Falling for Niagara

 My vacation in pictures: A picture says a thousand words, so I'll post some instead of writing.

Also, most of my writing is related to the picture(s) above it. Keep this in mind, or you may become very confused.

 

Here I am the first day we got to New York. The place we were staying at had lots of cats.  

Here I am in Skaneateles, dipping my feet in the freezing water of Skaneateles Lake. There were lots of ducks. 

And now here, I'll give you what you want: NIAGARA!

This is the view from the observation deck. It was pretty dang foggy. But amazing. Oh, and I also have this fear of heights, so I was pretty nervous. I can't climb ladders, but under 20 feet is okay. I can sit easily on the lower parts of my roof. But higher than that... I'M FREAKIN' OUT, MAN! 

Here? Here, I was hyperventilating. My mom just told me to smile for the camera and not look too petrified. 

Here are some more pictures of the falls. The white and brown stuff is snow mixed with dirt and shaped with wind/water.

 

It looks a bit like ice cream, doesn't it?

These are from when we went down into the gorge next to the river. The one on the right is the Bridal Falls, a smaller waterfall next to the American Falls, which is on the left. What you see in those pictures is actually only a small bit of the American Falls, the whole thing would be the view from the observation deck. There were also a lot of seagulls around in the gorge. Apparently it was breeding season, and there aren't a lot of predators, so seagulls just mate it up. I saw two that were either fighting or kissing, but I didn't get a picture. They were flapping their wings and clacking their beaks together. It was pretty danged cool.

But really, these don't really show how many seagulls their were there were, like, thousands. Seriously.

 

These are all pictures from the Three Sisters Islands, which go right through Niagara River. They were pretty cool, and small too. All three only took about 25 minutes to walk down and back. Here are more pics:

Thanks for bearing with me through my trip to Niagara.

Spring break is over tomorrow. I go back to school. *SIGH* How depressing.

You guys need your funny picture for the week. Now this is a real life fail, I seen it with my own eyes. The picture taken with my moms camera. Right at my own church. Here you go:

 

Fail. 

Hilarious.

Breaking the Spring

Any of you wondering about the title, it's my spring break and I'm making it really memorable by partying with the cast of Jersey Shore. That's right I'm in New York :). But really, I'm having a great time with my best galfriend Snooki and my main man, the Situation. Seriously. We're going swimming (yes, in April) and throwing wild parties. It would be really fun if those pesky Lifetime people would get out of my face and stop asking for the rights to make a movie about my life. I mean, I said no! Gosh! Apda*! The red plague rid you! A southwest blow on ye and blister ye o'er**! As you can see, I'm also reading the entire works of Shakespeare. Oh yeah, I am bowling a 300 and my batting average is .488.

Okay maybe I exaggerated a little. Maybe, instead of Snooki and the Situation, I hung with my parents. Maybe, instead of Long Island, we're in Upstate New York at a cute little bed and breakfast. Maybe, instead of wild parties, we just watch Young Frankenstein. *sob!* I can't hold it in anymore! It was lies! All lies! The entire first paragraph! Except for the spring break and NY part and maybe the Shakespeare part but just maybe. I just can't lie to you guys. (Except about Shakespeare... or can I?) Lifetime should still make a movie out of my life, but they never return my calls.

So yep, I'm on spring break. FINALLY! Sure took long enough. Well, actually, this year went by really fast ("Seventh grade? What seventh grade? Oh yeah, that. You know, I don't really remember. It was all really a blur..."). I mean, I can't even remember my elementary school gym teacher's name. The guy I had for 6 years. Do any of you remember all of your teacher's names? Wait, what was I talking about? Right. Spring break. FINALLY! Did I already do that?

So we came to Upstate New York. Not bad. Mostly farmland. We're in a really nice bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere run by a nice lady and her husband and their several cats and one dog named Gigi. It seems like the kind of setting that a mystery novel would take place. Maybe people will start disappearing... if we weren't the only current visitors. All it needs is a grandson or nephew of the family who is visiting and becomes the romance for the main character... what? Not me! This is a totally different person with totally different romances! *looks around and laughs nervously* Besides, I wouldn't want to make Joshie jealous. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, read this).

Not many people want to come North in April. You can still see snow in some places. So we arrived on Monday and got acquainted and had dinner. Tuesday, we toured the towns near our little farmhouse. We went to a bunch of churches (ugh, why come on vacation and go to CHURCH?), one of which I left my purse in and I had to frantically run back too it and I asked the secretary lady for the key and the priest was all like 'I'm going there anywhere anyway, she can come with me!' but then he started chatting up a storm and I was like huuurry uuuupp, my family's waiting in the car but I didn't actually say that because he was doing me a favor and I couldn't be rude but he took soooo long and finally I got my purse back. *GASP* Remember to breath, Grace. After lunch, we went to the next town and hung out by a lake for a really long time because it was sunny and nice. It had a really long dock. It also had a park surrounding it, which is where me and my family sat and drank hot chocolate and watched duckies. I took off my shoes and dipped my feet in the water, which was cold enough too freeze the boogers of a yeti. My parents said it was the official water supply of the town, Skaneateles. Drink my feet water, Skaneateles. Heh heh. But it's probably okay because people swim there in the summer. Then we went shopping and had dinner at a fish place. After dinner I went exploring around our b&b and I slipped because the ground was muddy, and also because the ground was muddy I got muddily covered in muddy mud. Mud! Yeah.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the highlight of the trip! We took a day trip to *does drumroll with feet* Niagara Falls! It was soooo fun that I decided to write a separate post on it. Tomorrow, when my mom uploads the pictures from her camera onto her computer so you can see them. It's so amazing there, It would be impossible to describe it without pictures. Heck, it would be impossible to describe it period! You have to see the place! So you'll just have to wait. But it was really fun.

Tomorrow comes a trip to Harriet Tubman's house and the National Women's Museum. Then a five hour drive back to New Jersey in time for Holy Week and Easter. Yay. I guess I should be grateful. This is my first spring break in FOUR YEARS where we could actually go somewhere because spring break is always Holy Week. Last time we went somewhere, we went to Williamsburg VA and I was in third grade, 8 years old. We can't go anywhere for Holy Week because my mom is the choir director/organist for our church and the choir (including me) needs to be trained for Easter and the organ music picked. So yep. Grateful.

Enjoy all of your spring breaks. I'll try to blog more. But currently, it's 11:20 here in New York (I'm not sure about New Jersey) and I want sleep.

Oh, and for the record, I have never watched more than 5 minutes of Jersey Shore.

And for the sake of randomness: Never underestimate the power of a barrel, a mattress, and a kitty.

Happy spring breaking!!

*"Apda" copyright of my friend Diane.
**"The red plague rid you! A southwest blow on ye and blister ye o'er!" copyright of "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare.

My Teeth Feel Clean

I went to the dentist yesterday. I walked from school. They're pretty close to each other. Does anyone actually enjoy going to the dentist? On a {kind of} related note, Here is a list of things no one actually likes doing. (If you meet someone who actually likes doing one of these, they are either really tolerant or really strange. No offense if you are one of these people.)

 

1. The Dentist (duh)
2. Writing thank-you cards- Seriously, where does this come from? No one actually likes doing it, but they do anyway. When you get one, it's like oh, that's nice then you throw it out of stuff it in a drawer or put it in your room where it eventually gets buried. You don't actually care. Besides, if we all were truly totally polite, we'd be writing thank-you cards for the thank-you cards we get, and then that person would write a thank-you card for that, and it would go on and on! It's a vicious cycle, people! Soon people would have to quit their jobs to write thank-you cards all the time! Is this really what you want?!?!!!? How polite is too polite? Does it make someone a worse person if they don't send thank-you cards? (Answer this carefully- I haven't sent a thank-you card in 8 years.)
3. Sitting in the front row of the movie theater- Oh, sure, it seems fun, but you have to crane your neck the whole time!! (TEN THOUSAND YEARS GIVES YOU SUCH A CRICK IN THE NECK!! Great movie.) Once my mom and I went to the movie theater to see the Spice Girls. We sat in the front row and it felt like we were looking up their skirts! Believe me, the front row of the movie theater is not all it's cracked up to be.
4. Health Class- Gross. Especially the CPR unit and the "talk." At least in fifth grade they sent the boys out of the room when we watched our video, and vice versa. Now we just watch them all together. *shudders* Like I really need to know what jock itch is. And the mannequins they give us for CPR are gross. They're like 15 years old and some of them don't have shirts. They're all girls. And did you know that if you do CPR on someone, you're supposed to take off their shirt (if it's too thick) and their bra (if they have one). It's creepy. 
5. Punishments- You know how teachers say stuff like "We don't like giving out just like you don't like getting them" and all that jerky? Well if you don't like it so much, why do you do it? 
6. Doing Sprints- Last year, at the end of the year, the gym teachers were running out of stuff for us to do. So they chose this game where, basically, they put us in teams on a baseball field, one team on each base, with a hula hoop and an equal number of balls for each team. You let people go one, two, a few, (whatever the gym teacher decides) at a time. They run to other teams hoops and steal a ball. They can not be blocked. Then they bring it back and wait for their turn all over again. Team with the most balls in their hoop at the end wins. Basic sprinting. Sprints are even worse than long runs because you can pace yourself. With sprints, you need endurance AND short bursts of energy. It's like you use up your energy and then come back for more. There's one major problem not taken into account in this game, though (besides all the running): ganging up. If a few teams gang up on one, that team is history! They never stood a chance! All that running for nothing! Surprisingly, the team everyone ganged up on always seemed to be MY team. Hmmmmm...
7. Going to class after gym- You're sweating. You stink. Your jeans are feeling unbearably hot. You're leaving embarrassing pit marks on your shirt. You're face is all red. People sniff, scrunch up their noses. "Ew, what's that smell?" This makes your face turn redder (!!!!AINAMANIA!!!!). Now you have to learn stuff, too?
8. Doing Bad Things to stuff that you don't own- Accidentally downloading a virus onto your mom's computer. Losing your best friend's favorite pen that she only lent to you because you promised not to lose it. Dropping your friend's phone in snow. The guilt is overwhelming.Guilt is the worst emotion. It's awful. That's why they call it feeling "bad". They don't call angry or sad feeling bad, they call it angry or sad. They call guilt feeling bad because it's the worst. Guilt is like a mixture of anger and sadness, but it's worse because you're angry at yourself. "Life is bad when there's no one to blame. 
9. Having Some One be mad at you and not knowing what you did- How can you fix a problem when you don't know what it is? It's impossible, and it just adds insult to injury, feeling guilty and ignorant. Last year some one told my best friend that I said she was anorexic. My friend was really mad, as she should have been, but I hadn't done anything. We still don't know who said that.
10. Being With Some One who's crying- You feel bad, you want to help, but you don't know what's wrong. They don't want to talk, but what do you do? Just leave them alone, crying?

That is the end of my list of things nobody likes. Yay.

On a lighter note, here's the funny picture I missed last Sunday:

That is a real type of fish. Good posting and good night!