Thursday, March 15

Spring Break Fun

The grandsons are off for Spring Break this year and we decided to take a little leisure time and take them for Gelato in Niagara Falls, Ontario. My friend Pea at Pea's Corner introduced us to this quaint little shop. I'm so glad she did. The homemade ice cream is delicious.

The boys stayed overnight and in the morning about 11:30, we left for Niagara Falls. We stopped at Tim Horton's on the way down and had bagels for lunch. If you've never had Tim Horton's you're missing a real treat. They have a new bagel named French Toast Cinnamon. Mmm!

We arrived in Niagara Falls and went to find the ice cream shop.

This is the sign we were looking for and we found it without difficulty.

Brandon was so anxious to get inside that he didn't notice me take this picture. He professes to hate his picture taken but I think his Dad and Grandpa have brainwashed the boys.
Mmm! They are all so tempting. I chose the Berry Yogurt Crunch, which is shown at right front of the photo.
So many flavors to choose from. It's hard to make a decision quickly.

Jordan choose vanilla. Brandon had two different types of chocolate. I'm not sure what Grandpa choose.
Grandpa and Jordan enjoying their ice cream while Brandon and I was waiting for the lady to dish ours up. After we had our ice cream, we drove down along the falls.
I couldn't get a real great picture of the Canadian Falls, otherwise known as the Horseshoe Falls.
Here is a mediocre one of the American Falls. There were a lot of people visiting, but the crowds were all at the strip, falling into the tourist traps of eateries and museums.
Another of the American Falls. There was a lot of water tumbling over...the most I've seen in years. The Falls move back every year and they're predicting that one day they will no longer exist.

We then drove down to the Whirlpool Rapids, which are not as amazing as they were a few years ago. The Whirlpool itself is not as strong of current as it used to be.
Brandon resisting the photo op.
Both boys are the same. You have to catch them unprepared and if they know Grandma has the camera, they have eyes in the back of their heads.
Cable car over the Whirlpool Rapids. You would never catch me on this. I get vertigo just taking the picture.
And out it goes.
It goes completely across the gorge.

We finished there and then drove down to a souvenir shop.
This is located in front of the shop.
The moose also guards over the front of the shop.

Inside is a chocolate store. They had moose, elk, polar bear and beaver droppings...all things Canadian. These are chocolate covered nuts and raisins. We didn't buy any, but I asked the boys to pick a treat. Brandon chose chocolate fudge and Jordan chose a chocolate bar. Hubby got caramel covered nuts. Because I'm diabetic, I passed.

Inside this mall are several shops, including a glass blowing shop. They glass is blown right on the premises. Tuesday the glass blowers were blowing cranberry glass. I learned something new. Cranberry glass is so expensive because it has real gold in it. It, like a lot of other things, was discovered when a glass blower in Italy accidentally dropped some gold in some liquid glass. There were many colors of finished items for sale. Emerald green, amethyst, cranberry, cobalt blue, red and so many more.

We certainly enjoyed the day and got home around 6pm. It was nice spending some time with the boys, just out exploring.

Sunday, March 11

Operator, May I Help You?


I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that in the 1970s, I worked for Bell Canada as a switchboard operator. It was before modern technology and I sat at a switchboard that looked much like the one in the above photo, only about three times larger. These switchboards lined both sides of the room and there was an operator at every one of them. A light on one of the circuits would come on and you plugged the cord into it and said, "Operator, may I help you?"

I loved this job, but then computers became the "in" thing and many of us were let go because of cutbacks. I would have loved to do this job forever. However, the world progresses even as we sometimes wish it would remain the same.

Photo of switchboard was taken at the Bell Homestead, Brantford, ON