Oh Canada

Last week's stress load was bad enough all by itself, but you know I need a challenge. I didn't get a doctoral fellowship at The School of Hard Knocks by slacking off. I don't just walk tightropes, I do it blindfolded. With that in mind, I made it through last week on just twelve hours of sleep spread across seven days. It's cool though. One night I dreamed that I was asleep, so that's gotta count for double sleep. So what does a severely sleep deprived person do on the weekend?

Drive 16 hours to and from Niagara Falls.

Yep. My best friend got married and while I wanted nothing more than to find out what delightful coma would befall me if I mixed ZzzQuil, NyQuil and a bottle of wine, I went to the wedding. My brokeness would not allow me to buy a plane ticket, so I had to drive. Insomnia allowed me to sleep two full hours before getting up and driving 8 hours through not-95.

I really need to work on my geography. I just knew that my GPS would send me up I95. Nope. I ended up in the mountains somewhere. It was really peaceful. I saw the sun rise over the mountains. I saw wind turbines in person for the first time. It was like being in a screensaver.

As for Niagara Falls...I have no idea how that place has managed to avoid the long arm of commercialism. There was absolutely nothing to do (i.e., places to spend money) besides a casino and some odd shops. You would expect a barrage of fast food, chain restaurants and gift shops. But it was just...meh. There was a TGIFridays, but that was it.

The falls themselves looked nice--smaller than I expected, but nice. I rode the Maid of the Mist and enjoyed seeing them up close, but most of the ride was spent with me balancing my desire to take pictures against my fear of my iPhone getting wet and voiding my AppleCare warranty.

The Canadian side of the falls looked a lot more interesting. If I could illustrate the difference with an analogy:
Their side is Boardwalk and Park Place, the falls are 'Go' and the American side is Baltic and Mediterranean Avenue. They had a Ferris Wheel, a huge observation tower/space needle, casinos, and all kinds of fun looking stuff. We have a TGIFridays...inside a hotel.

I think the border patrol is more to keep us in than to keep them out.