Mini Trip - Day 6

Did you know there are fireworks at Niagara Falls? Neither did we. About 10:00 last night, fireworks started going off practically right outside our window, over the falls. What a fun surprise!

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0650 Wake up – time to pack.
0750 1st trip to the car. The weather is gorgeous today! Cool and sunny.
0757 Leave the room for the last time.
0800 Leave the hotel – the car is getting fuller. When we left on this trip, I was thinking that maybe we could do our summer trip without the roof box. Now I’m starting to wonder.
0827 Lake Erie!
0850 McD’s for breakfast. The kids all ate cinnamelts for breakfast. They say that they like the brownie melts better. We decided that the brownie melts are no worse for you than the cinnamelts, really. Maybe next time we will eat brownies for breakfast!
0916 Leaving McD’s.
1000 Arrive at Paula’s parents’ house. 10:00 on the dot – couldn’t do that again if I tried! Guess I wasn’t kidding when I said we’d be there at 10.
1100 Leave to go on a hike at Zoar Valley. When we get there, Evan found a totally cool, totally tiny frog. Less than an inch long. I tried to take a picture but realized my lens was ruined. Must have been the water drops at the falls. I get out the other camera and get a picture but it isn’t the close-up I wanted. The state has made some improvements at the park and now we can’t easily hike down to the creek anymore so we decide to go cherry picking instead. Load everyone up and take off for the orchard.
12:15 p.m. Finished picking. Filled almost a whole bucket and had a total of 11 pounds including the ones Paula had.
12:45 p.m. Back at Paula’s parents’ house. Time for lunch – yummy hot dogs! – and then fishing in the neighbor’s pond. All of the kids caught at least one fish and posed for photos before releasing them back into the water. We terminated our fishing time when two fish in a row swallowed the hook. It was time to leave anyway. Paula drove Grandma R to buy some syrup at another neighbor’s house. Syrup from the maple trees at Paula’s parents’ house and other maples in the neighborhood.
2:36 p.m. Leaving. We had a lovely visit. The weather was perfect and the countryside was beautiful. And though we had planned to leave at 2, I knew it would probably be 2:30-3 before we actually left. Turns out I was right about that too!
3:18 p.m. McD’s in Salamanca for iced coffee and a snack and water.
3:40 p.m. Turns out they didn’t give us our water at McD’s so we stop at a gas station. $2.67/gallon. It is a full-service station which surprised me but the attendant said it was because the station was on the Indian reservation.



4:25 p.m. Oh my gosh! I FINALLY see what the highway sign is! I have been looking at every sign for the Southern Tier Expressway, trying to figure it out. I was trying to make the white part of the picture into a portion of the state but it didn't make any sense. The road runs in a fairly straight line across the southern border of New York. But the white on the left side of the sign looks like a piece of New Jersey or something. It's actually a picture of an Indian. The green part is the picture and the white part is just background. It's like that black and white picture of the old woman and the young lady - depending on where you focus that affects what you see. Click here to see a picture of the sign. I can't believe it took me this long to figure out that sign!



4:33 p.m. Stop at a scenic overlook. Once again, disappointment. We can see farther than the last overlook we stopped at but really - not all that amazing.



5:21 p.m. Pass the hotel in Corning that we stayed at the other day. The kids are in shock. We've just gone in a big circle! Highly unusual for our road trip to back-track like that.



5:51 p.m. Pennsylvania! And then less than a minute later, we are back in New York! What a crazy highway!



6:28 p.m. Arrive at our hotel in Binghamton, NY. Go to dinner at Cracker Barrel. While Grandma R is paying, the kids are I are shopping in the gift shop area. Grandma thought we had left without her so she went back to the hotel looking for us. Meanwhile, I'm at Cracker Barrel wondering where she disappeared to. I of course didn't have my cell phone with me so I couldn't call to find out. Eventually she came back to the restaurant and found us.



After all of that we go to the pool for a swim. The water is warm - yea! Even better, the hot tub is HOT! I only let them swim for an hour because it is getting close to 10:00 already. Back to the room to shower and change into pajamas. Ron skypes us and the kids get to talk to him before going to bed. Ice Age 2 is showing on Fx so we all watch while falling asleep.