Westward Ho! By Michael

Frances coincidentally appropriately
dressed for the cafe experience

We're finally really making our way westward. Yesterday we woke in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side and last night we laid our heads down in Detroit, MI. Tonight, Madison, WI.

I was a little down on the Falls in the last post. We'd just arrived and the first thing you see when you cross the bridge into Canada is Clifton Hill, or as it bills itself, "the world famous Street of Fun." I suspected there was more to the area, and I was right, it just took us getting out on foot the next day and Windy spending more time on the Yelp! app to discover the hidden gems.

We ended up enjoying two stellar dinners, the first for not a lot of money, the second very pricey. Taki is a Japanese place just outside of the hustle and bustle and is so unappealing from the outside, we would not have stepped inside without the rave reviews online. The next night, Paris Crepes Bistro was even better. No, it was amazing. And it had to be after the multi-mile death march that Windy led us on to get there. And finally, our room on the second night was stellar, a welcome gift from our dear friends Ann and Caden before we left. She cashed in some serious Starwood points for this, the view says it all.

Our 16th floor room with a view. With our balcony window opened,
the sound of the falls was pleasant.

We enjoyed dramatic overnight thunderstorms, and the daytime weather was perfect.

We took the Journey Behind the Falls tour and enjoyed the perspective, both from below the rim of Horseshoe Falls and behind the falls via tunnels bored into the rock in the 1940s.



In the tunnel behind the falls



Jest below the lip



 

The girls enjoyed their time at the parks in the area.



I think one of my primary jobs as a parent (among many primary parental jobs) is teaching my girls about money: how to spend it (done), how to save it (getting there), and about the value of money (we have a long way to go). To wit, after we cashed in a bunch of coins at their bank before leaving D.C., the girls each wound up with $30 to spend as they please on this road trip. Eleanor has shrewdly restrained herself from spending any of her money. Yesterday Frances blew half of her wad on this must-have item in an unremarkable Canadian drug store (we stopped there to buy a mexoryl-based sunscreen unavailable in the US and recommened by a cruiser who knows--thank you Ceilydh!). The sirens Frances heard when she saw this thing must have injured her young ears. But who knows, maybe this will be her Velveteen Rabbit. And as they say in Ontario, c'est la vie!

--MR