Hello there again! We've been back on the road for a week and a day now. Its crazy, I feel like time is flying by this leg of our journey, but thats ok. We seem to be a little bit better prepared this time around and have a much better idea of what we are doing, so that definitely helps..
The last week has been nothing short of spectacular. We left Wisconsin a week and a half ago, traveled through the U.P., Ontario Canada along the shores of Lake Huron, Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and now we are exploring the beautiful state of Maine.
Our first stop on this leg of the journey was Niagara Falls, we had originally wanted to stop that the falls on the Canada side, but then realized logistically it would be much easier for us to just go to the New York side after we dropped off the trailer, since we were only staying 20 minutes away.
The falls themselves are absolutely breathtaking. I had seem pictures of them, but no amount of pictures could ever do them justice. The sheer size of them is something to be marveled at, even if they are not the biggest in the world, they are the biggest I have ever seen and I was mesmerized. We didn’t waste any time lolly gaggin’ around, we wanted to get straight to the boat, and ride into the mist on the Maid of the Mist. We were happy that we did too, we were able to walk right on to the boat, even with the amount of people that were there.
You enter the line for the Maid of the Mist after an elevator ride down from the top of the observation tower. In the tower there are volunteers that operate the elevators for you, I’m sure to try to avoid vandalism or tom foolery of any kind. Our operator on the ride down was nice but not overly friendly, then our operator on the ride up made us giggle when he yelled at someone for yelling. It was really quite comical. After getting of the elevator, you are given a blue rain coat to put on while you are riding into the mist.
Once on the boat, we walked around the sea of blue rain jackets to try to find a spot on the top deck. Everyone that was already on the boat was on the Port side of the boat, and would be looking at the falls on the way too Horseshoe Falls. We decided to take a spot on the Starboard side because the boat had to turn around and come back, so it would still provide good views on the way back. Plus we were at the back of the boat which lead to some really nice photo opportunities.
We decided to take advantage of our Harvest Hosts membership when we found our spot for the evening. Harvest Hosts are either a business, vineyard, or farm that opens up their property for you to stay on for free, and the only requirement is to patronize their business. The program is so cool and there are hosts scattered through out the county. Tonight we were staying at Freedom Run Winery in Lockport NY. The hosts were so nice, and the vineyards provided plenty of area for the pups to walk around with us. The owner also pointed us in the direction of some walking trails that were really neat if we chose to go on them. He also recommended that we wander through the apple orchard and pick some apples if we wanted. I love that we finally took advantage of this opportunity, it was so much better than a lot of camp grounds that we’ve stayed in and the scenery was stunning.
Our next stop was in the south end of Adirondack Park, so we got to drive through most of upstate New York, which was actually surprisingly beautiful. Not sure what I really thought it was going to be like, I think I just had the image of NYC in my head, and pictured all of New York state just being a giant, sprawling city. In reality, it was the exact opposite, and quite pretty to drive through.
We stayed in a camp ground near Lake Pleasant, at the Moffit Beach State Park. After some convincing from the people at the office, we decided to stay in spot 204, instead of a different one that we had in mind. They kept raving about how nice the spot was, and they had just widened it, plus you could see the lake easily and they just knew we would enjoy it. They were right it was a nice spot, but it was also not the easiest spot to get into. We had the back the trailer up a hill was steep enough to make us think that we were going to smash the trailer into the hill as we were backing it in. Things got a little tense there for just a moment. After we were parked we started driving around the campground, we started laughing as we realized how many other spots were available, that were FLAT, and would not have been so stressful to get into. Oh well, they were just so darn cute and convincing at the office that we didn’t even think twice. They were not wrong about the views, and really there was no one camped on either side of us at all, which is always nice, so we really could not complain about the spot. We actually liked the spot so much that we decided to stay an additional night. We also made some friends while we were there, the resident ducks, that I’m pretty sure they would have climbed into my lap if I would have had enough bread on me. They were pretty cute with the little noised that they made, and they pretty much followed you around.
The next morning we went out for breakfast at a little diner in Lake Pleasant and then went for a hike on Oak Mountain Ski area. We had to laugh as we pulled up to the ski “mountain”, its not a mountain, its a hill. We started hiking at the clubhouse at the bottom of the hill and made it to the top in 24 minutes. The hike was a difficult one, and the view from the top was wonderful. In fact, it ended up being just perfect. We got a bit of exercise and the pups got a lot of exercise, so we really couldn't complain at all.
After our Ski hill hike, we decided to take a quick hike to a waterfall that we were told about. We figured since the pups were tires, we would just take the quick hike by ourselves and check out Auger Falls. The falls were beautiful but it was a little bit tricky to get out to the edge to get good pic of the actual falls.
The next day we headed further east to Enfield, New Hampshire. A friend of mine that I worked with at Valley View Hospital, is living there with her new little family, and I was not going to miss the opportunity to visit with her. It was so fun to spend an afternoon catching up with her, and meeting her adorable little son. She took us on one of her favorite hikes so that we could wear out the pups and have more time just visit. After our hike she treated us to some delicious homemade chili. We had such a great time visiting with them, and watching them banter back and forth. Laura and Noah reminded me very much of Kyle and I. It was fun to see another couple banter the way that we do.
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