The Alleged Pumpkin Patch Weekend

It was time for our pre-planned Pumpkin Patch Weekend so of course we tried to fit in as many things as we could - we're just not known for relaxing weekends!!

 

Glenn and I headed to Colorado Springs mid-afternoon on Friday as he had an appointment at the granite warehouse and from there we headed to dinner, office supply store and shoe store to get him new tennis shoes!! And then it was a nice drive to Denver as most of the traffic had subsided!

 

Jaime's arrived home shortly after we got to their place as Rayna was involved in a 2 day volleyball tournament - and yes they won their game Friday night!!  I played games with Kylan and Rayna till bedtime and slept like a rock!!

 

But the night seemed short as Jaime and I had to get up early to be at our 8:00am laser appts!  We raced back to the house and Glenn and I went to Jessi's for our adjustments before Jessi and I headed to coffee and the guys took the kids to ball practice and a game!!  I actually tried something different this time at Caribou - a white chocolate pumpkin mocha - yummy!!!  Soon it was time to head to Evan and Kylan's game - and it was COLD out as you can see by this picture!!  Never fails, of the 2 times we've seen them play, it was COLD !!!

 

Evan was all smiles, even though he was cold!

Kylan is all set to play!!

It was Evans' turn today to get the award and he was proud as can be!!

After the game Jaime headed to Rayna's tournament and we brought Kylan back to Jessi's to grab a bowl of chili before it was time to head to the Pumpkin Patch!

By this time it's raining out - darn - but we leave anyway and Jill is also on her way from Ft. Collins to meet us in Broomfield - not only where the pumpkin patch is but also where Rayna's tournament is!!  The traffic was horrible and the rain was even worse!!  Jessi called the pumpkin patch and they told us it was NOT raining there so to come on over - right!!!  By the time we get there, it's pouring and they're putting out the CLOSED sign - once again, the pumpkin patch was not to be!!

We all regrouped in a parking lot and decided to head to Dairy Queen to give the kids ice cream and then to head to a children's museum which was very close by!! 

The kids all loved their cones, as did the adults!! (sorry Jessi, I'm sure you won't love this picture of you in the background - ha ha)

And then it was off to the museum!!!  To be cont'd..............

Coffee, Wine and Tea

 

Our last day to tour - so it's a coffee, wine and tea day!!

 

We knew we were heading about 1/2 hour north so checked out a couple of places in Lockport to have coffee - one place we couldn't find and the other place wasn't open on weekends - are you kidding?????  A coffee place that isn't open on weekends????  I've never heard of that!!  But while we were looking for the one coffee place, we discovered we were right at the Erie Canal!!  And I fondly sang the song I remembered from elementary school -(and Patty and Teri remembered it too!!) - I've got a mule her name is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal - She's a good ole' worker and a good ole' gal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal!!  Now just put a little tune to that and you're all set!!

 

We walked on one of the widest bridges in the world, and yes it was HUGE!!!

 

Here's a picture of the actual Erie Canal - there were lots of facts and figures about it but of course I've forgotten them...........

We ended up having coffee at Panera Bread - not real original I know but that's all we could find!!  Then we were off to the Black Willow Winery!  It was a nice place and after the loud, crazy gals that were in there left, we had a nice relaxing tasting!!  Mark this down now - Becky bought a bottle of wine to bring back!!!  Yes, I loved it and it was sweet which is right down my alley!

Next we headed towards Murphy Orchards which we discovered was very near Lake Ontario so we drove up to the lake to take a peek at it - it was cool and windy out and there were lots of whitecaps on the water - BRRRRRR!!!

We arrived at the orchard farm and went into the old brick house that has been partially restored for our "tea".  The house was built in 1850 and is a neat old house - the owners are restoring it room by room!

There were 3 different tea rooms and we chose the one with the fireplace!  The table was set very nicely and Patty and Teri ordered their tea while I opted for apple cider - and let me say it was the BEST apple cider I have ever tasted!!  Yes, they sell the package of spices for it and I bought 4 packs!

Our dainty sandwiches soon arrived along with our water which was served in the tiny coca cola glasses - how cute!

Besides a tray full of bite size desserts - 5 for each of us - they served the best scones I have ever tasted with homemade cherry jelly and whipped cream - it was all so delicious!!

They also have a nice little store in one of the rooms where I purchased some jelly!

After our tea, we headed out to the barn where loads of apples, veggies, honey, jam, jelly and all kinds of things were on display to purchase!  And in the back room were all types of antiques, along with a concealed room (which was beneath the barn) where you can view the entrance - it's believed that the owners of the home helped smuggle slaves into Canada - very interesting!

Heading to the next winery, we saw a lot of fruit trees and this particular one was still loaded with bright red apples!!

The Honeymoon Trail Winery was our next stop - a fun place where we had a really nice guy who chatted with us during our wine tasting!

Onto the next winery - A Gust of Sun - the cutest place that is fashioned after an Amish barn!  They had a beautiful upstairs room as a place you could sit with a glass of wine and a very unique bathroom that was shaped like part of a barrel!!  The girl who waited on us said we had a choice of 4 tastings for $3.00 or 5 tastings along with CHOCOLATE pairings for $5.00 - gosh, guess which one we chose????  Even though none of the wines were really my favorites, eating the chocolates paired with them was quite fun and delicious!!  I think all 3 of us ended up buying the chocolates that day - mine was dark chocolate with raspberry, strawberry and blueberry mixed in!!

I thought this pumpkin display was so cute - everywhere you looked on our drive around the countryside had pumpkin displays!

Our final winery stop was Niagara Landing Wine Cellars - it was probably our least favorite because it was so busy and the guy who waited on us wasn't very friendly!  But we still enjoyed the wine and I had fun at each place, trying to guess the name of the granite at their bars and checking out the fabrication!  I even got some cute ideas for granite cheese boards!

We headed back to the hotel to drop off our packages and decide where to eat dinner that night - of course the restaurant we wanted to eat at was already booked up so we ended up going to Buzzy's for some New York style pizza - it was great!!!  And Patty ordered some tiramisu for her dessert as her birthday was just a few days away - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

And that was our Niagara Falls Adventure Trip!!!  We headed to the airport the next morning and all flew home to our respective destinations!!  It was ONE fantastic trip and the best part was spending it with the 2 best sisters that anybody could ever ask for!!!

The Falls/American Side

The day was a little cloudier and a little windier than the day before but there was still plenty of sunshine!!  We checked online to find a coffee place and soon found ourselves at Murphy's Cafe - a cute little place not far from the falls parking lot!  Great coffee - great conversation!

Today we were staying on the US side - and armed with a detailed map, we headed over to Goat Island which was a really nice walk!  We crossed a bridge and headed over to the Cave of the Winds which was our first excursion of the day!  Yellow rain coats today - and even sandals to put on your feet!!  Knowing what we did from the day before, we rolled our pants leg up a ways (but apparently not far enough!!).  They gave you a bag to carry your regular shoes in and we ended up tying them to our purses, under our raincoats which worked out fine!!

It's amazing how the falls look from different angles - this time we were beside the American Falls - up close and personal!!!

The mist coming off the falls was amazing and there were only certain times you could get your camera out to take pictures!

I love the picture below as it shows the amount of water that comes over the falls - loud, crashing water - I also like the little people at the bottom of the picture - they kind of look like they have been photo shopped in!!

Unlike the Horseshoe Falls, these falls have lots of rocks and boulders and it makes for a stunning scene!

Don't we look cute in our yellow raincoats with our sacks of shoes?

The highest deck you can climb up to is called The Hurricane Deck - and that's exactly what it feels like when you get up there - the wind and rain and mist is unbelievable and that's how our jeans got soaked once again!!  The wind would blow up your raincoat and in seconds you were soaked!!  It was great and everybody needs to experience it once!!

We walked around a lot and the trees were beautiful!  It was nice to see the hardwood trees' colors as we mainly just have the aspens up where we live!

This picture shows the drop off edge - wow - can you imagine being in a raft or a boat and then taking that plunge?

One of the places we wanted to walk was on Three Sisters Islands but as you can see, it was closed!

After lunch, we headed to the Observation Deck, the deck that looked like it was sticking out over the water on some of the pictures.  It was pretty windy by that time so we didn't spend a lot of time there but the views were amazing as we knew they would be!

Our next excursion was to see the movie, Niagara, Legends of Adventure - it felt great to sink down in those nice theater seats and relax for a while - (did I forget to mention that Teri wore a pedometer and we walked 15,000 steps on Thursday and another 10,000 steps on Friday?) - and the movie was excellent, very well done!

We were fading rather fast by this time - so we headed over to Wine of Third for some wine and tapas!

 

It was a nice place with a relaxed atmosphere and we enjoyed our wine and tapas which we just ended up having for our dinner!  One last stop at the Seneca Casino as we wanted to check out the 3 Sisters Cafe - we saw it and we high tailed it out of there - the casino allowed smoking and the smell was so bad that none of us could stand it!!

 

Luckily our clothes didn't smell like smoke for the short time we were there and we headed back to the hotel for some down time and to finalize our plans for the next day!

 

The Ultimate Falls Experience in Canada

Get ready Canada - here we come!!!  After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the parking lot on the American side and started walking over the Rainbow Bridge into Canada!  This was our first view of the falls - WOW - I had NO idea how magnificent it would be!!  Check out the Observation Deck - that's one place we must go!!

It was a nice walk over the bridge and about 1/2 way over is the boundary line into Canada!

This is the Rainbow Bridge - there's a special pedestrian walkway and on the other side of the railing were all the cars that were lined up to get into America - the line was LONG!

As we got a little further on the bridge, this was our view of the American Falls, as seen on the Canadian side!  Yes, the falls are MUCH more beautiful on the Canadian side as you're basically on top of them, on the American side!

We purchased the Adventure Pass which would get us into the Maid of the Mist, Niagara's Fury, Journey Behind the Falls, and White Water Walk.  The day was beautiful - absolutely gorgeous - but still we decided to go ahead and do the "wet" tours first - a very wise decision!!

First on the agenda was the Maid of the Mist which is a boat ride pretty close to the falls - here's a picture of one of the boats - they were pretty large and held a lot of people!

Rain coats were handed out - don't Patty and Teri look cute?

The boat ride was fun BUT wet!!!  You can't imagine the spray that comes off the falls - it was like it was raining out so there was no way you could take your camera out to take pictures - we didn't think to roll up our pant legs so the water kept dripping off of our raincoats down onto our jeans and tennis shoes - we had pretty wet pant bottoms by the time the boat ride was done!!

As the boat turned around headed back to shore, the spray wasn't so bad so I snapped this picture!  One of my favorites!

The next 2 tours were too far to walk - we grabbed a "bear claw" to split - yummy!!! - and then got on the bus which was included in our pass!  Next on the list was the Journey Behind the Falls!  Again we donned rain coats only in a different color, yellow!!  We walked down long hallways to the end where you could see the water coming down from behind - lots of interesting facts to read on the different places you walked and it was very well done!!

The next tour was Niagara's Fury which was a movie - a cute one that kids could understand about the falls - and after that we headed into another room where guess what, raincoats again!!!  This time we stood and watched a movie on the falls which included snow coming down on us, thunder, lightning and finally the rain!!  But we didn't get soaked this time so that was a plus!!  After coming out of the movie, we saw this perfect place to snap a fall picture!!

Lunch was a hot dog stand by the falls - nothing like some beautiful scenery to look at while you eat!!  As you can see, the color of the falls is beautiful!!

Our final tour was the White Water Walk - again, we took a bus to the other end and walked along a really nice boardwalk that was surrounded by beautiful fall trees to look at the white water - these rapids are a class 6 - one of the highest classes in the world!!  I sure wouldn't want to be on those falls in a raft!!  It was a nice walk and so pretty with all the fall trees!!

We rode the bus to Skylon Tower as we knew we wanted to go to the top for the view - there is also a restaurant at the top but it was by reservation only and pretty pricey!!  The elevator took us up in 52 seconds and the tower itself is 775 feet!!!  And were the views amazing???  ABSOLUTELY!  Take a peek at the American Falls!!

And this is Horseshoe Falls!

I can't tell you how many photos we took that day of the falls - we just snapped and snapped and couldn't seem to get enough!!!  There just aren't enough adjectives to describe what we saw!

Here's a picture of the tower - we rode in a yellow cable car type thing that went up on the outside.

After our ride, it was time to eat!!  Patty had overheard some people talking about Mama Mia's so we headed over to that area and found it and that's where we ate!!  It was a cute place inside and the food was great!

We all enjoyed a glass of wine - red for Teri, blush for me and white for Patty!! After our meal, we walked along the "carnival" type streets (everything you can imagine from Ripley's Believe It or Not to Haunted Houses to a huge Ferris Wheel to wax museums - you name it, it was there!!!) and I spotted a crepe place - a must have!!!  SO we ordered the Tutti Fruitt one which had fresh strawberries, bananas, nutella and whipped cream - we all split it which was a big mistake we decided later as Patty and I each wanted our own!!!

Then it was back to the falls to see them lit up at night!!  They have huge colored spotlights and they are beautiful but of course we weren't able to capture them on a camera!!

We finally headed back over the bridge to the American side (where you have to pay .50 to get back in - how ridiculous!!!) and headed back to the hotel - 3 tired sisters but all smiling from ear to ear from our wonderful day!!!

Our Niagara Falls Adventure

A Sisters Trip - the how, why, where and when!  I'm not sure when the 3 of us decided that it was time to take a trip together, probably early in the year!  We used to get together at one of our places every so often but it's just not quite the same as taking an actual "trip"!  Why take a trip? - to do all those girly things that our husbands never want to do and to go places where they don't have a desire to go!  Where to go? - I decided that each of us should prepare a list of 5 places in the United States that we may want to go to and then we would compile the list and make a decision! It seemed to be a pretty easy choice this year to head to Niagara Falls and since Glenn and I were traveling the end of October, I suggested the first part of October and the trip fell in place!

 

I started researching N. Falls and found out that we would all fly into Buffalo, New York - and probably the toughest part of the trip was trying to coordinate all of our flights to arrive around the same time since we would be renting a car! Once the flights were booked, it was time to decide on a place to stay and what we would do when we arrived!!

 

I love to research so checked out several places to stay - of course the BEST places to stay would have been over in Canada as their hotels are much nicer than the ones on this side - but after trying to figure out the car rental and insurance and parking and wifi on the Canadian side, we all opted to just stay on the American side!   I booked us in a Holiday Inn with a junior suite which worked out perfectly - 2 queen beds and a couch that made into a bed so all 3 of us had our own space!  The room also had a frig and a microwave (always a bonus) and offered free parking, free wifi, and a hot breakfast - it turned out great!!

 

What to do?  WOW - I had no idea there were so many tours you could go on!!  After checking many sites and getting different opinions, we opted to go with the "Adventure Pass" on the Canadian side which offered 4 different tours and then 3 different things on the American side which we just paid for as we went - again, a wise choice!!

 

Since it was a "Sisters" trip, I thought it would be fun to do a wine tour AND a tea - once again I found a great place to have tea and about 20 wineries to choose from - another day planned!

 

Teri was in charge of the rental car booking and the driving!  I was very happy to have her take over that duty and she did a great job between her Garmin and the map, finding every place we needed to be!!

 

And then the day arrived - it was time to travel!!  We all met at the airport, picked up the rental car and were on our way!!  The hotel was about 1/2 hour from the airport and we found it easily - we dumped the suitcases in the room and headed downtown!

 

Believe it or not, our first stop was a liquor store!!!  We had decided since we had a nice frig that we would buy a couple of bottles of wine so we could have drinks in the evening after we arrived back at our hotel.  Not a problem finding that!!  But no corkscrew available at the liquor store so we ended up stopping at Target to buy one and then at the Dollar Store to get wine glasses - somehow wine just doesn't taste the same drinking it out of Styrofoam cups!!

 

We walked around downtown a little bit and then just decided to eat at The Hard Rock Cafe for dinner - our meal was delicious and it worked out great each evening to order 2 entrees and split between the 3 of us!! 

 

And then it was back to the hotel to drink some wine, unpack and just giggle together!!  I think Teri ended up taking this picture as her arms are longer - ha ha!!! 

With the 2 hour time change, I could NOT get to sleep - so every night I stayed up till midnight either reading or watching TV and then would wake up about 8:00 (the time we all got up) which was my usual 6:00am time to get up - the things you do to get to sleep!!!  And our adventure has started.....