Sunday before MangoCon! Things are starting to get close. Hard to believe that the conference is about to begin. So much to do and what a crazy week it is going to be.
Lots of NTGers are en route to head quarters today. Gene drove from Kentucky up to Michigan, picked up Mike and drove out to New York. They had a long day.
This evening everyone came over to dad’s place and we had an NTG staff bonfire out there. We had Art, Danielle, Dominica, dad, Gene, Mike, Maggie and myself plus our girls were there. Not the full staff, of course, but a good number of people. Jenny did not come out, Mike Davis is not coming into town until closer to the conference, Nick could not make it up from Texas, etc. But it was nice to have everyone together in one spot.
We got pizza and then roasted s’mores over the firebit that dad has in the back yard. It was a fun evening and a good chance for everyone to relax before the craziness of the week hits us. This week is going to be completely nuts and already there is very little time for any of us to relax and it is only going to get worse and worse until a week from tomorrow.
Today we got Maggie from Geneseo and we drove her, along with the kids, out to first see the Erie Canal and then out to Niagara Falls. She did not have a visa for going into Canada, though, so we were stuck on the American side.
Before leaving Geneseo, Maggie and I grabbed lunch from the EuroCafe downtown which turns out is a little Ukrainian spot. I’ve heard good things about it but have never been there myself. Their menu was pretty limited but they had pirogies and Maggie had never seen a pirogies before so we had those.
Maggie at EuroCafe in Geneseo
First trip was up through Batavia to hit Tim Horton’s for coffee and lunch. We got sandwiches and the girls had a good time sitting by the fake fire and hanging out. We all got egg sandwiches and donuts and coffee (well, no coffee for the kids.) Then from there we drove north out of Batavia.
We made it maybe half an hour before Dominica realized that she had left her purse behind at the Tim Horton’s back in Batavia! We pulled over and she called, they found it and we turned around and drove back down there. So our quick trip up through Batavia suddenly turned into a very long trip. We lost more than an hour there.
We got up to the canal, finally, and the girls got out and ran around for a while. Maggie did some filming and we did a little walk down to one of the locks. It was a nice day, but the sun was getting low. It was sunny and warm, though.
From there we drove west along the canal and in about twenty minutes we went from a warm sunny day to driving into an epic rainstorm that came upon us very quickly. The ran was so heavy that we could almost not keep moving forward and were worried about visibility which was nearly zero and slipping off of the road. It was quite extreme.
The rain let up, mostly, and we made it out to Niagara Falls, drove through the city and parked at the falls themselves where we were able to get out and take a walk around. We only got a few minutes before the rain was back, however, so it was cold and wet, but at least Maggie got to see one of the most iconic natural wonders in the United States. And the girls have never seen it either, so it was nice to take them, although they were not so impressed and really did not want to be there for long and Luciana did not like it as it was all too scary.
Ciana and Liesl Waiting at Rainforest Cafe in Niagara Falls
We fled back to the car and decided to take the kids (and Maggie) to the Rainforest Cafe there in downtown Niagara Falls for dinner. We had a nice time there, the food is always good and the girls always enjoy it and Maggie had never been to one before.
Maggie at Rainforest Cafe in Niagara Falls
After dinner it was pretty late. We took the slightly longer drive along the lake so that technically Maggie could get to see Lake Erie and downtown Buffalo, although it was super dark between being night time and there being the storm blotting out the moon and stars as well so really she just saw the darkness, but technically, she made it there and got to see it. It was raining as we came through Buffalo so was very hard to see as well.
It was pretty late when we got back and dropped everyone off for bed.
This morning I went over to Geneseo and picked up Subway for the family. Then I picked up Maggie from the Hampton Inn and we went to the Euro Cafe on Main Street in Geneseo to get pirogies, which she has never had before.
Maggie at Euro Cafe in Geneseo
Today was a very light day and we all went home early.
Got another late start today. Our internal clocks are all messed up from the events of the weekend dealing with the car.
I spent the day posting and writing. Tonight we got Maggie and took her to the Wadsworth Grill where Art and Danielle were playing in the band. This is the first time that she got to experience a real, honest to goodness American bar and grill.
Maggie Having Her First Buffalo WIngs at the Wadsworth Grill
It was also her first time getting Buffalo wings. She liked them a lot.
Got to see a lot of high school friends as well. It was a good night.
We got the news from the dealer this morning – the engine in the Chevy Spark is dead. Thankfully, they are pretty sure that everything will be covered under the extended powertrain warranty. But they cannot know that for sure until the engine goes to a machine shop and they get a look at the inside of the cylinders. So the car is dead for a long time and we have no idea how bad it is going to be.
The Apple announcement was this morning, the iPhone 7 and the iWatch 2 were announced. I hope to be getting both later this year. The iPhone 7+ has some awesome new camera stuff that makes it make a lot of sense. And it is waterproof, that is enormous for us, the travelers. I lost one of my iPhone 5s phones in Panama because it went in the water. When you are out of the country, anything that protects your phone is a big deal.
Today was a busy day posting and then this evening we went and got Maggie, hooked up the GoPro and drove down through Perry and Castile, into Letchworth State Park and did some filming and driving around. The filming of us in the car worked really well. We are very excited about how the GoPro is going to work for this.
Maggie had a lot of fun in the park and did a lot of filming and picture taking. She did not know what to expect from Letchworth. We drove most of the park and saw all of the falls. She even got to film one of the final trains going across the trestle. It is being torn down this summer.
From the park, once it was dark, we drove up to the Charcoal Corral in Perry and got ice cream. Maggie has been wanting to do that since getting to New York.
