more photos 7-30-08 hall of fame

Wayne Gretzky's 802 career goal... this is the actual goal
old hockey sweaters(jerseys to us floridians)
check out the pittsburgh jersey/sweater
dynasty shmynasty! whatever---- still don't like the Leafs....(like Van Ryn

though)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! HABS????

oh no, she's ok, still a Panther fan..... (notice Olli?)

a true Panth-Apitol fan.......

is it safe to have Penguins and Panthers in the same house?????

from 7-30-08

ok, ok, ok... .enough harrassment! here's more blog!!!!

Things have been pretty busy..... got home to a whole mess of committments, so I've been busy... and then hockey started up again.... yea!

(7-30-08)-- Got on the road today around 11…. lots of traffic! Arrived in Toronto at 1-ish…. off to the Hall of Fame… but first we had to pass the air Canada center…. and a quick pic with the Leafs banner behind us….. Bill enjoyed this maybe tooooo much??!! Got inside and went off to get photo with the Stanley Cup!!!! They gave us gloves to wear so we could touch it… that was too awesome!! Wish we could have picked it up… then we walked around and looked at all the other trophies and then the hall of famers…… found Denis Potvin—that was neat….Patrick Roy, Gretzky, Lemieu….. etc. Saw the one tiny spot they have on the Panthers--Jokinen was the player in the window listed as "Fan Fav"-- yea- another "great" trade by Jacques Martin-- our fav was sent to Phoenix. After roaming around for quite some time and taking some pictures, we hit the store…. then back to Niagara… Went to see Bill’s parents and hung out there for a few hours….then to dinner at Boston Pizza again (Kawena wanted to go here)then bed. Have not had dinner before 9 since getting to Canada.

view of Toronto as we drive to the Hall of Fame
Bill torturing Kawena outside the AirCanada Centre-home of the Leafs.... we later find out that our fav- Mike Van Ryn is traded here.... can anyone say "hate" and "J.Martin" in the same sentence??
in front of the Air Canada Centre.... boo Leafs!
Kawena outside the Hockey Hall of Fame

one of the first hockey-goalie masks by Jacques Plante....


Kawena, Bill and I -- oh, and Lord Stanley


Denis Potvin

more pix from 7-29-08

Kawena checking out Niagara River on the White Water Walk
such a peaceful river... LOL

this is the view from our journey behind the falls... .this is horseshoe falls.... we got soaked, and we loved it! This was the best part of the day. By the way, this water is freezing! The white on the left of the picture is the mist... you get that and also some of the water on the right makes its way onto the platform you are standing on.

This is how close the Maid of the Mist gets to the falls....

Kawena was smart and put on both rain coats.... the one from "journey" was really not enough to keep you even remotely dry.... I took this picture through the blue rain coat because it was too wet to take out the camera.
standing behind horseshoe falls.... Bill said they used to let you go up to that window, but people got sucked out from the force of the falls.... I prefer this vantage point myself!
the girls Kawena met from Quebec.... .they went through the fun house about 10 times together

pix from 7-29-08 (1)

Kawena getting "suited" up for Maid of the Mist boat ride..... this was all we could see as we approached horseshoe falls.... just a sheet of white water...... you get pretty close, but the force of the falls actually pushes you back...standing on the ship you can feel the engine fighting against the force of the water to stay in one place.
pretty close to the american falls --obviously not the falls people chose to go over...
the butterfly conservatory..... Kawena's little friend...
rainbow over the falls....

tourists in Niagara Falls....

Tuesday, (7-29-08)-- our tourist day…. we did the Maid of the Mist, Journey under the Falls, White Water Walk, and the Butterfly Conservatory…. ok.. .maid of the mist is a boat ride as close as the falls will let you get—before the force of the water pushes you back… that was awesome…. then we went to the white water walk…. a board walk along the Niagara River…. very beautiful… next to the Butterflies…. . Since we saw the butterflies in DC, I’m kinda over this, but Kawena wants to stay forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I drag her out of there after an hour and a half and we head back to the Journey under t he falls…. this is AMAZING!!!! Beats the boat tour!!!! You get soaked….. You walk right next to Horseshoe Falls…. you get beat to heck with the mist and water! then you walk tunnels behind the falls and watch the water come down….. just AMAZING!! Beats everything we’ve seen so far…… Then we went to the funhouse….. Kawena met a few girls from Montreal and ran around the funhouse for a while with them….. One of the girl’s aunts was talking to me about the Hockey Hall of Fame and mentioned her cousin-Ricky Martin is there…… played for Boston? or buffalo? don’t remember now….. cool, will check that out. Exchanged emails, and then we headed for dinner (again at 10 PM)—Ruby Tuesdays ….. then back to the hotel…. tomorrow we head to the Hockey hall of fame with Bill.

(hopefully tmw I'm in a hotel with wifi... i'll add pix and more blog then... who knows, maybe i will catch up the week after i get home!! LOL

the catch up!

Unfortunately we have not had internet since we got to Canada last Sunday.... so, here's what has happened.... if i forgot something... sorry.

this is where the GPS just freaked out.... it doesn't have Canadian maps, so it just showed us floating in the water... a bit disconcerting.....


Sunday…..(7-27-08) arrived in Canada…. our hotel is right in the center of tourist heaven or hell, depends on how you look at it! On the plus, we don’t need the car!
Less than ten minute walk to the falls….. today we just walked down and checked things out…..we got airbrush tattoos and went into a maze…. Kawena’s dream! I think it took her 15 minutes to figure it out… then she was helping others through… we spent an hour in there… it was probably a 20 minute maze for the lost people (would've taken me 3 days by myself) …..
We had dinner at Boston Pizza…. not that either of us had pizza though…. went back to the room around 10 and passed out!

a view of the american falls


American Falls


horse shoe falls in Canada


Kawena getting her "tattoo"



looking at the american falls with the horseshoe falls in back


the maze




Monday(7-28-08)—Bill’s parents picked us up around 12…. before that we went to Tim Horton’s for breakfast…. unfortunately I got 2 calls from the insurance company while we were on line to order and we missed the breakfast menu…. anyway, they took us all around Niagara….. old print shops, the aero cars, wineries, orchards, the power plants, the bridges, the restaurant their 50th anniversary will be at…… great trip! When we got home, we took a nap because it was raining and we couldn’t go out anyway! Then we went to dinner at Rain Forest Cafe, then to Guinness Book of World Records and down to the falls to see them lit up…. pretty!

hydro plant at Niagara



Joan & Roger St Amour (Bill's mum & dad) way up top!


the "thing" we found in the grass... Kawena said it was a caterpillar, Bill's
mum said slug... his dad touched it (we thought it was plastic) I said gross!


in front of the flower clock-Niagara Parks

\

the tiniest church ever!!!

the falls at night

day 7-- Erie, PA

not a bad job..

rough day.... had a bit of an accident..... in a rest area.... everything is fine and I was not at fault, but was still FREAKED out!!!!

ENOUGH of that.... went to a park on Lake Erie.... went INTO Lake Erie... awesome!!

Lake Erie was a bit cold but a lot of fun, there were some neat rocks that we collected and carried over to the man-made lake on the other side-- then we practiced(or attempted) skipping rocks.

There was a sand sculpture competition. The Kung Fu Panda was awesome! Kawena liked one that was a sea monster with the fish in it's mouth.

They also had a bungee trampoline thing..... they strap you to some bungee cords and let you jump on a trampoline..... Kawena loved it (although she did get nauseous)...

All in all, a great time!

Went to get a hotel only to find out that this is a very busy section of road.... from here to NY.... because of the people stopping on the way to Niagara..... stopped at Holiday Inn.... they had one room for 775.... HA! then they said that the Wingate (wyndham) up the street had a $200 room available with no tv (broken)-- they'd give it to us for $99.... Kawena was mad, but we took it.... Funny thing... I unplugged the tv and replugged it into the top outlet and it worked just fine.... thanks Wyndham!!