If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

My wife and I dropped our two kids off with my parents on Sunday the 5th after a long drive from Richmond to Buffalo. I am always thankful when family can help with some “getting away together” time – probably the biggest drawback to living in Virginia is that neither of us has close family living within a 5 hour drive, and we rarely have an opportunity to take advantage of the extended family like this. It's been years since the wife and I have had days at a time to spend with just each other.

On Monday, the two of us headed to Darien Lake. That’s right, the first place we went without the kids was New York State’s largest theme park. Someday they will find out about this and hate us for it, but it was just as well, since they are too short to ride the good rides. I’ll make up for it when they get a little taller. I left the camera in the van, so we don’t have any photos of the park, but I probably would have lost the camera on one of the roller coasters anyway.

For the record, we did ride all of the coasters, including three times on the Ride of Steel. (My understanding is that it was called “Superman” during the period of time that the park was owned by Six Flags, but the park no longer has the rights to that name.) The Ride of Steel may be the best roller coaster I’ve ever been on – which is not to say I enjoyed it the first time, mind you. I shouldn’t have ridden it that soon after lunch.

We spent the night in nearby Batavia, NY, which seems like a nice little town. Being in New York State, it’s probably depressed and struggling to recapture its prime, but as I said it seems nice. I’ve driven past it dozens of times, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually been in the town before. I have to take a moment here to plug Main Street Coffee, where we had breakfast on Tuesday. The place had good food and great prices – I really appreciate the simple act of not adding tax to the posted price. It says $3.00, you give the guy $3.00 and no extra change, bang, you’re done. Of course, they pay tax on the transaction, so that cost is passed on to me, so it’s not like I’m getting away with something – I know that. But I like it because I don’t have to monkey around with change. I wish more places would simplify things like that. The young guy behind the counter was the owner, and he had a casual familiarity with the regulars that always sets apart neighborhood places from the strip mall Starbucks. It was nice to watch. This place is open pretty late, they host live music (you can just tell, but we asked to be sure), and they’ve got work by local artists on the wall. I wish it was a few hours closer to anyplace I’m likely to be visiting in the next year. I recommend you check it out if you are ever in the area.

After breakfast we drove to Toronto. There is no way to describe the joy I felt as we crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada. Due to their nationalized health care, I knew that it was impossible to become sick or injured during our visit. The peace of mind this generates is incredible. I think my hair became less gray right there on the QEW.

We arrived in Toronto with no reservations, and actually no specific plans. We just wanted to experience the city again, having enjoyed it so much a decade ago. We decided to spend a couple of nights at the Holiday Inn Midtown, which is in a great part of the city. We found everything we wanted was within walking distance, which is how it ought to be in any good city. The only time we drove was to the zoo. That’s right, we had a few days without our children and we went to an amusement park and the zoo. There is nothing wrong with that. Right?

We got a small taste of Toronto's night life, but not a lot. I'd love to spend more time there. My only regret is that I kept leaving the camera in the hotel room, so there’s no pics to share.

Oh, and while most of the USA was experiencing their hottest week of the year, our days were in the 80s (Fahrenheit, silly) and there was a nice breeze off of Lake Ontario. Neener neener.

We probably should have gone to the CN Tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame, but I guess I've just got reasons to go back again someday.

On Thursday we left Toronto for Niagara Falls. It rained the whole way. We spent a few hours on the Canadian side, and finally took a few photos. You can see the overcast skies, but no matter what the weather The Falls themselves are always magnificent and beautiful. It’s fantastic to get right up close to the edge and just watch the water. In this pic from the brink, you can see the American falls off in the distance. This is a pretty good view of the cliffs of Goat Island (the island that separates the American Falls from the Horseshoe Falls), which is only accessible from the American side.

Through the mist you can see the restaurant where we would eat later that evening – called “Top of the Falls”. By the way, that place has a fantastic view and very friendly staff, but the service was inexplicably slow at every stage.

It’s not that I wouldn’t recommend eating there. It’s that you might not want to have an engagement waiting afterwards.

There are a couple of touristy things we probably should have done, but didn’t. These include the Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist tours. Maybe even the Helicopter Tours.

We watched the three Maid boats cycle through, each in turn slowly pushing itself as far into the Horseshoe until eventually at a standstill, fighting the current but not going anywhere for a few minutes of tourist glory, before turning in the current and racing back downstream to the loading docks. I went on the Maid of the Mist once about 25 years ago, and I’ve never been in the Cave of the Winds. Maybe the next time we’re up there we will take the kids. I bet they’d love it.

So anyway, after a while we crossed the Rainbow Bridge back to the States, flecks of gray returning to my hair, and found our hotel. That place is a story all its own – I’ll have to add it later.

Friday morning we packed up, checked out, and met up with my parents and my kids. We walked the American side, including out to Goat Island. Below are several photos that I thought turned out well.

Here you can see part of the Niagara Falls, Ontario skyline. Note how much mist is blow up as the winds whip up from the long gorge and hit the falling water – there is a part of the Canadian side where it is perpetually raining because of this.

You might be surprised how shallow the water is as it goes over. Or you might not be, I suppose. Here you can see that in the middle of the American Falls there is an area where it’s so shallow that you could realistically stand there without any danger of being swept over. Good luck getting out to it.

There is a small part of the American Falls that is separated from the main section. It’s called the Bridal Veil Falls.

The bridge across the Bridal Veil Falls was a favorite part of the trip for my son, probably because it was so very close to the brink. That's the dropoff about 30 feet behind him in the pic below.

The view from the top of the Bridal Veil Falls is one of the best. Those folks below are on the Cave of the Winds tour.

All in all, a great vacation for our family. Now we’re back in Virginia and my wife is back to work. I’ve got two more weeks before I go back, so I’m trying to wrap up some of the summer projects around the house – painting, repairing, and… um… blogging.