Honeymoon

I know I haven't posted much about the wedding or honeymoon since we've been back, but life has been busy. There hasn't been that right moment where I can properly sit down and fully explain how wonderful Niagara Falls was. I don't know if I can do that now, but I'll try.

Let me start by saying that it was FANTASTIC! Wow. Words don't even begin to describe that wonderful feeling of being in the right place with the right person for all the right reasons. I didn't even have much guilt for the first few days for leaving Cruz with my parents! That being said, the first plane we boarded going there, there was this cute little baby in the seat in front of us that kept on playing "peek" with us which made me miss Cruzy. Then there was a child who was crying as the plane was taking off and landing which made me miss being a mom. I realized in that moment of hearing a child cry that I needed to be a mom right then. I needed a baby to comfort and protect! Kinda silly, but that's just how I am.

Okay, but back to the actual vacation.

We arrived to Niagara Falls on Sunday at 12:04am. As soon as we pulled up and the valet took our car away, we realized that we were in for a real treat. The hotel was fantastic. We stayed at the Marriot which offers a stunning view of the falls. We didn't realize how great it really was until we woke up in the morning to see in full day light the awesomeness of Niagara Falls.

The first day we were there we went to Wal-Mart to get some hotel snacks, especially after realizing that a bottle of water cost $9.95 in the hotel room. After Wal-Mart we took our first walk down to the falls. It's not an easy walk. There are some steep hills that need to be climbed up and down to get right there. After taking in the breath taking falls we went to Applebee's for dinner and retired to our room for the rest of the night.

Day 2 we did the super touristy stuff. On the steep hill that goes down to the falls there is a street called Clifton Hill. It is a loud, colourful, noisy street filled with cheap gift shops, wax museums, Ripley's museums and theatres, Guiness museums, glow in the dark golf, the Sky Wheel and much MUCH more! We took in the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and the Louis Tousad's Wax Museum which were pretty neat. We took a lot of pictures. Besides that we just walked A LOT to check out what there all was around there. A person could spend a lot of money there very easily. After the end of our day we went to TGI Friday's and enjoyed an amazing dinner. This was our last actual restaurant we went to as we just couldn't afford $50 dinners every night. The lived off of snacks and fast food the rest of the trip.

Day 3... well, I got sick. I had to go to the doctor for a bladder infection. Ridiculous!! However I found out that without travel insurance I'm still covered as a Canadian. Every one told me I was silly to travel without it just in case I had to go the hospital. All I had to do was show my health card (which I'm SO glad I brought) and I got in to see the doctor no problem. I spent the rest of the day stuck in the hotel room sipping cranberry juice, apologizing to Rick that we were stuck for the rest of the day. He went to Wal-Mart and got us a good day's supply of junk food to get us through the day. Thankfully the hotel room was super beautiful and the view of the falls never got old. Rick wound up going out at night to get some nice photos of the falls. They light the falls up at night and they are stunning. He also got attacked by a racoon as he was on his way back to the room. He took photos to prove it. The racoon jumped out of the garbage can at him, hissing as he walked past. That's one of his favorite stories of the trip. He, of course, tells it much better.

Day 4 I was determined to not be brought down. We went to Marine Land! This was one of the HUGE highlights for me. The baluga whale tank was set up so you could reach out and touch the baluga's. You weren't supposed to though... unless you paid and had a fish in your hand. But, right beside the baluga whale tank was the killer whale tank. You couldn't get quite as close to him as you could with the baluga's, but it was still super close. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. There were also dolphin shows and other things there, but the baluga's and killer whale were my definite highlight.
In the evening I discovered the luck of the casino that was nearby. I didn't win big by any means, but I left with slightly more than I came in with. It's not something I could do a lot of, but the odd time I don't mind.

Day 5 was our last day to get what we wanted done. We did a ton of walking. We walked down to the falls again, went on the Sky Wheel and walked a ton more. We felt at this point that we were happy with what we had done and could go back home with no regrets. Also to make the trip even more complete there was a beautiful fireworks show over the falls for our last night there. I nearly cried. It was so perfect.

Day 6 we left. We drove to Toronto and went to the Hockey Hall of Fame which was pretty neat, even for a non-hockey lover. Then we got to the airport and left for home. We were super excited to head home to Cruzy, but so sad to leave.