Niagara Falls to Akron, Ohio - That's Good

Dragging ourselves out of bed this morning was tough, but not as tough as for Corinne given she was driving us up to Niagara Falls, and then she and Chris were continuing on back to Toronto. Coincidentally enough though, Monticello was right by Camp Shane, where T had been a summer camp counsellor many moons ago. We swung by to check it out, which didn't take long as T started grimacing involuntarily. We had breakfast at the Liberty Diner nearby - yet another peanut butter bagel for each for us. 

T and I managed to have a pretty good snooze along the freeway for a significant part of the 6 hour drive. I always get a little nervous going across the border as Chris & Corinne dropped us off to pick up our rental car, and they continued on to Toronto. We went for a drive around Niagara, aka Mini-Vegas. I have never seen so many wax museums in one place. 

We were going to head down to Akron, Ohio that day, but after crossing back into the US, we decided to go for a short drive to Buffalo and then back into Canada to Niagara as we were both really exhausted. We had a quick peek at the falls - they are quite incredible, as you can see the mist rising from them from quite a distance. We loaded up with snacks and found a hotel, the Comfort Inn to be precise, and hunkered down for the night. 

The next morning, we took the Maid of the Mist boat trip up to the falls. You are provided with a blue plastic poncho, giving a hint as to how misty it would really be. Here is the lovely T sporting his poncho: 

And me trying to work out the ties:

We got much closer than I thought we would to the falls themselves - we could almost reach out and touch them. At times it was like being caught in a torrential downpour, or The Lost Islands, if anyone remembers that programme. I loved the theme song when I was a kid.  

We then hit the road bound for Akron, Ohio. We were heading there as Chrissie Hynde grew up there and has started a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called The Vegiterranean. Dinner was ok, although the highlight was "That's Good" by Devo playing while we ate (they are from Akron). Lunch the next day was however much better (more on that in a minute). We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites at Cuyohoga Falls that night, just down the road from Akron. 

Lunch the following day was amazing - "chicken" and roasted tomato bruschetta, grilled cheese sandwich with tomato bisque and a hotdog. We followed it up with key lime napoleon (where can you ever get that as a vegan?) and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I have to post a photo of that Napoleon: 

We then struck out for Chicago, which was a very long 6 hours drive that we took in turns. We did go through a place called Gary though, which I thought was quite funny given that is my oldest brother's name. We were staying at the Amalfi Hotel downtown, which turned out to be a great location for several reasons. More on that in the next post!