Doing something nice for me

A couple of weeks ago, Miss Fabulous Living Coach asked me if I would join her on a day trip to Niagara Falls.  I hesitated for a brief moment while looking at my schedule thinking it's a work day.  The little voice in my head said, "go on, do something nice for yourself.  It's not everyday you take a day off.  You'll have fun with Miss Fabulous".  Ok little voice, you are such a smarty.  I'm going to heed your advice!  I'm scheduling a fun day for January 19, 2011!

The day began at 6am.  Elaine and I both got ready making sure we would be warm on this fine winter day.  It was fresh to say the least, but there was no snow in Toronto, but we didn't know what winter was playing out for the Falls area.  I didn't bother to check the weather.  I mean, who cares?  I was set to enjoy no matter what!

Thanks to Elaine and her treasure finds, we traveled to Niagara Falls on a Megabus for a whopping $2 return fare!  The Toronto Bus Terminal wasn't that busy yet.  Perhaps it was too early in the day for departures.  We were greeted with smiles by the driver.  Now that's a great fit to an already perfect day!  

The ride was comfortable.  I read the whole way.  No way I could leave my kobo behind.  I was halfway through Mockingjay, book 3 of The Hunger Games trilogy.  If you haven't picked it up yet, highly recommend you do!

We arrive in Niagara Falls.  For sure a couple of temperatures lower than Toronto.  We took a local bus which dropped us off at the top of Clifton Hill.  Greeted by a choppy wind and icy pavement.  

Our first stop was The Frankenstein House.  Now, anyone who knows me, absolutely knows I am not into anything remotely related to horror!  How I ended up at this attraction is beyond me.  There are live actors in the attraction that are meant to scare the heck out of you too!  My stomach immediately tightens as Elaine and I enter this craziness.  It was dark.  I couldn't see anything, and Elaine who isn't braver than I, or is she wants me to go ahead of her!  Ah no!  But you're my mother!  Yes, we established this fact meany years ago, but I'm not going first.  Elaine is leading the way and of course there are shoots of air and coffins that rattle, spooky noises.  All I want to do is just get out of there.  Then the first live actor jumps out of nowhere and we're both screaming our heads off, or maybe it was me louder than Elaine.  No matter, I wasn't impressed.  He couldn't be the only live actor and when the second one jumps out, I've had enough!  And, I told him not to do that again!  Winding this way and that way in the dark wasn't fun for me.  Then the third live actor makes his debut and now I'm beside myself!  I let him know that he needs to direct me out safely and NOT to scare me again, that I'm more than done done done with this!  LOL, funny now, not yesterday, but he reminded me of the theatre attendants who showed you the way with a flashlight! Just before we were to make the exit, Elaine says, "mom, don't you want to look at Frankenstein?"  What? See him?  Ok, let's look at him, 2 seconds and I'm out of there!!  What an experience.....I'll never do that again!

Our next stop is The Crystal Caves.  Now this I really liked!  A maze full of mirrors.  We were given gloves to wear and instructed to stretch out our arms and walk with our hands out, otherwise we would probably walk into a mirror.  Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson was on repeat.  We both liked walking around in the maze, singing to the song off key no doubt and dancing.  No-one minded as we were the only 2 in the maze.  Sooooo much fun. Loved it!  That's me all bundled up at the ticket booth!

We found some quaint shops with quirky, touristy type things, but they were closed.  I don't blame them.  Tourism isn't at it's peak in the winter.  Not to worry.  It was time for lunch.  We looked at a couple of places and they too were closed.  We decided to go to Boston Pizza.  Heather, our server, was not only friendly and delightful.  She made various suggestions, gave us time to look through the menu and answered of our questions, whether they were food or area related.  How lucky is Boston Pizza to have a great person like Heather working with them!  Our lunch was delicious and the coffee yum!.  We had a nice little rest before heading out again.

We continued walking down Clifton Hill towards the Falls.  By now the wind had definitely picked up and it was snowing.  The snow was pelting our faces.  Did we care?  No way!  We were having a great time!  We get down to the Falls and you could hardly see them through the fog.  What we could see was a mystical falls with roaring thunder in the backdrop.  The falls sure do make a lot of nice noise! 

Our next stop was the Hershey Store.  Can you say Reese's Peanut Butter Cup?!!  What? Insane!! A 1/2lb Reeses cup!  OMG, I'm in heaven!  Although it was very fun being in this store, I thought it best to carry myself out quick because I could feel all the imaginary calories piling on! LOL  Coming out of the store and a little to the west, we found a Mountie.  Not a real one.  Elaine stood behind it and had not only a picture taken, but of course she had to get a video too!

What next on the list of to do while we were still there?  The IMAX on Murray Hill and a walkabout at Fallsview Casino.  They 2 were side by side.  We decided to go to the casino first, as the shows start hourly at the IMAX.  Forty minutes to wander and have a looksie in the casino sounded alright to us.

Now, truth be told, we're not a casino going family.  Certainly not what you would classify the gambling type.  Not ever having gone to the casino, I thought sure, I'll go and see what it's all about.

Elaine asks one of the Casino staff to direct us to an easy slot machine game.  Well, I don't know what's easy about the slots, but anyway.  We get to the penny slots.  We're going to go real big and play $10 each.  Now, this nice gentleman is explaining how to play and what to look for and what pays what etc.  Seriously, I retained less than 0.05% of what he said.  I just sat there pressing buttons.  I could see the credit I had was going down, then a noise...ding ding ding ding.....more pennies, more pennies......then the credit getting smaller and smaller......what does this button do.....press any button.....ding ding ding ding.....more pennies, more pennies until there were no more pennies.

Again our casino gentlemen comes to ask us if there is anything we need, and let's us know there are other slots we can try out too.  I can't imagine becoming a SLOT Star.  I thank him graciously and let him know that the extent of my wishing upon a star and imagining more comes via the 649 played every Wednesday and Saturday and the Max on Fridays.  It's easy and done! LOL What a laugh.......and soo fun to experience something new!  Needless to say, we had so much fun at the casino, we missed the IMAX show.  Oh well, we'll just have to go back and plan more stops. 

We had such an amazing day.  It was great to just be mom and hang out with Elaine.  Wish Vicky could have joined us.  There will definitely be a next time and more of doing something nice for me.  Back to the bus terminal in this now winter wonderland.  Destination ~ Toronto.

Nice to be home!!