BEMM » Canada Trip Summer 2010

The long journey home…

Ed — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:24:25 +0000

Well we made it home. We got up and hit the road at midnight. When we hit Arkansas we hit a cold front. It was only 80 degrees, so I kept on driving. The next thing I know it was 7PM and I was pulling into the drive way. It was a wonderful trip but I think we will stay at home for the next few months and not travel for from it. Hope you enjoyed keeping up with us on our journey.

Niagara Falls, NY

Ed — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:30:17 +0000

Niagara Falls was amazing. Words can’t describe it. It is something that everyone should see at least once in there life.

What is not amazing is the heat. It is cooler in Texas than it is here in New York. What has made it worse is the A/C in the van has gone out. We have just stopped outside of Cleveland, OH. It is only 3PM, but the kids and us are about to pass out from the HEAT. We plan to relax and get up at Midnight and drive. It looks like we will drive all night and sleep during the day. I will not post again until we get home.

Montmorency Falls & Citadelle of Quebec

Ed — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:15:08 +0000

Today, we visited Montmorency Falls

and Citadelle of Quebec.

I thought Melinda was going to faint as we crossed the walking bridge over the falls. We then walked over a 1000 steps up and down the side of the falls. We all got wet at the bottom of the falls were the mist coming up from the water covered the steps. Needless to say by the time we got back to the van we all were wet from the falls and good old sweat. We left the falls and drove over to the Citadelle were we quickly walked a large potion of the city before heading out to New York. We got to see the changing of the guard which was really neat. We left around 1PM and headed for Niagara Falls.

As we drove through Montreal we decided we had had enough of Canada. Montreal was not what we had expected. It was nasty. We were very glad that we had decided to not stop there as we had originally planned and just kept on driving.

We had planned to take 401 in Canada all the way to Niagara Falls, but as we approached 137/ US 81 we decided to cross over and get back into the US. We were so glad to be back in the US, we all said a pray, took a quick break at Wal-Mart, and then we headed on. The drive through upper New York was breath taking. We even passed some Amish which was a shock to us. We just made it to the Howard Johnson in Niagara Falls. It is about 10 PM. We are all exhausted from today. We are headed to bed, so we can get up early and see the Falls before heading back to Texas tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures from the falls from one of the hotels we stay at on the way home.

Quebec, Canada

Ed — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:16:39 +0000

We enjoyed a wonderful ceremony on the Mic-Mac reservation in upper Canada on July 4th. We had an incredible breakfast that morning. It was difficult communicating with the waiter. He spoke very little English, but did wish us a Happy American Day. It took us a while to realize he was wishing us a happy 4th of July or Independence day. We got up early on the 5th and drove to Quebec.

Today, we plan to tour the Citadelle of Quebec and Montmorency Falls, before leaving for New York state. We have decided to skip Montreal and just go to Niagara Falls before heading home.

The hotel last night had okay Internet access. I was able to upload a few more pictures to our Picasa account.

Pictures from our visit to the Statue of Liberty.

Some of the Pictures from the Wedding.

Planes, Buses, and Automobiles

Ed — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:15:00 +0000

Bill, the father of the bride and Melinda’s dad has a favorite movie, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” It may not be his favorite any more after living it. The plane he was to take to get to the wedding had issues. We were concerned that he would not make the wedding. He luckily was able to get a bus to a town close by the wedding location. We drove over and picked him up. He arrived 14 hours later than planned but at least he arrived. His only comment about the ordeal. I’ll never fly Air Canada again.

In time for the Wedding

Ed — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:16:39 +0000

We just arrived at our Canada hotel. It does not have A\C. Luckily, it is 60 outside. I did not relize that we would loose another hour when coming into this part of Canada. It has been a long and exhausting drive. It would be nice to sleep in but the sun rises very early. We have the rehearsal tomorrow and the wedding on Sunday. It may be that we can’t post until we get back into the states.

Statue of Liberty

Ed — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:08:51 +0000

We visited the Statue of Liberty yesterday morning. I have come to the conclusion that the Internet and Hollywood have spoiled seeing some things in person. We had our expectations of what the Statue of Liberty would look like based on what we have seen online or in the movies. The Statue of Liberty itself was breath taking, but everything that surrounds it was not. New York City and New Jersey are just nasty. Many of the roads and buildings should just be destroyed. The worst part of the New York City area has to be the drivers. They have to be the most rude drivers I have ever had to drive with. It will not hurt my feelings to never go back. I kept seeing shirts that said “I love NY” and all I could think was “I hate NY” get me out of here.

Leaving NY was a nightmare. It delayed our trip by hours. They even have TROLL charges. It cost us $8 to cross a bridge. We finally made it to Maine late last night. We plan to continue on to Canada today. If things go well we should be at our Canadian destination before night fall.

Our last thoughts on New York City. If we ever visit again, we need to fly in and walk or mass transit to the sites. I hope that upper state New York is better as we return home.

Goodbye, Lancaster County

Ed — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:53:19 +0000

Today, we left for New Jersey. Before we left we visited a few more Amish sites and returned to Intercourse for a few things. We could not find Megan a shirt that she liked better than the one she first saw in Intercourse. I also wanted some more homemade Amish Ice Cream from Lapps. It has to be the best ice cream I have ever eaten. The last thing I wanted us to do was take some pictures in front of Zimmerman’s Grocery Store. Zimmerman was the store that the pay phone call was made from in the movie Witness. I’ll have to watch the movie again when I get home. It has been over 20 years since I last saw it.

I was not able to upload pictures from Day 2 until we got to our hotel in New Jersey. You can view them below.

Tomorrow, we will get up early and visit the Statue of Liberty. Then we are off to Canada. This will most likely be our last post. We will have very little internet access for the next 6 days and our cell phones will be off while in Canada to avoid international fees.

We will try to twit some. You can follow updates at http://twitter.com/biged95 or http://twitter.com/meag95.

The Red Caboose

Ed — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:26:42 +0000

Last night, we stayed in old-fashioned caboose turned into a motel. The Red Caboose is an interesting place to stay. If you are ever around Paradise, PA it is worth at least one nights visit.

Yesterday, we went on a buggy ride to a working Amish farm. Today we plan to head back to Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse before heading to New Jersey to see the Statue of Liberty tomorrow.

The Internet at The Red Caboose did not work so this post is via iPhone.

From Intercourse to Blue Ball

Ed — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:30:00 +0000

You can say what you will about the Amish, but you can’t say they don’t have a sense of humor. How could you not have a sense of humor when you name towns Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, and Blue Ball. We started the day driving around Bird-in-Hand then we went to Intercourse, PA. We went on a horse drawn carriage ride around Intercourse before visiting some of the local shops. We ate some of the best home made ice cream we have ever eaten. We left Intercourse and went on a Northern Amish Countryside tour. We saw a lot of the covered bridges that Melinda has read about in her Amish books.

We ended up in Blue Ball were we ate at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord.

Tomorrow we plan to visit an Amish Village, more shops, and maybe the Train Museum.