Niagara Do's and Don'ts

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting different aspects of embarking upon a cross-country trip.  Please remember this is my personal opinion. 

Do...get to the Falls early in the day, preferably in the morning, before the crowds arrive.  

Don't...let the area around the Falls get you down.  Just walk right on by the vendors hawking friendship bracelets and I love New York caps and t-shirts.  Enter the park with an open mind.  Stand against the railing by the Falls.  Experience the spray on your face and listen to the roar of the water.  Witness the rainbow that arches the mist, formed from the sun shining through the billions of water droplets.  Think of the power of the water and how it has carved this amazing masterpiece we can all experience.

Do...have a little fun.  And don't be a nature snob, like me.  My boys would have had a blast visiting Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.  (In my job as a school librarian, the Ripley's Believe it or Not books highlighting the off-beat and bizarre fly off the shelves.) Don a yellow rain poncho and venture along wooden walkways to visit The Cave of the Winds.  Sure, you'll be sharing the experience of getting soaked by the Falls with a gazillion other people, but your kids will think it's pretty damn cool - and you may as well.

Get Set

So close, so close and yet so far...

The lyrics to Frankie Valli's My Eyes Adored You have been drifting through my head all day.  The trip is soooo close.  I can feel myself settling down in the passenger seat, pulling out of the driveway.

But not just yet.

We leave tomorrow afternoon.  The car is clean. (Thanks to Ron. You're the best!) Snacks are packed. The cooler has been muscled from the storage room.  The mail has been stopped.  Pet instructions have been given.  The remnants of food in our refrigerator are being eaten.  (Last night we had leftover baked potatoes shredded into hash browns with eggs.)  The to-do list is basically done.

But there is still another night to go.  And tomorrow during the day.  It's excruciating, the waiting.  I don't want to start any new projects (although there is plenty to do around here).  I was thinking about taking the boys to our local beach, but I also don't want to have to deal with sandy feet when the car is oh-so-clean.

Tomorrow will be all about last-minute details.   The boys desperately need haircuts.  Clean out the litter boxes and the rabbit hutch one last time.   Pack the car.  Don't forget toothbrushes!

I wish we could just get up and leave tomorrow morning, but Ron's working. (The poor guy!)  We decided rather than to wait until Saturday, we'd head out Friday and get a couple hours head start.  It's a good plan, but, oh, the waiting!

Now I've got Tom Petty stuck in my head.

The waaaaaiting is the hardest parrrrt...

Get Ready

For me, the fun of travel is in the planning. And boy, do I plan.  Just ask my husband, Ron.  He has witnessed my tunnel vision as I research a destination from every conceivable angle.

He has put up with the piles of travel books I take to bed with me to read.  The hours of Google searches.  Visiting travel blogs. Lurking message boards.  Not to mention the research that goes into finding the absolute best travel deals out there.  (I am a librarian, after all!)

This may sound as if we are a jet-setting kind of family.  Believe me, we're not.  In fact, we've only been on two big trips in the past eight years or so.  One to Disney and one to the Caribbean on a Disney Cruise.  But I milk these opportunities for all they're worth.  Have you seen what one of those Disney Cruises costs?  Yeesh! I was determined to get every last drop of enjoyment out of the whole experience even before we set sail.

This cross-country trip has been more than six months in the making.  On January 1, I called Yellowstone to make the arrangements to stay in the park.  Since then, there were so many details to be figured out.  What route should we take?   How long would we drive each day?  What stops should we make along the way?  Should we make hotel reservations in advance for our nights en route.  (We did.)

So I've had a half-year of anticipation building for this trip, my serotonin levels getting a boost every time I look at a Google map or make a hotel reservation.  (There is a study about how vacationers feel happier planning a trip than the actual traveling.  You can read a New York Times article about it here.)

 Ron has put me on notice - this will be it for a while.   We've got a home to take care of.  Repairs that have been put off to fund this trip.   Clapboards to replace and paint, a driveway to resurface, and numerous water leaks to fix.

And while we're doing all that, I'll be secretly planning for the next adventure.