1999 niagara trip

8/14/2019 1999 NIagara Trip

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Our Niagara Falls Trip

June 1999



June 11, 1999What We've Done So Far:

(June 10 th )We met at the bus terminal around 9:30-ish and bought our tickets. These two weird women

who were going to Kitchener told us a bunch of dirty jokes. They gave us the creeps. ThankGod they left soon.

We soon got on the bus and we were on our way quickly. The journey went fast as we chattedand enjoyed the scenery. We arrived around noon at the downtown Niagara terminal and after some confusion caught the shuttle bus which was very crowded. “I hope you don't mind thatit's only standing room left.” the driver said to her remaining passengers. In Toronto, standingroom is a way of life! “If you're standing, please hold onto something.” said the driver, “I'm nota maniac but you never can tell!” Fortunately, we were seated quite comfortably. A pretty littlegirl with blond braids sat across from us. She reminded me of Cindy from the Brady Bunch.Behind us sat a “bearded” lady. Well, she had long, gray whiskers hanging from her chin!

Poor woman! She must have given up trying to get rid of them.! And I thought I had facial hair problems!

When the bus stopped near the Skylon, after a moment of quick thinking, we decided to getoff the bus there. That's about as close as we can get to our hotel, and bustling along with allour injittiments in tow we took a delightful indoor shortcut through the air-conditioned arcadeand mall, pausing for a moment to look at the carousel.

We soon arrived at the motel and the first thing I did was get under a cool shower and changeinto shorts and my tube top! At least nobody laughed at me when I was ot. We'd both beenwearing matching skirts and eyelet blouses before we changed and Janette was now wearing

her pink flowered shorts and top. When I was in the shower I heard her laughing. I thought itwas at my singing. Well, yeah, that and the fact that we were at Niagara, near the BIGGESTSHOWER OF ALL!!

We then set off buzzing through various gift shops already. We weren't in Niagara long whenwe already saw cute happy face stuffed toys which we bought for KIDEO and I bought amuch for Charles with his name on it. We then went for lunch because I was sooooo hungry!Janette already ate on the bus but I had already decided that since I was on holiday no morehaving to make my own lunch for the next five days!!!So we went to that nice little familyrestaurant on Clifton Hill and I ordered a Canadian burger and Janette had fries and gravy. Atfirst I didn't know what it was because it looked like a chicken burger but actually, the piece of Canadian bacon was like a slice of breaded ham. We enjoyed a good, hearty salubrious mealand then we went to the Fudge Factory. Janette was looking for more “KIDEO” bugs as wecalled them to put in the “Shoe Box” ministry. There were none left like the kind we got lastyear, so Janette settled for two medium-sized green ones, about the same size as Flugffy.One was for the Shoe Box and the other was for Marley, her co-worker's little girl.

The rest of the afternoon was basically a blur. I believe we went through the park, down to theFalls. It was great to get up close and feel the mist. When we'd experienced our fill of theFalls, Janette wanted to go to the gift shop and get some pamphlets. I saw a shirt with apicture of a train and I felt tempted to get it for Charles but didn't because it was quite



expensive and I'd already bought him that mug earlier.

The gift shop was packed so we gradually made our way back along the Falls and went toOakes Garden Theatre. We were pretty hot by then so we sat down at the edge of thisfountain and I unwrapped Charles' cup, filled it with water and poured it all over myself repeatedly until I was quite thoroughly soaked!

We then gradually made our way back to the motel, browsing in several shops along the way.When we got back to the motel, I enjoyed a nice, long soak in the bathtub with my “TropicalParadise” bubble bath. It felt so good I almost felt like I could stay there forever. When I gotout of the tub, I wrote postcards to KIDEO and Charles. Then I got dressed in my KISS jeansand butterfly shirt. I wouldn't want to be wearing my tube top in case things got rowdy at theKaraoke bar. The last thing I needed was some horny drunk trying to pull it down on me.We'dnoticed a group of Mennonites out earlier that day and one of the young lads, about fourteenyears old, was staring at me.

Anyway, we set out again soon and had our supper at the Lotus Garden We both ordered thesame thing; iced tea, fried rice, shrimp, vegetable beef and egg rolls and we were servedsoup. It was a good salubrious feast.

After we ate, we went to the Legends of Rock gift shop where as usual I gave into temptationand blew nearly $50 on KISS stuff; a gorgeous poster, a fridge magnet with their picture intheir logo and a T-shirt. At first I was going to buy one with a picture of them standing on stageand all this fire in front of them with the words “THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD!” butbehind it was one even better; a 96-97 Tour shirt commemorating 4 shows at Madison SquareGardens, one of them being on July 28th! (my birthday!) At first I didn't think the KISS shirtswould be so irresistible because there are so many at the Dufferin Mall back in Toronto, but of course Niagara Falls always has stuff I never see anywhere else!

When I'd finished purchasing my injittiments, we went to the Karaoke place. I had a beer andJanette had a fuzzy navel. Our host, “The Wrench” remembered us from previous years.“Those Two Crazy KISS Chicks from Toronto” he called us, and later in the evening startedreferring to us as “Bubbles and Bang-Bang.” We sang at least three songs together;“Ballroom Blitz”, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Saturday Night”, but after awhile wecouldn't settle much longer. We find The Wrench's sense of humour can get kind of crude tosay the least and he makes up his own sleazy lyrics to certain songs, like “You're 16, You'rePregnant, but It's Not Mine..”

We left, visited the ladies' room and then went for another look at the stuffed animals at theFantasy Fudge Factory. Then we went to the arcade where I TOALLY MASSACRED Janetteat Air Hockey, seven to one!! Wayne Gretzky, eat your heart out!

We walked along Clifton Hill and came to this bar where this really good-sounding band wasplaying. We came in to listen for awhile. They were called “Confusion of the Senses” andwhen they invited people to get up and dance, sadly I was the only one, but that didn't stopme. How could I sit still when the music was so good?! The band appreciated my enthusiasmand gave me a free CD!!

It was well after midnight when they took their break. We didn't want to leave but we weren't



sure how long their break would last and we were both getting kind of hungry so we went tothe 7-11 to get a bag of Oreos and I got myself a frozen cappuccino and then we went back toour motel. I was feeling pretty tired by then and figured I'd fall asleep quickly but I didn't. Thefirst night in a strange bed is always difficult.

Day 2, June 11th

We woke up bright and early at around 7 a.m, put on our “Popsicle” dresses and went for breakfast. We found ourselves a nice little hotel family restaurant where Janette had baconand eggs with home fries and I had chocolate chip pancakes.

After breakfast we made our way to the Maid of the Mist area, letting ourselves be sprayed byvarious sprinklers along the way. I sat at a table outside the gift shop and wrote in my journalfor awhile as we waited for Maid of the Mist to open. I had to go to the gift shop because I wasworried about my camera. It didn't seem to be working right. Hopefully, the film was just fullbut the counter didn't count accurately. The lady working in the store had to take it back to her office to rewind and dislodge it for me and we reloaded the camera so we could use it.

Meanwhile, a huge crowd had gathered upstairs and yet another bus load of tourists cut infront of us as we approached. We were kind of worried about the crowds and disappointedabout not being first in line but the lines moved quickly and we were on our way! There was afamily with two small children under three years old. “I thought babies weren't allowed on thisthing>” said Janette. I agreed. They don;t know what's going on and the experience could bescary for them. We let them go ahead and the youngest one was crying already. We agreedto let them go ahead and even wait for the next boat. However, we ended up going on thatfirst boat anyway, but it was okay. We were far enough away from the sound of anymorewhining. In fact, we were right near the very tip. I was roasting in my disposable plasticraincoat so I doffed it and just let myself get wet!

Time stood still as our boat glided effortlessly toward the Falls and my vision became all buttotally obscured from the mist. Whit outstretched arms I indulged in the invigorating spray,feeling like Leelawala being embraced by Hinum. Embraced but not totally captured! NOwonder honeymooners get so excited!

After our departure from the boat headed for the “Poople Mever” stop. It would be awhile untilthe next one came along and I felt kind of hungry so I enjoyed a luxurious ice cream cone;“Turtles” and “MacIntosh toffee”! I can honestly say that at that moment it tasted like the bestice cream I'd ever had in my life! Talk about orgasm of the taste buds!

We then boarded the “Poople Mever” to the Spanish Aerocar, where I went for my ride. Whilewaiting for the aerocar to take off I had the giggles because I noticed several sparrows amongthe rocks who were obviously in the honeymoon spirit! Whoever imagined I'd board this thingto end up watching a bunch of horny birds!

As the aerocar crossed the gorge, I took several pictures of the magnificent view and swirlingwaters. Janette and I had taken pictures of each other, her up in the observation deck and medown in the aerocar before lift-off. It was a peaceful, invigorating experience. Some folks getreally scared of the idea of traveling like that. Only six wires away from certain meatwaffledomin the gorge below, but they were sturdy wires and I felt safe.



When I got back, we took the Poople Mever back to Victoria Park and walked a long way toLundy's Lane and had lunch at P. J's deli where I had pirogies and Janette had turkey andrice. You could say we dined in Some Fine Style!!

After we ate we looked around in a couple stores and then we went to the Lundy's Lanemuseum. It was quite interesting. Lots of pioneer and Indian stuff as well as beautiful antique

Niagara souvenirs. Lynda was right. The Falls HAVE gotten smaller! They used to be quiteimmense in the old paintings.

Ager we'd seen everything in the Lundy's Lane museum we thought we'd go to the DufferinIslands, but we decided to pop in at a few shops in the Skylon first. The less said about thispart of the journey the better! We were getting pretty tired and fractious so once we got to theparking lot we decided to let off some steam. This is the time kides get cranky so if they canscream and holler, why can't we? We pretended to caterwaul like babies and had a goodlaugh roaring and making silly noises.

The motel was just across the street so we decided to go back and rest after purchasingsome ginger ale to take back to our room. We each took turns having a good salubrious soakin the tub and resting and mellowing out while I wrote in my journal about our trip in progress.

Then we got ready to go back out again. I put on my pink shorts and my “KISS Underground”comic book T-shirt that was given to me the day I met Paul Stanley. I felt like being a kid, so Iput my hair in pigtails with my Barney and Baby Bop hair elastics. Janette wore her pinkflowered shorts and top again.

It was hard to find a place to eat. We seemed to be searching forever before we just called ita George and resorted to our old standby, the family restaurant on Clifton Hill. I had the steakand shrimp special I'd seen advertised and Janette had fish and chips. We thought that after we ate we might take the Poople Mever to Duffein Park but they didn't appear to be running atthat hour so we just walked up to the flower gardens at Victoria Park after dinner.

Then we still had a couple more hours until the fireworks show so we went back to our motelroom to rest again for the time being. I actually fell asleep clutching my Ace doll.

At around 8:30 I woke up and wrote several postcards. Soon we set out. There was quite acrowd heading for the fireworks so we figured we'd just watch them from the steps of the Imaxtheatre. Unfortunately, when they started all we could see was a flash of light with a big bangas the fireworks were disappointingly close to the ground, therefore hidden by the trees andbuildings. So we ran as fast as we could up the stairs across the bridge to the Skylon tower and found a place where we could see at least some of them. The show lasted maybe about10 or 15 minutes and ended with such a big bang that several car alarms went off in theparking lot!

We then made our way to the 7-11. Janette bought Flakies and I bought a frozen cappuccino.I couldn't help noticing the headlines on the cover of the June Cosmopolitan: “What He ThinksWhen He Sees You Naked for the First Time—What Makes Him Hot About What You Hateand Hide!” However, a few blurbs down was a headline entitled “Cellulite Busters” or something like that. These stupid magazines sure think they know how to play on a woman'sinsecurities. Besides you-know-who says he likes my cuddly shape!



We didn't feel like staying out much later so we headed back for the motel where I got readyfor bed, sat back and did some more writing.

Day 3, June 12 th

Woke up at 6:00 a.m, actually earlier, couldn't go back to sleep so I got up, put on my purple

tube top and airplane skirt and Janette put on her red skirt and turquoise blouse. We soonwere on our way and went to the $4.99 breakfast buffet place where we loaded u our plates insome fine style. I loaded mine with pancakes, French toast, sausage, scrambled eggs, baconand home fries with fried onions. The only reason I went back a second time was to finish mymeal with a little fruit salad. We were both kind of tired and getting n a silly mood and the littleboy at the next table was looking at us when I tried to make Janette laugh by going “GULP”every time she was about to sip her coffee. All in all it was another good salubrious feast andwe were full campers when it was time to go.

We made our way along Oakes Garden Theatre, pausing to make use of the facilities beforemaking the trek across the Rainbow Bridge. The view was beautiful and we paused severaltimes to admire it.

“Good morning!” I exclaimed cheerfully to the customs official.

“Well, look who's pumped! You've had your coffee this morning!” he said. I showed him mypassport with the usual joke about how I looked like I've been wrestling alligators in thispicture but at least I won.

We made our way through the parks on the U.S side, slowly wandering along theshoreline,pausing many times to admire the swirling waters. “Is this the most beautiful placein the world or what?” I remarked. Everything is so peaceful and beautiful here. The rapidsthundered like herds of white-maned horses. We admired the beauty of nature all around us,wishing it could last forever. Unfortunately, I'm sure we know where the term “answeringnature's call” must have originated. Fortunately, it didn't take long to locate facilities. After wemade use of them, we looked around in the gift shop. Janette found herself an interestingbook about Niagara Daredevils and an adorable ladybird similar to Fluffy who will likely betraveling overseas with the Shoe Box ministry even though I was teasing her about how Dottyneeds a boyfriend. (Little did we know that later that summer Dotty would end up with Buddy )I got myself a CD of Niagara music.

After we got ourselves something to rink, we wandered onward to Terrapin Point. The view of the Horseshoe Falls was beautiful and the rainbows were so vivid. I took a couple picturesincluding one of the Maid of the Mist going under the rainbow.

We then spent the next couple hours just walking around some more and stopping in variouspeaceful places. We noticed several Japanese tourists and many Indian and Pakistanipeople, the women dressed in beautiful silk saris and some in slacks with long tunics like thekind my co-worker Roohy sometimes wears. I wondered if I might see her on this daybecause she said her mother-in-law might be taking them to Niagara on Saturday.

We noticed some other tourists who had taken their shoes off and were standing in the water.Now those folks had the right idea! Up until now, Janette and I seemed to be the only ones



who did this sort of thing. We took off our shoes and did likewise. The water was cool andinvigorating but we had to watch our steps because there were a lot of “thinking-what-I'm-doings” (potholes!) on the riverbed. After a few minutes we continued along our way andcame to a trail where there was a sign instructing us to stay on the paved areas otherwise riskinjury or prosecution.

However, most people ignored the sign and crawled downward from rocks ad roots to gettheir feet wet anyway, taking pictures of each other standing in the water or sitting on a largerock. Janette obediently stayed on the pavement and prayed for my protection as I carefullystepped down and got a man to take a picture of me sitting on the big rock. It was trickygetting up there, but I couldn't resist the challenge.

Getting down was even harder and I sort of half slid down, somewhat painfully bumping thelesser-padded side of my butt! OWIE! X-#

We then made our way further along the shoreline. I took a picture of Janette and the newbeetle-bug with a lot of fluff that was covering the ground. We were getting hungry so after wecircled the shoreline we made our way to the restaurant that was near the Cave of the Windsexhibit. It was pretty full so I saved two seats while Janette got our food ad I was chatting withtwo girls from Ohio. This was the furthest North they had ever been and they were going toToronto next. They asked me what there was to see in Toronto. My mind was a blur but Imanaged to mention the C.N Tower, the Sky Dome, Metro Zoo, Centre Island and variousother places. I tried to think back to the times when Janette and I weren't living in Toronto andused to go there as tourists. We also talked about flags. I noticed a sky blue ensign flag with acrest that had palm trees and bananas beneath a lion. I'll have to ask Charles which one thatis.

Hamburgers were too expensive so Janette and I had pizza slices instead. Just as well. Withthe heat being so intense we probably would have felt sick eating those big burgers.

We then made our way to the other falls before heading to the observation tower to get downto the lower level, hoping we could get close to the bottom of the falls and feel the mist.

By then I realized how sun burnt I had gotten and we were starting to feel irritable in the longlineup. Everyone else was there to go on the maid of the Mist and when we reached thebottom, there was renovations going on so we couldn't get as close to the Falls as we wantedto! It felt like an annoying waste of time and we were becoming more irritable. My sunburnwas getting even more painful. This was our cue to call it a George and mosey on back to theranch.

It seemed to take forever to get across the Rainbow Bridge and we ducked into a gift shopnear Oakes Garden Theatre to seek somewhere air-conditioned. The air-conditioning couldnot seem to compete against my burning skin. “Stuff me in there!” I joked to Janette, pointingto the ice cream freezer. I went to the fridge to get a bottle of juice but even standing beforethe open refrigerator didn't cool me down like I wanted it to!

We hurried through the garden, sat in our favorite shady spot for a minute and then continuedalong our way. Then we made our way through several shops that were connected to eachother via various stairwells and passages. I wished we could continue all the way up Clifton



Hill like that! In fact I wished there was an indoor passage to our motel! Anything to get out of the heat!

On the impulse, I went to the Cinema 360 or whatever it was called. A film had just started.before I got there so I had to wait at least 10 minutes for the next one. When they talkedabout standing behind the red railing I thought “Oh no! Don't tell me there's no seats in this

place.” Fortunately, there were benches in there so I could sit after all. The film was okay, kindof mediocre. The roller-coaster scene was too short, but the best part was being in that planegoing through the Grand Canyon. The movie ended abruptly with being in a race car andcrashing into a bunch of rocks.

We were relieved when we got back to our own room. The first thing I did was painfully peeloff my hot, sweaty clothes and soak in a refreshing bath. Then I carefully lay down beneaththe sheets in to much pain to move and fell asleep for at least an hour or two before wefigured it was time to get dressed and go out for supper.

Janette wore her pink flowered outfit again and I put on my white eyelet blouse and carouselskirt. I pinned back my hair with my white rosette clip and did my makeup. We thought wewere going to Ponderosa but quickly vetoed that idea when we the first thing we heard whenwe opened the door was a baby screaming! I'd rather go to a male strip joint than beserenaded by such dinner music! We were getting quite cranky and irritated as the next placewe wanted to go turned out to be closed, open only for breakfast! Finally, we found a nicelittle place called Pardon my Garden. We were going to sit in a corner by the window, but itwas too hot so we changed tables to sit beneath the fan. Janette ordered steak and I hadseafood. I decided to be a bad smurf and have a beer. Janette had a coffee! Oy vey! I couldn'tstand a coffee on such a hot day like this! The seafood was succulent and tender and thesweet crab meat just melted in my mouth. The vegetables were a real treat too and Imooched a couple extra pieces of cauliflower from Janette. “Oh my God! I can't believe it!” Isaid, “There's four guys out there in KISS makeup!” Janette turned her head to look and Istole one of her fries!

After we ate we walked down the street a bit and I went to have my portrait drawn. A familyhad to have their picture done with their baby, who as usual, started crying. I found hummingmy favorite choruses seemed to help a bit. My portrait was finished in about 20 minutes and Iwas really amazed with the results

We then went to a place called the Fun Factory where we looked around. An electronicbluebird was twittering various tunes. I listened to a demo of the Sphere Clown Band and didthe Macarena to a clapper-activated singing toy gorilla.

We wandered along and found a peaceful new route home through a large field, singingpraise choruses as we made our way.

Then we stopped at the 7-11. Janette bought Swiss Rolls and I bought another Cappuccinoand a Disney magazine about Tarzan. As we made our way back to the motel, I made up asong about how “tomorrow night's my last cappuccino, I'm not interested in going to thecasino...” I'll work on the rest later.

We got back to our motel room and got the giggles over some absurd inside joke about



“Weegiggish Pagoshkagin.” I guess you had to be there.

I then plunged into another bath and read my Tarzan magazine in the tub.

Then Janette had her bath while I updated my journal.

Day 4, June 13

th

,My sunburn kept me awake that night. At around quarter to three I got up and took yetanother bath! I did not turn the lights on as the lights from another nearby motel shone brightlythrough the bathroom window. The thought of possibly falling asleep in the bathtub for the restof the night appealed to me. Suddenly, the lights outside went out. It startled me at first, mademe wonder if there was a power failure, but then I realized they must shut their lights out at 3a.m.

In a little while I went back to bed but I was feeling shivery so I turned off the air-conditioner. Itwas hard to sleep because of the way my skin was burning. I even fancied asking Janette for the key so I could get dressed and sneak out to the 7-11 once again. I wished we had moreFlakies, and to be honest I was still curious about that cheesy magazine article.

We woke up again at 5 a.m. “What is this? Endless night?!” Janette commented.

I don't know if it was before or after but I had this weird dream that both her and Mark weretaking guitar lessons and everywhere we went, these vandals in long, green coats werethrowing light bulbs at us! Turned out most of them were just kids. A little girl with long, blondhair was going to throw one at me and I was getting annoyed and said to her “In the name of Jesus, I forbid you to throw that at me!” She stopped and looked sheepish. It was then Inoticed that she and her colleagues had pointy ears like elves. Actually they were almostmore like horse's ears as they could turn them like the Gelflings in “The Dark Crystal.”

We woke up bright and early at 7:00 and I put on my dress with the pink and orange roses onit. Janette put on a skirt with pink roses and a white blouse. I decided to just let my hair hangloose this morning. I haven't washed it all vacation yet, but I'm sure the Niagara water andlack of pollution here has caused my hair to remain clean, thick and shiny.

We were going to have breakfast at the same place we ate the day before yesterday whereI'd had the chocolate chip pancakes, but decided to go to another buffet that was closer because we couldn't wait any longer. We loaded up our plates in some fine style as we werehungry campers, and no sooner were we polishing up our first helpings then a bus load of Spanish tourists came in and lined up for their meal. They all looked like they were having awonderful time as they sat down to breakfast, talking and laughing amongst themselves. Wenoticed that someone at one of the tables built a tower by stacking at least eight creamers.We lined up for second helpings and when we finished eating, I started sneezinguncontrollably! A chorus of “bless-you's” echoed from the next table. If mom were here, she'dbe thoroughly embarrassed! I guess you could say I've never been so blessed in my life!

When we left the restaurant we headed up to the Christian Life Centre on our way to MountCarmel, enjoying the view as we strolled along. We admired the roses outside the buildingand found some comfortable chairs beneath some nice, big shady trees where we couldmake ourselves at home and enjoy the cool, pleasant breeze. I wrote in my journal for awhile,



feeling like I wished I could have stayed there forever!

Soon we got up. We wanted to go to a church service on Sunday morning. We were thinkingof Mount Carmel, but I didn't really want to go to a Catholic church. I wanted to go tosomething more contemporary like our own church. I remembered a Presbyterian church near the Lundy's Lane museum, but it would have been a farther walk. Fortunately, we didn't have

far to walk until we found Main Street Baptist Church. We were early so we joined the adultSunday school class. The people were really nice and they made us feel welcome and wehad an interesting discussion on spiritual gifts and who would go to heaven or hell.

When Sunday school class was over, we went upstairs for the service. I felt sleepy and foundit hard to concentrate on the sermon, however, we sang many familiar choruses.

As we walked out of church, we decided we'd go back to our motel room to change. At first Ifigured I was comfortable in my dress but then I decided I'd change after all when Iremembered that we both had our purple shorts and Binghamton T-shirts.

After we changed we went to the good ol- 7-11 to get a nice picnic lunch to take to the park;chicken salad sandwiches on pita bread, fruit, desserts and a nice refreshing bottle of chocolate milk. We maneuvered our way through the crowds down Clifton Hill and sat in ashady spot beneath a tree in Victoria Park.

We then made our way after we finished eating, bought our “Poople-Mever” tickets andhopped on board, enjoying a comfortable, air-conditioned ride to the Dufferin Islands. Ineeded a sun hat so when we got off I went to the gift shop and picked out a wide-brimmednavy blue one similar to a Tilley. I wanted something shady to keep me cool.

We then found our way along the trail almost thinking there wouldn't be much there at first butsoon came to several small islands connected by various bridges and waterfalls. We found adelightful place where people could swim. If only I'd known, I would have brought my bathingsuit. Still, that didn't stop me. I just took off my jewelry, etc. and plunged in fully clothed! I musthave splashed around and enjoyed the water for at least the next half hour. Unfortunately I'dforgotten to remove my locket and I'm afraid the pictures inside are ruined! I enjoyedswimming until the second waterfall nearly drowned me! That's when I decided I'd hadenough water for one day. Talk about the epitome of irony if I had drowned! To be within thevicinity of one of the largest, strongest and most powerful famous waterfalls, yet to be done inby this weeny little cataract!

Janette and I then got up to discover the various winding nature trails that led from one toanother. It's very beautiful around here. I thought Maid of the Mist was my favorite attractionuntil I saw the parks on the U.S side, but I think the Dufferin Islands park is my favorite place,especially when I got wet. We sat by the bridge and mellowed out for awhile while I updatedmy journal once again.

We then decided to make our way back, crossed a few more bridges along the trail, went upthe stairs and went back to the area where the gift shop and washrooms were. Then wecaught the “Poople Mever” back and got out at the Greenhouse.

It was almost 3:30 or so when we got down to the Greenhouse and we enjoyed wandering



be our last time for a long time. It was a strange, electric but melancholy feeling and wedecided, with much enthusiasm, on one last game of air hockey. I won again, this time thescore 7 to 3.

We popped into the drugstore to buy our surprise packages. We'll open them at breakfasttomorrow.

As usual, our last stop was the 7-11. I bought a box of Joe Louis cakes (there were no moreFlakies left) and my last frozen cappuccino and that cheesy “Glamour” magazine that hadbeen haunting me all week. I figured if I didn't give in, I'd be burning with curiousity. Besides,some of this nonsense would be good for a laugh.

Back at the motel I settled into the tub with my cappuccino and my magazine. I'm still notfinished reading it.

Day Five—HEADIN' HOME-June 14th

Last night before bed we had trouble sleeping. It was hard to settle down and some of thesteamy content of that magazine put me in one of “those” moods. We started getting silly andI made screechy cat noises. Unfortunately, the neighbours banged on the wall in complaint. Itwas then we remembered that we had the windows open. I'd switched off the air conditioner because it was making my nose stuffy. I turned my back for a second and gave a startledshriek when I noticed the curtain opened slightly. I thought someone was peeking in at us untilI realized Janette was just closing the window. I started giggling hysterically and again theneighbours gave an angry bang against the wall, putting a damper on our fun. We weren'ttrying to be rude or inconsiderate. I guess it was for our protection we were too tired to be in asilly mood like this on previous nights. Obviously, if the walls are this thin I would not want tospend my honeymoon here. If getting the giggles talking about sex makes enough noise toincite complaints from next door, I shudder to think how much noise the neighbours wouldhave to frown about if I were really doing it!

We tried to pray and felt restless. We even thought about going for a walk but decided wewere safer staying indoors. Finally, we eventually did drift off to sleep and before I woke thenext morning I had a rather interesting dream that Shawna, Myla and I had our own bandtogether and we were opening for “Destroyer”. Charles was our manager and Cliff was filmingeverything with a camcorder. Everyone we knew was there. It was quite exciting.

We woke up at around 7:30 a.m, buzzing around like bees, getting as much as we couldpacked up. I was so hungry that while Janette was in the bathroom I was a pig and ate TOJoe Louis cakes! Surprisingly I still had a hearty appetite for blueberry pancakes whenJanette and I went for breakfast at the Traveler's Delight restaurant, where I'd had thechocolate chip ones a few days ago. Once again, I helped polish off Janette's home fries.

When we finished breakfast, we went back to our room and unwrapped our surprisepackages. I got a cheesy little pink and orange water pistol and Janette got THREE things; apencil sharpener, a pretty pair of earrings and a “Quebec” sticker. She gave me the sticker toput on the cover of my journal with my Poople Mever passes. Somehow we managed tomake all our injittiments fit together in our bags which were quite heavy. I dreaded the idea of carrying all that stuff to the Poople Mever so we agreed to take a taxi to the bus terminal.



When we put all our stuff in the locker, we had a good laugh because it looked like Janette'sbugs were struggling to get out of the bags, like they didn't want to be cooped up inside thelockers. All our stuff fit inside one locker and then we made our way to the Great Gorge Trip.

At the gift shop I paid for both our tickets and we took the elevator down. We walked along along, aluminum tunnel and had fun with the acoustics, making silly noises along the way. As

we neared our way out to the boardwalk, we looked at various pictures of assorted NiagaraDaredevil stunts. At one point Blondin even balanced a cook stove on the tightrope above theFalls and cooked a 2-egg omelette! (And that's no yolk!)

For the next quarter of a mile we strolled along the boardwalk watching the powerful rapids asthey swirled and foamed impressively. I was glad I'd taken that Jet Boat trip last year! Wepaused in several places to admire the spectacle. For some reason I had KISS' song “Within”going through my mind. We took each other's pictures at the end and reached down to feelthe spray, wishing more of it would splash higher. After awhile we made our way back.

On our way back to the bus terminal I found some torn pieces of a Japanese dictionary andhad fun reading them aloud. It would be fun to learn to speak Japanese, I thought. The rainwas starting to come down.

We thought we might look at the antique store before getting on our bus, but it was closed.We couldn't really settle anyway so we purchased our egg salad sandwiches and took our stuff out of our locker and enjoyed the time quietly reading while we waited. It was starting torain harder. Good thing we were leaving today, I thought.

In my magazine I came across a picture of the new queen of Jordan, Queen Rania al-Abdullah, and couldn't help thinking that her picture bore a remarkable resemblance to myportrait. Janette thought so too. I showed her both pictures side by side. Wait until Lynda seesthis, I thought, remembering her resemblance to Ann Boleyn.

Soon we caught the bus and were on our way.

1999 niagara trip

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