North of the Border - Roadtrip Day 2 - Niagara Falls and (almost) Toronto

It's "aboot" time I made it to Canada again. As fun as America was for the 7 days I've been there since returning from Taiwan, it's time to leave the motherland once again for new adventures.

This morning while leaving the hotel, not even 5 minutes up the road, I see a bunch of Amish with their straw hats and matching blue shirts putting up a building. Gotta love PA. But that was about as interesting as the trip got.

Getting to the Canada-US border was fairly uneventful - besides the by now expected god-complex crossing guard. Just pray that your cell phone doesn't ring when they are asking you if you are bringing guns, explosives or liquor across the border.

While in Niagara Falls we did the Maid of the Mist boat tour. Now for the cool experience that it is, it doesn't cost much to do it - under $16. You even get a free rain poncho to wear while on the boat (I guess too many people complained about smelling like fish for a week from the rainjackets they use to give out).

As an FYI, food places north of the border are priced like the Canadian dollar is still cheap. Lame. But Tim Hortons does have some good doughnuts. Which brings me to my next ramble: Using the greenback 30 minutes outside of Toronto.

Now it didn't surprise me too much when in Niagara Falls I could use American currency. But just 20 miles outside of Toronto (about a hour northeast of Niagara) I would not expect that you would be able to use a foreign currency. For dinner tonight, we went to Tim Hortons. Now I was cocksure that we would not be able to use American cash but to my surprise, they accept it. Since 97 cents American buys 1 dollar Canadian, the exchange rate is practically 1:1, so I guess having a currency on par with the Canadian dollar does have one upside.

Anyhow, we will be hitting up Toronto tomorrow. More than likely the things on deck for tomorrow will be the CN Tower, a boat ride of some sort and crusing around the city. Then we should be heading back to the US and go to the Fingerlakes in New York. A lot of miles we're covering but it's been a fairly enjoyable trip so far.

I have decided that I will consider to grow and document my growing of a Fu Manchu. Maybe not the greatest idea in case I do decide to venture out into the job searching market, but it's something I'm considering doing.

Until next time...