Over the Falls (Bethany)

First, a moment I want to remember - a thin moon in the dark blue sky, inches above booming horseshoe falls, and under it all, dripping and laughing, Meg in a mermaid dress standing on a life vest box, her head above me, blonde hair, arms around my shoulders, bending and and kissing me absent-mindedly on the cheek. It's amazing how much love you can stuff into one minute.

My predictions for this morning were stunningly off the mark. Meg's eyes popped open at the first sound from me and she ripped out of bed, threw on her clothes, and then stood at the bottom of the stairs howling at us to get moving. Jed had relocated to the living room at some point during the night and so he was also raring to go. In the end, it was the big slow grown-ups who dragged the departure out until nearly 8 a.m., an unforgivably late departure in my humble opinion. The kids got themselves into the car and sat there griping at us for about an hour as we ran in and out of the house like loons.

When we finally got in gear and hit the road, it was such a relief that the time flew by, right up until we got into the heart of New York, where time drags something fierce. I kept noticing all of these cool 19th century mill towns - I would notice one side of the town and then the other, straddling the highway. After a while, it began to feel like we were driving down a long, jagged scar through the state - the highway seems to cut everything in half. Near Canada, there were miles and miles of fields and valleys, pretty but monotonous, and I was happy to have some new tunes and Adam was happy to play with the Magellan (Madge, we call her) that came with our rental van. The kids were stuffed full of bad rest-stop food at key points, and so were in a sugar / MSG / trans-fat coma for much of the afternoon, getting rammy and testy only when we were within shouting distance of the border.

I always have a strong reaction to entering Canada. I have been known to mist up unexpectedly at the sight of the maple leaf draped across the stands at a hockey game, or sing O Canada loudly when I have been drinking. This time I can't wait to get out of this town and back to the states, since the upside-down exchange rate has resulted in $13 sodas and $18 beers. No good. I also must say that lovely as the falls are, Niagara is a meat machine - get tourists on a boat, play them a recorded message, take their picture, turn them out into the street soaked and fleeced and hungry and then charge them a fortune to sit and have a drink.

It was well worth it, if only to play the "would you rather" game with Jed, after he heard about a 7-year-old boy who fell over the falls and survived. This game is played something like this...

MAMA MAMA MAMA, would you rather...

go over the falls or get eaten slowly by a shark,

go over the falls in a barrel or get one leg eaten by a shark,

go over the falls or get hit by a car,

go over the falls strapped to a mattress or get hit by a very small car,

go over the falls and land in a marshmallow factory or get hit by a cart pulled by a goat...

This is followed up by a rousing game of "would it hurt more if"...

We're all toast after a long day of driving and sightseeing, so I will bid you all a fond adieu. Off to Michigan tomorrow and a full day at Mackinaw Island.

Good night, sweet friends.