Last weekend was another divide and conquer one--Craig and Jacob in one spot, Carter and I in another. Craig had to go to Canada to work the Heritage Cup, and Carter and I went to North Tonawanda to hang out with my dad while my mom was at a church women's retreat--which I would have otherwise been at with her, had I been able to get Carter taken care of for the weekend.
Carter's and my first stop was at church, where they were doing a Fall Family Fun Night. I figured we could stop in and see what was going on, and then take off to my parents'. Carter was very hesitant at first, but then he noticed the half dozen crawl tunnels and tents that they had set up, and liked crawling around those. He drew on a glow-in-the-dark wall, and finally decided he wanted to do the glowing obstacle course. He stepped in hoops and on shapes and over bridges. We went out to the dark playground which had a spotlight, but chasing your kid around a shadowy playground is quite the odd feeling! We played a couple games on our way back in, and then he got his prize--a whistle flashlight!
In a tunnel at the start of the obstacle course
The lights were just coming back on to end the night, but I couldn't resist sharing this picture 'cause he's just too cute!
Carter stayed awake for the whole ride and after some time hanging out with Grandpa, he went to bed. Fortunately he slept pretty late and we enjoyed a lazy morning. In the meantime, Craig and Jacob were having fun up in Canada. Jacob got to do some ball boy duty and hang out with one of his Knighthawk ball boy buddies.
And he apparently got to drink the most interesting root beer ever...in a measuring cup!
In the meantime, Carter and I had lunch with my Dad at McDonald's (he got an Optimus Prime mask!) and then we headed up to Niagara Falls. The plan was to walk down to the brink of the falls and check out a possible geocache along the way. Well, before we got there my dad remembered something fun we could do. We went to the new winter docking site of the Maid of the Mist boats, which happens to be on the site of the Schoellkopf Power Station. You can read the history here, but we have an interesting family connection to the site as my dad's uncle and great uncle both worked there and were lucky enough to escape the disaster in 1956. The short story is that water freezing and thawing in the rocks around the plant eventually led to some instability in the gorge walls, it caused leaks in the plant, and eventually a rockslide crushed the plant and everything collapsed. We rode an elevator down to the bottom of the gorge and it was quite the view.
Down at the base, looking back toward the elevator. That is the original shaft from the power plant. You can see some of the original plant section on the right.
Looking down the gorge toward the whirlpool. Those openings on the right were part of the plant operations.
A close-up of the same view, with the Whirlpool Bridge in the background...pretty, though, isn't it?
The chunks of rock and random pieces of metal all over the site, along with tunnels in the rock that were once part of the plant, were pretty creepy but cool. It was hard to believe the tragedy that occurred there as we stood there, but it was amazing to see.
Piles of rock
Looking toward the Rainbow Bridge with the mist from the falls...notice the Maid of the Mist boat.
Looking up toward where the other pictures were taken from
A huge piece of metal from the plant. It was probably as big as me.
The juxtaposition of nature with the plant remnants was interesting. We saw this lady bug with so many spots, and I couldn't resist getting a picture of it on Carter's finger!
We eventually rode back up the elevator and looked at the view from above. The foliage was just starting to get good, but the camera just wasn't doing it justice. I switched to my "Vivid Color" setting on my camera and got this. Clearly there was some color change or this wouldn't look as colorful as it goes. It wasn't quite this good, but it's pretty anyway!
Toward the Rainbow Bridge...so many hotels!
We drove over to the casino and walked down to the brink of the falls. Carter was losing his patience by this point and wouldn't let me take a picture, so let's settle for the top of the falls with some foliage instead.
Saturday night my dad tasked me with trying to pick a dinner location. It was almost impossible, as the gluten-filled choices were too many and I barely know what places serve or what Carter would eat, so we were at an impasse for a while. Eventually my dad suggested Ted's Hot Dogs, and while it wasn't as nice as some places we could have gone, I knew it was a great choice for Carter, who loves hot dogs. I was also jonesing for some onion rings, which they do amazingly well. Well, it turned out that Carter was willing to try one, and he loved them!
Carter and his broken ring
He did great and ate all of his food. It was a really fun dinner! On the way home, we stopped at a nearby house that is winning Halloween with an amazing display.
You can't even begin to see the details...a ghost at the peak of the house, another strung between the house and a tree. The whole front yard was gravestones and skeletons crawling out. And it was all synched to music on the radio!
I try to show the music with it in this video, but it was hard to hear out of the car...
The night didn't end on a great note as my dad and I had a blow-up over politics (we don't agree, but I said my peace and we're good), but up in Canada, the Canadian team that Craig was working for won!
And yes, Craig is on the far right and Jacob is right of center in the front!
They had a fun weekend and headed back early on Sunday to make Jacob's lacrosse practice, which
he unfortunately was too exhausted to go to. In the meantime, Carter and I went to my family's Oktoberfest. I had a great time talking and eating and drinking and finding out my cousin is pregnant (!), and Carter kept himself occupied with electronics (hey, sometimes it's easiest), someone's tween daughter, and my cousin Brian's girlfriend Katie (the one from camping). The Bills won a dramatic game, the baby talk was super fun, and it was a really fun day. I was happy to get home and get ready for the week, but I ended up being really tired and going to bed very early.
Carter's ENT appointment was early Monday, and we're trying more allergy meds and nose spray to open up his nasal passages before our last resort, which would be tonsils and adenoids. We've tackled Halloween costumes, and now we have some busy evenings before our last Halloween hurrah this weekend. I have a ton of stuff to get straight before Tuesday!
No comments:
Post a Comment