Niagara Falls
We decided to go to Niagara Falls this past weekend with Neil and Pam. Since their RV-8 is faster than our Cessna, we flew up on Friday night and stayed over. I’m glad we did. The flight up was a hair under 3 hours, and it was 5:30 by the time we picked up the rental car, checked into the hotel and were ready to find some food. The weather was gorgeous!!
We walked over to Goat Island to eat at the Top of the Falls Restaurant and stopped to view the Rainbow Falls and Horseshoe falls along the way. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed for the season — it would have been nice for them to say so on their website. There was a food court and a Hard Rock Cafe on the American side, but we decided to go explore Canada instead.
We had dinner at a place called The Secret Garden, which was surrounded by beautiful gardens. Dinner was simple — a bacon cheeseburger for John and fish ‘n chips for me, but it was enjoyable. After dinner we walked along walkway and watched the colored lights shining on the Falls. The last fireworks show of the season was scheduled for 10pm and we had some time to kill, so we rode the Sky Wheel and played a round of Glow-in-the-Dark Mini Golf.
We watched the fireworks from the Rainbow Bridge on the way back to the American side, and then stopped into the hotel bar for a drink. On the way back up to our room, my right foot was giving me some trouble. It was no better the next morning when we set out for breakfast (we split a gyro) and then to pick Neil and Pam up at the airport. The four of us headed over to Goat Island so they could see the Falls, and then we walked back over to the Canadian side.
By this point my foot was hurting pretty badly and I had trouble negotiating steps, so Neil, Pam and John explored the gardens next to The Secret Garden while I hung out on a park bench. John took some pictures for me and then we crossed the street so that I could take some pictures of the Rainbow Falls while we were waiting for Neil and Pam to rejoin us. I had wanted to walk down for daytime shots of the Horseshoe falls, but realized that I just wasn’t going to make it. And with that we packed it in and headed back to the airport.
We didn’t realize it at the time, but a friend of ours was following us most of the way back from New York to Frederick. We didn’t recognize the tail number, but as he got closer, we recognized his voice when he was talking to New York Center. He landed just a few minutes ahead of us (John canceled our IFR plan so that Bruce could go ahead since his plane was faster) so we stopped by the hangar to say “hi”.
So, it turns out that I didn’t break my foot, but I do have some sort of soft tissue injury. We still have no clue how I did it. I’m on orders to rest it for 5 to 7 days. I hope it heals fast, because this recliner is getting old fast.
Williamsburg, VA
We went to Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice long weekend — Thursday through Sunday. It was pouring down rain the day we drove down. We took the candlelight ghost tour that night, and it was raining so hard that we were soaked down to our underwear. LOL I had to run our sneakers through two cycles in the hotel dryer the next morning.
On Friday we started out with breakfast at the Old Mill Pancake House and then toured around Colonial Williamsburg a bit. We visited the Governor’s Palace and gardens, the blacksmith shop and then hung around for Revolutionary City. We had dinner at a local Mexican joint and then headed back to the hotel.
Saturday started off with breakfast at Hot Stacks, and then we spent the rest of the day back in Colonial Williamsburg. Our first stop was the Wythe house and gardens, which we had missed on Friday. We got to see a demo of spinning yarn and weaving cloth in one of the buildings at the back of the property, and then we toured the house. It’s amazing how simple the homes were back in Colonial times. George Wythe was one of the most prosperous men in the town, and yet his home is tiny compared to today’s standard McMansion. We also noticed that the homes didn’t have a lot of “stuff” in them — everything seemed mostly functional and there weren’t a lot of knick-knacks sitting around collecting dust.
We also stopped by the saddle shop, the armory and the court. We finished the afternoon by touring the Capital building and the Randolph Peyton house. With time to spare before dinner at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern, we spent some time shopping in the market place. I thought dinner was great — the wait staff was in period costume and served period food. We both loved the spoon bread. John could have done without the live music and speach by “Christiana Campbell” — for whatever reason, he just wanted to eat dinner and wasn’t particularly in the mood for the entertainment. But dinner was good, we both enjoyed it.
After a breakfast at McDonald’s on Sunday morning, we headed out for Jamestown and Yorktown. We were able to tour the entire Jamestown historic site, but never made it to the town itself. We drove through Yorktown and stopped to see a reinactment of a Britich soldier march (on the anniversary of George Washington’s march to Yorktown from Williamsburg, btw), but didn’t have more time to tour the area — we’ll have to go back.
