, access his account or talk to a representative.  The charges were rife with things Harrison didn't need like insurance and a car charger.  Harrison doesn't even have a car at college.  Mike spent several miles on the verge of beating his phone on the dash or throwing it out the window as he continued to see worthless charges piling up on his account with no way to stop it.  Natalie drove on like a champ despite the temper that was going on in the passenger seat. 

My stomach hurt, my headache was back, I was hungry, I was anxious for Harrison at IU….

Natalie and Harrison as new drivers have been famous for changing lanes without checking first to make sure it is clear.  As we were driving around Fort Wayne, a lady decided to be in our lane without checking her mirrors first.  Mike grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the car over into the far left lane.  Thank the Lord that there wasn’t a car there!  Next, Mike called State Farm just to make double sure we were covered with a permitted driver.  Whew! 

Natalie honked the horn as we crossed the state line into Ohio.

We stopped somewhere for gas and there was a Verizon store across the road.  Mike took a half an hour to try to right things there.  He didn’t, but he did make it so he could view his account again. He would have to deal with Verizon later.

Natalie managed the turns and lane changes through the traffic with Mike guiding her and me clenching my teeth and hyperventilating in the back seat.  Vacation is just so relaxing!  Natalie took a ticket at the Toll booth, and we all wagered a guess at how much the toll would be when we got off.  Mike said six dollars.  I said that I thought it would be 10.50.  Natalie guessed 50.00.  I really hoped Natalie was off the mark.  LOL.  However 1400.00 for a cell phone????  You just never know!  Natalie drove a total of 5.5 hours.  Mike lured her off the road with the promise of a sandwich.  Mike took over and drove like our Escape was a racecar.  More clenched teeth and hyperventilating from the backseat because Mike was also on the phone with Harrison and trying to work through the Verizon issues. 

We finally made it to the Drury Plaza Hotel.

The valet took our car, and I practically floated into the beautiful former Board of Ohio Education Building.  It was better than coming home!  (Because my upstairs is still a mess!)  We munched on some popcorn and ate at the 5:30 Kickback.  The room is top rate and comfortable.  I have never had a Drury that I didn’t like. 

We discussed some possibilities of things we wanted to see at Niagara Falls.  I came without a plan.  Natalie said this was the weirdest trip she has ever been on.  There is no plan, she is driving, and Harrison is missing.  She is enjoying having the queen sized bed all to herself for the first time on vacation ever!

We went down to the 5:30 Kickback Dinner where Mike told the barista he was from Chicago, Indiana when asked where he was from. She called him Chi for the rest of the night.  I asked him why he did such things. He said, "Well, people remember me!"

Mike took a shower and went to bed to watch HGTV.  Natalie and I went down to swim.  The wet suits might be a problem at the bed and breakfast, but we decided to live dangerously!