An American Canadian Vacation

This past week, my blog has not seen much action... well, I was on vacation and I didn't really have the time to blog. My parents and one of my brothers came up to Wilmington, Delaware to visit me. They arrived on Friday, the 29th of July and we enjoyed the Brandywine Valley the next day.

In the Brandywine, we visited the Hagley Museum (a museum of the early DuPont industries in the 1800s, situated on the historic Brandywine River). The Hagley covers over 200 acres of land with mills on the side of the river. We also visited the Battle of the Brandywine Battlefield, where George Washington suffered a major defeat to the British in the Revolutionary War, but survived to keep the revolution alive. We also visited Longwood Gardens for the illuminated fountain show. And, we attended a cocktail hour at my boss' house where we said farewell to one of my colleagues, Julia Austin, who is leaving ISI.

On Sunday, July 31st, we ventured up to Philly where I gave them the usual treatment for my visitors: cheesesteaks at Pat's (or Gino's, but we chose Pat's this time). and we toured the Constitution Center (I love that place!) and some other sites, including and Old Quaker Meeting House and the Philly Art Museum. The line for the Liberty Bell was too long.

On Monday, August 1, I gave them the tour of ISI's national headquarters (where I work) and then we ventured on through up to the Poconos of PA, where we stopped at the Camel Beach water park for about 4 hours of fun in the sun and on the water slides. Great day! We then made our way up another 2 hours to Oneonta, NY (just outside Cooperstown). Oneonta was a neat little city, perfect for a place to stay outside of Cooperstown.

On Tuesday, August 2, we ventured to Cooperstown where we enjoyed the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Spectacular! And, Cooperstown is a neat little town, with a Main Street that makes you feel so... American! The houses in the town have white picket fences and American flags hanging outside. Every American town should look like this community! There were also lot of souvenir stores, but they blended in well with the town, and some little league baseball fields. The museum was awesome as well... it covered the entire history of baseball well and made fans from EVERY Major League team feel they had a place there.

That evening, we took a long 3 to 4 hour drive up to Niagra Falls, just over the border. In fact, from our hotel at the Embassy Suites on the Canadian side, we could still see America! Niagra Falls was AMAZING... at night, during the day, and from every view possible. We had an AMAZING view from the 32nd floor of the Embassy Suites. We couldn't stop looking at the falls! I totally recommend staying at this hotel and requesting a "fallsview" room. We also went on the "Maid of the Mist" boat, which brought us as close to the falls as you can get from the water. We must have been in this one spot for about 5 or 10 minutes... and it was truly spectacular... I could not believe what I was witnessing. Later, we did a "Journey Behind the Falls" tour, where we walked in tunnels that literally go behind the falls and you pop out on the side of the falls, where you are pelted with water and you just look up at the glory of the falling water that is rushing down at 40 mph from over 150 tall... something like 10 million gallons per minute. Unreal!

We spent two nights in Niagra Falls, then on Thursday, August 4, we ventured up to Toronto Canada, which is less than two hours from the American border and Niagra Falls. Toronto was a cool city - the "most multicultural city in the world" and they love telling you that. And, it's amazing because it is very multicultural - Asians, Blacks, Whites, Irish, Muslims, etc. And, everyone seems to get along... there is virtually no crime there and it's a very clean, safe city with spectacular views. There isn't a whole lot to do there, so 2 days was just fine. We saw the CN Tower, which is the TALLEST building in the world and the tallest observation deck. And, of course, we took the ride to the top... 147 stories tall!

We also enjoyed a baseball game, where we watched the NY Yankees whip up on the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 on Friday night. Later that night, my brother Tony and I went out to a couple bars, which were ok, but it was very nice to be out and see the night time scene in Toronto. During the 2 days, we also did a double-decker tour bus which was well worth the price and allowed us to get a tour of the whole city and see some select sites. One of the newest museums in Toronto is the "Olympic Spirit" museum, which was interactive and let us participate in some competitions to see what it's like to do some of these crazy sports, including curling, bobsledding, skiing, speed skating, the 100-meter dash, and... the most impressive... the Long Jump! We also saw some little movies of the best Olympic moments, which always seemed to end with a Canadian winning something and waving their flag.

I will say... Canadians are very nice people and the city of Toronto is very nice as well... I'm sure it's way too cold for me in the winter, but a nice place to visit in the summer. Warm during the day, cool breezes at night, and views of Lake Ontario. So, I have to say, Canada was nice, eh?

On Saturday, we drove back to Buffalo, where my parents and brother departed for Florida, and I drove all the way back (6 hours) to Philly, where Enza was nice enough to give me a ride back to Wilmington (after I dropped the rental off at the airport). It was a great trip... and we learned... "It Takes a Family... to go on vacation."