We’re travelling with Steve, Juls, Avery and Myah and also Jim and Maria. We’re all arriving separately though. We’re driving, as are the Faust’s, leaving Wed afternoon, picking Jay up at his office and driving half way to Ithaca, home of Cornell University, to break up the drive.
The girls and I got out of the house right on time and got to Jay's office at 2pm, he was ready shortly after and we made our way to the border. Originally, I had plotted in the Whirlpool bridge in Niagara because its the Nexus only bridge, to get over faster, but as we approached the Queenston Lewiston Bridge I asked Jay to look up the wait time for that and it came up as No Delay, so we went across there. There were only maybe 5 cars ahead of us, it was perfect. I handed over our Nexus cards and there was an error, which reminds me, I have to fix that! Anyway, there was an error so we had to go into the office. When I renewed the girls and my Nexus cards and we received them in the mail, I was supposed to have "activated them" on the new Trusted Traveller Program website, but I didn't. So the officer gave me instructions on how to do this. In the process, he told Jay that he was the only one who did it right - when REALLY he had to go down to the airport for a second interview because he didn't renew his Nexus until AFTER it expired, as opposed to me, as Paige said "Who did the responsible thing" and renewed before it expired. Anyway, before the trip back I have to remember to activate our cards online. Apparently flying they don't check the RFID chip, which they do when you drive over the border.
Because EVERY time I go to the States I HAVE to have PF Chang's for dinner we stopped in Victor, NY, literally 3 minutes off the highway. Again, I had originally thought we would stop at PF Chang's in Syracuse but when I saw the sign for Victor I said to Jay "There's a PF Chang's here" (one of 3 in New York State) "check and see how far it is off the highway". Because was about 5:30pm by this time and we had been in the car for 3 hours we stopped early in Victor. I knew there was a PF Chang's in Victor because I'd been there before! About 6 years ago, maybe more, I arranged a Girls Weekend to the Finger Lakes and I booked our B&B around the location of the PF Chang's, lol. For real. There was some drama during dinner, the girls were tired but also stir crazy. Both pouted when their dinner arrived..until Paige tasted hers and loved it, Sophie tasted hers and hated it, tasted Paige's and loved it so I just ordered her a lo mein too and we boxed up her fried rice - crisis averted. I, of course, got lettuce wraps to share with Jay and my own order of Mongolian Beef. Jay got Mongolian Beef too and then a Kung Pow Chicken..too much food - rookie mistake.
After dinner we got back in the car to drive the rest of the way to Ithaca, about an hour and 45 minutes left. So far I've driven the whole time, which is fine by me. We've had no incidents and very little traffic so its been great. The new truck is very comfortable to drive in and we have a tonne of space in it. The border officer was asking about it when we pulled up - he's looking at buying one so wanted to know if it was a nice ride and how good on gas it is..its not great on gas but its not horrible either - slightly worse than the Explorer at 14.0L/100km.
Several times on the drive I would say "Look, that's pretty" and Jay would look up from his book and the girls would keep their eyes glued to their iPads. They have headphones, so its hard for them to hear me anyway - but I definitely know what Mom and Dad felt on that drive up the California coast when I was about 14 and had my nose in a book and didn't appreciate, or see, any of the beautiful scenery. We saw a couple of deer at the side of the road on our trip, drove along a wide river, saw some waterfalls, a very nice drive.
We arrived in Ithaca around 8pm I think, parked across the street from the hotel, checked in, got up to the room and got the girls changed into swim suits to wear off some of their pent up energy in the pool. We had bought a nerf style football and the girls threw that around in the pool for a while before we headed back up to the room. Jay and I finished our beer, the girls had got us some ice from the ice maker so that we could cool them right down while they were in the pool, and then we went to bed.
The plan for the morning is to get up, go for a hike and head to NYC. There is a nice hike at Robert H Treman State Park with 8 waterfalls or something like that. But, the forecast is calling for thunder storms in the morning, which is better than earlier today when it was calling for storms all day long, so we will have to play it by ear.
No photos today! Not even of PF Chang's, too busy eating...
The girls and I got out of the house right on time and got to Jay's office at 2pm, he was ready shortly after and we made our way to the border. Originally, I had plotted in the Whirlpool bridge in Niagara because its the Nexus only bridge, to get over faster, but as we approached the Queenston Lewiston Bridge I asked Jay to look up the wait time for that and it came up as No Delay, so we went across there. There were only maybe 5 cars ahead of us, it was perfect. I handed over our Nexus cards and there was an error, which reminds me, I have to fix that! Anyway, there was an error so we had to go into the office. When I renewed the girls and my Nexus cards and we received them in the mail, I was supposed to have "activated them" on the new Trusted Traveller Program website, but I didn't. So the officer gave me instructions on how to do this. In the process, he told Jay that he was the only one who did it right - when REALLY he had to go down to the airport for a second interview because he didn't renew his Nexus until AFTER it expired, as opposed to me, as Paige said "Who did the responsible thing" and renewed before it expired. Anyway, before the trip back I have to remember to activate our cards online. Apparently flying they don't check the RFID chip, which they do when you drive over the border.
Because EVERY time I go to the States I HAVE to have PF Chang's for dinner we stopped in Victor, NY, literally 3 minutes off the highway. Again, I had originally thought we would stop at PF Chang's in Syracuse but when I saw the sign for Victor I said to Jay "There's a PF Chang's here" (one of 3 in New York State) "check and see how far it is off the highway". Because was about 5:30pm by this time and we had been in the car for 3 hours we stopped early in Victor. I knew there was a PF Chang's in Victor because I'd been there before! About 6 years ago, maybe more, I arranged a Girls Weekend to the Finger Lakes and I booked our B&B around the location of the PF Chang's, lol. For real. There was some drama during dinner, the girls were tired but also stir crazy. Both pouted when their dinner arrived..until Paige tasted hers and loved it, Sophie tasted hers and hated it, tasted Paige's and loved it so I just ordered her a lo mein too and we boxed up her fried rice - crisis averted. I, of course, got lettuce wraps to share with Jay and my own order of Mongolian Beef. Jay got Mongolian Beef too and then a Kung Pow Chicken..too much food - rookie mistake.
After dinner we got back in the car to drive the rest of the way to Ithaca, about an hour and 45 minutes left. So far I've driven the whole time, which is fine by me. We've had no incidents and very little traffic so its been great. The new truck is very comfortable to drive in and we have a tonne of space in it. The border officer was asking about it when we pulled up - he's looking at buying one so wanted to know if it was a nice ride and how good on gas it is..its not great on gas but its not horrible either - slightly worse than the Explorer at 14.0L/100km.
Several times on the drive I would say "Look, that's pretty" and Jay would look up from his book and the girls would keep their eyes glued to their iPads. They have headphones, so its hard for them to hear me anyway - but I definitely know what Mom and Dad felt on that drive up the California coast when I was about 14 and had my nose in a book and didn't appreciate, or see, any of the beautiful scenery. We saw a couple of deer at the side of the road on our trip, drove along a wide river, saw some waterfalls, a very nice drive.
We arrived in Ithaca around 8pm I think, parked across the street from the hotel, checked in, got up to the room and got the girls changed into swim suits to wear off some of their pent up energy in the pool. We had bought a nerf style football and the girls threw that around in the pool for a while before we headed back up to the room. Jay and I finished our beer, the girls had got us some ice from the ice maker so that we could cool them right down while they were in the pool, and then we went to bed.
The plan for the morning is to get up, go for a hike and head to NYC. There is a nice hike at Robert H Treman State Park with 8 waterfalls or something like that. But, the forecast is calling for thunder storms in the morning, which is better than earlier today when it was calling for storms all day long, so we will have to play it by ear.
No photos today! Not even of PF Chang's, too busy eating...
No comments:
Post a Comment