Oh, Canada!

So I flew to Buffalo today to attend the NCBFAA board of directors meeting tomorrow at the Holiday Inn Grand Island. If you have the chance to come to this particular hotel, take a pass. The place is old, crowded, staffed with well-intentioned college kids probably home for the summer and just not my cup of tea. We're probably here because we haven't had the opportunity to be close to the folks on the Northern Border who represent a significant amount of the national association's membership. They're great people and given the way that CBP has implemented changes and new rules since September 11th, it's no surprise they're having problems. I'll post more about this later, but our new border security rules have really changed the way people on both sides of the river interact.

But the meeting is tomorrow. Today, I had the opportunity to spend the day with Mike Carroll of Canusa Logistics. Our company has been working with Mike for probably more than twenty years and he showed me the hospitality that is the Canadian side of the border.

Upon entering Canada, he took me for a quick bite at Tim Horton's, a fixture here on this side of things. Lunch was in downtown Ft. Erie where we drove around and he showed me the houses of two members of the 1963 Chicago Blackhawks (they won Lord Stanley's Cup that year). We took some time to shop (Makenna's going to have a few new outfits!) before taking a drive up for our boat tour. The ride took us down a scenic boulevard that passed winery after winery, including one that we know down south called Iniskillin. They make a terrific ice wine.

We took a ride on a Whirlpool Jet Boat tour that took us up the Niagara River.

We went past the power stations which generate hydroelectric power from the river which in places towards the "top" of where we could reach were as deep as 200 feet. You couldn't tell it from where we were, but there was a point at which we passed under a cable with buoys that indicates that if you get in trouble upriver from those points, you're on your own because the Coast Guard won't risk their lives to go get you. The jet boats can do it because they're flat bottomed and not propeller powered. They're impeller powered; they take in water at the front and shoot it out the back. They're powered by 3 x 500 hp Volvo motors and the boat can top out at 60 miles per hour.

The views from the rapids were just amazing.

After enjoying about an hour's worth of a ride, we rode up the Boulevard into downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake on the Canadian side. We had a drink and an appetizer at a street side cafe. Looking down the street into downtown, the view was gorgeous.


We then finished up with a drink at The Olde Angel Inn, which is supposedly haunted. Great place, ton of character, packed for the Friday Night Fish Fry and folks out looking for a beverage.

All in all, it was a great day, but I'm looking forward to getting back home to my ladies because tomorrow is KELLY'S BIRTHDAY!!! I'll be home in the evening, sweetie. Love you and good night, I'm heading to bed because I've got to run ten or twelve miles tomorrow morning.

Got a marathon in October that needs preparation.