Erica's #74 - Go to Niagara Falls (New York) and Mel's #54 - Have a Romantic Weekend Away

We've talked about visiting Niagara Falls for a while now, and it's actually fairly close to Indianapolis, as far as road trips go - only about 8 hours each way.  The draw for us is more the natural features of the falls, but we aren't above enjoying a few kitschy tourist trap destinations either - which Niagara Falls has in spades.  Actually the first thing we did after checking into our hotel with a view of the American Falls (forever documented here as the most expensive hotel room we have ever and likely will ever splurge on - which also, ironically, had some horrible room service, but we'll get there) was head to the Clifton Hill area, which contains all the wax museums, cheap souvenir stands, chain restaurants, arcades, putt-putt, and, for some reason, haunted house attractions.

It was actually entertaining to spend some time walking around this area - we

Johnny Cash

kept our minds open, and even took trips through two of the wax museums, with varying levels of horrifying and pretty decent wax recreations of some famous folks.  We walked down to the area with a great view of the falls and took in the natural beauty, in stark contrast to the crowded, neon-lit street we had just walked down to get there.  We spent some time in the arcade, because it had SO MANY of the coin-pushing machines, and I am a coin-pushing machine addict.  We played some other games as well, and cashed in our tickets for some really awesome prizes.

We had a surprisingly great dinner at a restaurant called The Works (probably a Canadian chain?), where we enjoyed a literal bucket of poutine, covered in gravy, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits, and green onions (which, by the way, we recreated at home the day after we got back).  It was so delicious, and so horrible for us.  We split one of their interesting burgers after that, which had avocado, Roadhouse Sauce (veggie mayo), sundried tomatoes, and feta cheese on it.  Yum, but we were rolling out of that place!  The poutine alone would have been enough food for both of us!


Our big plan post-dinner was to get a nice bottle of wine and enjoy the view from our room.  We paid for it, so we better enjoy it, right?  Well, we should have done our research on alcohol purchases in Ontario...after several stops at convenience stores and even a Walmart (gasp!), we found no alcohol for sale.  Turns out, they sell these in "LCBO" stores (obvious, right?).  We were right next to one in the Walmart parking lot, but had no clue what it was for.  After that frustration, we decided to have a bottle of wine (and changed our minds to Prosecco) sent to our room, since we got nowhere in our search.  When it hadn't arrived 45 minutes later, and I checked with room service on the status, it took another 20 minutes to make it's way on up, and arrived in the classiest of wine buckets.  We felt like we'd gone back to the cruise ship and had just ordered a bucket of Coronas!  Anyway, the Prosecco was good, though the struggle to finish it was real when it arrived after midnight!  They turn off the lights that illuminate the falls at midnight, so we enjoyed the tiny light-up fountain of the casino across the street while we sipped.

The next day, we had plans to spend time on the New York side of the falls, taking our Maid of the Mist boat tour right down in the thick of things, and checking out the State park.  The Maid of the Mist takes you up close and personal to the falls - American Falls were misty, but doable.  Horseshoe Falls became a complete drenching, which I was not expecting AT ALL.  All Mel could do was giggle as we got soaked, even with our ponchos on!  Those things do not cover the bottom of your pants or your shoes, and things got soggy!  I couldn't even look at the falls because so much water ended up in my eyes.  It was really pretty awesome that you can get up so close, but I was really not prepared for the drenching part :)  And there are no photos of the drenching, for obvious reasons.

The State Park boasted an attraction called "Cave of the Winds", which equates to taking an elevator down 17 stories to the bottom of American Falls and walking out on plank walkways supported by 2x4's to get a better view (and misted on again).  We also had to walk past an extraordinary number of small snakes hanging out in the sun on the side of the path.  I became Mel's snake-buffer, as she put me between the slithering creatures and her.  It was pretty cool to get up close and personal with the power of the falls, but the multiple instances of waiting in line (to buy tickets, to ride the elevator down, and then back up) pushed us to our limits of dealing with other tourists.  We hopped back in the car, and crossed back over into Canada, this time, remembering to stop at the Duty Free shop to grab some cheap wine on our way back!  We went on a hunt for a specific sweatshirt back in Clifton Hills, spent a bit more time being children at the arcade (this time we donated our ticket winnings to a little boy who would be way more thrilled with his trinkets than we were), then decided we'd hit up a Korean BBQ we saw back by the hotel for dinner.

The Korean BBQ was on the second floor of what appeared to be an office building, and we were looking forward to a bit of sushi, which was advertised outside on the building, but had been removed from the menus inside.  Oh well.  We had some Karaage (battered chicken bites, drizzled with a yummy sauce), Mel had chicken BiBimBap (and not only because it sounds hilarious rolling off the tongue), and I tried a beef Guyudon (beef and rice and soup broth and veggies).  All of the food was good, and the staff were impressed that we could properly pronounce the menu items (thanks to our local little Korean street food place).  We left stuffed, once again, and headed back to enjoy our view and much more affordable bottle of wine.

The next morning, we got a rude wake-up call when the hotel fire alarm went off at 5:15am.  After some confused minutes wondering what the heck was going on, we marched down 20 flights of stairs with our fellow hotel patrons (most of whom seemed to still be in their casino attire and reeking of booze), down to the outdoors of the hotel where it was, of course, misting and a bit chilly.  Over the PA system in the hotel, they let us know that we didn't need to evacuate if we didn't want to, but better safe than sorry!  It turned out to be some sort of false alarm in the tower of the hotel that we weren't even staying in...

A few hours later, after hitting up Tim Horton's for some coffee and breakfast, we headed out toward home via Buffalo, NY.  After a stop at the Duty Free shop for some of Ontario's famous ice wine (which is so, so good, if you ever get to try it), we scooted across the bridge to Buffalo to check out the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.  We got there too early for it to be open, so we hit up Starbucks for our second round of coffee, then headed back.  We arrived on half-price tour day, since they were hosting a fashion show and luncheon for some group in the house, but we got to see everything on our own anyway.  Neat little historic site.  Then, we hit up the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, OH, since it was on the way.  We didn't do the full tour for lack of time, but the museum was interesting.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, until I discovered upon arriving at home, after waiting out an insane thunderstorm complete with inches of hail and tornado warnings, and after heading across town to Mel's parents to pick up the dogs, that I had managed to lose my phone somewhere along the way.  The fact that it had a dead battery didn't help, since the "Find My IPhone" feature ceases to work when that happens.  After a good 2-3 hours of searching for it in the truck and around the house we gave up hope.  I called everywhere we stopped the next day, but still, no luck.  I'm guessing it fell out and we backed over it (that's probably best case scenario, so no one gets any of my info off of it), but it felt like losing an old friend.  RIP, white iPhone 5 :(

All-in-all, we had a great and much needed romantic weekend away together.  If you're thinking about a trip to Niagara, I'd say a long weekend is probably enough, unless you want to tour the dozens of wineries in Ontario (which, had we known about, we probably would have done.  Ice wine is delicious!)

This is supposed to be Beyonce...

Mel's #75 and Erica's #78 - Take Pictures in a Photo Booth

I'll admit - this is a fairly goofy thing to add to a list of things to do, but it's fun and not something we really do, so we added it.  It isn't something we do often - I mean, with the invention of smartphones and selfies, who needs photo booths anymore?  There is still some amazing instant gratification involved when you actually get a physical photo printed out just seconds after you posed for it though.

So, on our weekend getaway to Niagara Falls (which will be a blog of its own later on), we spent some time in an arcade that featured a goofy photo booth.  For the bargain basement price of $5 (Canadian dollars, but with a 5% conversion fee from our bank), we got to take some silly photos of us in the quintessential barrel going over the falls.  And got one technicolor print-out of our very own, with all three showing up online instantly.  It was a steal.

Without further ado...

Mel's #35 and Erica's #83 - Tour Crown Hill Cemetery

Crown Hill cemetery has been around since the days of the Civil War.  There are a ton of famous people buried on the grounds - from General Jefferson Davis, to outlaw John Dillinger, to President Benjamin Harrison.  Aside from the famous folks interred there, we'd heard that the grounds are absolutely beautiful, and the cemetery offers tours during the warm months, so last July we set off to see what this place was all about.

The rumors were true - the cemetery was a truly gorgeous place!  Aside from being surrounded by mosquitoes, we had a fabulous time walking through some of the best parts of Crown Hill.  It's so large, they offer several different tours - we didn't even see a quarter of the property.  We also got to see a few deer who must live in the woods on the grounds.

The cemetery also boasts the highest hill in Marion County, where poet James Whitcomb Riley's tomb stands.  The tour leads up the moderately steep climb to the top just about as the sun is setting for the evening.  And it really does offer a beautiful view of Indianapolis' downtown skyline.  Being that it was just a week after the 4th of July when we took our tour, we also got to see a bit of a fireworks show from the top of the hill.

Erica's #60 - Go to the driving range

For the past couple of years, Mel and I keep talking about going to the driving range and just hitting a bucket of balls for fun.  Since neither of us has a set of clubs, we were going to rely on using whatever the course had laying around.  Finally, we stopped in to a local 9-hole course, borrowed a few "well-used" clubs, and headed for the driving range.

I took golf lessons when I was 9 or 10 years old, and I don't remember being particularly good at it, or enjoying it too terribly much.  I think there were a few times I went out golfing with my dad, and the very last time I golf, it was pouring rain and I was wearing jeans.  Not a pleasant experience.

Other than a few things we overlooked, we had a really good time, and only took out a few divots from the turf.  Our first mistake was not buying tees.  Solution to this problem - we scoured the turf for usable tees leftover by previous golfers - score!  Second mistake was going out there without gloves.  Blisters on your hands are not fun, my friends!

We ended up going back a few more times in the Fall, and then hitting Goodwill to scoop up a rag-tag set of clubs so we no longer have to borrow and beg the course to use theirs.  Up next will be an actual round of golf!  First things first though - we need more practice to make sure we can actually hit the ball every time we swing.  We'll get there ;)

Mel's #44 and Erica's #44 - Go to an NFL (Football) Game

Those of you who know us know we're Seattle Seahawks fans living in a state filled with Indianapolis Colts fans.  It often strikes people around here as odd that we are far more likely to be wearing Seahawks 12 (Twelfth Man) jerseys rather than a Colts 12 (Andrew Luck) jersey on  game day.  It's been just a little bit tougher to root for the Colts since Peyton's departure...

We had two options to see the Seahawks near Indy this year - vs. the St. Louis Rams on opening weekend, or vs. the Cincinnati Bengals in October.  We'd been meaning to get to St. Louis and see the sights anyway, so we opted for the Rams game.  After plenty of checking around for the most affordable seats that got us close enough to the action, we opted for some Stubhub tickets about 16 rows off the field, right on the 25 yard line, on the Seahawks' side of the stadium.  These seats were nearly perfect, and we were surrounded by fellow Seahawks fans!  We'd seen people decked out in their blue and green all weekend, and shared several "Go Hawks" cheers with them.  We even ended up in one of those tiny pods coming down from the St. Louis Arch with three fans from Seattle who had flown out for the game.  Now that's dedication!

The game was a nail-biter, as anyone who watched it will recall.  It ended up tied at the end of the 4th, sending the game into overtime.  The Seahawks led things off, and for some ridiculous reason, opted to attempt to recover an on-side kick instead of letting the Rams possess the ball, which did not end up working out for them.  The Rams won possession with fantastic field position, drove down and kicked a field goal for three points.  New NFL rules state that both teams have a chance to posses the ball unless one scores a touchdown on the first possession, so the Seahawks would get (and blow) the chance to win.

While it was a very disappointing ending to the game, it was an exciting one nearly all the way through, and we were happy to have such a great view of it, especially since it was Erica's first NFL game.  Win or lose, we'll always welcome the opportunity to cheer on our favorite team - Go Hawks!

Mel's # 1 - Donate Hair to Locks of Love

It's weird to write a blog post about the process of growing one's hair out and donating it, right? It probably shouldn't be that big of a deal. However, as someone who has pretty consistently kept a short hairstyle for a number of years, this was quite the undertaking.

Sometime around the end of our bike trip in September 2013 was the last time I had a haircut. I had decided to grow it out, or to at least try to grow it out, thinking I would reach that inevitable point where I just couldn't take it anymore, and get it all cut off. I've tried numerous times before to grow my hair out with the intention of donating it, and I usually lose my patience about six months in.

Something was different about this time. Maybe it was the accountability of this being a goal on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days, maybe it was a new perspective on what I could handle after spending 80-something days on a bicycle...who knows?

So, let me first address something I discovered about my hair in this process...hair is kind of like a fingerprint. More specifically, our hair grows in specific patterns and in ways that are unique to us. While this is kind of a cool discovery, it also revealed something about my physical nature that is somewhat embarrassing, and something that was confirmed by looking at baby photos of myself. What I discovered is that my hair grows in a pattern that can best be described as a "skullet." Ok, right now, you need to open a new tab and Google "Boss Hogg." That guy...that's how my hair grows...the sides grow first, then the top tries to catch up somewhere down the road. Weird.

Fortunately for me, I worked at a place where the dress code was super casual and I could wear a baseball cap during those months where my hair reached that awkward phase and there was no way I could style it in a way that made it less awkward. My hair is thick and super straight, so it just kind of hangs off of my head when it gets to a certain length.

And of course, there were months where I felt like my hair just was not growing at all. In my head, I was thinking "How long could this possibly take? Is my hair still growing?" Summer of 2014 pretty much felt like that. I was convinced my hair just stopped growing. I didn't give up, my hair did. Then, I would experience a growth spurt.

Eventually, my hair reached a point where I could pull it back into a ponytail, something that I hadn't been able to do since I had dreadlocks back in 2006 (don't worry, I'll post a photo of that hair adventure, too.) I had to buy ponytail holders for the first time in years. I even went so far as to buy a Seattle Seahawks headband to match my Seahawks gear that I would wear on Fridays.

Since my hair is stick straight and thick, once it started to get really long, I couldn't handle wearing it down. Or, I would go to work or out somewhere and within a few hours, I would have to pull it back. When my hair was down, I somehow felt like my peripheral vision was impaired because I had SO MUCH HAIR. It was crazy. There were more growth spurts which meant more hair. Lots of hair.

But even though I experienced these random moments of irritation or annoyance at having long hair, I could usually just push right past it. For the first time, I never had that moment where I felt like I couldn't take it anymore and I was getting my hair cut no matter what, as soon as I could.

Near the end of this process, I had started to research what organization I wanted to donate my hair to, and decided to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program, which seemed to be in line with what I had in mind at the set of this project. It is a wonderful program and one that truly helps cancer patients in numerous ways.

So, the time came this past summer where I hadn't even measured my hair to see if it was long enough to donate...and I can't believe that I wasn't measuring my hair every stinking day to see how long it was. But Erica and I measured my hair and realized it was more than long enough to meet the requirements for donating to Pantene's program. I made an appointment with my amazing and always willing hairstylist, my mom, to cut my hair and have it ready to donate. And I didn't feel that sense of attachment that some people feel with their hair when they grow it out and how they feel sad or scared about cutting their hair off. This is probably because I was my mom's guinea pig when she was getting her cosmetology license...I was always getting my hair cut or styled as practice for her. But I also think that I knew it wasn't my hair. This was going to belong to someone else and I didn't need to claim it as my own, as it was a gift I wanted to give.

Here are some photos of my mom cutting my hair...in one photo, I think it looks like she is holding up a fish she caught.

From there, it was pretty simple...my hair donation was kept in a ponytail and put in a ziploc bag, then I mailed it off to Pantene's program. A few weeks later, I received a lovely letter in the mail, thanking me for my donation. It was just a generic letter, but it really meant a lot to me to be able to do this for the first time in my life. I've had friends and family members battle cancer...we all have...and I was glad to be able to do something for the folks currently battling it. It was the simplest thing to do and all it took was my patience and time.

Erica's #88 - Create a Photobook with LOAA Photos

In the event that you don't have the background on our cross-country bike ride a couple of years ago, which was coined "Looking Out Across America" or "LOAA", check out our blog HERE.

Over the course of our three month journey, we took TONS of photos, naturally.  Some were uploaded to our blog, some we added to albums on Facebook, but many of them were just hanging around in a folder on our laptops, as digital photos nowadays tend to do.  Sometimes, I just miss having an album to physically pick up, hold, and flip through the pages of.  So we decided to print (almost) all of the photos from our trip, which meant lots of photo albums and time spent organizing into chronological order!

It took months of taking advantage of the best coupons those digital prints websites have to offer in order to get everything printed for a fairly reasonable price.  Then we found some albums we liked, and bought one here and there as we found coupons for them.  Then we spent painstaking hours organizing the photos first by state, then more chronologically, and then sliding them into the pockets.  It's amazing how much shoulder, neck and back pain that can cause.

Mel made some fun dividers to designate the switch to a new state along the route.

All told, we now have six binders, each holding 300 photos each, taking up shelf space in our living room, and we couldn't be more thrilled!  Let us know if you ever want to stop by and spend a couple of hours flipping through them :)