The 7th Wonder of... Something

Well, we're in the middle of a family vacation. John and I thought it would be fun to drive from Milwaukee to Boston (and back) and create some memories with our boys. We did not realize until it was too late into the 3-day drive how ambitious (ridiculous) this was. A cross-country road trip with a busy toddler and a needy baby makes for a lot of drama and very slow progress. John and I asked ourselves about 15 times the first day, "Are we crazy? Is this crazy?" When we rolled into Kirtland, Ohio to rest for our first night, 3 out of 4 of us were crying! (Although my tears were a combination of laughing and crying.)

Needless to say, we did not see a single church history site in Kirtland.


For our second night, we crossed the Canadian border and stayed in Niagara Falls, which is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of North America. (We thought it was one of the 7 Wonders of the World, but we discovered there are about 20 different categories of the 7 Wonders-- so more like 140 Wonders-- and the list is always being revised.) The American falls are on the left and the Canadian falls are on the right. It was breath-taking, and a great break from the driving.


Here we are aboard the Maid of the Mist. We thought our boys would be enthralled by experiencing the waterfalls at such a close range, but Benson panicked, and Cole just slept! Maybe we'll try this again in a few years.


Smurf Benson and super lunch lady John getting pummeled by the waterfalls...


Our hotel took pity on our bedraggled family and upgraded us for free to the top floor. YES! We had a spectacular view of the falls and really enjoyed staring out of our window.


Niagara Falls dumps enough water over the edge every minute to fill 1,500,000 bathtubs! We were tempted to drop a bucket of soap suds over the edge of the falls (just to see what would happen), but of course our inner consciences won out.


***This picture rated PG.***

We're enjoying ourselves now that the 3 days of driving part is done and we're in Boston, but we shudder to think about the trip back home. We may just settle here in Massachusetts.