Thursday 5 July 2007

New Start 4 (ii) - Niagara Falls retrospective


















Hi again. We've now made it up to our Niagara snaps. As you can imagine - I took a lot!! It was brilliant. I've been before with my parents when I was a kid but it was great to see again and D loved it.






It's a strange mix of wild and thundering natural phenomenon and incredibly tacky tourist tat. Luckily, they keep the tat confined to 2 areas at each end of the Falls and the bit in the middle is devoted to the Falls themselves. A well kept walkway with multiple viewing platforms and a lovely flower filled park. Honestly, I wouldn't want to spend too much time in Niagara itself though as it was the sort of place which is brilliantly engineered to remove vast sums of cash from your purse at every turn. For a few hours you don't mind as the experience is quite special but, after that, you start to get used to the stunning vista and resent the cash disappearing trick! The rainbow appearing was pretty special though. It's not always there and it felt magical.






The Maid of the Mist boat trip is fantastic though - well worth the money (and not too pricey anyway) and not gimmicky at all. You really feel the power of the water; we couldn't help laughing out loud at the sheer exhileration of the spray and the noise etc.






We had a fun drive down from Toronto in the swanky car D persuaded me to hire for the day (see above) - D ate what looked like a brilliant diner style breakfast on the way down but I didn't indulge. In fact I didn't eat all day (apart from my packs of course), not even a bite of his ice cream. I was virtue personified! It didn't spoil it although the breakfast was hard to resist I recall.






All the way round on our travels we kept on finding really good family owned cafes and diners. Not big chains like in the US - but great quality individual roadside restaurants. We were very impressed by that side of Canada as I don't think we encountered a single bad one in the 3 weeks we were there.






Anyway, back to rainy old England. Not much to report bar the dog stuff which I put in the earlier post. I'm taking it easy with her this evening as she doesn't look up to a walk and it's chucking it down anyway. I had to cancel personal training tonight (with the lovely Huw of course!) to nurture the patient but she's worth it!






Should get a few chores done befoe we settle down to a nice cuddle in front of the telly.






It was weird after I picked her up - my inner chatterbox was giving it laldy (as my Glaswegian friend says!) and trying to convince me that, because Shelagh had had a hard day, I needed a treat!!! How mental is that? Anyway, I resisted and gave myself a stern talking to. Supper will be the usual toffee bar and then chicken stuffing around 9pm Madam!"






Hope you're all being as virtuous.



3 comments:

Steph said...

Hi Lesley,

don't you look fantastic. :) Well done!!

I've not been around much and I'll confess I haven't caught up with the whole blog but what amazing photos, looks like you had a wonderful time on your hols.

Sorry to hear Shelagh has been in the wars I do hope she is well again soon.

Steph x

Amanda said...

Looks like you had a great time at Niagra and the photos brought back memories of my trip there a few years back.

Glad to hear that Shelagh is now on the mend & can sympathise with trying to stop them licking their wounds. My cat was in the wars last month and had to be kept in and have his lampshade on for over 2 weeks. Just give Shelagh lots of hugs & love, which I'm sure you do.

I like the ritual of sharing your bar, so sweet.

Looking forward to the next batch of photos, and yes, I'm still be virtuous!!

Amanda
x

Anonymous said...

Aww poor hound dog looking very sorry for herself & if anythinkg like my puss cats is making full use of the attention! Mind you my lot wont touch the bars (possibly cos there arent any any more!!)...very sensible in my view! Photos are great & that car looks so huge & American!! Well done for resisting brekkie - not sure I could have! My fave meal of the day - pancakes, bacon & maple syrup...ummmm!! You're looking great! How long until you go into management? Surely not that far to go?!!