Toronto & Niagara Falls

I took advantage of a quick business trip to Toronto to also sneak down the following day and see Niagara Falls.  I'm pretty sure I've never been and Jolene had planned to take me next time we were in the area. She begrudgingly accepted that it made sense for me to go since I was less than two hours away.

View from hotel window

Toronto was great and King Street was the perfect place to find food, drinks.  The sports pub had American Football on one TV and of course all the others were permanently talking about the Blue Jays.

After my meetings I rented a car at the train station and drove South towards the border.  It was pretty painless except I caught the end of rush hour and was essentially driving through the crowd walking to a very big Blue Jays vs. Yankees match-up (they were racing to the playoffs).

After finally getting to the falls late Monday night I still had no idea which direction they were initially but could feel the mist from the front door of my hotel.  I did eventually figure out what ledge to look over to see them lit up and the giant cloud of mist that is essentially always sitting there from the constant fall of water.

The following morning I caught the first boat to go up next to the falls.  On the Canada side the boats are named Hornblower and on the US side The Maid of the Mist.  Some may consider it unlucky but I had the very front spot on the boat which allowed for a clear view and a healthy dosing of mist.

Front of the boat!

Nashville Labor Day Weekend (with a guest)

Looking to burn some vacation days and get out of the burgh for a weekend JR drove down to visit us.  We still live in a lively area so time was easily filled with long daily pool trips and short stops at local hotspots for grub and drinks.

It was definitely great to catch up on stories while slowing down as we near the end of Summer.

You can take them out of Pittsburgh but you can't take the Pittsburgh out of them!