Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Trip So Far... (mostly, the first 3 days)

As you all know, we took off on Friday with our friends, 3Snipe Hunters, heading towards Cleveland. We took off around 7:00 a.m. which was only an hour later than we planned...we were right on schedule for the Everett's SOP. We ran into quite a bit of traffic, construction, and even a 7-car crash. We had stopped in Ohio because Ruth saw that we were only 250 feet away from a cache. We quickly pulled over, took a potty break, and found a cool clock tower and a cache. We no sooner got back on to the highway and we got stuck behind a huge traffic jam due to the crash... We think that the geocaching angels were watching over us... if we hadn't stopped for the cache, it might have been us in the crash!

With waiting close to an hour for the accident clean up, and tons of construction, we were running pretty late to attempt going to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so we decided to go there the next day. The geocaching event we had planned to go to wasn't until 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, so we thought it would give us plenty of time.

In the morning we went to downtown Cleveland and found a cache before going into the Hall. Once we got in, however, there was a huge line... maybe it had something to do with the morning's announcement on the Today Show that they were having a special exhibition on Women Who Rock. I overheard one of the employees say that it was the busiest he had ever seen it! Regardless, the museum was great! I wish we could have taken pictures inside the main area because there was lots to see. I can't believe how skinny some of those rockers were! Their stage costumes on display would have fit maybe one of my legs, but definetly not both!!! Still it was amazing... so amazing in fact that we ended up skipping lunch and arrived a little late to the geocaching event.

The event was held at a park by the name of Hinckley Reservation. It is part of Cleveland Metroparks. This place was gorgeous! We drove in and saw a dam, people walking dogs, riding bikes, playing frisbee and catch, and rowing canoes and kayaks on the lake. We even saw a guy playing a guitar while singing... and he was quite good! In a way, it was a little eery at how idealistic it was... The geocaching event was awesome! The local Girl Scouts were selling hot dogs, candy, and sodas for the attendees... which we were extremely thankful for since we had skipped lunch. When we went into the shelter to check in, we saw all of the caches in ammo boxes... I won't go into to many details since I plan on having my own geocaching event when our trip is over and I will definitely be using some of their ideas... I will give you a little taste, however... for one of the caches, you had to row in a canoe or kayak to solve... Ethan and I decided to attempt it. We had solved the puzzle and were rowing back in, and some how we capsized the canoe!!! In the middle of the lake!!! It was hilarious!!! We got rescued by some of the event supervisors and managed to get towed to shore... emptied the canoe and we were brave enough to finish the canoeing to the shelter... We had a blast!!!!!! Fortunately for our ego, we weren't the only ones to capsize our canoe. After saying our goodbyes to the 3Snipe Hunters (they were driving home on Saturday night), we continued our trip to a friend of Ruth's from high school, Rob and his wife's, Michelle, house.

That brings us to today. We spent some quality time with Rob and his family. We even planted a cache for Rob... he is now a converted muggle!!! We got to hike some woods that is near his home... he even taught us a little about President Garfield, who was from the area! The kids especially enjoyed their foaminator. It was really great for us to reaquant and meet Rob and his family. He, his wife, and 3 boys were extremely gracious and welcoming! Thank you, guys!!!

After visiting with them, we drove about 4 hours to get to where we are now, Niagara Falls. We checked in to our hotel and got a quick bite to eat. We then headed over to the Falls to see it lit up, which they do starting at 9:00... and, since it was a Sunday, they also were showing fireworks over them!!! I must say, if you get the oppotunity to see the Falls lit up and with the fireworks, take it!!! Beautiful!!!! I have a couple bits of advice, however. First, when you come in to park, there will be a bunch of very aggressive guys with orange traffic vest and flags... ignore them. Park in the actual park's parking lot. It costs the same and is much closer to the Falls. Besides, we got free parking since we arrived at 8:45 just to see the fireworks. If we had parked in one of the scam locations, we would have been out $10 and would have had to walk farther. Second, if there's room, go up on the walkway, Prospect Point, to watch. It's breathtaking!

Tomorrow we plan on going back to the Falls so we can do the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds... We will also do several earthcaches and geocaches. It has been an awesome trip so far.

For now, I'm going to log off. It's getting late. I'll post several pictures later. Just keep on caching!!!

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