Honeymoon Part 3: If it's 5:00 in Vermont, that means Bennington's closed.

From Niagara Falls, we headed to Bennington, VT. The drive across New York was pretty and nice -

A pit stop where Max took a ride and we had some Ice Cream, signs for Bennington and Troy, NY (So sorry Lisa!), a beautiful little town - so cute !



We finally approached Vermont



And found our B&B...







We headed out to find some dinner around 5:45 p.m. only to find that the entire town shuts down at 5. Gas Station, closed. All shops, closed. The town is adorable though, very fun to look at...until you start wandering downtown and see these everywhere.









No, they are not real people, they are creepy realistic statues. Check out the detail:





Yeah - we didn't' get it either, but they are everywhere - dozens of them! After gawking at the statues (and taking sooo many pictures) we found a restaurant that was open - the place that I had my first taste of Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette - my new love - at. Oh, and yummy raspberry beer.





After getting back to the B&B we headed to the bar. The best part? Serve yourself Just jot what you make down and you'll be billed accordingly. We loved it!





(I am going to keep going, and end at a weird spot of the next day - just to split the pictures evenly!)

The next morning we headed down for our breakfast and oh, the food! The food was amazing...from the homemade scones to the amazing pecan pancakes and omlettes...oh, I am so hungry just thinking about it!



Bennington has all sorts of covered bridges, which I fell in love with. They are so cute and give this feeling to the town. I made Mike take me to them in the day and at night. Looove!







To be Continued...

Honeymoon Part 2: It's always raining at Niagara Falls

Our full day at Niagara Falls was going to be a busy one! We woke up to see the falls full of mist, and couldn't wait to get started!





We headed down to purchase an Adventure pass, allowing us to do everything! We started with a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat. It takes you right into the falls and was incredible. The wind, water and mist really help you understand how powerful the falls are, and as you drive out you can see the horseshoe falls in all their glory. If you go, do this.











We then headed to the Journey Behind the Falls - which was pretty neat, you can really see the power that water has as it tumbles over the falls. It was so loud and windy here, we didn't stay long.





We headed back up to the walking paths and got a few more pictures before hopping on the bus to go to the Butterfly Conservatory.







The butterflies were neat, but nothing too spectacular, we stayed about 10 minutes and caught the next bus home.



And by home I mean to the Whitewater Walk - a trip down hundreds of feet to walk along the river and see the biggest white water rapids. They were HUGE and scary looking, but it was sure pretty down in the gorge. This is about the point we filled memory card #1 - so we had to go back to the hotel room, and take a nap.



But our nap was interuppted twice by a fire alarm, which made us run down 28 flights of stairs, twice. Annoying!



We finally decided to get ready and go to dinner at a falls view restaurant. On our way out we saw another rainbow, you see, due to the mist it's always raining in Niagara Falls (or at least it feels like it) and the most incredible rainbows form through the mist. They are gorgeous!





Dinner was pretty good, and the view was nice:





And for dessert we took our honeymoon mascot Max to...



The Hershey's Store!!!!



After yummy treats we tried to catch sunset at the falls, but there wasn't a gorgeous one - we did get a few fun shots:





The next morning we packed up, took a few last shots and headed back to the states, and Vermont!





Bye Canada, we'll miss you!

Honeymoon Part 1: A Long Drive and The Great Falls

The Sunday after the wedding, Mike and I loaded up the car and began our honeymoon. The first day consisted of a 10 hour drive through 5 states, ending in Lansing, Michigan for the night. Lansing was not what we expected. I guess we expected the capital city to look great and be this crazy fun town, like other capitals we had been to - but man this town was a dump! Good thing it wasn't our final destination, and one good thing comes from Lansing:

Coffee Jam Coffee, Yummy!


We began day two and the drive was amazing, the entire time - how can you complain about views like this?


We finally reached the destination I was most excited about - Canada.





Where I converted all of our money to Canadian dollars:


and where we discovered Tim Hortons:



(seriously who can complain when the lunch combo is a sandwich and a donut? Yum!)


(Side story about Tim Hortons: When you're on a road trip, car appropriate snacks are a must. When we saw how inexpensive (and tasted how delicious) the donut holes at Tim Horton's were, we decided to buy a big box of them. They were called Timbits - the conversation at the register went like this:

Me: "Are those Timbits?" I asked (pointing at the "Timbits")
Lady Working: "Yeah, what do you call them?"

This conversation led us to believe that canadians (or at least some of them) called Donut Holes, Timbits. This also left us feeling quite stupid a few days later when we realized how wrong we were.)

After a few more hours and hours in the car, we finally made it to Niagara Falls, checked into our hotel and got our first glimpse of this:



The view from our hotel room was amazing, as you can see. This view helped met get one of my favorite shots of the entire honeymoon:



The first night at the falls consisted of dinner at a delicious place called Frados. Not only did this place have a wonderful homemade taste to their food, but the view was great - a "draw bridge" with ships passing by quite frequently (twice during dinner).



After dinner we headed to Niagara on the Lake (NOTL) "The Prettiest Town in Canada." On the way we stumbled across an open winery, so we popped in for some samples - yum. We came out 20 minutes later with three bottles of wine - including one of Ice Wine.



We spent some time wandering NOTL and enjoyed a delicious Cows Ice Cream cone, the cones were made fresh and still warm when served. Yum! The town was very pretty, with lots of great shops and we left with another bottle of wine (that's 4 for those of you who are keeping track).



When we made it back to the falls, they had lit them for night. (The falls are illuminated on the Canadian side by 21 spot lights. 18 on the hill and 3 at the base). So we walked down to see it first hand. It was tricky to photograph, because of the distance and lighting - but I got a few to turn out. It was stunning. I especially loved them in all white.





We ended our first day at the falls by climbing into our in room hot tub with a glass of our newly purchased wine. Yum!

Next time: A day as a tourist at Niagara Falls.