We split the drive into two parts, ate at Chubby’s barbeque in MD for lunch and a high end Mexican restaurant at the Carousel Mall in Syracuse. Once at the Syracuse Aloft, they had live music where they sang “Let it Go” for the kids. It was pretty cool.
Here are our “let’s look cute” pictures at the Mexican restaurant and some pictures at the hotel and mall. We did have to drive through rain, sleet, and snow.
The view from our hotel room, a pretty drive, the bridge before the border crossing at Thousand Islands, and the bridge after as well as a random farm, and Canada.
The last time we came up to Ottawa in 2014 and yesterday in 2017. Different order but you can tell who is who.
Curie!
Lili!
Livi!
Emi!
Cousins! all the group pictures from Sunday (Saturday we had Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, which has moved, been remodeled and is all-you-can-eat! Delicious!) Eric and Taylor treated us to ribs, they were delicious!
For breakfast we went to the concierge lounge, got some food and had a picnic in our room. we then lounged around all morning while Erin was at her conference. After we went looking for Kinder eggs, but came up empty near by, so we took some pictures of the government buildings, and went to a cafe for lunch.
Swimming at the hotel with the cousins! Bathing beauties with floaties.
We then saw Beauty and the Beast with the cousins who had not seen it yet. After the movie we met up with Eric for dinner at Boston Pizza.
Contrary to popular belief, we were not out here for vacation, Erin’s conference was held out here and the benefit was to see Taylor, Eric, and the cousins. One event that the kids and Albert did go to was a the Museum of Nature. Their event got great press, and we benefited from having the mock-up boat to play with. Bear in mind there was this water exhibit where you pumped water and it made a flushing sound that the kids did during the speeches. I hope they recorded it, it would be an epic sound.
So one of Erin’s colleagues caught us spinning the kids alone in the lobby area like we were dancing and commented that on Facebook we look idlyic (my word not his) and then he comes down to catch us being the Sound of Music. Yeah, we just don’t post tantrums and whining along with the good pictures, but it was pretty funny nonetheless.
Most of the days, Albert and the kids holed up in the hotel room and played “cabin fever” except to go out to buy Kinder eggs (during Easter no less) and Erin’s can-only-find-in Canada hair gel (okay, it used to be made in the US, but was discontinued).
But it wasn’t all the mooching off the concierge lounge for breakfast and dinner with picnics in the room; we did make it out on occasion for real food. Shanghai Noodles and dumplings in our kind of “Boston Chinatown Eatery” kind of shop, Little Sheep Hot Pot remodeled and all-you-can-eat a second time before leaving, some generic ramen and sushi and of course the Kinder eggs and chocolate bunnies.
We are in Syracuse again as of this posting, but we drove over by Thousand Islands (ketchup, relish and mayo, right?) and saw some amazing houses on the water, literally on the water. Very cool. One more day on the road and we will be home.
The last day was a long drive and though we had a lot of detours, the kids were great.
Our last meal was in Emmitsville, MD, a place called Rube’s Sea Food (though I think it is pronounced “Ruby’s” – if not, then it is pretty funny). Rivals Tim’s Rivershore for food, we must say. The shrimp in the middle is how Elia ate hers, Curie ate most of the steemed shrimp in the lower left.