Archives October 2012

If you plan on visiting Niagra Falls, don’t skip the Canadian side. It doesn’t take that long to get across the border in Buffalo, so take a few extra hours and check out the much more impressive Canadian view. Why is it cooler? For one you have a clear shot at American Falls, which isn’t really visible from the U.S side. Also, the Fun Walkway along the Canadian side includes the Hershey factory, a retro Coca Cola shoppe, A Ripley’s, Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock—all nestles in a neat walkway with souvenirs, with the falls nearby. Fair warning—parking is $18 per car! To get by that we parked at the Duty Free shop, bought a bottle of Maker’s Mark and got free parking. Walked around the falls and then got to cut in the line to the USA directly from the Duty Free parking lot. Once they catch on they’ll figure out how to stop this, but in the meantime save yourself $18 on parking and get a cheap bottle of whiskey to boot.

The falls themselves are amazing, and it’s no wonder the US and Canada both wanted them. The spray comes up over the road, wetting the cars that drive by. You can walk down under the falls, which is amazing, or you can take a Maid of the Mist boat ride near both falls. They provide you with plastic rain covers. We didn’t do either because we have our newborn with us and it’s winter—too cold for the tiny tot. Instead, we watched the falls from the walkways and the bridge. Both beautiful views.

Final tip—if you’re leaving Canada get in the far right lane going through the border, it splits a few more times and it’s the fastest lane to be in.

More photos on the ATC photos page!

Lauren and Gwen inside a giant Hershey bar

Horseshoe falls.

We recently flew from China to the U.S via Japan. What a nightmare. You can read about the travels here. Once in the states we did a few short road trips across country. One from Chicago to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, another from there through Canada to New England, and a third from there to North Carolina. All of these road trips were amazing, but they were not as relaxing or inviting as a cruise. So in the middle of all of these chaos, rushing, hurrying, gas price monitoring and construction navigation, we’re reminded of how wonderful it really is to just relax on a cruise.

With our little baby we’re not permitted to be on the high seas until she is 6 months old, for some cruise lines, or a year for the remainder. That was a real disappointment for us when leaving China as we had hoped to hop on one of Cunard’s Around-the-World cruise legs and get from Hong Kong to Europe, and then from Europe it’s fairly easy to hop over the pond to the US on any cruise carrier. After talking with Cunard we learned they make no exceptions to that rule, and little Gwen was only a month old when we wanted to cruise out. Oh well. So fly we did, and once again I’m forced to admit just how mind-numbingly exhausting and horrible it is to fly. If she had been allowed on the cruise, then on the ship we would have come!

One of the best things about cruising is just how totally coddled you are. From the moment you wake up your day is planned for you– if you want. Activities nearly every hour! You have food at your fingertips, a pool, gym, spa, and of course the option to just sleep on deck or in your cabin. On a flight you get nothing but rude looks from flight attendants, soda and a box lunch that would be perfect for a third world prison. On a road trip you eat hunches over the steering wheel, fretting about burning gas to heat the car while you eat, and constantly in danger from bad drivers, construction or just road neglect. I’ll take the cruise, please.

They aren’t even that expensive anymore. Sometimes the same cost as flying, depending on your departure port.

So as we finish our road trips across America I’m eagerly looking forward to our next cruise. Once the baby is bigger, that is.

Our road trip began in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Why does Michigan own the U.P? We don’t know. It borders Wisconsin- but they can’t have it, and it borders Canada- but they can’t have it. Alternatively it doesn’t touch Michigan at all and they had to construct a giant bridge to even get over to the U.P—but they can and do have it. Odd. I bet there is an interesting story there.

We drove along the length of the U.P heading east and stopped along Lake Michigan for fresh air and a wee leg stretch. Our tiny tot Gwen was eager to watch the waves and of course vomited profusely on herself when she was returned to her car seat.

From the U.P we drove to this magical connection bridge. In Michigan everyone who lives south of the bridge is called a “Troll,” while everyone who lives above the bridge is called a” Yooper.” Residents of both areas take an odd portion of pride in this. After crossing the bridge and paying the troll our $4.00 toll we found ourselves in surprisingly dull territory.

The scenery looked almost identical to the mind-numbing drabness that is the American Midwest. Dead fields, dead trees and a sprinkling of depressing farm houses facing mega highways and signs for fireworks and casions. The bridge into Canada from Michigan boasts one of the single most depressing views of a lake I’ve ever seen. Dozens of factories lined Lake St. Clare spewing foam, smoke and foul aromas into the air and sea. Not a good billboard for tourism to either area.

Entering Ontario was east. It’s always easier to get into Canada than out. Drivers in Canada must really fear the Mounties, because they don’t speed. It’s odd because I doubt a horse with a burly Canadian on it’s back could catch my car, especially the way I drive.

We learned that the Canadians are not the most creative town namers. We hit London, Paris, St. Thomas and Waterloo, and that’s just in the tiny peninsula of Ontario between Michigan and New York. And while I’m on the topic, Buffalo isn’t the most creative city name, either. Eh, Canada?

Some of the major highways in Canada close for construction at night. That means major detours for lost Americans whose GPS systems don’t have Canadian maps. Yup, that was us. We were detoured more than an hour out of the way, with ill-marked signs and of course following the world’s slowest truckers. Still, at least the detour wasn’t for a major accident, and that’s always a plus.

Niagra Falls is a unique city. It’s both the name of the falls and the city on the Canadian side, and it’s situated in a cozy and industrially convenient location. More on Niagra Falls later. For now, we leave you with this advice: Don’t travel in Canada at night. Who knows when the roads shut down for the evening.

If you’re following our road trip then you know we hit the U.P via Wisconsin from Rockford, Illinois. This after a long stint in Beijing. Beijing is home to twenty million. The U.P has less than a million in the whole massive area. Needless to say, agoraphobia set in as soon as we hit the dimly populated area. One nice comparison is that there are probably as many birch trees in the U.P as there are people in Beijing.

Having come from a massive city, we found the U.P to be a delight. The people are tough, and remind us of the characters in Northern Exposure. They tell stories that end in “eh” and involve bear hunting, being snowed in for months on end or else hilarious tales of drunken debauchery as they were snowed into the tavern for the night. A great sense of humor and thick skin are prerequisites to living in the U.P. But more than that you need to love the outdoors, because they creep in, and in the U.P there is no contest about which side would win- humanity or nature.

While in the U.P we baited bear, went fishing, hiked around waterfalls and up on the golden hills, and watched the leaves go from green to yellow to vibrant fire red.

See more of the epic photos of the leaves in transition on our photos page!

The American Midwest is a strange land. Daniel Tosh says middle America is for those who have given up on their dreams, and to some extent that’s what the scenery looks like. Lonely farm houses dot the highway, they face the road instead of their fields almost as if longing to jump on the road and escape the monotony of their farm life. Don’t get me wrong, living off the land and farming sounds like it could be amazing, but somehow in the Midwest they make it look draining and miserable. At least that’s how it looks from the window of a car.

We started our road trip from Chicago, having landed there from China in September of 2012. From Chicago we rented an SUV and burned fossil fuels to Rockford, IL. This town has, the residents told me, the highest per capita crime rate in Illinois. Nice claim to fame. A quick drive in the wrong neighborhood and I understood why. What was once a thriving industrial blue collar town has given way to massive unemployment as jobs were shipped overseas. Ingersoll was once based in Rockford, supplying thousands of jobs. They were bought by a Chinese company and moved abroad. Our last week in China we spotted an Ingersoll-Rand road paver. So Rockford went from a thriving industrial hub to a quasi wasteland of unemployment and quiet depression. Moving on.

We then drove through Wisconsin to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But the scenery along the way bears mention. First, Wisconsin has some odd ideas about traffic diversions when roads are under construction. Narrowing a four lane to a one lane seems like a poor idea, Wisconsin. Just an observation. Also, your people are fat. Might want to take out the escalators and elevators and put scales at the bottom of the stairs as motivation. Just an idea, Wisconsin.

Michigan, you have some work to do as well. In 2008 the whole country kept a weary eye on Detroit wondering what would happen if the auto industry failed. Detroit no doubt suffered an unfair amount of the burden during the worst of the financial crisis. Luckily, we skipped this city and instead headed to the U.P. This undiscovered land is home to amazing beauty as well as hardy people. More on that later, Amy dear TC readers.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this short story about our arrival into Chicago from China. Upon landing in the US we were met with friendly smiles, helpful attendants and about the nicest car rental agent in the Midwest. This was a stark contrast to the rudeness in Beijing, and was a welcomed occurrence this side of the Pacific. Thanks, Chicago, for making our homecoming so warm!

The photos here were only one month apart, and we were up in beautiful leaf country for the transition!