Niagara Falls and Meeting in Maine

It’s June and that means we’re off on another adventure! This time we are headed to Maine with Keely’s family to celebrate Dan & Jane’s 50th wedding anniversary. Our travels began yesterday as we are driving to Maine while everyone else is flying.

We left Madison a touch later than we wanted to due to getting home well after midnight thanks for an amazing Garth Brooks concert on Wednesday. Bucket list item complete!

Unfortunately traveling east means driving through Chicago and it’s awful construction, delays and chaos. Nothing was pleasant about it until sitting in stop and go traffic on the interstate we saw a vehicle with a Hawaii license plate. In all of our road trips, this was the first time we’ve found a Hawaii license plate. The kids could not have been more excited.

Our destination was Niagara Falls so up to Detroit and then across the border into Canada we went. We finally arrived in Niagara Falls around 10 pm. Keely pulled some strings using her Lifetime Titanium Elite status at Marriott to upgrade our room to the falls view at the Sheraton on the Canadian side of the falls. It was spectacular to see from the 19th floor at night! Liam and Whitaker turned their bed around so they could fall asleep looking at the lights and the falls.

Even with a late night, we didn’t have time to sleep in as we were on the first boat to go see the falls. We were down to the concierge lounge before they even started serving breakfast. Then it was across the road and down the path to the boat ride. We donned our red ponchos and found a great spot on the upper deck of the boat. Even Ilah had a tiny poncho!

The kids loved the boat ride into the falls and we got absolutely soaked. It was a bright sunny day and Niagara Falls was stunning from far away and right up close.

We walked back to the room to swap out any wet clothes and then it was time to leave to meet everyone in Maine. Last night while we were looking at travel times, Keely thought it was going to take another 12 hours. Imagine our delight when I plugged it into my phone and we realized it was only going to take 8.5 hours! (Apparently Keely had “avoid tolls” setting on!)

We made great time today. The kids survived the car ride with a mix of reading, games and jamming out to Garth Brooks as we tried to relive the concert from Wednesday.

We arrived in Portland shortly after Dan & Jane landed and met everyone at Duckfat - one of my favorite restaurants from when I worked in Portland for several years with Epic. The Duckfat salted caramel milkshake was even better than I remembered! We also had a brisket sandwich and some Maine clam chowder. Delicious.

We walked off dinner with a 2-3 mile stroll through town down to the wharf and old city. Then it was back to the cars for a short drive to our hotel in Freeport.

Tomorrow we make our way (with several stops along the way) up to Acadia and our house in Ellsworth. If today was any indication, this is going to be a great trip!!