Making It Home

This past weekend, Dave and I traveled up to Niagara Falls for the marathon.  We left on Thursday night and spent the night in Ithaca so we could hang out with Jenna all day Friday.  It was a fun time roaming around Ithaca with Jenna.  It was a very windy day, but no rain (or snow!).  I went to a class with her, where I did some of her homework and laughed at the professor with her and Marc.  We then walked around Buttermilk Falls, drove around looking at the river, and stopped at a hard cider brewery place where we tasted some ciders and played with some weird cats.  It was nice to just drive around and be with Jenna!

After dinner, we left for Niagara.  It was another three hours to get there, and I probably slept for about half the trip (which is nothing new for me!).  Once we got there, we checked in and decided to take a walk to see the falls.  We stayed at the Crown Plaza, which is walking distance from the falls on the Canadian side.  We even had a view from our room!

We then walked about a mile to the horseshoe part of the Canadian falls.  We walked around there, taking pictures and talking.  We then moved to one more remote section where there were no other tourists and started talking about the house.  It was at this time, Dave got down on one knee and proposed!  Of course, I said yes!  We were both so happy!  It was a great moment!  And the ring is so beautiful.

The next day, we toured some of Niagara and went to the marathon expo so Dave could check in.  We did not do too much so Dave would be well-rested for the 26 mile run.  We did do some carbo-loading.  Especially me, who needed the energy to be a spectator!  Look at my plate compared to Dave’s.  I got confused about who was actually running!

(don’t worry, Dave went back for more helpings)

The next day was the marathon – Dave was out bright and early to be bussed to Buffalo for the start.  I hung around, explored theknot.com (ah!), and went to watch him around 11.  By 1:50, he made it to the finish line.  It was a rough run, and although he did not hit his time goal, he still did great and looked so cute coming down that road.  🙂

The rest of the day, we walked around, had lunch, and went on the Maid of the Mist.  After a late dinner, we took the Sky Wheel, the same ferris wheel we went on in Sweden!

The last day we were in Niagara, we took pictures at our proposal spot.  🙂

We also went to Niagara-on-the-lake, a small and cute town up near Lake Ontario.  I tried to get fancy with my photography.

We finished the day by getting the best dinner of the weekend at an Italian place within walking distance of the hotel.  We also spent that time starting up a wedding guest list.  Who knew that should probably be the first things you do so you know the size of the wedding!  It’s hard coming up with a list we realized – our wedding might not be as small as originally planned.  But that’s OK – I have some ideas.  😉

On Tuesday, we started our journey home by stopping at the American side of the falls.

And after lunch, we took the long 7 hour trip back home to New Jersey.  Now it’s time to finish up this house stuff and move on to planning a wedding!