vacation chapter 3: Maine-iacs!

After a few days in Canada, we were ready to head back to the U.S. It's not that we don't like the Canadians and their beautiful country but we were running out of money. I'm just being dramatic about that damn exchange rate.

After we got searched at customs coming into Maine, we headed to
Caribou to spend time with Jesse's dad. We were also happy to stay with family (Jesse's aunt's and uncle's house!) instead of a hotel. Especially since the family happened to have every video game known to humans, including Guitar Hero.

This is a tree Jesse climbed when he was a kid.


This is one of his dad's cats. They named him Dice-K, which is awesome. I love a cat named after a baseball player! And Dice-K the cat is awesome too.



After a few days in northern Maine with Jesse's dad, we headed to the southern part of the state to spend a few days with Jesse's mom and her husband. We went to the beach and swam in the ocean.


We tried to buy muff for 99 cents but then realized it was an egg bacon muffin and wanted nothing to do with it.


Hey! Fancy meeting you here!!


Jesse's sister and her family came to visit. We bought this sweet Transformers voice changing helmet for his nephew. It was awesome.


Jesse's mom has a cute kitten. His name is Jake.


We went to York's Wild Kingdom and saw lots of cool animals behind chain link fences. I don't think I had ever seen such a young zebra before. It was all wobbly on its feet.


And then we saw the Alamo.


And then we rode a carnival-like (read: scary) ferris wheel. And then it start to lightning and thunder in the distance and I was pretty sure we were going to die.


But I was wrong and we lived. After we left the zoo we started the drive toward Niagara Falls. We didn't book a hotel room ahead of time because we thought we'd drive until we got tired and then find a room. We got to Syracuse around 10PM and weren't able to find a room. Well, the Budget Inn had a suite for $120 but we opted to sit in the parking lot of the Clarion where we could get the strongest wireless signal and booked a room on hotwire.com in Rochester.

We arrived at the Hyatt around 11PM. We asked the kind man at the front desk if there were any restaurants nearby. He got out a little map and showed us where we would find several bars and restaurants. When Jesse asked if we could walk to the bars and restaurants, the kind man said we should walk to them and that it would only take 5 or 6 minutes. Sweet! He forgot to mention that they would be the scariest 5 or 6 minutes of our lives. I don't know much about Rochester, NY but now I know to NOT walk to anywhere from the Hyatt at night. Scary people everywhere. After we ate and drank at a bar, we asked the bartender to call us a cab. He was having a hard time reaching a cab company so I said, "Hey we just walked from the Hyatt but it seemed a little shady. Do you think it's safe for us to walk back?" and he said, "Uh. You need to take a cab." So we took a cab and arrived safely at the hotel. Who knew Rochester would be scarier than Detroit??

Your next installment, vacation chapter 4: happy anniversary!, will show up sometime in the next year. I'm tired of writing about vacation. Are you tired of reading? It's okay to admit it. Really!