Epic East Coast - Day 52

THE END.

Not much to report today except for a frustrating start to the day at the WestJet counter.  We couldn't check in on-line because their website claimed we owed money, and the kiosks at the airport that they force you to use said the same thing.  You can only talk to a guest agent if the kiosk doesn't work, which means that the only people in that line are people with serious ticket issues, so nothing moves very quickly.

Apparently when I picked our seats (and paid for the privilege), there was a system error and the transaction did not finish, even though I received a receipt e-mail.  The agent was forced to delete the transaction and repick our seats, which took her forever.  Seriously - we were there for over 15 minutes as she tapped away on the computer.  However, once she was done, things went quickly.  Security was empty, though it was an extremely long walk to the WestJet gates.  We got there, boarded and flew to Calgary.  In Calgary we ate lunch and then boarded a very short flight to Regina, arriving just after lunch local time.

Mom & Dad were there to pick us up and we quickly got our luggage and got back home, where some very excited kids ran around and played with all their toys and the trampoline.  We are finally home.

Epic East Coast - Day 51

Today was the first of two travel days in order to get home.  We checked out of the hotel and walked to the train station - hopefully the last time we have to walk with our luggage this trip.  After finding the gate, Alex and I went to buy subs for lunch.  While we were gone, the VIA employees told Sandra that they wanted us to check our luggage, as we were going all the way to Toronto, so we rushed back and got that done.  That at least makes boarding easier, as Montreal has no elevators to the tracks.

On the train, we discovered that we were in one of the newly renovated train cars, which has half of the seats facing one direction and half facing the other, so that they don't have to turn the car around, at the expense of annoying half their customers.  And we were those customers, as we had to spend the entire trip to Toronto going backwards.  It didn't bother me and the kids much, but Sandra wasn't super happy about it.

After a five and a half hour trip, we arrived at Union Station for our fourth time this trip, so we were easily able to find our way around.  We picked up our luggage and then headed out to the UP Express to take that train to Pearson.  As we stood waiting for that train, I was explaining to the kids that we would head to Pearson and then take a cab to our hotel.  A nearby passenger asked where our hotel was and said that we should check with information as there was likely a shuttle to the hotel.

We soon arrived at Pearson and got a bit lost trying to find information and an exit, but sure enough, there was a shuttle.  We found where it arrived, waited for about 15 minutes and then had a nice, easy bus ride to the hotel.  After checking in, we ran out for a quick supper and then put everyone to bed.  We have to get up ridiculously early tomorrow morning to catch a 6:00am shuttle to the airport.  After that, we have two flights and we are home.

Epic East Coast - Day 50

We travelled to Montreal today with some very tired children.  We had to get up early to get to the train station on time, which luckily was all downhill walking.  We cut the timing a little close, as they started boarding the train right as we walked into the waiting area.

The trip to Montreal was fairly uneventful, as it was a short trip, and we arrived just before lunch.  This meant that we were very early for our hotel room, but they let us check in early so that we could dump all of our luggage in the room and head out for lunch, which was just a nearby food court, in order to keep things simple.

It was then time to spend the afternoon exploring Montreal.  We started outside the shopping plaza, where a group of people were playing chess on giant chessboards.  After one game was over, we went on a short walking tour of Old Montreal.  We walked past the cathedral, which is massive, and a lot of very nice looking old buildings.  However, most of the sidewalks were too narrow and too busy to easily walk through.

Down by the river there is a park and walking path that we walked along for awhile and at the end of that is the Old Port, which is now a big shopping and tourist area.  We let the kids go on a little train ride and then headed back to the hotel.

Supper was a bit of a disaster, as the younger kids have reached a point where they will only eat chicken nuggets and we decided to go to a Tim Horton's, where they managed to get my order wrong.  I didn't eat, as once we returned to the hotel, Alex and I walked a long way to Schwartz's Deli so that I could have a smoked meat sandwich.  The restaurant was very busy and was cash only (which I only found out about when I went to pay), but the sandwich was extremely good.

When we got back to the hotel, it was almost bed time, but the older two kids wanted to go swimming, so I took them to the pool while Sandra put the extremely tired younger two to bed.  That's pretty much it for our trip - tomorrow is a travel day to Toronto and Sunday is our flights home.  At this point I'm calling the trip "fun-strating".  We'll see how I feel after a few months have passed.

Epic East Coast - Day 49

Our trip is nearing its end, so we didn't do much today.  We only left the suite when we were forced to go for lunch.  We ended up going to a different creperie, as Evan discovered that they made pizza crepes, though this creperie was not quite as good as yesterday's.

After lunch, we wandered down to the Notre Dame cathedral so that Sandra could visit a nearby Christmas store.  We also took a bit of time to visit the cathedral.

Our next stop was a visit to the walls surrounding Old Quebec, which we walked along for a short ways.  Unfortunately, the walls included old cannons and a very steep embankment along one side, which meant that the kids wanted to play, but the adults wanted them to live.  After a short time we forced the kids to return to safer ground, which they weren't too happy about.

From the point on the wall where we started and ended our walk, we could see a small playground and everyone was very excited about it, so we took the kids over to it and let them play.  After a bit, Alex and I walked further along the wall - all the way to the Citadel and back.  By then, everyone was hot and tired and we were out of water, so we headed back for supper.

Tomorrow we take an early train to Montreal for one night, primarily so that we can get in to Toronto before 11:00pm on Saturday, as the trains from Quebec to Toronto get in late, but the trains from Montreal to Toronto get in around supper time.  We do plan to spend the afternoon walking around Old Montreal and hopefully obtain a nice smoked meat sandwich.

Epic East Coast - Day 48

Quebec is a beautiful city

Today was our Citadel and Crepes day.  We started the day by walking down to La Citadelle de Quebec, which is the star shaped fortress built by the British to protect Quebec from the Americans.  It contains a museum and tours, but it is also home to the Royal 22nd Infantry Regiment and it is the away from Ottawa home of the Governor General.  As it is an active military base, you aren't allowed to just walk around, but you must take a tour.  Oh, and the military has banned Pokemon Go on the base, which is probably a good thing.

We arrived just in time for the changing of the guard, so we sat and watched that, which included the 22nd's mascot, which is a goat.  (As our tour guide said - when the queen gives you a goat for a mascot, you accept it.  And now one of the ranks in the 22nd is Goat Major, who is responsible for taking care of the goat.)  Immediately after the changing of the guard was the first tour, but there were a lot of people waiting for that, so we sat around for half an hour until the next tour started so that there would be less people.

It was a nice tour of the citadel and it even included a chance for us to watch a howitzer fired to mark 12:00 noon.  Our next stop was the museum, which I looked quickly through, as the younger kids were hungry and not very interested in it.

It was then time for lunch, and the moment Alex has waited all trip for - a visit to a creperie.  First, we stopped at McDonald's for the younger kids and after they were done headed to the creperie, which still had a line outside it at 2:00pm.  Alex even ordered his crepes in French, which I missed because I had to take Bradley to the bathroom.  The crepes were quite good and we shared some desert crepes with everyone after we ate, though we left the table quite a mess due to multiple children spilling water during the meal.  Sometimes we're a wrecking ball of a family.

We then headed down to Old Quebec and explored it for the rest of the afternoon, before taking the funicular back up to Chateau Frontenac.  On the way down, we stopped in a park with a bunch of old cannons that the boys played on for quite a long time, pretending to use them to stop invasions of Quebec and getting into a loud argument with some other boys about what weapons would work underwater.

Before leaving, we stopped to watch a street juggler give a performance, which was just OK.  When he got going he was good, but he struggled to get his juggling started, often dropping one of the items, or simply throwing them a single time before stopping for applause.  The kids loved it though.   He was French, but his English accent was part southern drawl, which was pretty amusing.  You don't hear many French say "y'all". We headed back to our suite, ate and then relaxed for the evening.

There is no odd perspective to this photo.  The road is that steep.

And once you are at the bottom, they add cobblestones to the hills.

Epic East Coast - Day 47

Today started slowly and we ended up not doing a whole lot.  We walked to the Plains of Abraham museum and booked a bus tour around the park for 3:00pm before we walked through the park for a bit and found a spot where the kids could play, which they did for an hour or so.

Then it was lunch time, so we headed to a trendier area of town and found a restaurant to eat in.  Once that was done, we walked back the museum and actually went into it.  It was quite small, but had some nice displays on the uniforms that all the soldiers wore.

It was then time for our tour, which took place in a small bus.  The driver, who was playing the part of Abraham, took us around the park and stopped and explained about important things that had happened, including the battle, the two Stanley Cups that a Quebec team won in the park and that the park was designed by the same man who worked on Central Park.

After the tour, we went back down the hill (shudder) to a grocery store to buy food for the next couple of days, then back up the hill (double shudder) to our suite to make supper.  I think we are going to explore the Citadel tomorrow morning and Old Quebec in the afternoon, as long as the rain stops overnight.

Epic East Coast - Day 46

Another travel day to what is basically our final destination - Quebec City.  We checked out of our hotel, left our luggage with the front desk and headed out for lunch.  After lunch I asked a cab in front of the hotel if he could call in a second cab to fit all of us and he stood up and signalled a passing cab van, which for the first time this trip had six seat belts and room for our luggage.  Congratulations Ottawa cab companies!  It ended up being just slightly cheaper than two cabs, due to the $10 surcharge for the van (on a $13 trip).

Our train left Ottawa for Montreal at 2:00pm, and there were only two other people in our train car, so it was a pretty easy trip.  The car got about half full in Montreal and we arrived in Quebec a little late at around 8:00pm.

Sandra and I were last here in 2004, and all I remembered was that it was a wonderful combination of France and Canada.  What I blocked out were the unbelievable hills you have to walk up, as the city is built on a huge cliff.  Dragging all of the luggage and stroller up the hills taxed our strength, and the path I chose ended up taking a less steep path in one direction which meant a much more steep path in the other.  At one point the path became steps and we had to pull all the luggage up in shifts.

We are staying in a renovated basement suite, which is quite beautiful.  Tomorrow we'll head out - without our luggage - to explore the city a bit.

Epic East Coast - Day 45

I found today extremely frustrating, due to some very stubborn children and some not very good parenting.  I think some of my kids, like myself, need a vacation.

We tried to get to Parliament Hill for the changing of the guard at 10:00am and ended up having to rush there again.  It was already full of people and the ceremony starts a little earlier than 10:00am, as the old guard was already waiting for the new guard when we arrived.  Still, we got to see the new guard march in and watch the ceremony.  The kids are short, so no one minds if they squeeze in front of them.

Sandra then paused for a family picture in front of Parliament, since it is sunny today, and then we headed out to the Canadian War Museum.  It was a bit of a walk, but we made good time.  First, we went through the special exhibition at the museum, which is on the WWI air war.  They created 10 comic book stories following 10 different people involved in the air war and put up large prints of the comics on the walls.  It also included memorabilia from each of the people and a bunch of activities for the kids, including a flight simulator that each of the kids did twice.

After a quick lunch, we went through the main part of the museum, which wasn't as great as I thought it would be.  They have galleries for all the eras that Canada was involved in wars, but they don't really have a lot of things.  Most of it is just stuff to read, which isn't really what I want out of a museum.  They had a section on Batoche and the Rebellion, but all it contained was a picture of Riel, a picture of Dumont and a Gatling gun.  By the end of World War II, we were tired of it and kind of rushed through the Cold War and peacekeeping section so that we could get to the gallery at the end that had all of the tanks.

The big thing I wanted to see was the German Panther, which they had parked next to a Sherman.  For all the talk in wargaming circles about how large the Panther was, I was surprised that the Sherman wasn't much smaller.  A bit narrower and shorter, but they were the same height.  Alex and I looked through all the tanks, artillery and other stuff they had on display and then we left.

We walked back into downtown Ottawa, stopped at a grocery store and then went back to the hotel to made supper.  Evan had wanted to go to 24 Sussex, but wasn't as interested once he found out it was a 30 minute walk just to look at the outside.  He thought you got to go inside.  So we took everyone out for Beaver Tails and then went to bed.  Tomorrow we head to Quebec.

Epic East Coast - Day 44

We got wet today.  The forecast was for showers all day, turning into thunderstorms in the evening, which was apparently the first substantial rain Ottawa has received in a long time.  As it was rainy, we figured that the line for the free tickets to Parliament Hill would be short, but that wasn't the case.  We arrived at 9:05am, five minutes after the ticket booth opened, and the lineup was already a block long.  Fifty minutes later we had tickets to tour East Block at 12:45pm and Centre Block at 2:00pm.

The rain was heavy when we came out so we headed straight for a restaurant, but then it lightened up and we were able to visit the locks at the end of the Rideau Canal.  Eight locks that are 180+ years old and still operate exactly as they did when they were built.  No pumps - just sluice gates and gravity to move the water between the locks (and muscle power to move the chains that open and close the locks and open and close the sluice gates).  We watched one boat rise in the water and another go down before we left to find lunch, right as it started raining harder again.

We walked through the rain to a popular diner in Ottawa, which was quite busy, but we managed to get there just before the big lunch rush.  The food was OK, but it wasn't as good as the little diner in Niagara Falls.  It was then time to head for Parliament Hill and wait for our tours.

Security into the buildings is substantial.  We had to remove everything metal, including my belt, and Sandra's earrings set off the metal detector.  Once the entire group got through, we had a tour of the restored rooms in the East Block, which included the Governor General's room, the Prime Minister's room and the Privy Council room.

After leaving East Block, we toured Centre Block, which was much more impressive, as it burned to the ground 100 years ago and was rebuilt.  East Block is the only Parliament building to not burn down, so it is the original 1860s architecture.  The neo-Gothic limestone arches (the same Manitoba limestone used in Saskatchewan's Legislative building) and marble floors in Centre Block are much more impressive.  It was very neat standing in the foyer of the House of Commons and recognizing it from all the news interviews with the politicians.  Standing in the House of Commons was also very cool.

At the end of the tour you can go up the Peace Tower and look out over Ottawa under the clock, but the line was long, slow and Jonathan did not want to go, so I took him down and waited on some chairs for the rest of the family.  I'm 100% done with lines to go somewhere tall.  It is never worth the wait.  Forty minutes later, Sandra arrived and we left.  The thunderstorms started at this point and we were drenched when we arrived back at the hotel.

Epic East Coast - Day 43

Sweet, glorious coolness!  For the first time since we left home 43 days ago, the temperature did not get above 25 degrees.  It hit 24 late in the morning and then the arrival of afternoon rain showers knocked that down to 19 when we walked back to the hotel for supper.  That was the nicest walk I've had in a long time.

Everyone slept in this morning, so we simply booked a tour of the mint at 11:00am, which we ended up having to rush to after struggling to get everyone out of the hotel.  Also, this hotel has extremely busy elevators - I've never had to wait so long for an elevator before.  Anyway, we walked very quickly and got to the mint in time for our tour.  The tour was very interesting, as was seeing the giant coils of pure gold and silver used to make the coins.  Each gold coil is worth 22 million dollars and the one room had 12 of them sitting side by side.  No pictures were allowed on the tour, though there were lots of cool things to take pictures of.  Probably the most interesting thing we learned was that each medal from the Vancouver Olympics has a unique pattern on it, as the medals are all pieces in a puzzle.  If you put them all together correctly it forms a picture of an orca.  Each athlete was presented with a scarf that showed where their medal fit into the puzzle.

We left the mint and took a quick look at the nearby cathedral before heading back to the hotel for lunch.  After lunch, we walked across the bridge to Quebec and went to the Canadian History Museum.  I picked it because I was worried we would not have time to explore the entire War Museum in part of an afternoon, which is where Alex and I both really want to go.  However, I did not do enough research into the museum, as I expected it to have things of importance to Canadians - like Alexander Graham Bell or the trans-Canada railway.  That floor is being worked on and will open next year.  What it did have was a entire floor on indigenous people and a floor of special exhibitions.  The first floor was poorly lit and difficult to see things and the younger kids found the masks and totem poles scary.  The special exhibitions were decent - one on Napoleon and one on the BC gold rush.

The star of the museum was the children's section, which we went to last.  A bunch of different areas for the kids to play in - pretending to cook, run a crane on a boat, building a house and so on.  We let the kids run and play for a couple of hours while we waited for the rain to stop so that we could walk home.  As mentioned previously, I loved the walk, though some of the others found it too cold.  I have a feeling we're going to be bundled up once we get back to Regina.

He rebuilt this plumbing six times.

Don't show this to Papa!

Epic East Coast - Day 42

Ugh.  It is HOT in Niagara Falls.  We left the house at 8:30am for a 30 minute walk to the bus station and it was already 27 degrees out.  I was covered in sweat when we arrived.  I was really worried about this bus trip, as I had no idea how busy it would be.  We were originally scheduled to leave on the 10:27 bus, but we instead arrived for the 9:27 bus to give us some wiggle room in the schedule.

Upon arriving at the bus station, I asked a lady, who turned out to be the bus driver, when the bus would start loading, and she said 9:25.  At 9:20, the bus drove around from the front of the bus station to the back and I was waiting for an announcement (or 9:25 to arrive) when she walked in, pointed at us and said it was time to go.  In an extremely lucky break for us, the bus was basically empty, so there was ample room for our luggage in the tiny luggage compartment, as these are fancy double-decker buses.  It also meant that the kids got to sit at the very front of the second level and watch the entire trip down a very busy highway through a large front window.

I asked the bus driver about the lack of people and she said it was just this time slot - apparently the 10:27 bus is usually quite full, so that was a really good choice on our part.  The bus arrived at the GO station in Burlington and we got off, while the bus driver griped at all the people going to Niagara Falls that were trying to get on her bus (as it has the same number, but in her words "do you see Niagara written anywhere on this bus?").  She directed us to the third track in the station, and I'm glad she did as the GO station has absolutely no signage indication what trains arrive where.  There are three tracks and you have to know how it works to avoid missing a train, though if you do, it's only a half hour wait.  In fact, the train didn't even indicate where it was going - definitely not setup for newcomers or tourists.

Once in Toronto (again), we found a place to sit and then I took the older boys out to a nearby Tim Horton's to pickup lunch.  After we were done eating, a VIA employee arrived, weighed the suitcase and said it was too heavy for the train, so we would have to lighten it or be charged $20.  He fully expected us to move stuff out of it (as all the backpacks are well under 40 pounds), but all the backpacks are full, so we just paid the $20.  We'll have to figure some other way to pack things to avoid being charged on the next two trains.

VIA has assigned seating, but limited overhead luggage space, so you have to put all your luggage in a shared rack near the front of the car.  There was easily enough room for everything, but we were also the first people on the train, as they preboarded us due to the kids.  The train ride was a train ride - slow and late - and we arrived in Ottawa at 7:30pm.  There was a line of regular cabs outside the train station, but no larger vans, so we split up into two cabs to get to our hotel.

Once there, we checked in and then found supper and a grocery store.  We're in Ottawa for the next three days before we head into Quebec for the very last part of our trip.

Epic East Coast - Day 41

I tried to keep today simple, as I am exhausted and worn down.  In the morning we walked to the White Water Walk - a short path along the gorge beside the Niagara River, with some of the most extreme rapids, just due to the speed of the water.  It was a very hot walk, but it was nice and cool down by the river.

The rapids were very neat and pretty much everyone enjoyed watching them.  When we were done with the rapids, it was lunch time, but we had left all the tourist areas far behind.  Luckily, there was a small local diner a very short walk south and it was perfect for lunch.  Empty, except for locals having coffee, and a regular small town restaurant feel.  The food was also fantastic.

It was then time for another extremely hot walk all the way back to the falls so that we could go to the Hershey store.  Of course everyone wanted to buy something different and no one was very excited when we simply chose a 1 pound chocolate bar for all of us to share.  We returned to the house for the chocolate and for naps, as there are fireworks over the falls on Wednesday nights, so we were going to be out late.

Almost everyone fell asleep and it took some time to get everyone up to go for supper, so we went for a very late supper at the Rainforest Cafe.  The food was good, but pricey, and the kids initially didn't like the decor, but grew to like it as the evening passed.

By the time supper was over it was dark, so we walked down to the falls and waited for them to light up.  After looking at that for a bit, we headed over to a grassy area to wait for the fireworks.  The fireworks were nice, though short and the only real issue was that the smoke from the early fireworks started obscuring half of the later fireworks.  That ends our time in Niagara Falls.  I'm not really sad to leave - we almost got hit by cars a couple of times today - but I'm also nervous about our travel day tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll be in Ottawa tomorrow night.

Epic East Coast - Day 40

Niagara Falls is the most pedestrian unfriendly town I have ever been in.  The long walk down the river from the American falls to the Canadian falls has two places to cross the highway, while the tourist streets have no places to cross at all.  You are supposed to just run into traffic, with signs that helpfully remind you that vehicles have the right of way.  Not the best place for a family with small children.

We took the boys to see the falls in the morning and they were initially unimpressed, because it was hot, it was a long walk, and we took them away from their fun in the attic.  Alex liked the mist because it cooled him off.  After looking at the falls for awhile, we went in and bought tickets to the Journey Under the Falls.  We skipped the boat tour today because the lineup was unbelievably long and because none of the kids wanted to do it.  They sell tickets for a specific time, so we went for lunch until our time arrived.

Once underground, Alex was really impressed by the falls, though he did not like the fact that the behind the falls tunnels kept you so far back from the water - he wanted to get splashed.  Jonathan, on the other hand, loved those tunnels and had to be dragged away from the viewing area so that all the people behind us could get their turn.  Bradley didn't like his poncho, as even the child one was way too big on him and he also didn't like getting wet.

We then walked up a ridiculously steep hill to find a UPS Store so that I could print out our GO and VIA tickets.  I phoned GO Transit in the morning, and they said the luggage would be fine, though they did advise me to take an earlier bus than on my ticket, since delays were possible.  I also discovered that all the online complaints about the bus/train to Toronto were from the weekends, when everyone from Toronto comes down here for the day / weekend.  As we are travelling on a Thursday, we shouldn't encounter the same issues.

Supper was next so that everyone was rested and fortified for the Dinosaur Mini-Golf.  It was good course, with lots of big dinosaurs to see as you played.  Sandra destroyed all of us, and once again, 18 holes was too much for the kids, especially as it was still 31 degrees out at 6:00pm.  Our next stop was the house of LEGO that Sandra and I found the last time we were here.  It is less impressive now that we've seen the efforts of Scott, Adam and the rest of SLUG, but it had buttons for the kids to press to make the trains move, so it was a huge hit with the kids.

The final stop of the day was a maze that Evan wanted to go through, even though he doesn't really have the patience or sense of direction for mazes.  Alex quickly found his way through and Jonathan did a really impressive job of finding the locations you were supposed to find and then guiding the rest of us through the maze.  It was then back to the house for the night.

Epic East Coast - Day 39

When you are on a long trip and moving around from place to place, you have a lot of travel days, which today was.  We packed up, left Penn Yan and drove back to Syracuse.  I dropped everyone off at the train station and then drove back to the airport to return the truck.  A short cab ride took me back to the train station, where we grabbed subs, ate and then sat down and waited for our train.  It was forty minutes late, arriving at 1:30pm.

The conductors on this train (Toronto <-> New York) are not the best conductors we've encountered.  He did get us some seats together in a family section at the end of one car, but everyone else that got on he sent to another car and they then wandered the length of the train before they found seats. Quite different from the conductors in Kissimmee assigning seats to everyone on the platform.

We arrived in Niagara Falls, NY just after 4:00, where we sat for almost 40 minutes while the train changed engines and crew - it switches to Canadian VIA conductors for the Canadian part of the trip.  Then it was a quick trip across the bridge, where we drug all of our stuff off the train for customs.  Luckily, Canadian customs is in the Niagara Falls, ON train station, so once we were done, we could just walk out.  Everyone else had to reboard the train.  (Coming the other direction, they had us leave our luggage on the train.  They also stopped in a "no man's zone" between the two stations, as even the people going to Niagara Falls, NY had to get back on the train.)

We walked down to the house we rented, as it was under a 30 minute walk and arrived at a very nice, newly renovated character home a block north of the tourist area of town.  The kids fell in love with the attic room and disappeared up there until we drug them out to walk to a nearby Shopper's for some breakfast supplies.

With that out of the way, we walked across the QEW and stopped for a very late supper at Planet Hollywood.  Then it was bed time.  Tomorrow we'll take the kids out to see the falls and figure out someway out of this city, as our VIA tickets to Ottawa included tickets on the GO Transit bus to Burlington and GO train to Toronto, but some Googling has shown that those are very busy, often late and regular commuter buses / trains - not conducive to families of six with all of their luggage.

Epic East Coast - Day 38

Race day is always a long day of traffic and people.  We got out in time to make it to the race track at 10:00am, and encountered hardly any traffic until we got near the track, but it was quite busy there.  We were unable to park in the lot from yesterday, as it looked quite full, with a full lane of traffic trying to get into it, so we parked in the next lot over, which put us farther from our seats, but right beside the bridge over the track.

After waiting in the truck for 40 minutes, we entered the track and went to the infield so that the younger two could purchase toy cars and so that I could find the Jeff Gordon 800th start t-shirt for this race.  The infield was absolutely packed with people and greatly reminded me of shuffling through the Harry Potter areas of Universal.  Upon passing the Geico tent, we were advised that Casey Mears would be out shortly, but I wanted to get through the crowd and get out of the infield, so we pushed on.  A few tents later, I discovered Evan was upset, as he had wanted to stay.  There were so many people that I didn't really want to fight my way back to that area, so we moved on to the shopping area.

After shopping, we walked back past the Geico tent, where I inquired about Casey and they said he was there signing autographs in front of what was a very short line.  In one of those very unlucky happenstances, we arrived at the end of the line just as they closed the line off.  We walked by the line and took a few pictures of Casey signing stuff.  I guess I should have walked back for Evan.  Normally the lines and crowds for anything pertaining to the drivers are impossibly long, but that didn't really seem to be the case here.  Once Casey left, they started throwing stuffed geckos from the stage, but we were too far back to get any.  A very nice family in front of us caught four of them and gave them to all the boys, which made everyone happy.

We made our way to our grandstand and had lunch, before waiting under the grandstand for the race to begin.  It was 29 and sunny today, which feels cool after Florida, but was still warm enough that sitting in the sun for an extra hour wasn't high on my list of things to do.  The national anthem was identical to yesterday with the same fireworks, though this time there was a flyover by a C-130.  The seats in front of us stayed empty the whole race, which gave us a little extra room, which was nice.

The race itself was a bit of a reminder of why I don't watch much NASCAR anymore.  A fake debris caution early on to avoid having the leaders run away with the race and to help Jeff get his car fixed.  A silly caution for a rolling tire in the pits at the halfway point, which bunched everyone up after a nice long green flag run and led to two red flags, more cautions and more wrecked race cars.  At least they managed to race the final four laps without any incidents and have quite a good finish.  I just wish NASCAR cared more about the entire race than the tight finish, as the second half of the race was unwatchable - a good chunk of the people in the stands disappeared with about 15 laps to go.  So, not the best NASCAR race I've been to, but everyone in my family had a good time.

After the race we stopped for supper at the track and then wandered out to the truck.  It was an hour after the race ended, and I was happy to see that the lots were fairly empty and traffic was moving.  Unfortunately, I also noticed that the police were forcing everyone in our lot to turn left (south) and I wanted to turn right, as we are staying northwest of the track.  We got in the truck and got into the traffic only to discover that while the lots were empty, the roads around the track were full and the police were forcing everyone onto the main highways, which meant that I was unable to take my rural route home.  We ended up taking a very slow, traffic filled circle around the track and back into the village of Watkins Glen, where we were finally able to leave the main highway and get back to our suite, 1.5 hours after leaving the parking lot - normally just over a 30 minute drive.

This was our last day in the US.  Tomorrow we head back to Syracuse, drop off the rental and get on a train to Niagara Falls.

Epic East Coast - Day 37

My back route to the race track was a bit more rural than I expected, as I found an actual grid road.  We (Alex, Evan and I) did arrive at the track on time and without any traffic, so it was a success.  After parking, I found a scanner rental trailer and picked one up for the weekend.  I could not find any of the merch trucks (which don't actually exist anymore; they have a giant set of tents for shopping), so I asked at an information booth and we were directed across the track into the infield.

The infield at a three mile road coarse is big, and we walked through a large area of displays setup by car sponsors.  Some had large lines due to driver Q&A sessions, while most of the others were giving away branded merchandise, if you signed up for some offer / contest so that they had your name and address.  We got suckered into the Geico area, though I didn't enter the contest and the kids got a bag and played a bean bag toss game for a can holder.

We eventually found the giant merch tent and went shopping.  I picked up a Richard Petty shirt, since I had such a fun time at the Richard Petty Driving Experience, while Alex bought a small race car and Evan found some NASCAR trading cards.  The kids then demanded we find our seats as there was only an hour before the Sprint Cup practice started.  Our tickets are in the turn 1 grandstand, but for this race we could have sat wherever we wanted.  If I had thought more about it I may have gone somewhere else, but I didn't, so we just sat in our actual seats.

Qualifying was OK.  Not super interesting, as all the cars are on the track at the same time, which means things happen quickly.  Jeff Gordon's first lap had him 12th, but by the time he finished his cool down lap he was 21st.

The XFINITY race started with the national anthems and they set off fireworks during "the rockets red glare" which startled everyone in the stands and led to the entire grandstand chuckling and talking during the end of the anthem (which included more fireworks).

The race started off sluggish, with a bunch of cautions and a red flag, but it finished with some good racing between Logano and Keselowski.  Evan loved the entire race.  Alex liked parts, but the sun bugged him and he spent part of the race sitting in my shadow reading the race program.  Despite liberal sunscreen applications, we all burnt the top of our legs, since this is the first time we've spent a day sitting the sun rather than walking around in the sun.

After the race was over, we sat in the parking lot for almost 40 minutes before the traffic line even started moving, though once that happened we were easily able to drive out onto the highways and leave the traffic behind.  I am fully expecting that we will sit in the parking lot for twice that length tomorrow, since the stands were only half full today.

Sandra
The other half of us hung out in our apartment in the tiny town of Penn Yan.  I thought that Jonathan, Bradley and I might find a park or some such thing but they didn't want to do anything.  Jonathan didn't even get out of his PJs until lunch time.  I did convince them to go out to visit a candy store (and that took convincing) but it turned out that it was closed for the day.  Next door was a shop selling local goods and a little cafe so we got dessert instead.  It was a not for profit that provides food to disadvantaged kids when they're not at school.  After that, it was back to the apartment for naps.  We are in a bit of Amish country here and sure enough, as we were napping, I heard the clip clop of horses hooves.  I looked out the window to see an Amish buggy driving down main street.  That was our big excitement for the day.

Epic East Coast - Day 36

Most of today was taken up exploring the gorge that the Watkins Glen creek has cut through the sandstone and shale in the area.  We drove down the highway to the village of Watkins Glen and stopped at Watkins Glen State Park.  Actually, we stopped in the village first, as the road into town was a bit of a parking lot, due to three lights in a very short area and likely an increase in traffic due to it being the race weekend.  That solidified my plan to avoid that route to the track tomorrow, as it looks slow.

The gorge was a very beautiful walk, filled with small waterfalls and pools and a lot of stairs.  It was also less stressful once we finally convinced the boys to slow down and walk with us, rather than running ahead and leaning over rock walls with a 100 foot drop.  At the end of the gorge, we took a simple gravel path along the top that was a bit easier to walk than all the stairs, though one section had a very steep grade that I was happy we were walking down, rather than up like the gasping, sweating people we were passing.  We also met a number of Canadians and managed to finally convince the kids of how close we are to Ontario right now.

After lunch in Watkins Glen we drove south to another waterfall that was supposed to be impressive, but it was not.  It was very tall, but only a tiny trickle of water was falling.  As we left, another visitor arrived and exclaimed that he had never seen the water so low, so maybe it's been a dry year here.

We drove back to Penn Yan to take the boys to a mini-golf location, which is right in the middle of a corn field.  The golfing was fun, but 18 holes was a bit too much for the younger kids and they were pretty exhausted when we finished.

We returned to our suite for a rest and then planned on going to a nearby diner for supper, only to discover that it is only open for breakfast and lunch.  With limited options we just went to the restaurant beside it, which ended up being a less than optimal choice.  None of the food was very good, except for the slices of pizza that Alex ordered, but we survived.  It was then time for a quick trip to a grocery store and then a return to the suite for showers and bedtime.  Tomorrow we split up - Sandra is staying in town with the two younger boys, while I take the two older boys to watch qualifying and the Busch race (or whatever that series is called now).  I think I have a rural route planned out that will get me into and out of the track and skip most of the traffic - Penn Yan is located off all the main routes out of Watkins Glen, so I'm hoping we'll be able to skip most of the traffic, as we won't be trying to get to an Interstate.  We'll see how it works tomorrow.