A really long ramble about our vacation!

We had so much fun. It was also pretty stressful as the kids were not very cooperative a lot of the time. They did not do well with all the waiting around for various forms of transportation and ds was going through something while we were there and was being a general pain in the rear and being pretty mean to his sister the whole time.

We left on Saturday the 19th at 7am PST. Went and picked up MIL so she could drop us off at the airport and keep our car in her driveway for the week. Got to the airport about 7:20am to find that the airport had just been evacuated and everybody was lined up outside to leave. Our flight was scheduled for 8:59am and it's not a big airport so that should have been plenty of time! Finally got into the airport closer to 8 and got in the long lines of people waiting to also get boarding passes. Got our boarding passes at about 8:40 and then had to go get in line for security. Got in line and walked up to the plane at 8:55. Flew to Houston. Had a 45 minute layover so basically just got off and on to the next plane. It was pouring buckets in Houston!! It does NOT rain like that in California!! Arrived in Newark, NJ at 8:49 EST. Went to baggage claim - NO LUGGAGE!! Were told to wait for the next flight arriving from Houston that it would probably be on it. Went and got dinner in the airport, went back to baggage claim. No luggage!! It was about 11:00pm by this time. Filled out a claim and prayed hard that luggage would be delivered by next morning - no such luck. Got up and we still had nothing. Hotel sent up toiletries. I called the airline - no record of anything happening. DH and I decide to shower, get redressed, and take the train into NYC and do some shopping - a couple of pairs of pants and some t-shirts and underwear for all. Stopped at the baggage claim office on the way and was told luggage had been delivered! YEA!!! No shopping needed!!

On to the fun stuff! Took the train into the city and decided to do some sightseeing. Picked up a pop up map at a souvenier shop that also had all the subway lines on it. We walked up to the Empire State Building and went up to the top. BEAUTIFUL!! The view is just incredible. If you ever get the chance to do this and have never been there before the audio tour is a MUST!! Even if you think "oh we will know what we're seeing" get the audio tour! There is so much information given to you by Joe your friendly New York tour guide - it was quite informative and entertaining!!

Took the subway from there up to Times Square and had dinner and shopped at the HUMONGOUS Toys R Us. The kids enjoyed this more than the Empire State Building - crazy kids!! Went back to our hotel and got out luggage! YEA! Clean clothes for all!!! Well, all of our underwear were wet - they were in the outer pocket of the suitcase and obviously it had sat out in the rain somewhere!

The next day (Monday the 21st) we went to the Statue of Liberty. By the time the kids were up and ready to go and we got into the city and had lunch it was about 3:30 before we got to the ferry. Unfortunately it was too late to see both islands so we missed Ellis Island. I was a bit bummed about that but what can you do? After spending some time on Liberty Island we took the ferry back to Battery Park and then took a bus up a few blocks to the World Trade Center sight. WOW! It's such a big area - it was really sad. The area all around has really picked up and looks to be operating at full capacity from what I could tell. We then went back to the hotel and went to the pool for a little while. DD had fallen and skinned her knee at the Statue of Liberty so she didn't want to get in.

Tuesday the 22nd we were woken up at 7:30am EST (at this point we were still pretty close to PST - this day changed all of that for me and I'm still paying for it! ;-) - the fire alarm in the hotel started going off. And it wasn't a beeping it was an air raid siren! At least that's what it sounded like to me "wwaaaaahhhhh wwwaaahhhhhhh an emergency has been detected in the building, please make your way to the nearest fire exit, do not enter the fire escape, do not enter the elevators waaaaahhhhhh waaaaaahhhhhh" over and over again with NO breaks in the message!! DH and I went back and forth about what to do since we didn't see or smell smoke. It went on for long enough that we finally got dressed and gathered up everything we could and started to wake the kids up. We could NOT wake them. Their little bodies thought it was 4:30am and they were NOT getting up!! After about 5 minutes of trying to wake ds - (we figured dd was small enough to pick up and carry asleep if need be) - the alarm went off and the manager came on and said "the emergency situation has been corrected, you may now return to your rooms."

So that was how our day started!! We took the train into the city again and while we were sitting in Penn station having lunch a man fell over and passed out in front of us!! Nobody bothered to help the poor guy - I was on my way to check on him when the station police showed up. We went to Central Park and rode a horse drawn carriage and went to the zoo. Then we took a bus down to the Met. It was 4:00 before we got in and they closed at 5:15. DH and I were both sad that we didn't have more time there. We LOVED the area around there and we really were enjoying the museum. We decided to take a bus back up to Penn station rather than a subway and I'm glad we did. It went all the way up 5th Ave. and we saw all the shops and Trump Tower, etc.

Wednesday was a travel day - we flew up to Buffalo, NY and rented a car and drove up to Niagara Falls,Canada and stayed in Canada until Saturday. We got the 3rd degree at the border - where's home, did you just get to NY, are those kids yours, where'd you get this car, why are you coming here, etc etc!! We went to dinner that night and walked over to the falls and saw them all lit up. The Falls are so pretty!!

Thursday we took the Maid of the Mist boat to the bottom of the falls and also walked the "Journey Behind the Falls." We drove around a bit to find a few of the places we wanted to go the next day. Then we went back to our hotel and let the kids play and swim. Our hotel had a big courtyard with an indoor pool and indoor play place and an arcade. Our door opened on to the courtyard so we could let the kids go out and play. They had a good time.

Friday we took the Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour up the Niagra River to Class 5 Rapids! If you watch The Amazing Race you know what I'm talking about - it was the same company that the contestants went to on the show - just on the Canadian side, instead of the NY side. This was a total blast and the one thing both of the kids are still talking about!! We also went to the Butterfly Conservatory - wow, what a place. Thousands of butterflies flying around - brilliant colors, just amazing!! We then took the White Water Walk along the edge of the Niagra River - that was really pretty too.

The area where the Jet Boat Tours were was called "Niagra on the Lake" and it was the most beautiful little town. DH and I fell in love. It was so GREEN! Just beautiful. Tons of little fruit stands and vineyards and orchards. We stopped and bought some fresh fruit at a fruit stand. We also came across this little tiny chapel - "The Living Water Wayside Chapel." The door was big enough for one person at a time to use and there were two pews facing each other that would each seat about 3. It was so cute!!!

Saturday we flew home - from Buffalo to Atlanta. Then Atlanta to Orange County. There was hardly anybody on the last flight so we had lots of room to stretch out. It was our roughest flight though - we flew through a lightning storm and that was a little freaky seeing lightning right outside the plane windows!! It was really pretty once we got through it and could look and see it in the distance!! The pilot must have been in training because the landing was horrible - the plane really bounced around when it hit the ground! It was good to finally be home and sad to be home at the same time!

I'm sure it'll be several more years before we do a major vacation like that, but this one, for the most part, turned out pretty good. Next time dh and I said we'd take our own kid free vacation AFTER the big family vacation so we could recuperate! LOL!!