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Today we drove to Buffalo to visit with Uncle Jui, my dad’s best friend from his graduate school days in St Louis. Uncle Jui’s daughter Nancy and her husband Scott drove down from Toronto to visit with us. Uncle Jui and his wife Auntie Yen introduced my parents to each other. Uncle Jui went to the same elementary school as my mom and was a year ahead. Dad and Uncle Jui were roommates at Washington U. When we moved to New Jersey, Uncle Jui was teaching at Yale and we visited with them often (along with Uncle Chi-hua and Auntie Nancy from Boston, another family originally from the St Louis grad school days). All of their kids, Nancy, Jane and Fong, were the closest that we had to cousins when we grew up. I remember meeting Nancy and Jane even before we moved out east. Their family visited St Louis once and we went to see a football game between the Cardinals and New York Giants at the old Busch Stadium (aka Sportsman’s Park). I remember that Nancy was a Giants fan. I also remember that the Cards lost.
We had a really nice visit at the assisted living center that Uncle Jui lives at. We arrived mid-morning and stayed for lunch. In fact lunch was the best meal we had eaten in our visit so far. It was great for them to meet the kids. We chatted until mid-afternoon when the kids finally got a bit restless. It was great to see all of them doing so well.
We returned to the hotel where I took Hua Mei to the pool for the last time. She really loves the water. Afterward we went to the casino for the buffet. It was excellent and the kids ate really well. We learned that Hua Mei likes prime rib and Xia Xia likes jello. I quite enjoyed the crab legs too. It’s been a fun stay in Niagara Falls. Karen and the kids fly back to Minneapolis tomorrow morning and the conference starts tomorrow evening. I’m already looking forward to returning home on Thursday.
Last night we went to the Falls to watch the fireworks. At 9 pm the American Falls are illuminated by light shone on it from the Canadian side. It was cool to see the mist lit up. The view from the Canadian side must be quite nice. While waiting for the fireworks, Karen bought the kids a couple of LED flashing light sticks. Taking after their dad, the kids quickly broke them. I was able to fix them the multiple times they broke. Who says I’m not mechanical? We had to make it clear to Xia Xia that they were not light sabers.
The fireworks promptly began at 10 pm. It was a great show. The kids were enthralled. There was a big crowd to watch it. We headed back to the hotel tired and happy.
This morning we drove about an hour south to Evangola State Park for the Pirates Fest. The park is on Lake Erie and the festival was right by the beach. There were demonstrations, activities, and food.
It was a fun time. The kids had a treasure hunt on the beach with the pirates. Hua Mei was thrilled. She loves pirates.
We had a nice lunch and bought a little pirate flag for Hua Mei. Xia Xia ran around and played in the playground. It was a nice family outing.
We’ve noticed quite a few Indian restaurants in Niagara Falls. We passed four along our walk down to the Falls. So, last night we were quite looking forward to a nice meal. We walked to one not far from the hotel and found that they moved. Armed with a coupon, we decided to walk to the new location which was only a couple of block from our hotel. I’d read some reviews on yelp.com and thought it was worth a try. I was wrong. It may have been the worst meal I’ve ever had at a restaurant. We went in and it was really hot. They had a buffet and we decided to just do that. Oh, well. Win some, lose some.
It is interesting though how many Indian tourists there are at the Falls. Obviously there are a lot of tourists here anyway but usually you expect to see a lot of Japanese, Chinese and Europeans. We’ve seen quite a few South Americans also. Just goes to show the popularity and worldwide renown of the Falls.
We also visited the casino. It was packed. The buffet and restaurants were fairly expensive. Today we go to a state park to enjoy a pirate festival for kids.
Update: the following day, not learning from our previous encounter we decided to try another Indian restaurant. It was better but still nothing close to Chapati in Edina. The Indian restaurants in Niagara Falls are expensive and barely adequate. Lesson learned.
We spent a fun day at the Falls today. Our hotel is within walking distance and after breakfast we took a stroll down to Niagara Falls State Park to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat tour.
It was great fun. We sat in the mist of the Horseshoe Falls for quite a while and it felt like a rain storm. It was fun getting so close to both the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls.
The view from the Observation Deck was really impressive. The kids had a good time and Hua Mei immediately asked to do it again. We then went to the gift shop to get a refrigerator magnet for Grace. We bought tickets to the trolley and then rode through the park, taking time out to get other views of the Falls and the rapids.
On our way back to the hotel, we visited the Taste of Niagara which was taking place on the pedestrian mall. We ate a late lunch of wings, ribs, sweet potato pie and watermelon. Returning to the hotel, Karen got Xia Mei to take a nap and I took Hua Mei to the pool. We will be sleeping well tonight. There are fireworks at the Falls at 10 pm tonight. Maybe if we can stay up, I’ll take Hua Mei to see them.
Yesterday we left the house at noon for the airport. It was off to Buffalo for a visit to Niagara Falls. I have a conference there next week and we decided to take the kids for a little vacation at the Falls before my conference. After a sort flight to Detroit, it was even a shorter flight to Buffalo. Still, getting the toddler seats installed in to the rental car took a whole lot of work and then it was off to the hotel. We finally made it to the hotel by 7:30 pm, tired, testy, hungry and dehydrated. It was a long travel day but we are here. Today we go see the Falls. Our hotel is within walking distance and we’re right across the street from the Seneca Niagara Casino. Buffet anyone?
Today we witnessed an interesting numerology at 12:34.56 pm on 07/08/09. Not that it means anything but it is kind of cool. Plus this happened on my birthday which I also share with John D. and Nelson Rockefeller and puts me one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon who was also born today.
Of course we had long noodles for dinner to celebrate.
This past Friday, Karen came down with a summer cold. She had nasal congestion, sore throat, a cough and fatigue. Sunday evening the girls got fevers and I started to feel a sore throat and sinus headache. It’s possible that we have swine flu. According to the CDC, the symptoms for swine flu are:
The symptoms of novel H1N1 flu virus in people are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting.
Karen said last week that a couple of people in her office had come down with these symptoms. Karen has been staying home with the kids. My symptoms are much milder than everyone else’s so perhaps I’ve dodged the bullet. From what a few friends who are doctors have told me, H1N1 basically is influenza A and should run its course in a few days. It’s very contagious so hopefully my dad and sister don’t get it. We saw them this weekend. We had planned to hold a party this Friday for the workers who helped out on our basement remodel but I think we’ll need to postpone it now.
Update: It looks like we’ll be having the party on Friday as planned. karen took the kids to the doctor and he said that they have the flu but it isn’t too bad. They should be pretty much over it by Friday and won’t be contagious then. The doctor said that we shouldn’t postpone it on account of the kids being sick. So, it looks like we are having the party.
Last weekend we drove up to Crane Lake for the wedding of our friend Candace. She is a good friend of Karen’s and the guardian for both Hua Mei and Xia Mei. Crane Lake is a five and a half hour drive north near the Canadian border. Coincidently, the town of Buyck which is just south of Crane Lake is also the home town of one of our babysitters. Just before we got there, we made a pit stop at a rest area. As I was looking at the map of the area I saw how close we were to Voyageurs National Park. I pointed this out to Karen and we quickly decided that we needed to make a quick trip to the park.
Since we’ve had Hua Mei, we have taken a vacation to a National Park. In 2006 we drove to the Badlands and the Black Hills. We bought a National Park Passport book that year and started collecting rubber stamp cancellations for each park and monument that she would visit.
In 2007 we went to Joshua Tree and in 2008 we visited Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Each of those years we met Laurel and Abby. This year because of the basement remodel and Laurel’s commitments, we did not have a trip planned. Karen and I were thinking of taking a trip to St Louis to visit the Arch (to get a stamp) and see some Cardinals games but that was very tentative. Now we had our chance to get a passport book for Xia Mei and a stamp cancellation for Hua Mei.
On Saturday, before the wedding we left Nelson’s Resort and drove an hour and a half to visit two Visitor’s Centers: the Kabetogama Lake Visitor Center and the Ash Lake Visitor Center. We got stamp cancellations at each center for both girls. They were able to pet a beaver pelt and we watched an video about the parks. We also got a refrigerator magnet for Grace who we have forced to become a collector of National Park refrigerator magnets. 
Just outside the park entrance there was a fish statue that we had fun with:
It was a fun side visit and we had an extra treat when we left for our excursion: a large bald eagle flew overhead in front of our car and then landed on the road in front of us. Before it flew off, we had a great glimpse of it. We were all thrilled.
We also had a great time at the wedding. Hua Mei was a flower girl and Xia Mei had a great time dancing at the reception. It did rain that day so the wedding was held inside at the resort. This might have been a blessing since the mosquitoes and black flies were terrible. It was a fun weekend jaunt up north, logging about 14 hours in the car though.
