Niagara Falls
Callie and Daddy at Niagara Falls
Callie singing in the car on the way to Niagara Falls
Callie and Mommy at the Toronto Zoo
Callie the Firefighter at the Children's Museum
Callie goes grocery shopping
Callie puts on a puppet show
Callie learns about pulleys
Callie learns about magnets
Day 1
Our first day took us to Flint, Michigan. We left our house at about 3:00 am, hoping Callie would quickly fall back asleep for most of the car ride. Unfortunately, she took about an hour and a half before sleeping again. However, she didn't seem to mind it too much. Though I took a lot of time planning when we were leaving and going each day, I failed to consider that we were crossing into another time zone, so we arrived in Flint an hour after I intended.
We visited a Children's Museum in Flint. It was smaller than I anticipated from their website, but Callie still managed to fill her two hours there with plenty of play. Everything was hands on, so of course Callie was in heaven without Mommy and Daddy chasing her around saying "No, no, only for your eyes!"
After a couple hours at the Children's Museum, we decided we'd better find something for lunch. We stopped at a neighborhood Arby's and once again hoped that Callie would fall asleep as we drove to our next destination, OUTLET SHOPS! We found this HUGE outlet shopping center and got Callie some much needed spring (transitional) clothing. I realized while packing for this trip that I did not have a lot of light long sleeve tops or even layering jackets for Callie to wear. So, our goal was met and we even were able to replace yet another pair of outgrown shoes with some good sales. And I even got a good deal on some Bath and Body Works Antibacterial soaps and lotions that happened to be on a pretty good sale as well. Our last little drive was to Auburn Hills, MI where we stayed the night. We had a very nice hotel suite and Philip and I were even able to stay up past Callie's bedtime because there was a separate living room area for Callie to sleep in. Very good day 1!
Day 2
We headed out at about 5:00 am from Auburn Hills and crossed the border into Canada by 6:00. Crossing the border held the typical questions.
(Border Guard) "Where are you from?"
(Philip) "Illinois."
(BG) "What are you planning on doing in Canada?"
(P) "Going up to Toronto to visit the zoo."
(BG) "Are you spending the night in Canada?"
(P) "No, just the day."
(BG) "You drove all the way from Chicago to spend a day in Canada?"
(P) "We're on a road trip to Boston."
(BG) "Okay, have fun."
Apparently, even an educated Border Guard from Canada thinks that Chicago is the only place in Illinois. Hate to tell you, but there's an entire state other than Chicago . . . in fact, I think most people in Illinois wouldn't mind if Chicago broke off into Lake Michigan, became an island, and declared themselves the 51st state.
We had a blast at the zoo. We arrived soon after they opened on a VERY busy Saturday. (We think it was probably one of the first nice days that they had since winter.) It was huge! I told Philip I would have liked to have a pedometer so we knew how far we had walked. We visited Indio-Malaysia, Eurasia, the Americas, Africa, and Australia, complete with a Great Barrier Reef exhibit. Callie wore herself out before we got to Eurasia, so Philip and I took a quick trip around it and headed back to the car for our next destination: Niagara Falls! Callie slept much better all the way to Niagara. We tried to go to the Canadian side of the falls first , but unfortunately, their "free parking" was only open seasonally and the other parking was $14 . . . so we headed toward New York and the American side of the falls. We once again had an interesting border guard, asking where Philip worked, what we did, etc. Then it got interesting . . .
(Border Guard) "Heather?"
(Heather) "Yes?"
(BG) "Is that you?"
(H) "Yes."
(BG) "Could you take your sunglasses off? Those things are bigger than me!"
(H) snickering "Sure."
(BG) "Alright, that is you. Thanks."
We visited Niagara Falls, which was pretty mind-blowingly huge and amazing. I was a little nervous holding Callie up by the railing, which I let Philip do, but kept telling him what to do anyway. "You got her? Real tight right? Don't cut off the circulation to her legs, but hold her good . . . " (it went on from there).
We finished up the day with a drive to Buffalo, NY for our overnight stay, which was pretty uneventful.
Day 3
Easter Sunday! Happy Easter! We started our day with a 6:00 am goal for leaving to get to Albany, NY by the beginning of church services. We made our goal, and got on the craziest tollway that I've ever seen in my life. It's called the New York State Thruway, which is pretty descriptive in and of itself. Basically if you want to get from one side of New York to the other, your only route is this road. You get a ticket when you get on, and you pay for how far you travel on it at your exit. We had to go 290 miles, so you can guess that it was a good size chunk of change by the time we got off. But, as you can tell by the name, there's not really a way around it. It would be like making I-55 or I-10 a tollway. No good way around it in a lot of places.
We made it to church services on time and had a pleasant experience at church. Callie even stayed with us the entire service and despite having to tell her over and over again to use her "whisper voice" she did well overall and we even got compliments from the preacher's wife on how well-behaved she was. After church, we headed to the Crossgate Mall hoping to find a place to eat and a place to walk off some energy. Unfortunately, our plans were not to be as the mall was closed because of the holiday. Fortunately, we did find something to eat that was open, but none of the stores were. We walked around for awhile anyway to get out some energy before heading to Chicopee, Massachusetts.
Callie was once again a good rider for us to Chicopee, taking her afternoon nap on the trip. We've spent the rest of the day taking it a little bit easier, resting in the hotel for the last part of the afternoon and found a close place for dinner.
We plan on taking a more relaxed morning tomorrow and arriving in Beverly, Massachusetts (our final destination for the next 4 days) in the early afternoon. We only have about 1 1/2 hours to get there, so we're looking forward to "sleeping in". :)
We'll try to continue to update on the progress of our trip. We're having a lot of fun so far! We hope you had a great holiday weekend!
God bless you and yours!
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