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September 2005
Go to: Archive index | October 2005
 Thursday, 01 September 2005
Movies!
Here are a few videos of me doing stuff. The slacker videographer just got them to me now so they're not exactly recent.
Thursday, 01 September 2005
Check out the photos from my night out on the town with Katie, Kate, and Missy, the week before last.
Monday, 05 September 2005
Potty training
Guess what?! I'm learning how to go to the toilet! Yes, I'm in potty training and I've already had some successes. The first one was at daycare on Friday. Miss Tisha called Daddy and told him the news: I told her I wanted to go potty and I sat on one of the toilets and went. Everyone was very proud of me.
 So on the weekend, we went to Target and bought me a second potty. I had one for downstairs already and had been practicing, but everyone thought it would be better if I had one upstairs too.
Mummy and Daddy also bought me a new book, My Potty Book for Girls so I could read all about what to do. It even has a picture of my potty in it.
Then guess what: tonight just before bath time, I told Mummy that I "wanted a new bottom" and she took me upstairs and I sat on my toilet and read my new book and then I did it! I managed all by myself! Mummy and Daddy were very pleased with me and I was very happy too!
Thursday, 08 September 2005
I've had such a fabulous time these past several days hanging out with Katie and Kate. On Sunday night, Mummy, Daddy and I went to Katie's and Kate's residence and picked them up and we all went to Red Robin, a burger place, for dinner. It was lots of fun and since it was such nice weather, we sat outside. I was in great spirits and entertained everyone. Afterwards, even though none of us needed it, we went to Cold Stone Creamery for some yummy hand-mixed ice cream.
Monday was a public holiday so I had the day off. We met Kate and Katie at Starbucks in the morning for some coffee and cake (I had my usual Strawberries and Cream Frapaccino). Then, guess what? I then went with Kate and Katie and spent the rest of the day with them! Mummy & Daddy did their own thing (they hung some pictures, did some shopping, and had a drink at a local pub). The three of us girls went shopping and for shoes of course. I had a nap of course, and played on Katie's piano and the cool alphabet magnets on their fridge.
But wait, there's more. On Tuesday night, Mummy & Daddy were at Raleigh Little Theatre doing auditions for Miss Nelson is Missing (Mummy's the audition coordinator and Daddy's the stage manager). So I spent the evening with Katie. I continued my new skill of going to use my potty which Katie was very pleased about. I was pretty tired after a big day at school.
And on Wednesday night, the auditions continued, so I got to have fun with Kate this time, since Katie was also at the theatre auditioning for a part. That was lots of fun too.
So I've had a great time these past 4 days with my pals. I'm very fortunate to have such great friends.
Sunday, 11 September 2005
I did a very clever thing this afternoon. Yesterday, Mummy accidentally dropped the back of her earring on the floor. Mummy and Daddy both spent much time looking for it, but couldn't. However, this afternoon, not only did I manage to find it, but I also knew what it was and brought it straight over to Mummy and gave it to her. Mummy thought I was very clever!
My Saturday night was fun and something new. Mummy and Daddy went with Dick and Gerrie to the Coldplay concert at the Alltel Pavilion (they sat on the grassy area on a blanket). So Mark and Brooklyn from next door minded me. I had lots of fun with them. I got to play with the dogs and I had a lovely dinner with them too. Then I had a nice walk around the development and then back to my house for a nice bath some books (we read each of bedtime books two or three times!) and some milk. I was really tired after such a fun afternoon - thanks Brook and Mark!
Oh and congratulations to Katie for getting the role of Allison in Miss Nelson is Missing!
Wednesday, 21 September 2005
Mummy & Daddy are going to Niagara Falls tomorrow for their 10th Wedding Aniversary. I hope they have a fun time - I know I will because I'll be staying with Gerrie and Amanda (Dick is away on his golf weekend). Or maybe they'll be staying with me, I'm not sure yet. They're flying into Toronto and hiring a car from there. They'll be staying at the Embassy Suites right near the Candian side of the falls. I hope they get some good piccies to show me later.
Friday, 30 September 2005
Niagara Falls
Since I've been succesfully blogging for quite a while now, Daddy thought he'd have a try at it too. He and Mummy were up at Niagara Falls last weekend and here's his diary (and he took photos too - how about that!)
We've had a great time these past four days up in Canada to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Kiron arranged a wonderful long weekend. Here's what we did each day.
Thursday. The flight up to Toronto was painless. It certainly was the easiest way to get there - a direct flight and a pleasant two-hour drive around the western edge of Lake Ontario. We had rented a car with a GPS mapping system (Hertz Neverlost) installed so it was very easy to go places. We stopped at one of the several water locks in the region - quite interesting. We had a late lunch on the way and luckily when we starting looking for a place to eat we saw a sign for the Lake House Restaurant, a surprisingly lovely place for lunch (surprising because it is right adjacent to the highway). We ate lunch on their deck overlooking Lake Ontario enjoying yummy Paninis and drinking a very pleasant bottle of local wine, a recommendation of our waitress who was also the restaurant manager (and a local too). She also suggested that if we had the time to drive through Port Dalhousie (pronounced "Dall-oo-sie") which was basically on the way anyway. We did drive through but decided not to stop now but to save that till the way back.
Lake House Restaurant, where we had lunch on the way up down to Niagara Falls. The view is Lake Ontario.
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The impressive view from our hotel room. That's the American Falls on the left and the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls on the right.
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We got to Niagara Falls late afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Embassy Suites "Fallsview" . Turns out that it had exactly that: Kiron had arranged a room with a spectacular view of the falls - both the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls and the American Falls. We were on the 32nd floor, 6 floors from the top. Very nice. As an anniversary present, Kiron got me a monster lens for my Nikon digital SLR camera so I was able to take some great photos from our room, even ones at night when the falls were lit. The Canadian govement had installed this bank of massive lights near the falls and every night from 8:30pm till midnight, the light up both falls with a pretty array of coloured lights. They also do fireworks on the weekends but only during the summer months so we missed out on that.
The American Falls lit up with the nightly lights display
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The Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls, photo taken from our hotel room window.
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The American Falls during the day (from our hotel room window again). The bit of water on the right is called the Bridal Falls (it looks like a bridal veil)
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The Horseshoe Falls are deceptively big -- see the people at Table Rock Point?
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Embassy Suites offers a nightly "manager's reception" for all guests - baiscally free drinks for a fixed time. So we had a mixed drink and some nibblies. Back in our room, while spending some time gazing at the falls (and being amazed as to how much water there was), we planned our weekend and the touristy activies we wanted to do. We had a late dinner at the TGI Fridays restaurant in the hotel. Neither of us weren't overly hungary since we had a late lunch but decided we needed something. We went for a short walk after dinner, but it was drissling and we were tired, so we didn't go far - basically across the road towards the falls.
David & Kiron on the Observation tower looking upstream to the falls. We're about to go down the elevator inside the tower to the boat
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View from the tower looking upstream - the American Falls in the foreground.
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Friday. Our first activity was the Maid of the Mist, the boat that travels up Niagara River to the base of the falls. I did some research before we left Raleigh and read a comment that the boats alternate their departure from the Canadian side of the falls (where we were staying) and the US side of the falls. The comment when on to say that the queues for the boats are much shorter on the US side but the path the boats take is practically identical. And sure enough, looking out our window, we could tell that this was exactly how it was (we brought our binoculars too). On the US side there was no-one waiting for the next boat, whereas on the Canadian side (where most tourists stay) there were perhaps 100 or more people queuing up. So we left the hotel about 10am and drove across the Rainbow Bridge which is the closest bridge with Canada on one side and the US on the other. Passport control and customs was pretty low key with no wait.
The queue for the boats on the Canadian side was much longer than the US side where we were
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We got closer than this to the base of the falls, but it was already impressive.
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This satellite map shows all the key sites in the area.
We had to pay for parking (you pay for everything!) but there were very few people around so we were able to park very close to the falls. We walked directly to the Observation tower which also doubles as the elevator down to the water's edge where the boats departed from. Departures were every half hour from each side, so we had time to admire the view from the top of the tower and take photos before heading down. Even then, there were only 6 or so people ahead of us in the line. We were very lucky weather-wise - it was a clear blue-sky day and the wind direction was upstream meaning that the mist from the falls wouldn't block our view and wouldn't get us wet while on the boat (apparently you can get soaked if the wind is in downstream). Everyone is given a blue plastic poncho to wear to not get wet from the spray but I don't think we really needed them. We referred to the packs of people wearing them as "blue lemmings".
The Rainbow Bridge and the Observation Tower as seen from the Maid of the Mist
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The walkway up the side of the American Falls gets pretty close to the water - close enough to get wet!
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After the boat ride but before we went back up the elevator in the Observation tower, we walked up and back the walkway up the side of the American Falls. We were able to get really close to the falls. Since the wind was still in our favour, we didn't get wet much - just once or twice a bit of wind carried the spray our direction. Back up the top, we walked to the edge of the American Falls. It is amazing that we were able to stand so close to the water - basically one or two steps and you're in it. We drove over a bridge over upstream of the American Falls to an island between the two falls. This enabled us to walk over to the US side of the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls.
More soon...
Go to: Archive index | August 2005
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