Toni got to get up close to the Falls
When Toni took this photo I was about half way across the Rainbow BridgeAmerica and the American Falls are on the right
When we moved from New York City to Toronto we shipped a few large boxes to ourselves using FedEx. It was a bit pricey but manageable. We had the contents list pre-approved by customs when we made our earlier apartment hunting trip. The documents were attached to the boxes as instructed and they were supposed to fly right through and be delivered to our new apartment. That did not happen and FedEx held the boxes for a week. They wanted me to come out to the depot, pick up the documents, take the papers to customs for approval and then back to FedEx in order to get my packages released for delivery. This would have racked up well over $100 in cab fares. After about four days of phone calls I was finally able to speak with a person who understood the situation and that the documents had already been stamped approved.
We still had a few more boxes in storage in Kansas City. These contained non-essential possessions, mostly photo albums and sentimental items. Wishing to avoid another potential problem with FedEx I found another option. I figured there must be a way to ship them almost to Canada and thereby eliminating the customs problem. Sure enough I found that in every border town there is some business willing to accept and store packages for Canadians and they can be picked up and brought back by car. We set up an account with one of these services in Niagara, just across the US border. By shipping to this American address and not into Canada we paid just a fraction on the shipping and the US depot only charged $23 to receive and store the boxes for up to 15 days or 30 days for just a bit more. Toni had never seen Niagara Falls and neither of us had been to the town of Niagara On The Lake so we thought we could make it into a mini vacation at the same time.
Once we confirmed the boxes were delivered we rented a car. Monday morning I went about a mile to the agency to pick it up. I can’t fully describe the odd feeling of suddenly being behind the wheel of a car and driving the streets that I know so well but only ever as a pedestrian on the sidewalk or in the crosswalks. All the landmarks were in the same places but the vantage points were way off. Even traffic lights looked different. Everything was incredibly familiar yet strange at once. I picked Toni up at the apartment door and we were on the Gardiner Expressway in minutes and on our little adventure.
Once we were out of Toronto proper it looked like any highway in North America other than the highway names. Queens this and Kings that and Winston Churchill something. The British Commonwealth influence still looms large here. As we approached the border the signs for Niagara Falls came more frequently. At the same time the signage shortened the name to simply “The Falls” and finally just “Falls”. Coming into town you instantly get that familiar feel of a resort/tourist location. I noticed some changes right off with the “Times Square” influence. A giant Hershey store right next to the obligatory Hard Rock Café for instance. Then you turn the corner and there are the Falls. It is not a gradual buildup. It is just BOOM and there they are. You see the whole thing at once as if you just pulled a blindfold off. I won’t try to describe them. I simply don’t have the words.
Now the mission part of the trip really kicked in. I had no time to stop and enjoy the view. I pulled into an area marked for buses only and dropped Toni off. We didn’t see any reason for her to go with me across the border and back. We picked an arbitrary time of an hour and a half later for me to pick her back up; a quick kiss and I was off. I should mention that neither of us have cell phones anymore so there wouldn’t be a chance to adjust our meeting place or time. We were locked in and committed.
I looked off to the distance and could see that the Rainbow Bridge leading to the border was backed up with traffic that appeared to be hardly moving if at all. I felt my US passport in my front shirt pocket, fastened the seatbelt and headed to America. I followed the circuitous signs through town to get to the bridge. When I got to the right place the traffic was backed up for blocks behind me and I needed to somehow merge over a lane to the left rather quickly. I spotted a three foot gap between two cars and suddenly just whipped the front corner of my car into that spot without thinking about it. The back car couldn’t proceed and I was in the correct lane. It is like putting your foot in a door that someone is trying to close. As I straightened into the lane and started the long crawl across the bridge I realized that I had picked up this maneuver from the NYC cab drivers. I had observed it a hundred times but never used it or even knew it was in my bag of tricks.
After thirty minutes of inching across the bridge I finally was “greeted” by the border patrolman. I was careful not to keep my passports together so I was sure to give him the US one. He was rather brusque and intimidating. He started firing off question in a staccato machine gun style faster than I could possibly even answer. Where do you live? Where are you going? What is your purpose? How long will you be? What kind of work do you do? Why do you live in Canada? Boom, boom, boom. I stayed right with the interrogation although I knew I up against a pro. He even started asking questions a second time. I realized he wasn’t even waiting for the answers nor did care about them particularly. He was observing me and my reactions trying to trip me up. I can see how difficult it would be to stick to a made up story. He checked the trunk and finally waved me through. I couldn’t be upset with him at all since he is the first line of defence keeping bad guys from doing their thing.
Picking up the boxes was pretty uneventful. They were very nice and even loaded the boxes in the backseat of my car. Five minutes later I was at the Canadian border again. I had switched out my passports again to keep things simple. This direction there was no waiting at all. In fact there more open lanes than occupied. I was asked a few questions and told to pull over to a stall to be checked out. Another agent came out and asked to see the trunk. He didn’t bother with the three large boxes in plain view practically begging to be cut open. Satisfied with the trunk I was waved back into Canada.
Mission accomplished.
I zipped over to the meeting place and there was Toni and I was only about five minutes later than the appointed time. I thought about parking the car and taking in the view properly but we have plans to be back in less than a month so I figured that could wait.
On the way back we took a detour to the town of Niagara On The Lake. It is a bit out of the way in the middle of a large wine making area but it is well worth the time. Most of the buildings date to 1850s and older. Lush flowers line all of the streets and shop windows. I grabbed a quick bite and Toni had some local wine and we really got the vacation vibe. Despite it being a touristy spot we found the prices were actually much more reasonable than what we find in Toronto. We checked out the shops for a couple of hours and started back home. On the way out of town we came upon a small lookout point and saw the Toronto skyline from across the lake.
This is a typical restaurant in Niagara On The Lake at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets
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