First, a word about my grandmother~ A large part of my wanderlust came from her. She loved to talk about her travels and where she wanted to go. She talked about the ‘Big Apple’ and ‘Lady Liberty’. She looked for napkins that stood up and ordered in French when we went to upscale restaurants. She wore a different broach her dress every day. My grandmother was fabulous. I’m sure she inspired my mother to be the vacation planner that she was, too. I love and miss my grandmother and wanted to mention her in this section. My grandfather is a WWII hero who also loves to travel. (He's in his 80s and is still traveling to Great American Cities!) He has his pilot’s license and we flew on short missions to Pennsylvania to visit family. He’s a stern and sometimes scary guy but some of my best memories include him at his best.
Canada is just across Lake Erie and was always a popular destination in travels throughout my life. I’ve been there many times! Some of my earliest trips were to Niagara Falls with my grandparents when I was five to ten years old. We stayed on the Canadian side at a hotel on the rapids, just minutes from the Falls. The Fort was right up the road and we visited that every time we went. The Maid of the Mist was scary and awesome and my grandfather looked much happier than he usually does. We entered the caves under the Falls and saw them from underneath. We’d always go up in a tower and eat in the revolving restaurant. The touristy things like the mummy musuem were fun for us as kids. The night-time light show was a favorite! Niagara Falls is an amazing natural wonder that never loses its appeal!
Later Canadian Travels~
I visited Niagara Falls a few other times before I was 21 because we could drink there. We drove all the way up on a whim one New Year’s Eve, got a hotel room for $20 (got to love off-season) and celebrated the New Year in a bar on top of a tower overlooking the Falls. We walked down to the Falls- the mist almost froze in the air. Everything glistened. There were no visitors and it was all quiet. We stood there alone for a long time and took in the majestic sight. It was a memorable road trip.
May 30-June 5, 1999
One of my very best road-trips to Canada was a week long Niagara Falls to Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto trip in the summer in my early twenties. We got tickets to see Phantom of the Opera when Paul Stanley from KISS was playing the Phantom. We followed Interstate 90 East from Cleveland to Buffalo, New York and into Niagara Falls. We visited the Falls, which were packed with people. We road the Maid of the Mist, drove up the river along the rapids, visited some beautiful gardens and a temple and had a great dinner. The next day we relaxed and hung around. We left the next morning for Niagara-on-the-Lake. We didn’t have a plan- we just decided to stop at a few wineries along the way. We bought a bottle in the early afternoon and had a picnic on a riverbank. We found another winery and bought another bottle for later that night. We headed toward Toronto.
Toronto is, to me, the New York City of Canada. It is fashionable and fast paced but clean and courteous. Our first day in Toronto we visited a few museums. I’d waited a long time to see a collection of Henry Moore’s and was thrilled to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario. We also visited the Royal Ontario Art Museum, which had a beautiful collection of Inuit Art. We spent the following day experiencing the city. We ate at an amazing place that was made up of stations with different foods featured at each station. We went from station to station ordering what we wanted. My partner picked a piece of beef and watched as it was prepared. I picked a mushroom dish and we shared some sushi from another station. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the place. I thought it was ‘Marchette’ but when I Google that, nothing comes up. (Update: Thanks to the Travel Board on http://www.thenest.com/, I've been informed that the restaurant is called Le Marche/ Richtree Market at 42 Yonge Street (BCE Place on Front Street) in Toronto!) I was amazing, though. The next day, we saw the show and had a great time. The audience was a combination of KISS and Andrew Lloyd Webber fans- a fun bunch. We headed back the next morning, stopping at the duty-free shop and getting huge bottles of vodka and whiskey.
This trip was also amazing because of the budget price. The conversation rate was great and the $500 USD I budgeted were more than enough to sustain us in Canada for almost a week! We got room service, ordered movies, shopped and had a great vacation!
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