Category: Uncategorized

From Toronto, we returned to the U.S. via Ambassador Bridge, near Detroit, Michigan.

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We stayed the night in Ann Arbor, which is a cute college town with lots of tasty places and breweries. It was a pretty quick visit and we don’t have any pictures, but we did leave with some souvenirs of Michigan dried cherries and $10 less in our wallet for a very special and welcoming parking ticket. So, note to future travelers to Ann Arbor – parking is expensive downtown, and even if you run in to get change to feed the meter, you can still get ticketed. But if you pay it within the day, it’s not too hefty of a fee.

From Ann Arbor, we drove to Chicago. The street signs on the way to Chicago were interesting…kind of like the Chrysler building upside down? Traffic was also pretty atrocious going into the city, but hey, that’s what we get for planning an arrival into a big city on Friday afternoon, right?

After finally arriving, we did all of the expected touristy things. We went to Cloudgate (aka the Bean). Can you find us in the last photo? Hint: Jo has a bright orange hat in her hand.

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We walked along the rest of Millenium Park for some nice views of the city skyline.

And we also went to the lakefront, where Jo got to show off her stylish new sunhat.

We got some snacks at Taste of Chicago, which was basically a huge street fair with lots of local eateries providing tasty treats for people. It was SUPER crowded, but somehow seagulls were able to target Jo and pooped on her purse. Ick.

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We went to Lake and Wabash, site of a scene from the Matrix.

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After doing those touristy things, Jo wanted to make some friends with locals…

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…and then ended up running into real friends – quite serendipitous!
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We finished off the whirlwind day in the Windy City with deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. It was a ~40 minute wait, but very tasty! And they seated us right under Malnati’s jersey. You can’t read the little plaque, but it basically says how he was actually a terrible baseball player and found his true skill in feeding athletes.

Took the L back to our Airbnb in Pilsen, which is sort of like the Mission District of Chicago – lots of murals on the walls and very tasty Mexican food.

And that’s it for our stay in Chicago!
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Trip Counter
– Caffeine Count: 8
– Toll: $28.45
– Tank: 2

Today only:
Puppies – 27

We are in Toronto! To note for future adventures into our northern neighbor – Garmin GPS does not have Canada pre-downloaded. And unless you have a specific data plan that allows you to have data in Canada, you will have to pay a lot. But luckily, we knew about the data and shut it off before we crossed, which meant that we are driving like we did in the 90s!!! Aka, no GPS and no Google Maps. Woohoo!! But we made it to Canada and back to the U.S.A. with no major issues. It was super rainy on the way north, so we were both happy we got to see Niagara Falls the evening before.

In Toronto, we went to the St. Lawrence Food Market and got some tasty coffee at an espresso bar called Fahrenheit. The market had a varied offering of prepared foods and high quality and specialty items as well. All the stalls serving prepared lunches became extremely popular for lunch time, as there are thousands of offices nearby.

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We lined up for a seafood place thinking it would be promising given the length of the line (yes, Jo is a sucker for thinking that things must be tasty if people are waiting). It was ok (just like the picture).

Coffee was good!

We took a stroll through the financial district and around the waterfront to get a couple good views of CN Tower.

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The drive through Ontario was green, flat, and otherwise uneventful, although we did stop to get an A&W Root Beer.

Driving across the border between Ontario and Detroit was smooth and the sunset hung on the horizon like a red orb, lighting the sky a greyish pink.
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Trip counter:
Cumulative:
– Caffeine count – 8
– Tank count – 1
– Toll – $21.15

Puppy count – 18

We are finally moving west! We had a delayed departure from South Hadley (but Jo got some professional mountain biking teaching points :P). On the road to Cooperstown from South Hadley…

After a very busy morning of moving, we left for our first destination – Niagara Falls! Jo’s med school friend’s mom very graciously hosted us for the night close to Buffalo, and we were able to see the beauty of grandeur of the falls without battling the tourists for too long. Buffalo is much bigger than we thought, and according to our host, it was one of the top 10 big cities in the early 1900s. And, it’s home to Wegman’s 🙂

Now that the car is loaded and we are headed west (and Jo’s final details of research are sorted out), she is in tourist mode and writing on the blog (hooray!). We saw the falls from the American side…

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But we both agreed that the Canadian side is a bit more picture-worthy.

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We did Journey Behind the Falls – it brought us super close to the water’s edge of Horseshoe falls, and we were both very happy to have ponchos AND rain jackets.

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It is incredible how much water goes over the edge every minute! According to reputable resources (aka wikipedia), about 168,000,000 liters of water go over the edge PER MINUTE. Coming from California with all of it’s dry drought-y-ness, it was very awe-inspiring to stand next to the thunderous water.

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If you go to Niagara Falls, it’s definitely worth checking out the Canadian side! The light show is pretty too with all of the mist from the falls.

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Trip counter (reset now that the trip is really starting!):
Cumulative caffeine count – 4
Tank count – 1
Puppy count – 6
Toll – $11.45
Times Jo crashed while mountain biking – 0