Vacationing in Cleveland and Niagara

I thought to write about the fantastic time we had at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and what a passionate, professional and amazing performance we enjoyed of Frontier's Aeroroot Band at the Battle of the Corporate Bands.


Then about the second half of our trip at Niagara Falls which blew us away with its undescribable power and majesty. But instead I will tell you about the fight that led to the car incident (defined by the insurance company as an accident) and how it all came down, once again, to food.

For most, but especially for someone like me used to creating naturally tasty concoctions from the garden and the pantry, eating on the road is yuk! So when we arrive at a destination, choice of eating places often takes on more importance than it should. I don't want to eat lower quality food than I have at home and I expect to eat better than at home. Vacation is about trying new --yummy, rich and sinful foods and simple, naturally prepared but elegant dishes and even exotic creations. That's what I dream of anyway, but reality is usually a lot different and disappointing. Sometimes we do get lucky and then this happens, these events are always memorable (see my friend Kitty's blog who is better at sniffing out fine dining experiences complete fantastic pictures and commentary). There were three such dishes for me on this trip. The first was in Cleveland at our hotel where our expectations were low and food was what you would expect except, I had the Lake Perch - even though it was breaded and fried - it just seemed like the thing to try since we were only a few blocks from Lake Erie. And oh - such a lovely, light and crunchy coating with sweetly delicate tender fish inside. Probably the best breaded fish I have ever had.

So about that little car-thing which happened out second day at Niagara - wait, first I have to explain about arriving at our hotel. After two nights of too little sleep in Cleveland and being woken up in the wee hours by tailgaters (Cleveland Browns were playing at home that afternoon) when we intended to sleep in before out drive to Niagara, we feeling pretty tired and by the time we hit the Canadian border we were starting to pick at each other, just a little bit. When we finally got across the Rainbow bridge (from which we had expected to see some Falls but could only see mist off in the distance), we had some disagreement on the route to take to the hotel (code for he didn't listen to me even though I was the navigator and was giving him the correct directions). When we were almost there, he (meaning husband Dave) tried to pull in at the wrong hotel and generating another round of a snittiness on both are parts. So finally we get to the right hotel. It was one of the first built in the area, just a tall tower with a round knob on top with only six floors of rooms. We were on the top floor, which meant operating an elevator using a special key we'd gotten, to get to the top floor after going up the regular elevator (what they call the "penthouse" elevator). Of course, we couldn't figure out the trick of opening the door to it -- not being your typical penthouse types --and we got a little more frustrated and so when we finally crammed ourselves into a very small box that barely held us and our luggage, we were starting to get unreasonably upset when yet again we couldn't figure out how to get it to move. By the time we got to the door of our room (hopefully you are picturing all of this because here comes the really exceptional moment for us), Dave opens it and walks into the room and stops as I am coming through the door muttering, this had better be worth it - and then Oh, Oh my, Oh wow, this is f----g awesome. It was our first view of the falls - and we realized if we did nothing else all day but stand in our room and watch the falls, it would be worth it. The rooms are OK, but its all about the view and that makes the room absolutely fabulous.

These are the first views that we saw from our hotel window.






























So back to the car and the food. After a day of doing the touristy stuff of riding the Maid of the Mist, going in the tunnel behind the falls and seeing the movie (all three of which require rain gear) and having one of one of those too filling not so good lunches, I wanted something light but nice for supper - like thick veggie beany soup and crusty bread. So we went in search of, as Dave kept calling it, crusty soup and thick bread. The more we walked looking for something decent (lots of chains like Chile's and IHOP or hotel restaurants featuring great views and big meat), the grumpier I got till finally, we were sniping back and forth. I was near tears when we arrived at the last restaurant in the area- an Outback Steakhouse. I have never eaten at one, but I agreed to at least look at the menu and I tried, I swear I tried to be open-minded, but hell, I just couldn't stomach it. So then Dave says, our car is just over there, maybe we should drive somewhere. (Did I mention our hotel doesn't have any parking, space so their lot was 3 blocks away from the hotel?) So I almost brightened up at the idea and said yes cuz anything had to be better than walking around looking for something that wasn't there. So we went to the car and after maybe half an hour of driving around, we gave up and decided to go to a Boston's (we like Boston's but it is after all a chain and we have nearby). Must interject again that actually I gave up when we were in the 7 Eleven looking for cheese and crackers and said lets just grab something here and go back to our room - I had sunk pretty low as you can see. But trying to be a good sport and save the night, I said unless you really want to still go out to eat dear, even though I can't eat a meal this late at night (subtle hint). After a thoughtful moment, Dave says sure, lets go to Boston's so we drive back through town looking for the road that had the Boston's. We finally find it, turn, but we can't find a way to get into the Boston's (bad sign I think, we should have just grabbed something from the 7 Eleven). So Dave drives on down the road until it T's into the main road (which runs along the Niagara river and the falls), frustrated but determined to find his way back to the Boston's (it is like 9:30 pm by now). He suddenly pulls out quickly, taking a sharp left, which shocked as this is a one way road and I yell wait. Dave has just time to yell back at me, "what - I have plenty of ti... ", when he hits the curb on the center divide which is wide - maybe 5 feet- and with a scraping, crunchy, rattley kind of sound, over we go into the lane, now going the right way on the road but with the car making funny sounds somewhere in the front. I thought he had been turning the wrong way on the a one-way street, it never occurred to me that he was totally missing this great big center divide and going to be driving right over it. He assumed I was yelling at him to wait because there was a car coming, which is why he pulled out so quickly, and in a cocky, so sure of himself scornful --"I know what I am doing voice" had been trying to tell me just that. Disaster. We have no idea if the car is safe to drive and the front and the fender are all cracked and broken as is more plastic stuff underneath and then there is that sound. We limp back to the hotel, subdued - first stopping at another 7 Eleven where I get Dave a burrito even though he no longer wants anything and I listen to him muttering things like "dumb shit" under his breath. The end of this part of the story is that Dave spends the next morning working on the car and gets the rattling noise, which has to do with the radiator knocked out of position, stopped and uses up a whole roll of duct tape trying to tape the car together so that it doesn't fall apart on the way home

That night we ate at a seafood restaurant where I had a fish soup with a tomato base and shrimp, calamari and fish and pasta and it was so very, very good. The final memorable dish on the trip was a wild mushroom risotto at a hotel off Lake Michigan.



The result though is that we both came together - no blaming or whining - lets just do the best we can. Neither one of us wanted to ruin what was one of the top 3 vacations ever. We stayed an extra day at Niagara (and still didn't get to everything we wanted to see) and made it home just fine.