Kate and I are 383 miles away from each other.
I have never made a New Years Resolution before, but this year I decided to make a few. One of them was to make this the year of travel-- so my mom and I have been researching some good places to go for the weekend.
My dad flies for Southwest Airlines so we are able to fly standby for free, but using stand-by is tricky if there is bad weather because then all the flights quickly fill up or get cancelled. And if you were in Ohio this past weekend you know that the weather forecast for the weekend was terrible, which means we had to decide whether to scrap the trip or tough it out and drive. We are a stubborn bunch so of course we decided to go ahead and drive, and we were very glad we did!
TRAVEL TIP: Packing for a road trip is always difficult because you never know what outfit to choose, so I like to make it simple. If you're like me, you pick out your outfit depending on your mood that day. So don't pack three entire matching outfits before you leave, choose two of your favorite pants, sweaters, long sleeve shirts, one or two of your favorite and most comfortable shoes and then put them together once you've arrived at your destination. It saves lots of room and also leaves room for a few changes and some innovation!
The drive was 6hrs long, so we left at 1:pm and arrived that evening at our hotel. When we crossed into Canada we asked to get our passport stamped, but the guy would only do mine since it was my mom's second time being there--weird but I was happy!
We stretched out in the hotel then got all bundled up to go see the falls, we were only a ten minute walk away from them, but it was definitely a work out!
The next day my mom had a video conference at 10:00 am for the Village Mountain Mission board, so we didn't head out until about noon. We got some brunch at the IHop in the hotel, which was slightly cheaper than our supper the night before, but we figured it was our lunch and breakfast combined, Canada is expensive!
TRAVEL TIP: Always scout out what the food situation is like in the place you're travelling because you have to eat, but you don't want half of your budget to go towards eating. For example, we were in a touristy area so prices were going to be higher, plus Canada's money system inflates the prices by 30% of American money, plus they have the country AND province tax. So after that first meal we had to make sure we were doing our math correctly!
The Groupon my mom had found for this trip included a free tour of a chocolate factory, so with some trepidation about the roads we headed out.
We had gotten a few inches of snow overnight but the wind wasn't blowing too hard, even though it was in the single digits so it was still cold. I sucked it up to slowly tear off layer by layer to finally get some snowy SENIOR PICTURES!
We passed a homeless man set up on the side of the hill curled up in his sleeping bag, we couldn't even begin to imagine how insanely cold he was, so we decided to give him our 24 hour bus passes since we were walking everywhere anyways and then he'd at least have a way to stay warm/get around for one day. It really is crazy the kind of life people live who don't have a home or have a barely functional one.
We went down to the falls again after taking some awesome scenic photos, but there wasn't much snow or ice yet so we were really excited for what they would look like the next day after the snow storm that was supposed to be coming.
After seeing the falls we went to the casino and my mom won enough to pay for our supper (we got pizza) and a cup of coffee with the $20 voucher included in the Groupon deal.
I did my first crossword puzzle, unfortunately I will never know the answers. But it was fun nonetheless!
We got back to the hotel around 8:00pm, ready to snuggle up in the warm covers!
We woke up to 8 inches of snow and a B-E-A-utiful view of the waterfalls, trees and lights. We went on a tour under the falls, but as can be expected everything was...frozen haha.
It was still super cool to be so close and we got to read lots of interesting facts. The falls are gushing around 40mph and have only frozen twice in the past two centuries. The first person to go over the falls was a woman in a barrel, she did survive... maybe because she brought her cat with her and she got one of the nine lives.
TRAVEL TIP: Even if you don't like history in the classroom, I highly advise to go to as many historical sights and learn as much as possible from tours and museums because you will be surprised by how interesting this world is once you take the time to appreciate the knowledge available outside the classroom.
The wind would get so bad we'd have to stand against a building before we could continue walking, but the sights were worth it!
I bought my Canada mug when we checked out Monday morning and we made our way back home. We really lucked out this trip because we drove before and after the storm so the roads were clear thankfully!
I'm excited for where life takes me next, the Dominican Republic and North Carolina will be a Travel Tip post coming up since that is where I will be going over the summer and then for college, so stayed tune!
Happy exploring...
Honey Bee
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