Our Crazy Trip to Canada!

We attended a wedding in Toronto Ontario this past memorial weekend and this is how it went....

First off because of our temporary move to GR this summer I unfortunately had just brought all our important docs to Amy's. This included the kids Birth certificates :( Well we called the border in the UP and they said as long as both mick and I were with and had our birth certificates it wouldn't be a problem (later we found out different) Then the morning we are leaving mick decides to tell me he also left his BC in Grand Rapids (my good ol mickey always prepared!) We headed out in hopes of Amy being able to fax it when we got to Port Huron (border town to Canada) While there and on the phone with Amy I received a fax at the local Kroger that was blank. Amy "oops, Ill resend it, I placed it upside down." Amy again "ahhh sh*$ aaahhh the fax is eating his birth certificate aaahhhh!!!" Me "sure amy nice joke hahah is it working did you send it yet?" Amy "no seriously I cant even see it anymore!" After the news that the birth certificate is in shreds we decided to press our luck and continue on as we were already vested into this trip, new clothes, gas to Port Huron, reservations at a bed and breakfast, wedding gift etc. At customs we were directed to the Canadian immigrations office for lack of documentation were they did a background check and told Mickey he is not able to enter the country unless paying 200.00 (Reasons not to be publicly displayed, don't worry he's not a felon LOL!) They gave him is "papers" and we now have 2.5 days to get in and get out! So now we are down a birth certificate a couple hundred bucks and about 2 hours of time. The wedding starts at 4:30 we got to our Bed and Breakfast at ten minutes to 4! Got everybody ready and headed out. We arrived at the wedding 10 minutes late. However it was a Jewish wedding and they like to drink a bit first so really we weren't late at all (this may be a first for us!!) To my surprise we got there and had to be separated, woman upstairs men down stairs. "WHAT!? I don't event know anybody!" OK i did know 2 other girls there and thank god I found them right a way!!! Did I mention were were the only ones with kids ! Oh and Mick also forgot all of his suits in Grand Rapids so he was the only Man with out one! (my good ol Mick always prepared) Needless to say we STUCK OUT! The kids were great and didn't misbehave once. After the culture shock of a Jewish wedding (did you know that the men dance with the men and the woman with the woman all night long?) It was a nice time and back to the B&B at about 1130pm. We saw a cop across the street and asked if we could park on the street over night. He replied, "Yes but only until 8am" No problem we would be up and heading to Niagara falls by then anyway. 815 out the door it was a quick stay at the B&B owned and operated by Micheal and his "partner" Micheal cooked Mickey some mini hard boil eggs and told him "their cute, and fun!!!" in that oh so not strait voice. hahahah
Can you believe we had a parking ticket!!!! AAUGH! Stupid Canadian cop! Yeah we could park there over night if we had a PERMIT!!! AAAAgh! Another unexpected expense. We made it to Niagara falls by 12 or so and had a lot of fun seeing the falls. Kyan was very impressed (he has always had a love for water fountains and this was the mother load!) We took a boat tour down at the bottom of the falls with with kids. It was like being in a hurricane and we had to wear ponchos. Pie had a baby one that was adorable. (I will post pics later...mick has them in GR and I am still in Ypsi) We then ate dinner in the space needle tower in a revolving dining room over looking the falls, it was a great view but we got ripped off on the food. We were told kids 3 and under were free. Not a bad deal we thought. Soon to find out it was only the ride to the top NOT the 13.00 a piece grilled cheese sandwiches (ripped off eerrr!) we dropped 100 bucks on a meal that was not worth that much!!!. Well we had to head out quick because we had a 4 hour ride ahead of us and I needed to work at 7pm. Oops not enough time so I suggested an alternative route of Canadian highway 3 instead of backtracking to the freeway. Oops again. I think the max speed was between 60kl/hr and 80kl/hr. Ill let you do the math. Lets just say Jen didn't make it to work that night :( we didn't make in home until 10pm Surprisingly We were allowed back into the US without any trouble even with our lack of ID! Canada is expensive! Especially because our dollar sucks these days the exchange rate was something like .93 on the dollar and things in Canada are not cheap! At McDonald's our value meals cost almost $9.00 Canadian! So lets just say we dropped over a grand in 24 hours. I will officially call this trip National Lampoon/Larsons trip to Canada.