A Meeting with an online friend, and a Wonder of the World!

Today we finally struck out on the "vacation" part of our trip! We left Oswego mid-morning after stopping by Jason's grandparents' house, and traveled up the road to Batavia to meet up with Pam. We had a great lunch/chat with her, and then continued up the road to Niagara Falls.

So that you can all get an idea of how the car part of the trip is going, here's the view:

Fred has made himself competely comfortable on the back seat. Either a toy or my backpack are making great pillows for him. He pops his head up whenever we slow down at all just to make sure he's not missing anything. And, so far, only Jason has had the pleasure of driving the truck and trailer. I'm not that comfortable driving the truck to begin with, and am definitely not looking forward to driving with the trailer, too! As long as we keep having these short days, Jason will probably keep driving.... I think I'll get a turn on Thursday, though. We have a long trip from Sandusky to the Wisconsin Dells that day!

So that's the car.... now, onto the good stuff. I have just one word to describe Niagara Falls - WOW!!!!! I am absolutely in awe of the beauty and POWER of the Falls. We walked all around the Park, with Fred in tow. Not until we were leaving did we finally see another couple with a dog... we were starting to think we were the only crazy ones to bring one along. Of course, we didn't have much choice, and Fred was just happy to meet and greet anyone and everyone who would stop to say hi.... that's our boy - international ambassador!

After walking around and taking lots of pictures for about an hour or two, we brought Fred back to our hotel room (our upgraded hotel room, by the way - for FREE!), and then headed back over to the Falls for a ride on the Maid of the Mist. We donned our souvenir ponchos and got underway for the most incredible view of the Falls I think it's possible to get. You can find more info about the Maid here: http://www.maidofthemist.com/en/ We got a little wet, even with the ponchos, but it was so worth it! They take you right into the middle of the Horseshoe Falls, where you're surrounded by crashing, misting, and pounding water. AMAZING!

We're thinking about heading back over tonight to see the Falls lit up - both of us are exhausted, though, and Jason is supposed to be writing a paper, so we'll see how that goes! For now, I'll share a couple pictures and then maybe add a night time view later! So, here's a taste of Niagara Falls:

Next stop: Sandusky, Ohio and Cedar Point Amusement Park!