To Canada And Back Again

So this weekend we drove from NYC to Niagara Falls, Ontario to see my family for a late Christmas celebration of sorts. My sister was a no-show, but in her defense she's about to have a baby any minute now and her doctor told her to stay put for the weekend. Perfectly understandable then that she didn't want to drive four hours! While it would have been nice to see her and her husband and my one and only niece, I did get to see almost everyone else - Mom, Doug, Dad, my three grandparents and Patrick and Brenden. I even ran into my old friend Dave who was working the pharmacy counter in the lovely Seaway Mall in Welland!

It was great to see everyone again - I'd seen them previously in September but have decided to make a point to see them more often now that I'm within driving distance (it's 6-7 hours but that's not that big a deal).

In addition to family dinners and visits, we also saw some tacky tourist stuff. My favorite local monument is the giant Frankenstein eating a Whopper at the top of Clifton Hill. Nothing expresses Niagara Falls' crass blend of monster museums, fast food and big dumb signage like this guy....

Alison and I took P&B up in the super sized ferris wheel that overlooks both the waterfall itself and the Clifton Hill strip. The cars are sealed from the elements and heated but that didn't diminish the fact that I am mildly claustrophobic and don't always do well with heights. Can't say I ever need to do that again, but we all survived and hey, check it out, you can see Frankenburger from the air to get an idea of just how big the stupid sign is.

We also hit up the Hollywood Movieland Wax Museum. Most of the exhibits were terrible... but the Freddy Kreuger circa Wes Craven's New Nightmare (note the hand claws rather than the glove... a dead giveaway to movie geeks like us!) was pretty cool and this picture turned out well so why not show it off...

...Marlon Brando, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. And what's with his Dollar Store stuffed cat? That's the dumb icing on the dumb cake!

Powerless to resist Frankenstein's charms, we had lunch at Burger King. The rad thing about both Burger King and McDonald's in Canada is that you can get poutine with your burgers instead of regular, boring American French Fries. Everything goes better with cheese and gravy!

All in all, it was a short but sweet visit and it's always a pleasure to see everyone. Age somehow seems to make one appreciate family more and more - either that or we've all just collectively gotten nicer and more fun to hang out with over the years. I think we'll make the drive again in 8-10 weeks.