Thursday, October 27, 2011

Massachusetts Weekend

A couple of weekends ago John and I took the bus to Boston to visit with John's family. His brother and sister-in-law moved to South Hamilton, a small town about 45 minutes North of Boston earlier this fall. The rest of John's family came up for the weekend too. 
We got in really late Friday night so ended up just crashing. Saturday we all got up early and drove to Gloucester which was a cute little town on the coast. They were having a harvest fest so we checked out all the local shops.
All of the restaurants of course had lobster so the seafood fans were inspired to stop and get fresh lobster for dinner. The local lobster is super cheap so all of the guys each got their own to play with :)
Sunday we got up even earlier and drove into Maine. It was beautiful!
We got to check out Cape Neddick lighthouse and eat more seafood overlooking the ocean. I unfortunately don't eat seafood and so I ate the equivalent of kids menu food all weekend :(
It was a pretty quick trip but was lots of fun seeing the area and hanging out with family!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

The Rest of Niagara

After we thoroughly checked out the falls we went up to Niagara-on-the-Lake on Saturday. Of course we watched the Razorback game but after that we spent the rest of the day wandering around Niagara-on-the-Lake. 
It was such a cute town, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures in the town, just of the lake. Its only about thirty minutes from Niagara Falls where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario.
I've never seen any of the Great Lakes before so I have no idea about the others, but Lake Ontario was huge! I'm used to lakes in Arkansas which clearly pale in size. There were actually waves and you couldn't even see the other side. Way off in the distance there was even a tanker (not in the picture, but just saying!).
On Sunday the weather wasn't so fabulous so instead of going on the cable car like we had planned we went to the butterfly conservatory instead :)
The butterfly conservatory was fantastic! Of course there were butterflies everywhere :)
I took tons of pictures, one of my favorites is John deep in thought with his new butterfly friend :)
I'll end the butterfly slideshow with my favorite butterfly, I liked it because it was different from your classic butterfly :)
Now to get ready to go to Boston this weekend!

PS - In case you were wondering I'm wrapping up my first week at my new job and so far so good :)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Niagara Falls

Last weekend I surprised John with a weekend trip to Niagara Falls for his birthday. I accidentally let it slip where we were going a couple of days beforehand but it was still a nice little get away :)
Niagara Falls
We took Friday off of work so we could fly into Buffalo and get the rental car at a decent time. Niagara is only about thirty minutes from the Buffalo airport so we got in around 1pm. It was perfect timing for us to eat lunch and then explore the falls.
American Falls
It had been raining some on and off but luckily by the time we finished lunch it stopped raining and the sun came out making for a beautiful afternoon!
Horseshoe Falls (Canadian Falls)
Of course we had to do the Maid of the Mist boat tour, I mean you can't go to Niagara Falls and not :)
It was a little bit chilly but we braved through! Even though we had ponchos the wind and spray is so powerful that you can't help but get a little wet. We kept having to take our glasses off to see because they would be covered in spray :)
After the boat ride we went to the next falls related activity which was the behind the falls tour. 
We got to go out on a platform near the base of the falls where you could see behind the falls. We also went through a series of tunnels that had openings along the way. The openings were directly behind the falls and it was amazing to be that close to so much power! 
After all that fun we got some warm drinks and sat overlooking the falls for a while :)
By the time we were ready for dinner we were so tired we just ate at the hotel restaurant and then crashed.

Saturday and Sunday we ventured away from the falls but I'll tell you about the rest of the weekend in another post since this post already has tons of pictures :)