Niagara Falls. A Wonder of the World

Alex and I made it to Niagara Falls!!!!!! It's one of the wonders of the world! And I saw it:) Our drive through upstate New York was very beautiful, too. From Albany to Niagara falls the quickest way to get there is taking a 300 mile toll road. Completely ridiculous! One thing I hate about the East Coast is all the freaking toll roads. The longer you drive on the toll road the more you have to pay. We opted out on taking the toll road and took a nice quiet country road. Well, it was quite most of the time. We had to stop for about an hour to avoid a really bad thunder/tornado storm. Anyways, the toll roads aren't even nicely paved or kept up to date. There are all kinds of cracks and potholes in the pavement. So, not only do you have to drive on a crappy road, but you also have to pay to drive on the crappy road. I'm sorry, but no thank you! So, back to the country road...It was so scenic and picturesque. Beautiful hills of fresh green grass, big old red barns with farm animals, old country towns with dozens of antique shops. I truly enjoyed every moment of the drive. Well, maybe not every moment.

Upstate New York

Farm land

Old house in an old town

Old red barn

The Country side

When we were about 80miles from Niagara Falls the weather started to get really bad. Lots of lightning and thunder. The clouds were dark and gloomy. We checked the latest weather report and saw that a tornado warning was in effect and moving straight towards us at 50miles an hour with winds of 70mph. We just so happened to be passing by the sizable town of Auburn, NY. We looked up the closest coffee shop, which was a small coffee/bookstore, and stayed indoors for about an hour and a half until the storm passed.

Driving in Gloomy weather

Rain rain Go Away, Come again another day

Once the storm passed we got back into our van and continued on the road to our destination, Niagara Falls.

I think it's so funny that the bad weather can come and go so quickly. I don't think California weather is like that at all. Once the storm passed and the clouds moved, there was sunny blue sky again. 

The next day we went to Niagara Falls. There were still tornado warnings for that day, but when we woke up in the morning it was sunny, hot and only a few clouds in the sky. We had to take advantage of every minute of sunshine. At Niagara Falls there are two different waterfalls, the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is the one that people go over in a barrel. We really couldn't get a good view of the entire Horseshoe Falls from where we were at. The Canadian side has the better view. The American Falls is smaller, but still pretty magnificent. We still weren't able to get a full view, but pretty close to a full view. The main viewing area for the American Falls was closed due to the large accumulation of ice still present. I was pretty bummed out that we couldn't get closer to the falls, but I'm still glad I got to see them.

The River leading to Niagara Falls. Looks pretty strong

Looking over the Falls

The side of American Falls

That's a huge chunk of ice!

American Falls Viewing area closed due to ice

Horseshoe Falls area closed as well

The best view we could get of Horseshoe Falls

In my last blog I referenced the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" as contributing to my desire to see Niagara Falls. Well, the scene in the movie that inspired me so much to see Niagara was when George Bailey was walking down the street with that girl with the blond hair(I forget her name) and he takes her in his arms and says something like "Let's get married and honeymoon in Niagara Falls and climb the top of the falls in our bare feet!" She of course thought he was crazy and if you've seen the movie he doesn't end up marrying her. Anyways, I thought George's idea of climbing the top of Niagara Falls in bare feet sounded so exciting. For a long time I wanted to climb Niagara Falls in my bare feet. When I got a little older I realized that is very impractical and dangerous, but I still very much desired to see the actual falls. Now I have seen the falls and I would recommend everyone seeing them at least once in their lifetime. It was a real amazing and exciting experience. 

Top of Horseshoe Falls. The one people go over in a barrel

American Falls

More Ice

American Falls

American Falls

The actual town of Niagara Falls is pretty run down. The economic crisis really hit the town hard. The next town over is Buffalo and that isn't that great of a place either. It's now part of the "Rust Belt" in the U.S. There are lots of abandoned rusting factories due to moving factory production over to China and other third world countries. It was really sad to see towns in our country that once thrived on wealth and are now struggling just to stay alive.

Alex and I were planning on leaving to Pittsburgh the next day, but once again the weather got yucky. The next day there was a high wind advisory. Winds were anywhere from 30mph to 60mph all day long! When winds are 10 to 20 mph our van gets pushed around pretty bad when driving. So, it was way too dangerous to drive with sustained winds of 40 or 50 mph. Winds like that would definitely push us off the road and likely cause a major accident.

The wind was going about 40mph when this pic was taken. Alex said it felt like his beard was going to fly off his face:D

I am seriously absolutely sick, tired, annoyed, and disgusted with all this horrible weather. It puts a huge damper on our travels and makes me miss California that much more.

Well, yesterday we made it to Pittsburgh and we have one day of sunshine today:) I have to enjoy it while it lasts. Pittsburgh seems like a pretty nice city. There are lots and lots of trees and hills. It's really beautiful. We are flying into Sacramento on May 4th and will be there for a week because my little sister is getting married! So, we will be in Pittsburgh until then. I may or may not do another blog before we leave on our mini-vacation to Sacramento. I guess it depends if I feel like Pittsburgh is worth writing about. We shall see.

Boston

Alex and I had a shorter trip in Boston than we thought we would. Alex started coming down with a cold and on the day we arrived in Boston his cold was the worst. It was really raining and cold outside. We didn't really do much. We stayed inside Starbucks for most of the day to stay out of the rain. By the time it was dark and ready to call it a night, Alex was feeling really under the weather, so we decided to stay in a hotel for the night. While driving to the hotel I saw a house decorated in Easter lights and I felt like it should have been Christmas lights due to the really cold weather. Now that we are so far up north, I think all the Springtime weather went away. Well, I guess this is what Springtime is like for New England....cold and rainy.

The next day was Easter Sunday. We went to a church nearby the hotel we stayed at. Honestly, I can't tell you if it was a good service or not because I was practically sleeping the entire time. The hotel night was not very restful. I was tossing and turning all night. I just couldn't sleep, but the sound of the pastor's voice sure did put me to sleep.

Easter Sunday was actually really nice when it came to the weather. It was sunny with some scattered clouds, and I think it got all the way up to 72 degrees. We had to take advantage of this nice weather and venture outdoors. We went to the North End of Boston, which is the oldest part of Boston and walked around for a bit. The city is very old and still has much of it's old town charm. The streets are a nightmare to drive in. I thought Annapolis was bad, but this was wayyyyy worse. It's a true Labyrinth. I got a headache being the navigator for Alex as he drove the van around town. I never want to that again. And don't even get me started on parking...that was a whole other can of worms.

This was a guy in the Boston Market Place doing a stunt.

North End Boston

We enjoyed a lobster roll and a cup of New England Clam Chowder at a small cafe. I guess the lobster in Boston is supposed to be really good. The lobster roll we got was really good, but I had never had one before, so I don't know if I actually had the best. I guess it doesn't matter because it was really good. The clam chowder definitely wasn't the best, but it was still good.

Since it was Sunday, all the museums and historical sites were closed. So, we settled on just passing by them. We walked by Paul Revere's house and the site of the Boston Tea Party. Then guess what happened?? It started to rain again. I thought it was supposed to be a nice day?? Nope. It rained which ruined our day once again.

Paul Revere's house

Boston

Alex and I are sooooo fed up with all this rain. It is really annoying. We are also really homesick. We miss everyone so much back in Sacramento. We were going to stay in Boston longer and then go on to Maine, but we decided to finally start heading west. We are on our way home with some stops in between. I don't know exactly when we will be home for good, but it is going to be sooner than planned. I'm really excited about that:D

Alex is just now getting over his cold and now I've caught it. Today has been really bad. I'm so stuffed up, my nose is runny, my head hurts, body aches and I'm doing a blog. I'm only doing one because I said I would once we left Boston.

I think I would like to go back to Boston again, but not with a car. I don't think I truly got to experience Boston at it's best. If I were to go back. I would stay at the Hilton right by The North End of Boston and take public transit around the city. That would make things a little easier.

We are now in Albany, NY. We took a really scenic route through Massachusetts. We drove by the forest, green pastures, lakes and rivers, small towns and farms. It was nice to see some cute small towns for a change. Tomorrow we are going to drive to Niagara Falls. I've always wanted to go there since I was really young, ever since I saw the Movie "It's a Wonderful Life."  I'm hoping I get over this cold fast and feel better to see the Falls.

Driving from Boston to Albany

This view looked way better in person. It was the view of a small town.

A river

Philly and NYC

Alex and I have had a really great week. We ate a ton of good food, walked all over the place, spent time with family, and enjoyed more history. Since my last blog we went from Baltimore, Maryland to Springfield, Massachusetts. In between those places we had a ton fun and memories that will last a lifetime. I'm only going to touch on the major highlights of our travels since my last blog. We didn't really get to experience Baltimore due to horrible rain. We almost didn't get to experience Philadelphia, but the weather cleared up for a day. Most of our travels and sight-seeing is outdoors, so when the weather is bad that means we don't do much.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia was neat. It's a really big city and can be a little intimidating at first. We found a place to park in the downtown area and did a lot of walking around. First on our list was to see the famous Liberty Bell. It's the bell with the crack in it. I guess the first time it was rung it cracked. I'm really not even sure why it is so famous. The line was ridiculously long to see the Bell in person. There were probably about 200 people waiting outside the building to see the Liberty Bell, and that doesn't include how many people were waiting inside the building. There were more historical sites on our list to see, so we skipped out on the Liberty Bell, but we did take a picture of it through the window. That was good enough for me.

The Line to see Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell

We walked a little more and found the church that Benjamen Franklin attended. I even got to sit in the assigned pew that Ben Franklin sat in. The church is really old. It's called Christ Church and it is a part of the Church of England. One thing that I think is really weird is that the church had grave stones inside the church in the aisle. So, when you walk down the aisle you are walking over someone's grave. It's just weird for me to think, "I'm walking over someones dead body right now." When I was in London, the Westminster Abbey had graves like that, too. It must of been tradition to bury the dead inside the church. The cemetery that Ben Franklin is buried in is just a few block down from Christ Church. So, after going to the church we headed down to see Ben Franklin's grave. I've never seen people throw coins on a grave before, but there were people doing it on Franklin's grave. I haven't researched the reason behind it. The day we saw his grave was actually the day he died, April 17th. So, that was kind of cool.

Ben Franklin's Church

The Pew Ben Franklin sat in

Ben Franklin's Grave

We couldn't leave Philadelphia without having a Philly Cheesesteak. We went to this place right outside of Downtown Philly that supposedly has the best Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. I forget the name of it, but it was really good. I don't really have anything to compare it to because I don't think I've ever had a Philly Cheesesteak before this one. It's usually not my first choice of a sandwich on a menu.

Downtown Philly

Downtown Philly

On Monday the 18th, we drove up to New York City. I loved NYC!!! I could probably go on for days about how wonderful it was, but I won't. My cousin, Noah and his Fiancee Chiala live in New York City, so we got to spend some time with them. They also have a house in Massachusetts, which we stayed at, too. Noah showed us around the East village area in Manhattan the first day we were there. East Village is a cute part of the City. It has every variety of food you can think of, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Middle Eastern, Jewish, etc. The list just goes on and on. We enjoyed a bagel at a Jewish deli, Ukrainian coffee and a New York slice of pizza. We actually had quite a bit of New York Pizza:) We had to take advantage of the opportunity.

The view from my cousin's apt

Lady Liberty

Lox and Cream Cheese

It rained the next day we were in New York, which was so lame, but we still had fun. We bought an umbrella and tried to share it, but that didn't work out so well. I just ended up using the umbrella most of the time. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to try to stay dry. The Museum is huge!!!! It would probably take days to go through the whole thing. We spent about two hours there and were worn out. It had all kinds of stuff. Tons of European Medieval period stuff, Roman Sculptures and coins, Renaissance stuff, Royal furnishings from the 17th and 18th centuries and that is just to name a few.

Raining in NYC

Ground Zero

Downtown Manhattan

Now that I'm thinking about, I think I waited to long to write a blog. I feel like I don't know what to write and what to leave out. I just feel kinda scattered. I totally had time to write a blog earlier, too.

New York Stock Exchange

On the second day in New York, the day it rained, we went to a comedy club and it was really fun. I went into it not thinking it was going to be really funny, but it really was funny. It ended up costing us a ton of money, but I guess that is expected in New York City. You can't expect to go to New York and not spend a lot of money. It just doesn't work out that way.

The third day in New York was a really nice day. The sun came out and it got a little warm. We walked the entire length and width of Central Park, which is a very long trek. We probably walked about 5 miles just in the park. Central Park is really beautiful. It's full of gardens, hiking trails, old monuments, bridges, ponds, and a few buildings. I would call it a gem in the middle of the city.

Central Park

Central Park

We used the subway most of the time to get around Manhattan, which was really easy after the first day. After spending three days, I felt like I knew how to get around all of Manhattan. I really want to go back to New York City again. I don't think we had enough time there. The city is wonderful and I can see why so many people live there. It's a great place.

Time Square

Empire State Building

We drove up to Springfield, Massachusetts and stayed with my cousin at his home. We didn't really get a chance to check out Springfield, but we did take a short day trip to a small town north of Springfield called Northampton. I really liked Northampton. It reminded me a little of Berkley, CA. We walked around the main street and enjoyed browsing through boutiques and antique shops. Everything there was really unique.

The weather has turned ugly on us, yet once again. We just arrived in Boston and will be here for about three days. I will try to blog again when we leave Boston, so that it is still fresh in my mind.

Cities that Influenced our Nation

Between Williamsberg, Washington DC and Annapolis, Alex and I have been very occupied with places to see, history to learn, time spent with family and good places to eat. It's actually been a little overwhelming. I mean, there is only so much you can do in a day and I felt like time just flew by and we didn't get to see everything I would have liked to. It's been great, though. I think I will have to come back to these places again sometime time in my life.

In Williamsberg we were able to meet up with my brother Micah and his wife Rachelle. I was soooooo glad to see them and even better was that we got to stay with them in their hotel because their room had an extra bed. It's funny because I thought it would be so nice to sleep in a regular bed, but strangely I was rather uncomfortable. I guess I've just gotten used to sleeping in the van. Anyways, Williamsberg is a very old town, it was first settled sometime in the 1600s. It's about 8 miles north of Jamestown which was one of the first English settlements. It was originally the capital of Virginia, but it was later moved to Richmond after the Revolution. Williamsberg has been nicely preserved to it's Colonial era. There are all kinds of neat knick knack shops, boutiques and restaurants. Many buildings are museums of old shops that were around during the Colonial era like wig shops, tailors, silversmiths, blacksmiths, general stores, etc. The people who work in the museums are dressed in Colonial clothing and they pretend that it's the year 1775. It kind of felt like we had traveled back in time when we were there.

Colonial Root Beer, (Non-alcoholic)

Colonial Re-enactment in the Streets of Williamsberg

Martha Washington being greeted in front of the Capital Building in Williamsberg

Colonial Williamsberg

Old Grave at the Oldest Church in Williamsberg

I love that the Horse and Alex are both leaning into each other. How cute!

Rachelle giving the horse a kiss

Getting water from a well

This was a really good truffle at a candy shop in Williamsberg

We toured many of the buildings and watched a few Colonial re-enactments. We had a guided tour through the Governor's Mansion and the tour guide did a really good job pretending it was the year 1775. At one point I couldn't help myself from laughing uncontrollably . There were about 40 people in our tour group and when we walked through a room with a piano in it, the tour guide asks the crowd, "How many of you are learning to play the piano?" Only one person raises their hand and the tour guide then says, "That's okay. The piano is a rather new instrument, so it's understandable that not very many people are learning how to play it." Hahahahaha!!!! I thought that was so funny because she was addressing us as if we were from the 1700s as well., Ahh, so silly. The Governor's Mansion was beautiful, and the surrounding gardens were just as beautiful.  Williamsberg is a neat place. It can be entertaining for the young and old. I think if I have kids someday, then I will take them to Williamsberg.

The Governor's Mansion

The Labyrinth at the Governor's Mansion

Tulip Garden at the Governor's Mansion

The back entrance to the mansion

Micah doing some cleaning in the horse stable

This is an outdoor shower used by the Governor in the 1770s to cool off during the summer. Servants would throw buckets of water on the Governor while he was fully clothed

Oh, and a little side note; the term "Powder Room" was originally used by men and it was a room for the men to go to "powder" their wigs. The wigs that were worn by men weren't naturally white and they would powder flour on them to turn them white. During a social event with dancing and what not, the powder would fall off and they would have to go to the "Powder Room" to reapply flour to their wig. In other words, "Freshin up."

After spending two wonderful days in Williamsberg, we drove up to Washington D.C. Driving into the city was so surreal. I couldn't believe we were actually here. As soon as I saw the top of the Capital building excitement overwhelmed me. Wow! I was at our nations Capital. We parked right by all the monuments and there was so much to see I didn't know where to start. The Washington Monument is huge! The Lincoln Memorial is huge! The Capital is huge! Everything was so big! And beautiful! The work that was put into making these huge memorials is amazing. I was in awe.

The Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Korean War memorial

Washington D.C. Capital Building

Thomas Jefferson Memorial (This was taken on the last day we were in D.C. it was sunny)

It was really overcast and started raining, so our endeavors outside quickly ended for the day. Our friend Jami Holland lives in DC and I hadn't seen her for about 3 or 4 years. I called her and later we met up for bit. It was so good to see her. She is graduating from law school and will be a lawyer soon. I can't believe it! I mean I can't believe we are all growing up and are adults and have careers. It seems so weird. I still feel like I'm 20 and I'm 25! I know that isn't that old, but it feels old when all your friends are in careers, are married and have kids. Seeing familiar faces on the road is really comforting. I'm really glad that we were able to see Jami.

The next day in DC we had about the same weather. It was cold and there were a few sprinkles here and there, but it didn't stop us from venturing out. We met up with my brother Micah and his wife again and went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. There was so much stuff in there! We got to see Abraham Lincoln's hat, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz's shoes, First Lady's gowns, early electrical inventions and the list goes on. The museum was so big that we didn't even get to see everything, but it was still neat to see the things we saw. Personally, I think First Lady Grace Coolidge was more fashionable than the iconic Jacqueline Kennedy, but maybe it's because I really like the 1920s style.

Abraham Lincoln's hat

Grace Coolidge's Dress

Ruby Slippers

My brother and his wife had to leave after touring the History Museum, but Alex and I went on to  see the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. That was cool, too.  I had never seen real dinosaur bones before and let me tell ya, at that museum there were an abundance of them. My favorite exhibit at the Natural History Museum was the gem and precious stone display. I like things that sparkle. On display they had diamond earrings worn by Marie Antoinette and they were clip-ons. I guess her ears weren't pierced, but probably not very many women of that period had their ears pierced. The exhibit was really over crowded with mostly women, go figure:)

It's a dinosaur

Amythest

I was really tired after going to two of the Smithsonian buildings, they are really big! I think there are 4 other Smithsonian building we skipped out on. There is just too much to see. I guess that gives us an excuse to come back someday:)

Before leaving D.C. we went to the American Memorial Holocaust Museum. That museum probably had the biggest impact on me emotionally out of everything I saw in D.C. The exhibit was a "Holocaust Experience." The first floor exhibit tells you about things leading up to the persecution of the Jews and "inferior races" and the second floor is about the Jews being relocated to ghettos; the third floor is about the actual concentration camps and the last floor is about freedom from the Nazis. As I walked through each exhibit I felt sicker and sicker to my stomach. Then during the exhibit about the concentration camps I seriously had to hold back tears. It's hard to believe that the Germans were so cruel. Man is capable of doing horrendous things to one another.

Yesterday we arrived in Annapolis. It's a really cute town. Lots of old buildings and rich in history. Annapolis was settled in the late 1600s. It is where the treaty was signed to end the Revolutionary War and was our nations capital for less than a year. It is the capital of Maryland today. The city's design when it comes to roads is horrible. Driving can really be a nightmare. I don't think the designer of the town took into account how traffic would be effected with future automobiles, but how could he, right? The streets are very narrow and they don't come together in a square grid, lots of dead-ends.  Anyways, the city itself seems very quaint and beautiful. I would come back again even if it is really hard to navigate in a vehicle. The last thing we did before leaving Annapolis was enjoying a scoop of icecream at a local chocolate shop. I had the best scoop of icecream ever! Toasted coconut lightly coated in chocolate in a homemade waffle cone. Mmmmmmm, so good.

Some old buildings in Annapolis

Yummy icecream

Maryland State Capital

Well, Alex and I have had plenty to do during this past week. It was even hard finding time to even write this blog. I think it's just gong to get busier for a while here. Next on our list of places to go is Baltimore, Philadelphia, Gettysberg, New York City, Springfield, Providence and Boston, all before Easter. Sounds crazy:/