Lake #4 and We're here to set Niagara on Fire! (Day7)

Just kidding. It's a lot of water to be setting on fire!


Need to back track for a moment to fill in the morning hours (and believe me, we are GREAT at backtracking at this point! Heck, the waitress even led us on a backtrack in the TGIF restaurant in the afternoon.)


Griswald story #2 - Last night, Mark was going to wash all of our denim in the hotel laundry 'closet'. However, he didn't have Canadian dollars to put in the machine, so he left the laundry in there on a shelf and got the correct coins at the front desk. When he got back to the laundry closet, some guy had dumped his laundry in the washer even though ours was sitting there. Mark was not happy. I told him it wasn't a biggie - that I would do it while everyone was asleep in the morning. (It not often that I do more than my own  laundry, so this was truly an unusual event.) So I got up at my usual 0-dark-30 and stuffed everyone's laundry in my now emptied suitcase - with the zipper expanded to the max level. I grabbed the $1 coins that Mark had gotten and the $10 Canadian bill and went about a mile down the street to the 'Lost Sock' laundromat. No one there, but the door was unlocked, the parking lot was empty, and the general area looked eerie and deserted. That's okay - I'm a brave woman. I hauled the suitcase out and went into the laundromat. About every 3rd washer actually worked, and imagine that, I needed more $1 coins. I hauled the suitcase back to the van and drove to the gas station next door to trade in the $10 for $1 coins then went back to the laundromat and unloaded. No restroom and I had just finished a soda -loaded the suitcase again and headed back to the hotel to go to the restroom, then I was off again. On the 3rd trip, the Lost Sock wasn't looking so good, so I went to one downtown. I asked a guy there how much a washer took - feeling foolish when he just lowered the lid and looked at it - $2.50 a load. I haven't been to a laundromat in about 15 years, but geez, talk about sticker shock! I think it was 75 cents then. And, of course, these machines took quarters, not dollars. I asked the guy where to get quarters this early and he pointed to the change machine on the wall. I may be brave, but some days lack the general thought process that everyone has! To make this long story shorter, a couple came in and the man (seeing our tagged van) started talking to me about our trip. I was telling him about going to see their local boy in Bieber-ville and who comes on the radio but our local boy,m David Cook. How ironic!


The laundry was finally done and I got back to the hotel to roll my family out of their beds. When we met the McCoskey's downstairs for the continental breakfast, the general discussion was who was snoring the night before. And people think we don't have intellectual conversations! This turned in to who needs to sleep where but neither sister wanted to sleep with Emily. Abby just said 'well someone's been voted off of the island.' To Emily's favor - this means that she usually doesn't have to share a bed.


We piled into the vans and headed towards Niagara Falls - a couple of hours drive away. Mark asked when we would be putting our feet in Lake Ontario as we were going. (Oops - I forgot this!) We pulled off at Jordan's Bay and got a glimpse of Lake Ontario and the 'goonies' boat per Luke. Here it is:

We were in Jordan's Harbor and it didn't look like a place we wanted to put our feet in. Mark asked a couple where the closest beach was. They were from Mackinac but fishing on Lake Ontario for the salmon because Lake Huron doesn't have them. (Let that be a lake ecology lesson for everyone.) Anyway, a km down the road, we found Charles Daily park which was really nice. The water in Lake Ontario is very clear.

Lake Ontario

   Here is a pic of my foot and I'm standing in about three feet of water.

 Lisa had just gotten out of the van when a bird pooped on her head. And, I don't think it was the bird of paradise....

Lisa cleaning up

David on the shore

Luke - Lisa gave him a sprinkling

Mark trying to keep sand off his feet.

 

do-over

Putting our feet in

Nikki and Lisa

Another 'Marianne' siting. Interesting....and we really did not do this ourselves!

We had about an hour before our hotel rooms were available so we cruised by the Falls for our first view then walked down later after check in.. On our drive by and about a 1/2 mile from the falls, the mist was spraying our windshield. Awesome!

Horseshoe Falls to the right and I think, Bridle Veil to the left

The crowds remind Molly and me of NYC

Mark, Mom, the girls and I went back to Lake Ontario in the evening while the McCoskeys went souvenir shopping. The sun went behind clouds so the water was cool but beautiful.

We reconnected with the McCoskeys at the hotel, and all but mom and I went back out. They wanted to go to the criminal wax museum, and some, to a haunted house. In Mackinaw City, Molly, Emily, Nikki and Luke went to a haunted house that cost $5 each. It was definitely a case of you get what you pay for because they said it was totally lame. Well, they found another in N.F. called Screamers. David, Luke, Nikki and Molly decided to go.  When they got back, I got the scoop. The wax museum was okay - told about real people who killed and ate others, killed and took a bath in the blood and other gruesome tales. 

The real kicker was the haunted house. Since 1998, 82,000 people have taken the 'chicken out'. Yesterday, by 10 p.m. - 51 took the out that day. Not to be discouraged, those four pressed on and came back with stories. (BTW - Mark, Lisa, Emily and Abby were outside the house and could hear the screams piped out to them during all of this.) They start out in the order of David, Molly, Nikki and Luke. The area was totally dark and the path was only lit by a red dot in the ceiling. As things/people came at them, they had no clue. David - according to the girls - was making the bahahaha laugh as they went. Molly - was worthless to the group because she squeezed her eyes shut the whole time. Nikki - left a makeup faceprint on the back of David's shirt, and Luke - put the squeeze on the girls arms, could be heard screaming outside (by the others) and was heard saying 'go, go, go' towards the end. They talked about a room where there was no door and no light in which they all started searching for the exit and trying to figure who was in the room with them if anyone. At this point, they got reordered into David, Nikki, Molly and Luke. Molly and Nikki were scrabbling and desperately clutching each others hands. Each got a snapshot when they came out of their trip though the haunted house. David-laughing, Molly-holding tight on to David's shirt with her eyes squeezed shut, Nikki-hair a-flying and Luke screaming so loud his tendons were showing. They saw a group of people from India before going in, and the dad was arranging them in order. They figured that the least liked child got to be at the end of the line. At the end, Nikki said they looked like rats on a sinking ship as each was trying to get past/over/around the other coming out the fastest. 


And, so ends Day 6,