Wednesday 16th May 2012
Today we had an 8:00am start and made our way to the restaurant to grab some breakfast. The hotel offered free shuttle to the airport so we caught the 9:30 transfer in order to catch our flight at 11:35. The flight was 4 hours but with a time difference of 4 hours so we didn’t get into Canada until 7:10pm. Denise and Steve picked us up from the airport and took us to their home in Barrie. When we walked through the arrival gates Lizz started to cry and so did Denise!! We had a few drinks and didn’t go to bed until 4:30am.
Thursday 17th May 2012
Today was a very lazy day as we were all quite hung over! We got up late after the really late night and drinking on the previous night. We hung out all day and had some really lovely Thai food in the evening followed by a couple of drinks and then an early night. I don't think we were fit to do anything else!
Friday 18th May 2012
Denise and Steve took us to a retro diner called Flashback. We had a lovely breakfast and then headed out to the lake where Denise and Steve did a lot of canoeing. As it is the bank holiday weekend there were a lot of people about canoeing and camping. We walked through the forest, avoiding the bears down to the lake! We then headed to a place called Big Chute where the boats are carried across the road from one side to the other by a big mechanical contraption. We stopped in a place called Clearwater and had an ice cream before heading back to Barrie. We had a great dinner of salmon and then stayed up late drinking and chatting again!
Saturday 19th May 2012
BBQ. Lizz didn't drink.
Sunday 20th May 2012
Monday 21st May 2012
We set off from Barrie around 7.45am and Steve drove us to Niagara. He had looked up a wine tour at Jackson-Triggs that started at 10.30am and we arrived in time. The weather was amazing and we toured the winery and had some tastings and got $5 off a bottle which was the price of the tour. Both Steve and Den and Paul and I bought a bottle. We set off again and on the way to Niagrar Falls stopped for a picnic Denise had prepared. It was lovely sat on the picnic bench on such a lovely warm day. We then went to Niagara Falls which was spectacular. It turned out that a person had gone over the falls before we had arrived and there were firemen around the place but we didn't realise this at the time. Den and Steve then dropped us off at Rainbow Bridge which connects the USA and Canada and we walked over with no problems. We paid 50 cents to walk through a turn style on the Canadian side then lined up in a short queue to get in to the USA. The immigration office looked shocked and went through our passports when we told him how long it had been since we'd been in the UK. Well, he did ask! On the US side we jumped in a taxi and were taken to the YMCA hostel which was quite rough but not quite as rough as some placeswe've stayed. The room was like a sweat box as it was so hot and there was os fan or air con so we had the window wide open but were still sweltering. We bought some food from a local supermarket and ate it in the room and wished the time away so we could be out of there.
Tuesday 22nd May 2012
The taxi that dropped us off at the YMCA yesterday said he'd pick us up this moring at 6.30am but didn't show. Luckily another taxi passed and we jumped in and went to the train station. We got the train to Penn Station, New York and it took about 9 hours. Luckily yesterday Paul checked our hotel booking in NY and it turned out it had been cancelled so we booked another in a better location.