Sheep Guarding Llama

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This “morning” I went over to Geneseo to pick up Maggie from the Hampton Inn. It was actually early in the afternoon.  We are all still recovering from the events of the weekend.

We grabbed lunch from Aunt Cookies so that Maggie could try out Upstate New York subs for the first time.  They were excellent.  I’ve been craving Aunt Cookies all summer.

The weather was perfect on the drive back so we did a quick drive around through Wyoming County checking out towns like Wyoming and Warsaw and then up to Pavilion.  While in Warsaw we swung into Tim Horton’s so that Maggie could see it for the first time.

We all worked out at the farm for a bit this afternoon.  Dominica and Liesl had a busy day today as it was the first day of school.  Maggie is still excited to be getting shown all around New York.  This is all new for her.

This evening Maggie and I needed to run errands in Rochester so went up for a little while.  She was excited to get to see RIT which she has been interested in for a while.  We were heading to Best Buy to get camera supplies for the GoPro so that we could be testing out some filming options.  I needed to get a suction cup mount so that the GoPro can mount to the front window of the car.

After Best Buy we swung into The Tilted Kilt and grabbed a quick drink before returning from the city.

We got to Geneseo and went to University Hots for dinner.  We did take out and brought plates back to the farm for everyone.  This is Maggie’s first garbage plate… she likes it a lot.

I got my first ever grilled cheese plate, wow do I love that!  It’s a change of pace and really amazing.   The grilled cheese is just perfect in the plate format.

After dinner we hung around for a bit and then I drove Maggie back over to Geneseo to drop her off at her hotel.

I spoke to the dealer today and know that they have the car and will be looking at it soon.  Maybe we will know something about it tomorrow.