Niagara Falls or Bust… or When Life Serves You Lemons – Make Lemonade

Back in early January, I received a brochure from the local bus company with their 2011 tours. The last weekend in May caught my eye. It was exactly the trip my girlfriend from Kingston and I had planned on doing for years. Niagara Falls and tour some wineries. I tore that page out the brochure, scanned it and e-mailed it to her. It was agreed, we would go.

A couple of days later, I booked our vacation and we began planning what we would do in our free time. Until the trip hit my credit card and even from then until the invoice arrived, the whole thing seemed totally surreal.

Then on May 5th, the unthinkable happened! The trip was cancelled. Only twelve people (including the two of us) had signed up.

What can I say, we were handed lemons. But, what do you when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade. A couple of quick text messages back and forth and we decided we would still do it but on our own.

So by May 6th, I had a room booked for the two nights at the same hotel my husband and I used the year my friend from Wales came over and we were tentatively booked on Grape and Wine Tours Best Kept Secret Dinner Tour (wine tour with tastings and 3 course gourmet meal at an undisclosed restaurant) on the Saturday. They come and pick us up at our hotel and bring us back afterwards. I confirmed our booking by phone the following weekend.

While in Niagara, we’re going to do something that one of us has never done before. We’re doing the Journey Behind the Falls which I’ve done but not my girlfriend and the plan is for the Saturday morning before we head off on our wine tour, we’re going to go for a ride on The Maid of the Mist which she’s done but I haven’t.

Weather permitting, on our way home we’re going to stop in St Catharines at Lock 3 of the Welland Canal. With any luck we’ll see a ship going through.

All in all, it promises to be a wonderful weekend. I think I made us a fine jug of lemonade.

And before anyone gets any ideas about our houses being empty during our absence… forget it. Our husbands are staying home and we each have a large dog.