Oh Canada!

Any chance I get to take a whirlwind trip out of town, I will take. I have vowed to do that after this weekend's adventures....

The opportunity presented itself at Family Home Evening last Monday and we (Sara, Juleen and I) jumped at the chance. Rent a car, go to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and check out Niagra Falls. Could it possibly get any better than that? Well, it did.

It began with us (Scott, Don, Sara, Juleen and myself) deciding to drive through Scranton...home of the Office and Dunder-Mifflin. Evidently, just because you have a national TV show that is staged in your hometown doesn't mean you've ever heard of it. Scranton provided us with some great laughs, great pictures and great quotes.

We tried (unsuccessfully) to find the Welcome to Scranton sign, but the best we could do was Mifflin Avenue. "Well, this is Mifflin Avenue....Dunder-Mifflin must be around here somewhere."






On the road again...straight to Palmyra. The New York (and Pennsylvania) countryside is gorgeous. There were picturesque farms and farmhouses all over the place.

Palmyra was everything I could've hoped for. The Sacred Grove is amazing. Simply amazing. That's all there is to it. The Palmyra Temple and Hill Cumorah pageant were fabulous, too.

It's near blasphemy to say this, but a highlight (not THE highlight) of Palmyra was Buffalo Bills Family Bar/Restaurant. Great Mom and Pop food, great prices. I hadn't realized what a Manhattan girl I have become, but when I saw a 1/2 pound burger and fries for $5.95 I thought I had died and gone to heaven. You can't get McDonald's chicken nugget meal for $5.95, let alone a great burger and real onion rings. It felt good to mingle with the good ole' country folk...

After the pageant, we headed to Rochester to stay with a guy that Scott knew from med school...they have the cutest little house with a sunroom, which Sara and I slept in. It was like being at girls camp all over again. We stayed up chatting and giggling for a few minutes (and listened to the neighbors rap, which is nothing compared to 37 Wall Street construction.) We woke up to the church bells and it was (another) little slice of heaven.

On the road again...this time to Niagra Falls. But not without a pit-stop in Batavia. Ba-Where? We got hungry, jumped off the freeway and hoped for another mom and pop miracle. And boy did we get one...Settlers Inn. So I thought the prices at Buffalo Bills were great ---- nothing could've prepared me for a $2.95 pancake breakfast special. Pancakes, 2 eggs, bacon and sausage. Are you kidding?! Breakfast for 5 came to $38.11. WOW!

On to Niagra! One of the 7 Wonders of the World and for good reason. It's incredible, breathtaking and we had a GORGEOUS day to be there. It was so cool to drive into the parking lot and see the mist kicking up from the falls. We opted for the Maid of the Mist tour -- blue ponchos and all. Sara and I joked about taking them back and wearing them around Manhattan on rainy days.



We learned that you only need an ID to get back into the US, so we decided that we were going to CANADA! How do you spell Canada? C-eh-N-eh-D-eh. We walked across the Rainbow Bridge and I took my first breath of International Air. This was my first trip to Canada and my first trip out of the USA since I was two (Tijuana does not count.) We continued across, got some great pictures, and then met our low for the trip. Canada Customs. Apparently, you need your passport, birth certificate or some other ID that shows your CITIZENSHIP, not just your identity. After a little to-do (i.e. Don bringing up his criminal history and Juleen stating she had no cash on her) they let the 5 of us hooligans into Canada. And it's interesting to note....Canada is pretty! It's ridiculous that literally 100 feet (or 30 meters, or .3 kilometers) you can visibly note differences in landscaping, languages, and attitudes. And prices. Don't forget that the US dollar and the Canadian dollar are about equal right now, so if you take the Maid of the Mist tour on the wrong side of the border, you are getting jacked.

I digress...we walked into Canada and marveled at the (best) view of Niagra. It truly is a wonder of the world. We stayed about 1/2 hour and headed back to the U.S. of A. I thought it would be funny to call my mom while we were walking, and caught her on her way out of church. She asked what I wanted and I told her that we had gone into Canada and I didn't have the ID I needed to get out. I heard dead silence, followed by "You're kidding, right? You are kidding, aren't you?" Luckily, getting back into the US proved to be easier than getting into Canada (although slightly frightening when you think about it....)

We hopped back in the car (with yours truly in the co-pilot seat as the "human compass" and ultimate navigator) and headed back to the city. With the occasional pit-stop for food, drink and stretching, we reminisced about the good times and played my favorite game ---- low, high. We pretty much agreed that the low was the "surly Canada lady at customs" and the high was about everything else that had occurred. Scranton and our Dunder-Mifflin tour, the $2.95 breakfast special, the pageant and the Sacred Grove...

My high? If I had to pick one, and only one? It would be the Sacred Grove and the stars during the pageant. Ok -- so that's two. But it's my blog.

For another account of the adventure, check out Don's blog and Sara's blog.

Quotes from the trip:
We're on Mifflin Avenue. Dunder-Mifflin must be around here somewhere. --Scott Hadley