Christmas Consumer Chaos and The Keg. In Canada.

Dec 9th, 2009- Day 3

I woke up at 10 AM, very groggy and in a haze.

Looking outside, there was none of the predicted snow to be seen, just a dreary, rainy day.

I hadn’t seen my cousin, Mark, in about five years. He lives near Toronto, so we were planning to meet up that day. Mom called him to see what was going on- that was when we found out where all the snow went. He was completely snowed in and unable to get to Toronto.
That was a bummer. Hopefully we’ll be able to get together another time soon.

We decided to head over to the Eaton Centre again and spend some time actually looking around.

To avoid the rain, we headed back down to the PATH, this time successfully passing the elevator roadblock by removing my leg rests.

It is...chaotic in the PATH. The fast-paced hustle and bustle of the people combined with the somewhat confusing layout can get you turned around pretty fast.

Luckily, we found our way to the Eaton Centre relatively quickly. The chaos continued inside, where three floors of Christmas shoppers frantically darted in every direction.

We wandered around for a while and stopped in the food court for some ice cream. As we finished, I heard a voice from behind asking “Are you Jacob?” It turned out to be Angela, a MySpace friend of mine who was also at the concert the night before. We didn’t get much time to talk, but it was still a cool, unexpected meeting.

The top of the giant Christmas tree

The star at the top

Back to shopping mode, I set out to find a replacement iPod adaptor for the drive home. The best looking one I could find was pricier than I had hoped, but Mom and I went halfsies on it, which lessened the sting a bit. (Of course, I later found out it was three times the price I would’ve spent if I had waited and bought it on Amazon. Ugh.)

Before leaving the Eaton Centre, I bought one of Dala’s CDs and saw the DVD of Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog for a good price, so I grabbed that too.

We headed back to the hotel for a bit, only to see severe weather warnings plastered all over the news. Apparently, the majority of our road home was set to be hammered by lake effect snow throughout the next few days.
This raised the question of whether we should still leave the next day, as planned, or stay in Toronto and wait it out.
We agreed to play it by ear.

Having only eaten that ice cream at the food court, it was time to get some dinner. We loved The Keg in Niagara Falls, so we went down to the front desk to ask if there happened to be one near the hotel. They gave us directions and we were on our way.

It was only about a ten, maybe fifteen minute long walk, but the constant icy winds made it feel much, much longer. My driving hand was frozen by the time we arrived.

The place was packed. They had a table pretty quickly, but it was a pretty cramped path, everyone would have had to stand up and push their chairs in for me to get my wheelchair through, so we ended up wait waiting 45 minutes. I snagged a spot near the fireplace, so I didn’t mind the wait. Thawing is nice.

Dinner was great, I got the teryaki chicken and three cheese baked potato with Jackson-Triggs chardonnay. Totally worth the long, cold trek to get there.

The walk back seemed much quicker and warmer, most likely thanks to the wine. We even paused to snap a couple pictures of the awesome Christmas window displays at The Bay.

We got back to the room at 10:30 and just decompressed for a while. Flipping around on TV, we managed to catch the day’s installment of ET Canada’s feature on Chantal and Raine’s vow renewal, so that was cool.

I was in bed by 12:30.

June 25th, 2009- The Other Side of the Storm

As usual, I had planned to leave early in the day, around 9 or 10 AM. Also as usual, we got off to a late start, leaving the house around noon.

Our first stop was a couple streets over to pick up Granny. We grabbed Granny, then Maude called just as we set out to pick her up. She called, saying that the news was reporting Farrah Fawcett died. It's weird, celebrities seem to die when I go on vacation. Anna Nicole Smith, Steve Irwin, etc. Kinda creepy.
So, by the time we drove out, picked up Maude, and really on the road, it was somewhere around 2 PM. Definitely later than I had hoped.

The ride started out pretty smooth, despite the hot (especially hot for this summer) temperatures.
As we drove through Pennsylvania, approaching the New York border, the skies in front of us grew dark.

A few minutes later, we were driving through a downpour, accented by heavy winds and some wicked looking lightning. Thankfully, most of it had stopped by the time we reached the rest stop in Angola, save for the occasional stray drizzle. We popped in, grabbed a quick bite at Denny's, and got back on the road.

A windblown Granny tells us it's all good!

We finally crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada, rode into Niagara Falls, and arrived at Hilton around 7 PM. As we pulled in and waited to unload the van, Baytosh called to tell us that Michael Jackson had died.
See what I mean?
That one was a bit of a shocker.

We unloaded and headed in. I was pumped. The Hilton had been renovating for a while and the room I booked was part of the brand new wing, which opened less than a month earlier.
Only three of the six elevators were up and running at the time, so there was a bit of a wait, but I figured it's just one little inconvenience.
The bellman that helped us to our room, Stu, was really cool. He kind of looked like Simon Pegg. All was going well, the room looked great. Excellent view of the Falls, fireplace, flat-screen TV's...then we found a sizeable problem. To summarize, the bathroom door wasn't exactly handicap-friendly and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have been able to hold it all weekend.
Stu went from room to room, checking to see if any of the bathroom doors were different, but no luck. He hung around with us for quite a while, calling down to the front desk, searching for any kind of solution for us.

Finally we ended up downgrading and moving over to a room in the older wing. We got into that room around 8 PM.

As they unpacked, and helped the confused lady who thought our room was hers, I flicked on the TV and saw that The Dark Knight was on and it was right at the pencil scene. That was an enjoyable little moment of relaxation.

It was starting to get dark out and I wanted to do something, so we left the room and aimed for the Falls. We decided to cut through casino, so we took the walkway that went over the street that connected our hotel to the casino.

The walkway.

So, we walk cross over the street...and find stairs on the other side. Besides turning around and going back, the only way into the casino was through the parking garage, so through the parking garage we went.

Through the casino, down the hill, and we were down by the Falls. We made our way up the sidewalk and through the mist and looked at the Falls, illuminated in the night.

Once at the top of the Falls, it was getting a bit chilly, so we shuffled into the Table Rock building to warm up a little. While inside, I consulted the all-knowing mystic, Zoltar! And before you ask, no, I didn't wish I was big.

It was getting late, so we headed back up the hill and had dinner at the Keg inside the Embassy Suites. As always, it was delicious.

Totally stuffed, we made our way back up the street to our hotel to get some shut-eye and prepare for a full day.

Another Journey North

Yeah, I know my trip recap is a little late, but here it is.

All packed up and ready to roll, Mom and I left around 1 PM on Tuesday the 7th, despite winter giving us its (hopefully) last hurrah.

There's no way to sugarcoat it, the weather sucked. Especially for driving. It was the worst while we were still in Ohio. At one point, the snow was coming down so hard, we could only see maybe a quarter of a mile ahead of us. Observe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PtlJemyWSM

It improved to just some flurries in Pennsylvania and a few scattered flakes in New York, but the wind never let up. As I've written in the past, Mom's a bit of a nervous driver, so I'm sure it was a long drive for her, but she did great. A couple hours in, we made our traditional mid-journey pause at the rest stop in Angola. I swear, they play no music in that Denny's unless it's at least 30+ years old. Honeycomb, anyone?
We sat, we ate, we hit the road and crossed the border into Canada. Thankfully, we were out of the snow, though the cold and wind stuck with us.
We got to the hotel some time after five and settled in a little bit. Mom sorted our stuff in the room and I checked out the view. It was really weird to look out at the Falls and see almost nobody walking around. Even weirder (but way more impressive) was seeing the massive ice bridge spanning the river at the bottom of the Falls. Take a gander, won't you?

After a little bit, we headed off to St Catharines to wander the Pen Centre.

We didn't stay too long, as we wanted to be sure to have time to get back and have dinner at The Keg. The highlight for me was HMV, where they were having a sweet sale on DVDs. I picked up Sunshine and [REC].
We shopped around a little more, then back to the Falls and to The Keg inside the Embassy Suites. An awesome chicken dish and a glass of wine later and we headed back to the Marriott to crash before the big concert day.

I woke up to some bizarre Canadian children's TV shows. If I had caught the name of this one particularly odd show, I'd find and post a clip in a heartbeat. If my memory serves me, this one lady was supposed to be a doll or something and was dressed in a blue (or maybe purple) full body suit. The only part of her that remained exposed was her face and it was painted to match the rest of the costume. It was freaky, man.

Once we were up, we headed across the street to Tony Roma's for some lunchtime breakfast. It was a little less chilly, but the wind seemed to have picked up.
Tony Roma's was kind of a strange experience. When we got there, we were literally the only people there (excluding employees), yet the service was extremely slow. Seriously, after ordering our drinks (tea and hot chocolate), it was about 20 minutes before we actually got them. Don't get me wrong, I love it there, but that baffled me.
After finishing eating, we scribbled our names on one of the brick pillars (can you find them?) and aimed back toward the hotel.

You'd think crossing the street would be an uneventful thing. Not in this case. The second I got into the street, a gust of wind smacked me and I ended up with my sweatshirt and blanket blown up over my face. Mom quickly fixed it, but between the wind and how hard we were laughing, we had tears streaming down our faces by the time we made it across the street.
Finally, we made it back to room, got ourselves ready, and left for Brock University.

We were invited to get there early for the soundcheck, so we did. Upon entering the theatre, we were greeted by Karen Graves, so we sat and chatted with her for a bit. Not much later, Kevin Fox came in and joined us for a few minutes before the pair of them started soundcheck, as Chantal was still on her way and hadn't arrived yet.

When she got there, we talked for a couple quick minutes and then she hopped behind the piano for another quick soundcheck. To my surprise, she turned to me and asked "What do you want to hear?"
I thought, smiled, and said "Something new."
Chantal, Karen, and Kevin debated for a few seconds and Chantal said "Let's play something that's not in tonight's set."
I was in musical geekout mode as she played a new song called Say the Word from her upcoming CD. It sounded fantastic, I really can't wait to get my hands on a copy of that CD.
They played around with the sound a little more and headed backstage to get ready, so we headed up to our seats.

Kevin opened the show with songs from both of his CDs, Come Alive and Songs For Cello & Voice, including covers of River and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). His set was great and it was nice to see him at the front of the stage. You should check him out at kevinfox.ca

At intermission, I met up with my friends from Chantal's message board, Elements. It was great visiting with Kathy, Sandy, and Terrence again, the first time since the Jackson-Triggs show. I loved finally getting to meet Angela, after years of corresponding online. As intermission ended, we agreed we'd meet up again after the show.

Chantal made her way onto the stage and kicked off her set with Leaving On A Jet Plane. This was the last night of a seven show tour and everyone sounded excellent. They even played a couple more new songs- Today and Half of Me. Have I mentioned I can't wait for this CD?
Chantal was extra chatty that night, thanks to a visit from "The Claritin Man." She was on a roll and had everyone cracking up all night.
Toward the end of the show, Chantal thanked a fan of hers, whose family sent Chantal a letter, explaining how her music helped this girl through some rough times. Then she thanked her best friend and followed that with thanks to "Jacob and his mom." She talked about how we come up from Ohio to see her. "They're always traveling that road..." she said, and then tried to remember which road it was. People in the audience started calling out freeway names before she finally said "Jacob, what's the road?"

From the back of the theatre, I yelled out "90."

"90. Thank you, sir" she replied.

For her last song, she explained that during the other shows on the tour, two of her sons, Rowan and Lucca, would come on stage and sing What A Wonderful World together. They weren't there that night, so Chantal sang it on her own to end the night.
Just for fun, here's a clip of Rowan and Lucca doing their thing at a previous show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqHxKfBuzuE

I met back up with my Elements friends as the theatre emptied and Kathy once again surprised me with a setlist, this time, it was Chantal's. Thanks a million!
We eventually made our way out to the lobby and hung out for a few minutes and snapping a couple group pictures. Kevin and Karen even got in on the photo fun.

Eventually, we said our goodnights and our hope-to-see-you-in-Junes (Chantal's playing at the Jackson-Triggs winery again) and Mom and I headed backstage. Sadly, we just missed her, she had to get back to her kids in Toronto. Ahh well, next time. So, we said goodbye to Kevin and Karen and headed back to the hotel.

Before crashing, we scooted over to the Fridays in the Embassy Suites for our traditional last-night-at-the-Falls drinks and snacks. Such an excellent way to end a trip.

Thursday morning, we were up fairly early, which was nice , as some of the pressure to rush to get out on time was relieved. We ate some cold leftovers, packed our things, enjoyed the view one last time, and set out for home.

Thursday was actually a pretty smooth and uneventful day. It was a sunny day and much warmer, though it was still kind of windy.
We made a quick stop at Duty Free for some wine and a couple little gifts. The border was crowded, but the wait wasn't too long. It was the first time they've wanted to look inside the van, but even that was fast and we were on our way before very long.
It was a nice ride with wide open roads...except in PA. There was a traffic jam (with no apparent reason) that had us at a standstill for about 20 minutes. That sucked, but it was all easy going after that.

It was a great trip, I was definitely in need of a little getaway after this seemingly neverending winter. It was weird not being able to wander around and see the sights of Niagara Falls again, but hey, there's always June.

August 30th, 2007 - Another Adventure Begins

I managed to wake up at 9:00 AM, which is early for me, but later than I had hoped to be up. Within a couple hours, Mom and I were packed, in the van and on the road, but we weren't aiming for Canada just yet.

While printing driving directions and room information the night before, the power cord on my MacBook up and died for no reason. A couple aspects of the trip required me to be in touch with people via email, so our first stop was the Apple Store. It was a frustrating start to the trip as they told me my warranty would cover a replacement, but only if I had an appointment and they were booked solid for the next two days. Reluctantly, we bought a new one, fully intending to return it before their two-week return limit is up.

We were finally on the road toward Niagara-on-the-Lake at noon. It was a dreary, drizzly day, much like our first big trip which, in an odd coincidence, began exactly three years before. Little did we know how many parallels to that trip would pop up this time around.

Before too long, we pulled into the rest stop in Angola, New York, where we took the opportunity to play with my recently purchased new toy: a bright, shiny, Kodak Z712.

A spider on the outside of the window of the rest stop's overpass

Pictures were snapped, mashed potatoes were devoured, and the road was hit.

As soon as we crossed the border at the Peace Bridge, the sun broke through the clouds as if on cue. It was like an entirely new day. That seems to happen quite a bit on our trips, it seems strange, but you'll not catch me complaining.

I weighed the hotel options over and over again, which lead to me getting headaches over and over again, due to the absurdly high rates over the Labor Day weekend. I love staying at the Falls, but I flat out couldn't afford it, so I decided on the Hilton Garden Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was way cheaper, a short drive from the Falls, and it looked nice enough.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I was met with a flashback to the 2004 trip. I stared across the street as I got down from the van and wondered why it all looked so familiar. The road, the freeway, the multi-restaurant rest stop, I knew I had been there before.

And then, along with a fit of uncontrollable laughter, it hit me. This was the same rest stop where we had an unforgettably hilarious experience with Grandma, and we were back, three years to the day later.

The rest stop across the way

Still chuckling to ourselves, Mom and I checked in and headed up to our room. It was a bit cramped for my chair, but it worked well enough.

We relaxed for a little bit and unwound after the drive before hopping back into the van and heading to the Falls.

As we searched for cheap (or better yet, free) parking, we noticed everyone on the streets was standing still and staring upward. After parking, we saw what all the eyes were drawn to- a tightrope walker taking a stroll high above the city. A perfect opportunity to try out the camera's zoom.

Without zoom


With zoom

The height of the wire was impressive enough, but when paired up with the distance from start to finish, it was a mind-boggling feat.

The Falls beckoned, so we headed down once the man reached the end of his walk and began to climb down. It was already getting dark as we made our way down Murray Street, but it was a beautiful evening, if a bit chilly. Another nice chance to see what the camera could do.

View of the Skylon Tower from Murray Street






The SkyWheel




The Rainbow Bridge at night










A shot of the Fallsview Casino

Our casino visit was a fun one, though brief and uneventful. We left with what we came in with, which is nice, though a jackpot would have been nicer.

Inside the casino


The fountain


Above the fountain

Bellies were a-grumblin' after a long day and lots of walking. We marched our way up to The Keg for my one splurge meal of the trip. Seated by the giant window overlooking the Falls, I had a glass of champagne and tried filet mignon. I'm not much of a steak guy, but it was tasty and enjoyable.

Then came the one bummer about not staying at The Falls. At the point where we'd normally walk back to the hotel and crash, we had to walk back to the van, load up, and drive back to the hotel. At least it wasn't too long of a drive.

On the way back to the van

Back at the hotel, I relaxed online a bit and got to sleep. Saturday's events would fill up most of the day, so I had to rest up and fit in the rest of our Niagara Falls sightseeing on Friday.