Greg’s Travel Notes

Today we started our day by enjoying the small water park at the hotel we were staying at, the Americana.  Karen and I found the room to be relative small and dated, but the girls had a tremendous amount of fun at the water park.  We spent a little over an hour enjoying the two body slides and the two tube slides before we needed to check out.

After leaving the hotel we returned to the main tourist area, Clifton Hill, in Niagara Falls to see the Falls in the daylight and to take a trip on the Maid of the Mist.  The sun was quite warm, especially after we put on our blue ponchos, so we really enjoyed the temporary cooling of the mist from the Falls.

After our misty experience we took a break for lunch at a restaurant called Kelsey’s before heading back to the U.S.A.  Our next stop was Avon, OH (just west of Cleveland) to visit our good friends the Goliks.  Today we covered another 245 miles.

Sorry for the delay in this post.  Our hotel in Niagara Falls had very limited wifi available.

Day 1 – 7/13/2012

Today we started off on our cross-country trip.  We managed to keep our packing to a very reasonable amount in the back of our minivan.  We will see if our “system” works over the next few weeks.

We covered 442 miles in our first day with our first stop in West Seneca, NY (just outside of Buffalo) to visit my grandfather who will be 90 next month.  We had a nice visit and dinner with him before heading to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  Our girls were excited to make the trip into another country and use their new passports.  I am not sure what the girls had originally envisioned, but they were surprised that Canada, at least the region by Niagara Falls, looked a lot like the U.S. and the weather did not turn dramatically cooler when we crossed the border.

One of the funny things that happened today was as I was driving today Karen decided to take a little nap since she was up late last night with the last of the packing and house cleaning.  She brought along a face mask to be able to shut out the sunshine.  After she had dozed off I heard Lindsey yell, “Mom, Mom, Are you asleep?”  Really Lindsey?

This evening we enjoyed fireworks over the Falls.  It is amazing how the Canadian side has developed into a kiddie version of Las Vegas with all of the lights and attractions with mostly arcades instead of casinos, although there are casinos as well.   Kelsey and Lindsey enjoyed seeing the Falls at night.  After looking at the Falls Kelsey said, “I could watch the Falls forever.”

We had a very enjoyable start to our trip.

Greg

Welcome to the Hammond Adventures blog.  The 2012 Hammond Family Cross-Country Trip all started with a desire and a goal back in 2009.  As part of a coaching program I was asked to think about setting goals for myself.  Looking at the ages of my daughters Kelsey and Lindsey I knew my time spent with them at home was limited and would pass quickly; soon they would be busy with their friends and activities.  Karen has talked about a cross-country trip she took with her family as a child and I have always wanted to drive and see the country myself.  This desire inspired me to set a 3 year goal to take our family on a cross-country trip.  On Friday, July 13, 2012, we will set off on a four week adventure.  I created this blog to record our family trip and experiences as we travel over 7,400 miles across the country and back.  We look forward to making some wonderful family memories and hope you enjoy seeing and reading about them.

Greg