summer vacation

summer of 2009 consisted of a lot of baseball games,



my first visit to the porter county fair,




a couple of amazing road trips,


and a total of almost 2500 photos taken.

lazy day

today's the last day of my vacation. i slept until 11 and have yet to change out of my pajamas. i should mow the lawn, trim the bushes out front and do some grocery shopping. i should probably do laundry, too. but i'm not. instead i got the niagara falls photos uploaded to flickr. if you've looked at the set i have on facebook, no need to look again - they're the exact same photos. if you haven't seen them on facebook, you can see them on flickr here.

i'm also starting to think about goals for next year. one would think i would concentrate on accomplishing some of this year's goals instead ... but one would be wrong. :) any suggestions?

photoless wrap-up

vacation has been amazing. yesterday we walked the canadian side of the falls, crossed the border on foot and remembered to ask the crossing guard to stamp our passports. we had dinner with marlana's friend brian and meeting him was a pleasure. the four of us walked out to goat island, stood at the top of the falls & marveled at the majesty of it all. we also discussed whether the shear force of the water would crush a human body ... but that doesn't sound nearly as calming, does it? :)

today we stayed in canada - went behind the horseshoe falls and rode the maid of mist to the falls' base. spectacular. i chose to just risk it and kept my camera uncovered & shooting the entire boat ride. i'm sure a lot of the photos aren't any good because there was so much water on the lens ... but at least it appears to have handled the drenching well.

we're heading home tomorrow morning. more photos will come in the next few days. i'm heading to my parents' house as soon as we get back to the region. jonathan & laure are in town until tuesday evening, so i'm hoping to spend a little time with them. i've got wednesday off work, though. so i'll probably get the photos up then.

have a great labor day!

niagara falls: day 1

after a quick nap this morning, we hunted down a wendy's for lunch and then headed to the falls. we had planned to park on the canadian side, but we got a bit turned around and ended up on rainbow bridge instead - so into the state we went!


we walked around a bit taking photos (this is the top of the american falls) and then took the trolley over to goat island for the cave of the winds tour.


the cave of the winds tour is a self-guided tour, wherein "tour" means walking along a set of boardwalks and up stairs to platforms that are successively closer to the base of bridal veil falls.so exhilarating! of course by the end we were all drenched from the knees down & the shoulders up - but it was totally worth it. they give you a souvenir poncho and sandals - the sandals are going back with us today for more fallsy fun. i kept my camera out for most of the tour - putting it away only when we started climbing up to the hurricane deck. it's pretty hard to keep your eyes open on the hurricane deck, so i didn't see much point in trying to take photos. :)

the 51st state

we drove through the night on thursday, arriving at our hotel friday morning at about 5:15 local time. this is us crossing the bridge into canada. i know, it's not a great photo - but it was 2:30 in the morning. a detail not overlooked by the border crossing guard. he took our passports and started asking the customary (i assume) questions: where are you from? (indiana & illionois) how do you know each other? (school & work) where are you going? (niagara falls) at 2:30 in the morning?!? it was funny. :)


a little bit of the town in which we're staying.


and the tunnel we get to drive through when we go to niagara falls ... or drive the wrong way looking for an arby's. :)