Autumn in New York...and Canadian Capers

Niagara Falls

Katz's Deli

Frank and I leave tomorrow for a five-week jaunt. This time it's the east coast and Canada. We fly from John Wayne airport Wednesday a.m. and will spend the first four nights at the Howard Johnson Hotel by Wyndham Newport Airport, Newark. It features a shuttle that leaves every 30 minutes for the airport where we can catch a train into NYC. So Frank's focused on Jewish delis, and I'm thinking of museums. A friend tells me that the Tenement Museum is a short walk from Katz's Deli, established 1888. 

 I've been to British Columbia, but nowhere else in Canada. I've been to 63 countries, but never Boston, outside of Logan airport. So all the places we're visiting will be new to me, except for NYC, which I last saw in 1985.  The ports we visit on this cruise include Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Sidney, Saguenay, Quebec City and Halifax.

Titanic Deck Chair

I especially look forward to exploring the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax with its Titanic exhibition and the cemetery where so many victims found their final resting place.

Lake George, Adirondacks

When we get back to Cape Liberty we spend one night at the Hilton Garden on Staten Island, and then pick up our rental car the next day. We have stops planned for Albany (detour to Cooperstown to see Baseball Hall of Fame), through Saratoga Springs to Lake George for a night, Lake Placid for a

night, and then on to Ottawa. We have two nights in Ottawa before joining our Road Scholar tour group.

With that group we see Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto and Niagara-by-the-Lake, with some outings to wineries, a play at the Shaw Festival ("Oh, What a Lovely War") and the usual informative lectures and delicious meals, before flying back on October 9 from Buffalo.

Ottawa, Canads

We'll be in Niagara-on-the-Lake for Canadian Thanksgiving, so look forward to a turkey dinner a little early this year. I checked, and yes, Canadians feast on turkey and all the trimmings, including pumpkin pie.

The one book I've had a chance to read in preparation for at last seeing Niagara, is Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies.  This sentence especially caught my attention: "Our fabulous modern lifestyle, Chicken McNuggets to 'America's Next Top Model' all began with electricity." In my Peace Corps Volunteer days I've lived in locales where electricity was scarce, intermittent or nonexistent. When I asked Grandma Gertie, who was born in 1890, what invention  had made the most significant change in her 87 years on earth, she didn't hesitate.

"Finally getting electric lights made all the difference when my children were growing up."

Niagara's history is fascinating, through tightrope walkers and the Maid of the Mist. I recommend this book. And so glad at this belated date that I'll finally be able to add Niagara Falls to my long list of  "once in a lifetime" places to see.

We'll both have computers with us, but have intermittent access while on the cruise. Nonetheless, l'll be staying in touch. See you all in October.