Syracuse, NY
Today we left Toronto and headed over to Syracuse, NY on our way to Boston. Along the way we did our touristic duty and visited Niagara Falls. I believe my grandparents either wedded or honeymooned there so I considered it a matter of tradition as well. Here are my thoughts and tips on Niagara.
1) View it from Canada. I always heard this and never knew why it made a difference. Well it turns out that the falls fall to the north. America is on the south side. You do the geography.
2) Seeing it is cool. Exploring it would be better. It’s pretty cool to look at, but even a falling water enthusiast like Gage was a little bored with it after about 15 minutes. You really have to take one of the boat rides or explore the cave that goes behind the falls to get a lot out of it. Otherwise you pay $8 to park on Goat Island and get a fellow tourist to take your picture. Check out our $8 worth below.
3) It smells like bird poop. Not trying to be a pessimist here, I just thought I’d warn those with sensitive schnozes. I would imagine that a lot of fish don’t make it over those falls and seagulls aren’t stupid. They know a free meal when they see one. Translation: bird poop galore. Really, you have to dodge as they fly overhead. This is about the only thing that made Gage happy he had a stuffy nose.
Rhonda commented the other day that most of our posts seem to be about food. That’s quite correct for two reasons. 1) Food is glorious. Who doesn’t want to talk about food. 2) Food has become our ultimate adventure. If we actually stayed put for more than a day or two, we’d be able to explore the town, find out where the cheap/good eats are and then repeat our patterns like normal city settlers. However, being nomads with absolutely no income we have no idea where to get food and our goal is always to spend as little as possible. So basically we spend the better part of our day looking for cheap food in order to get the best deal, much like one would keep their eyes peeled for cheap gas prices within their home town. You also have to make healthy choices when you’re only eating a few times a day. If you order some high-fat white flour and sugar rich combo meal off the local dollar menu, you can expect your stomach to be grumbling within two hours as you struggle to stay awake behind the wheel. There is a hierarchy to eating while on the road. This has become our new food pyramid. It goes from most expensive to least expensive. Ironically, it also goes from least difficult, to most difficult.
Eat food at a restaurant and pay a tip.
Buy food from a restaurant, but get it to-go to avoid tipping.
Buy food from a grocery store and heat it up in the microwave at your hotel.
Buy pre-prepared food at grocery store because the hotel doesn’t have a microwave or fridge.
So today when we spent an hour in the grocery store looking for items that do not need refrigeration, fill all of our requisite nutritional needs, require no more cooking than adding hot water, and cost as little as possible, that’s when we realized that we may not have jobs, but we are working. In fact, I would say that we are the epitome of self-employed.
