Niagara, ON

July 20, 2010 11:49 pm

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This morning, we went back into downtown Dunville and had breakfast at the Flyer Cafe.

Bev and Marc, if you’re reading this, did you stop at the Flyer Cafe in the morning? If not, you missed out on the pies!

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Homemade pie selection.

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The cafe looked like a converted drugstore. Note the lower left drawer.

We had an easy ride to Port Colborne. The first restaurant we saw there was the Surfside, and it was our lunch stop.

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This was in the corner of the restaurant. It's what the Riverside Motel needed.

The owner was Debbie, and Cheryl (Cheryl-Lynn) was working there, too. They seemed familiar with each other, so I asked if they were mother and daughter. No, but Cheryl is a potential future daughter-in-law. I asked Debbie whether bikes were allowed on highway 3, and she said she didn’t know. She said that the bike path was paved, but she didn’t know how to get to it.

By coincidence, when I was at Kaimuki Intermediate School, the two cutest girls there were a couple of sisters – Cheryl and Debbie H. Eric O., do you remember? So I was compelled to take Cheryl and Debbie’s picture.

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Cheryl and Debbie

We couldn’t find the bike path listed on the adventure cycling map, so ended up taking highway 3 straight into Fort Erie. It was a straight shot, and bikes were fine on the road. At Ft. Erie, after a bit of searching, we turned left onto Niagara Blvd, which eventually became the Niagara Parkway. There was a bike path to the left of the street. It was paved, but I found it bumpier than the road, and there were joggers and slow bikes on the path. Traffic was very light – perhaps because of the speed limit of 40 to 60 km/h on many parts of this road.

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Niagara Parkway, with bike path to the left.

At the falls, someone was filming a movie or something. There were production trucks lined up on the street, and the best viewing area was cordoned off. We still got some pictures in. Elliot took videos with his flip.

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This is one of the Maid of the Mist boats below. We want to try to take that tomorrow.

There were tall skyscraper motels near the Falls, but the Adventure Cycling map said there were other places up the road further. We continued on River Road, and after passing dozens of B&B’s (no vacancies), came to some motels. The first we saw was the Riverview Motel (not to be confused with the Riverview in Dunville).

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The ground is wet from a brief rain. It dried within minutes.

I had already prepared myself for outrageous rates. If the motel at Long Point was $139 for a 1-bed room, then the Honeymoon Capital of the World would surely be high. We pulled in and met Milica (mi-LEET-za) and her daughter Mira, Serbs from the former Yugoslavia. Mira was a school teacher, I think middle school. The next day we met Ray, the father. They had another daughter who was an RN in Toronto.

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Milica, Mira, and Ray

They gave us a map, and recommended places in town for food and sightseeing. We could walk to Queen street around the corner for dinner – they mentioned a Bistro, Grill and a Pizza place. Dad’s (Simon’s) was where the locals went for breakfast.

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Shoes were kept stored on a rack in the office. A very good sign for someone from Hawaii

The room was excellent! No smoke smell, and no flies. Wi-Fi. And it had towels, lots of towels (remember, this is the Honeymoon Capital). Did I mention it was only $65 for a 2-bed? They had a 1-bed at $55, but the price was so reasonable, we took the larger room. Cyclists take note! This is the place.

We walked down Queen street for dinner. The Bistro was closing up as we passed. In fact, all the stores were closed except some restaurants. A couple blocks down, we came to an intersection. Sports bar on the right, Pizza place on the left. The sports bar looked noisy. We went to the pizzeria. I’m glad we did.

Elliot had a panzarotti, which was a good size pepperoni pizza folded over into a pocket, for less than $5. I had a large Greek salad, which actually had fancy greens in it. It was what my body needed. We also got a couple pieces of bruschetta.

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That's Amore Pizzeria

At the bar, a man asked us about our trip. When we said we were from California, he said he used to live in South Central (Los Angeles). Omar Hernandez was originally from Guatemala. He and his family had to pay a coyote to sneak them across the border. Running through sewers, avoiding helicopters, the whole crazy thing. He got caught the first time, but succeeded the next. He was there during the LA riots (note his T-shirt). Now a Canadian citizen, he works in recycling and amusement.

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Omar and our super-friendly server, Jill. No, they're not together. I don't think. They do kind of look alike...

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Jill took this picture of our big meal.

Mileage for the day: 62.3

3 Comments

  1. Merrianne says:

    Great picture of you two at the pizzeria. Good to see Elliot smiling. We arrived home tonight from Hawaii. We hiked Lanipo trail all the way the end and back. The trail was very muddy in some parts as we got closer to the top. Everyone slipped at least once. I got mud up to my knees. Unfortunately it was cloudy at the top so we did not see the other side of the island. Kendra and I will be driving down to Los Angeles on Friday to pick up mom.

    Lots of love

    • roderick says:

      Hi, Sweetheart!

      I miss you. With every interesting place lately, I keep thinking how much you would enjoy it.

      Congratulations on doing Lanipo. Did Kendra go, too, or just Mona?

      Love,
      Roderick.

      • Merrianne says:

        There were five of us who went on the hike, Kendra really wanted to do this hike, I think she wanted to show her friend Alice how challenging it was. So, me, Mona, Kendra, Alice and John, Mona’s brother-in-law, started at 7:40am and finished at 4pm. I was the slow one. Mainly because the jeans I was wearing were too constricting.