Canada.....

We picked up Morgan and Jakeb from Jakeb's mates place in Chicago...grateful that we had taken all their gear to Washington DC a few weeks earlier, as there was no way we would have fitted us all in the car...bags, snowboards and us! We had asked the boys what they wanted to see.....Canada and Niagara Falls was one of them.  It was a long drive

Making sure we choose the correct exit!

before we made it to the border......the first thing Stuart did wrong was not stop at the STOP sign before the "border booth", for which he was reprimanded.  Apart from that it was smooth sailing into Canada (although why didn't the mums and dads of these Customs people teach them to have good manners?)

We saw our first KM's signs in 6 months and we all let out a huge cheer...so nice to understand the speeds again! We were heading to a town called London, on the Thames River....and we noticed a distinct pattern...so many English named towns, although there was an Exmouth and Broome thrown in, but they looked nothing like our Exmouth and Broome!
We stopped at Lake Eire, which we had also visited in the US .....we were at a holiday town out on a peninsula and again, very difficult to access the water without paying parking to do so.  We eventually found a spot and made our way down to a very windy waterway.

We were so delighted...sure it was windy, a bit wild and rough...but there were NO lifeguards there and people were able to use it...such commonsense!

Nice to have the boys with us again...just missing a couple :)

We had a lunch stop at another town on the water.....there were loads of people there, again using the water, with a sign saying "Parents are responsible for the safety of their children". God Bless Canada! This was the town where some fella abused me for opening the car door so I could get out... he didn't see that the door was open and walked into it. It wasn't my fault yet he had a go at me....another time Stuart wanted to fight someone!!

We made it to London, to find our accommodation wasn't booked...we had booked online and had a confirmation email... fortunately the lovely man gave us 2 rooms right next to each other, so all was good.  The next morning we were due in Niagara Falls, so packed up and off we went.  It was another reasonable drive and Stu was pretty tired by the time we got there so  was having a Nanna Nap.
Margaret...you're going to like this one...
I need to preempt this by saying Stuart reminds me a lot of my Dad in that he prides himself on taking the absolute bare necessities when he travels.  It does my head in, but that's the way it is.  However, so far he has left his camera battery charger in Virginia, (he now has it after the owners sent it to Denver and the boys bought it with them), and a pair of shorts in Pennsylvania.
All the hotels we have stayed in, in the US and Canada only give you one pillow each and we're used to having two.  Sooo...the night we were in London, Stu decided one pillow wasn't enough and got ALL his clothes and stuffed them into the pillow case of the pillow he was using.  Brilliant idea!
So back to the hotel in Niagara Falls...Stu is having a Nanna Nap and I hear this "Shit!".  Thinking the worst..I ask what the problem is.  Turns out he forgot to get his ENTIRE wardrobe out of the pillowslip and he now had NO CLOTHES!!
Stu has done an amazing job of all the driving, navigating etc etc which can be pretty stressful, so I tried really hard to be sympathetic with this dilemma of NO CLOTHES, but within minutes I was actually rolling on the floor with laughter, which then made Stu fair game with the boys and they were relentless.... and still are!
Stu had to ring the hotel and explain that his clothes were in the pillow on the bed, and with his accent and the guy on the front desk with limited English it was a hilarious conversation!  They are sending the contents of his travelling wardrobe (which fortunately like Dad wasn't much) back to Denver and one thing Stuart hates is clothes shopping, so he then had to make a special trip to Walmart to increase the size of his wardrobe by 100%. Good fodder Stu!  Margaret, I think I win the forgetful husband competition! I'd like to see Kym "top" that!
Fortunately he was wearing jocks, t shirt and shorts so we were able to go and look at the Falls. First stop...the Whirlpool, where you could take a gondola halfway to the US (we didn't),

then onto the main Falls.  The guy at the front desk of our hotel happened to mention that there were fireworks on this night (I started to shake when I heard the words fireworks) and they started at 10pm. It was a Sunday night and we also had been told that it was the end of most people's holiday break, so it should be a lot quieter. (When we arrived in Niagara Falls, we got caught in a mini traffic jam as there was a 3 hr wait to get through US Customs).
This was the first glimpse of Niagara Falls for Morgan and Jakeb...it is such a different perspective to being on the US side.  Both are pretty speccy though.

The crowds were less (still a lot of people though) and we took our time walking along the Falls waiting for the fireworks.  As it got darker, they lit the falls up...it was gorgeous.

I was Skyping Stephanie (how amazing, to show your sister Niagara Falls, while she's at home in Australind) when the fireworks started. It was so much nicer than the Chicago fireworks, and more spectacular too. So now I don't hate fireworks anymore!

After the fireworks, we walked back to the car through the "entertainment" area of Niagara Falls.  It was crass and commercialised and I hated it.

The next morning we made our way back to the Falls...

before we hopped on the Maid of the Mist, which takes you as close as possible to Horseshoe Falls.  It is only about a 15 minute ride in total, but it gives you a great indication of the immense power of the falls. It was exhilarating, and if it wasn't for these glamorous blue gowns, we would have been drenched.

We walked up to the top of Horseshoe Falls,

to the next attraction, which was to walk "behind" the Falls. Again we got to wear some more attractive outfits, but sadly the photo we got someone to take did me no justice....I'm the one in the middle!

Again I just loved it....powerful, immense, refreshing. spectacular....

Stu and the boys took a walk downstream from the falls to check the river out. Stu said it was so powerful and really spectacular up close.

The next day, with pillow slips checked and clothes packed we got away early to avoid the queues at Customs.  We had all the paperwork ready, predicting there would be a small problem with Morgan and Visa's. Morgan came to the US on a J1 Visa...independent of us, and as advised by the US Consulate and CITEL.  This Visa expired on May 10, which we knew so we also got him a J2 Visa, which is attached to Stuart as recommended by the US Consulate and CITEL.  This would allow him to stay in the States as long as we were there.  But he hadn't entered the country on his J2 and the Canadian/US Border was the first time for that.
So I had all the paperwork in each Passport which is one A4 sheet per passport. Stu gave it to the Customs guy, he took it, then virtually threw it back at Stu and said "get rid of this paperwork, I don't want to see it". He was really, really rude. Morgan was in the front seat and in a very accusatory voice, the Customs guy said to him 'What trouble have you got into Morgan?" Morgs was really shocked and said "none, why?". This guy again in an accusatory tone said "no reason, I'm just asking, what trouble have you been in?" Again Morgan said "no trouble". He then kept our passports and told us to pull over near a building and go in there.
So we did, and lots of questions, explanations, and a phone call to the boss, 50 minutes later they let us all go.  It was intimidating, scary and rude...although we had a decent bloke dealing with us in the office.  They just couldn't grasp our situation...I know they have a tough, very important job that I want them to do well, but I don't know why they can't be a bit civil....it seems noone is innocent!
We will probably head back into Canada after the boys have left DC, and when we reenter the US, there will no doubt be more accusatory questions as to why we went into Canada for 3 days, back into the US, back to Canada and then back to the US again! Looking forward to it!