1. Border Crossing
When we pulled up to the guard booth, a young, stern-faced woman reached out for our passports. She told Trudy to take off her sunglasses and asked a few questions about our trip and when we planned to return. And then she handed our passports back to us.
“Is that it?” I asked.
“That’s it,” she said.
And with that, the vacation was begun in earnest.
2. Elevator To The Bottom of the Niagara River Gorge
Trudy looked up at the ceiling of the elevator.
“It’s a bat!” she said.
All of us followed her eyes to the top of the elevator where a small brown stuffed animal stuck to the exhaust fan.
“Actually,” the nice young man operating the elevator said, “it’s a moose.”
Of course. A moose.
“We have one attached to the inside of the elevator for each time the elevator has broken down this week.”
We looked around the elevator and noticed dozens. And with that, we arrived at the bottom of the 75 meter shaft, and he opened the door to let us out.
3. Last Bus of the Night
To our great relief, the People Mover bus finally came.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
“White… Whitewater… The Hampton Hotel across from…”
“Whitewater Walk” the driver said with a chuckle.
It was the last bus of the night, and she was in a good mood.
“We’ve heard it all,” she said.
The woman sitting in front agreed, and they started naming places using the words that we tourists use when we can’t remember where we’re trying to go.
“And then there’s The Lady of the Lake,” the driver said, which made the two of them laugh very hard. She was, of course, referring to The Maid of the Mist.