The World is a Book, and Life is a Highway

I’m not sure I’ve always loved to travel, but I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t. These last few weeks have afforded many opportunities to travel the highways and byways of the good ol’ US of A.

For years, I have wanted to visit Niagara Falls. Fortunately, my sister was game for a girl roadtrip this summer. Since we were already headed out to Bloomington, IL for a friend’s wedding, we decided to continue from there to visit one of North America’s most famous natural landmarks. After hours on the road and a stop in Ohio to spend the night, we arrived in Ontario, Canada around 8:30 pm Sunday evening...just in time for the fireworks over the Falls. It was awesome listening to the double echos of the explosions throughout the canyon. To conclude our first day in our neighbor country, we tried out a Canadian favorite: Boston Pizza. Ironic that a Canadian specialty restaurant is named after an American city, eh?

Oh, Canada. Yes, we cleared the border.
But no stamp in the passport.
Sadness.

Spending a lot of time in the car makes one special.

Yeah, that's right. Like a boss. Those milkshakes were so thick.
Pretty sure it took twice as long to "drink" as it should have.
Probably deserve a gold medal or something.
Yeah, gold sounds about right.

Beautiful night view of the American and Bridal Veil Falls from the Canadian side.
Just before the resounding fireworks.

Boston Pizza. The Clifton Hills area was so lit-up and brilliant at night.

We were only in Canada for a short time, but during the next day and a half, we explored much of what Niagara had to offer. First off, we boarded the Maid of the Mist for an up-close and personal view of the Falls. At times, the mist was literally raining down on us, and despite our ponchos, we debarked soaked. So fun!

On the Maid of the Mist. Before pic.

After pic. Soaked. Haha! So great.

Our next adventure was Journey Behind the Falls, where we passed behind Horseshoe Falls and viewed the cascading water. It was incredibly loud, and we could feel the vibrations like a bass amplifier.

Horseshoe Falls. Canada. The view from in front of the falls.

The view from on top of the falls.
Or, more appropriately, before the falls.

Tourist pic. Sisters behind the falls. Or is the falls behind us? Hmm.

To wrap up our afternoon, we trekked over to Hard Rock Café for amazing burgers, followed by fudge sampling at the Hershey Store and souvenir shopping among the stores in the Tourist District. 

Monster burger at Hard Rock Cafe in Niagara Falls.

Yes, that sign does say Tourist Area.
Just in case you couldn't tell otherwise ;)

After all our fun, we decided to call it an “early” night and head back to watch the Olympics (both NBC and Canadian stations) in our hotel. Tuesday morning we headed out, crossed Rainbow Bridge and were officially admitted back to our Mother Country. Seventeen hours-an Olive Garden stop-tour of Columbus capitol-and finishing The Hobbit on audio-later, we were home sweet home. Such a fun sister trip!

Our ghetto television. At least we still received NBC. Yay!

Capitol. Columbus, Ohio. Beautiful area of the city.

Just a week later, I was back on the road again. This time to Louisville, KY for my college friends’ wedding. Sam and Allison made the perfect bride and groom, and the weekend was super fun. After meeting up with some friends from school and hanging out at the mall, we caught some pool time at the hotel and made a late-night Taco Bell run. The girls had a great time with the bride and her family/friends later in the evening before we headed to dreamland. Saturday rolled around, and Allison couldn’t have been more stunning. Everyone had an excellent day. The wedding party was beautiful, the couple playful and sweet, and the reception fun. I mean, how can root beer floats and blowing bubbles not be fun, right? Sunday afternoon we headed back to Springfield once again. But not to stay for long.

The future (and now current) Mrs. Allison Blevins and myself.
What a beautiful bride!

After one day of work, I was on my way up to Kansas City to catch a flight to Philadelphia for a PA (physician assistant) school interview. One of my friends has family in the area, so I stayed with them for the evening. Early the next morning I arrived on the Arcadia campus. After a brief and then detailed overview of the program, followed by a tour and a financial aid session, we had our one-on-one interviews. It seemed like everyone was nervous. However, I wasn’t. For me, I was concentrating not on getting in, but on discerning if this was the school I where I wanted to be. The associate program director performed my interview, and although it was lengthy, she didn’t ask many questions. In fact, I only had 3-4 questions in total and they were all personal, not technical, in nature. Once the interviews were conducted, the 18 student-hopefuls went to lunch before the day’s events were concluded. I caught a ride back to the airport with another hopeful, and after a layover in Atlanta, was back in Kansas City and central standard time. After a brief visit to Jefferson City the next day, I headed back to my home base once more.

I heard once that “the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page (St. Augustine).”

If that’s the case, I certainly have completed at least a chapter in the last month :)