Man on a wire

Friday morning finally felt like real vacation since John didn't have to wake up and go to work.  We headed out after breakfast and made our way towards Toronto.  On our way there we couldn't resist driving to the beach since we could see the lake at what looked to be less than a mile from the QEW. We feel cool saying that now, because when we first entered Canada, the lady at customs asked us if we were taking the QEW.  We just shrugged, having no idea what she meant - Queen Elizabeth Way, which yes, we drove on the whole way up to Napanee and back.

We just decided to get off and work our way over to the lake which worked out perfectly, as when we got there we found this beautiful little beach.  We were a little leery about it, thinking that it might be private property but when we got out of our car we noticed another couple there.  We apprehensively walked up and they were very excited to talk to us.  Turns out he was the Deputy Mayor of the town and the lady was a council member! They assured us that it was fine to be there and that the neighbors here wouldn't mind a bit. 

After our beach break, we continued on our way when of course, Jayden had to use the bathroom for the 531st time.  We decided we should stop at a Tim Horton's for lunch (yes for lunch, we are on vacation, anything goes) since there was a ratio of 3.5 Tim Horton's for every Canadian.  There was even two of them in the small little town of Napanee!  Everyone was sporting coffee cups from Tim Horton's no matter where we looked, so as the saying goes, "When in Canada......., eat at Tim Horton's."  (if you happen to pass the Tim Horton's, just turn around in the one next door)  Oh yes, we were advised by the customs lady to make SURE we stop at Tim Horton's.  I must say they were pretty tasty!  We were able to eat for like $8; we each had a little snack wrap then gorged ourselves on Timbits:)

We really didn't have any idea where to go in Toronto so we just entered "City Center" on our gps and blindly drove into the madness.  Once we reached "City Center" we drove around for a bit before paying way too much for parking, so that we could walk around.

We saw Rogers Centre and the tall CN tower (I think that's what it is, after googling it?).  We came across a pretty neat little train station/furniture store which reminded us that, wait, we saw an Ikea on our way to Napanee.... hmmm, time to leave Toronto I think!

As we meandered back to the car, I looked down at my watch and realized if we sprinted back, we'd hit the 1/2 hour mark for parking, saving us quite a bit of moolah. We made it back JUST in the nick of time. I don't think the parking guy was very pleased!
  
We found the Ikea and the boys found the play area.

  We decided we should eat here, you can't beat the $2.99 meatball meal and $1.99 kids meals!

After our Swedish meal and much walking through displays of ready to assemble furniture, we made our way to Niagara Falls and got ourselves checked in to the "Glengate Hotel". (This fine establishment had paper thin walls and ceilings which we discovered the hard way in the middle of the night!)  Then we walked to the falls for the main attraction - Nick Wallenda was going to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls!

We weren't 100% sure what time the "walk" would take place so we decided we'd better find a spot.  It was about 8 pm.  We waited and waited and waited......and waited, all the while, more and more people came and crowded around us.  There wasn't a single spot unoccupied. 

Suddenly, I saw Nick's wife and kids quickly walk by with escorts. Finally, the time had come. Nick Wallenda made his way to the wire.  When he stepped on the wire the crowd came alive and burst out cheering and clapping.  All of a sudden, this lady motioned for the boys to come up to where she was so they could see from the front row.  It happened so fast, they were whisked away through the crowd up several rows.  It was so scary how fast it happened and they were HARDLY within view.  As the people surged forward to see Nick take his first few steps across the wire, we were shoved a little farther away from the boys.  There was a family beside us that kept watching them for us and smiling and nodding to let us know they were OK. It was such a bizarre thing, but we came all this way and wanted them to witness history!  I don't think I could have gotten to them if I had to, unless I crowd surfed up to them. They had front row seats which was much better than John giving them turns on his shoulders for minutes at a time!

John and I would take turns standing on our tiptoes in the 1/2 square foot of free space at the edge of the sidewalk to see what we could see.

Slowly but steadily he made his way across.  Pretty soon he was half way, the Canadian side erupted in cheers again as he made his way into Canada.  He seemed more confident once he hit that half way mark.  Pretty soon he was nearing the end of his walk.  All a sudden I thought for a minute he may be falling! No! He had bent down on one knee and started fist pumping to the crowd! WHOA! The crowd roared with excitement.  The last bit of his walk was left and he went running off the wire.  Wow, how amazing!  It was such a cool, scary, exciting time! 

We got our precious cargo back and walked off to find a bathroom through the madness of people.  Joel had came to us through the crowd about 20 minutes earlier that he needed a bathroom but there was absolutely no way to get through the crowd at that point! He luckily was able to hold it until we found an appropriate spot;) I'm so glad for the convenience of boys!

After the excitement died down a little we headed back on our long walk to the hotel.  The boys did so well for being so tired and we had just watched history going down! It was unbelievable!