Post-Vacation Reflection

1. The panoramic setting on my iPhone is awesome! Take lots of pictures and sort out the keepers when you get home.

2.  Park in the cheesy, tourist section of Niagara Falls ($5) vs. in the Park ($20). That one hurt Brian's pocketbook.

3.  The Tripadvisor website is great for finding a rental apartment for your trip. We found this 2-bedroom, with our own private garden (and black squirrel) in the "Little Italy" neighborhood of Toronto for the same price of a hotel, but parking and Wifi (a must for the kids and helpful when planning our days) was included.

4.  Wear good walking shoes, and checkout public transportation. We got a family pass for the trolley for $10 each weekend and holiday (Monday was a civic holiday....which basically meant a day off for people, yet everything was still open) day. Great for zooming around the city and for seeing the sites too.

5.  Eat many small meals throughout the day. This gave us a chance to visit more restaurants and pubs.  Typically, we'd get appetizers or just two meals and split them.

6. Research what is going on in the city in advance of your travels. We didn't realize that there was the Carabana parade going on until I started looking for hotels and couldn't find anything decent and reasonably priced. It ended up working out alright and was fun to see. It was free, so we were able to go, even though we'd just found out about it.

7.  Plan your route if you are driving by researching where there is construction....especially nighttime construction. We had several stretches of one lane, where they were doing work on bridges at night.  Good news was that Our ipass works everywhere: Chicago, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York! This made all our toll stops faster!

8. Taking a snooze in a rest stop with people that can sleep through anything can cost you time! Brian wore an eyeshade and earplugs and the kids and I can sleep anywhere, anytime.....so, our 2 hour catnap turned into 5 hours, oops! We still made it to the apartment well before checkin time (we called and he let us in anyway).  So we unloaded and got an early start on our day of exploring the city. We were well rested (but a bit stiff from the cramped quarters).

9. The Canadian side off the Falls is better viewing than the American side. Well worth the stop, but glad we didn't spend the night. Think Wisconsin Dells on steroids!

10. Don't drink too much Mountain Dew if you plan to drive straight through from Niagara Falls to Home!!!!  We made many, many pit stops (which worked out ok for me;)