Since we love the movie A Christmas Story, we decided to stop at the house on our way out of Ohio. It was on the way so it made sense. We had no idea what we would be in for. The line to get in was long, I guess that should have been expected, it was the beginning of December. We were blessed with warmer then normal weather and it was sunny. We had to park 2 blocks away. There were tour buses and people everywhere. I would hate to be one of the neighbors! They had a museum across the street from the house that had a lot of film memorabilia and a gift shop. We took turns standing in line while the others checked out the museum. The "Major Award" a/k/a the leg lamp was ablaze in the front window and the house was set up just like in the movie. Arabella's favorite part was the blue bowling ball under the tree and the Pink Nightmare cut out in the bedroom. She did not want to leave. It was fun to see and we have checked off another box on our list of things to see!
The Official Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Air Rifle
Randy's Zepplin
The Pink Nightmare
From Cleveland we headed northeast to Pennsylvania where we stopped for dinner. It was a nice break from driving. After dinner we headed to Niagara Falls where we spent the night on the US side of the falls. The next morning before leaving we checked out the falls. It was raining and cold, but it is still an amazing sight to see. There are no words to describe the sound of the rushing water going over the falls. What great power Mother Nature has. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when the sun is shining or in the fall when the leaves in the background have started to change color. Again, we checked a box for another sight that we have all wanted to see.
US and Canadian Falls
Boundary Marker between the US and Canada
Canadian side of Falls
After drying off and loading the cars back up, we headed east to Syracuse. We were planning on meeting up with Dad and Heather, however, the weather turned bad for both of us and we were not able to see them. We stayed the night in Syracuse and woke up Monday morning and headed north through Watertown, New York to the border with Canada. While driving farther and farther north, you realize how spread out the towns become and how desolate, yet beautiful, the landscape is. It was your typical winter day, no shining sun and about to snow at any moment. Traffic even thins out. At some points, it seemed as if our two cars were the only ones on the road.
Arabella passed the time napping in the back seat with Cookie Monster and Teddy!
After about 3 1/2 hours we are almost to Canada....
See this sign was a little unsettling and exciting at the same time. However, before we crossed the border we had to make a stop at the US Customs to clear our cars for entry into Canada.
Arabella and I waited in the car while Jay went in and met with the US Customs agent who checked the car titles and the VIN numbers on the vehicles. It was not a terribly long process, but I will admit, it seemed like it took forever. This is probably due to the fact that I was a little be uncomfortable sitting in the car, out in the middle of nowhere, with what seems like a military operation going on around me. Tractor-trailers were lined up single file and were then escorted through a military scanner to be cleared for entry into the US. I was happy when we were driving out of there, just a little too "sketchy" for me, I don't know how else to describe it. We got back on the highway and less than a mile later, we were at the border and sitting in the line to pass customs.
Once at the Canadian customs hut, we handed over our passports and answered the litany of questions that we thrown at us. We were granted entry and proceeded to Immigration. At Immigration, we presented ourselves for our Visa's. We again answered questions and had to fill out paperwork. In about an hour, we had our Visa's and were on our way!
After a long day of driving, we were wiped out and landed at the hotel. We need a good nights rest as we were meeting the movers in the morning. We were thankful for a safe trip and that we did not have any problems at Customs or Immigration! We had officially made it to Montreal!!
