Here we go!!!

6-19-2016

DAY 1

Okay, to be honest, there’s not much planned excitement for the first few days. The first four days will be spent driving to where our national park adventures begin at the Great Sand Dunes. We have also assigned jobs to make sure everyone contributes. There is Chief Motivator, where you basically set the curfew and keep the spirits high, the Auto Master, who tidies the car at the end of the day and packs it in the morning, and the Food Guru, who  makes sure everyone gets food and helps bring food to and from places. 

For lunch, we realized that we would be near Utica, NY, so we decided to stock up on some Italian food for our journey. My mom's side of the family is from this area, so we know all of the best places to hit. We good goodies at the Florentine, subs and rolls at Napoli's and we were back on the road again.

Now, writing a couple hours later, I take back the bit about little excitement. Our family has this way of always finding a way to make the most boring things fun. While we were crossing NY, my mom asked us kids if we were up for a quick 30 minute detour to Niagara falls, the american side. So we decided to visit Niagara. Of course, everything about the falls are big and powerful and beautiful, and we get many good pictures. But we decide that we want to get out on the special walkway that arches out halfway over the falls. So we happen to see an open lane (that is closed soon after our entry) to the boat ride beneath the falls which you must pay to do. But you can’t go on this half bridge without paying for the boat ride as well, so we quickly snapped a few pics and headed out. It was definitely worth it, though, for the great view of the falls we got. 

After driving a little longer to the first great lake we’ll be visiting - Lake Erie. Home of the most beautiful freshwater beach in America which is at Presque Isle State Park, or so we’ve been told. Since we arrived a little later, the sky was slowly turning to pretty pinks and oranges, we play in the water and pose for silhouettes. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves. Maya believes she has entered paradise, aka a place where she is surrounded by birds, water, beaches and beautiful sunsets. Then, we went to Motel 6, and were very pleased since the sheets were matching and the bathroom worked.