The first task on Friday morning: re-pack the van. In order to make our departure deadline on Thursday everything that had been selected to go had been rather haphazardly tossed into the vehicle, to be sorted out later.
Why did I bring this stuff, and where should it go?
With two specific destinations in mind for the day the re-packing was abbreviated. We kissed grandma and grandpa good by and departed Ionia, NY at around 10 AM.
Kellan's choice of shirt would become a source of entertainment later in the day.
We drove north to follow the shoreline of Lake Ontario west to Niagara Falls. The views were fantastic along the lake and the roads were completely empty. We stopped for a quick break at a marine park and took this photo for our sailing friends:
If anyone were to make a version of "Caddyshack" set at a Yacht Club, this would be the perfect name.
In contrast to the empty roads, Niagara Falls was filled with people. Turns out, Niagara Falls is a huge international tourist destination and presents like a Canadian Times Square in the middle of nowhere. Who knew?
Wall to wall people for miles along the Canadian side of the falls. All shapes, sizes, colors, styles and languages.
My parents had recommended taking the Hornblower cruise beneath the falls, so we navigated to the nearest parking area to the launch site, which turned out to be about 1.75 miles from the cruise dock. We enjoyed our walk along the river’s edge, from the top of the falls across to the precipice. We marveled at the crush of international tourists. Selfies were the order of the day.
He could have taken their picture, and they could have taken his picture. Or not.
Forget going over the falls in a barrel. I'm certain we are likely to see a news story soon about a tourist descending the falls backwards with a camera in hand.
In some areas, standing on the railing would be extremely ill-advised. The top of the falls is remarkably close to the sidewalk. This would be the ideal launching point for the Kiwanis Duck Race. Especially if you didn't want anyone to win the prize!
Speaking of tourists looking silly, for the boat trip, we were issued flimsy red plastic ponchos and joined about 150 other selfie-taking tourists on one of the boats that poked upstream to the base of the horseshoe falls. We all got soaked and had an absolute blast! Yes, it was an organized full-blown tourist activity, but we just gave ourselves over to the experience and really enjoyed it.
Sumo-tourism.
Kellan's reaction: "This is AWESOME!"
Niagara Falls or the Alps?
The walk back to the van against the tide of people along the riverwalk seemed long. For some reason people kept approaching Kellan and speaking to him in German. Finally, a bilingual tourist explained that he figured we were a German family because of the national team shirt Kellan was wearing.
It was nearly 4 pm by the time we buckled into the van and continued west. This was much later than we had planned, but we had gotten some good exercise and had more fun than we had expected to have. A good start to the trip and worth the extra time!
Google Maps and our GPS had told us would take us about 2.5 hours from the falls to reach the Provincial Park where we had a reservation for the night. The traffic (4 pm - 7 pm on a Friday evening) was even more horrendous than we expected. The welcoming committee at the Burford Foodland (where we stopped to shop and let traffic die down) let us know that this was a holiday weekend in Ontario for “Civic Holiday.”
Based on the local reaction, the small town of Burford doesn't get visited by many white Mercedes Sprinter vans.
As we crawled along the QEW and watched the time to destination on our GPS increase instead of decrease, we shifted our expectation for arrival at Pinery Provincial Park. Our new goal was to arrive in time to see the sun set over Lake Huron. We made it with only minutes to spare, but it did not dissapoint.
Skipping stones against a squally sunset sky. A memorable arrival.
Also memorable upon arrival was this sign. Enjoy your night of camping folks and be nice to the snakes!
After savoring the sunset for what may have been a bit too long, we walked back to our site, which was only about 100 yards from the beach. We still had to set up camp and cook dinner. Of course, I couldn't find half of what I knew I had packed. We finally ate at 9:45 pm.
Where's the pan? Why did I put all of this crap on top of the tent? Can't we just order pizza tonight?