4th of July…the day of Independence, for America…

I started my celebration of America’s Independence with a trip to Tyler’s cousin’s cottage (somewhere) in Northern Wisconsin. It is a neat place where we all got to hang out and go Jet Ski on the lake, so we had a great time! I even got to try drive the Jet Ski, which was pretty fun, a little scary, and pretty slow going!

Karabo and I at Nina's Party

Later on we made our way to New Berlin, WI where one of my German au pair friend’s was having a 4^th party. Her host parents were hosting the party, but had invited a bunch of Nina’s au pair friends (and Tyler) so I was in good company as I watched fireworks lightening up the night sky on this special day.

Pretty sights in the night sky

Pap en Wors, biltong en sous…

Finally able to sleep in we made sure we got a little sleeping in before heading out to Brooklyn to eat at a restaurant I was very excited to visit…Madiba, which serves real South African cuisine. 

Feeling at home :)

I was really excited to have some “home cooked” meals but also to see Tyler’s reaction to our food. We started with a Safari Starter which had Biltong, mixed nuts, dried fruit and droe wors. Karabo ordered Pap en Wors, Tyler had steak and chips and I went with Oxtail soup with samp and beans…yummy!

Safari Starter

Pap en wors

Steak and Chips (try them with salt and vinegar)

Oxtail soup and samp and beans

After Madiba’s we headed to Central Park where we walked around and heard Freshly Ground (a South African band, who were performing there) until we had to head back to the hotel to collect our belongings before heading to the airport. Luckily with no flight delays we were at home on time and ready to sleep after a wonderful vacation!

Home time!

5am wakeup call…this is getting ridiculous…

So after a 5am wake-up call, we made sure we were all packed up and headed towards the bus, which was 1000 Islands bound.  The boat tour was fun, and it was interesting to see the small (and big) Islands as well as seeing the smallest bridge between two countries, a bridge that joins two Islands (one in Canada and one in the USA)

Boldt Castle on Heart Island, NY

Shortest bridge in between two countries (St. Lawrence River)

After the boast tour we headed to a restaurant which was described to us as an “international buffet” which basically meant Asian cuisine, Italian chicken and smiley fries.  That aside the food was great and I ate more than enough to satisfy the lack of a real breakfast.

Smiley fries...with a smiley face

Later we headed back to New York City and our next hotel. We planned to go to Times Square that night to show Tyler what is was all about as he had never been there before.

Fearsome threesome in Times Square

1 of the 7 wonders of the world…

After 20 or so stops we arrived in Buffalo, NY at the sight of Niagara Falls. I must tell you…it is beautiful! We headed straight for the Maid of the Mist tour, which takes you right past the Falls. We had a lot of fun snapping tons of pictures mainly in our stylish blue ponchos, and soaking wet!

Looking good in blue

Later we spent time at the viewing decks just taking in the sights and enjoying the time spent at this majestic world wonder. Then we headed to the food store where we were able to buy food from an array of different countries (non South African unfortunately) as well as view a million Niagara branded items. We each settled on a hoodie that would remind us of this wonderful adventure.

In our new hoodies :)

After the lights were turned on (which lights up the Falls beautifully) we were called back to the bus, which was heading towards our hotel in Buffalo. Once at the hotel Karabo, Tyler and I decided to head for the hotel bar to have one drink, which of course turned into a few more…

Niagara by day

Niagara by night

Joining Cindy’s family…

Beep! Beep! Beep! Ugh, 6am wake-up call and I already regretting the late night chats with Karabo.  But then I remembered we are about to start our Niagara adventure, and I started jumping around like a little kid. We had to meet our tour company at 7am and I had worked everything out to ensure we would arrive in time and not miss the tour, however I never factored in that our tour guide was Chinese (maybe Mandarin?) so all the instructions given were foreign, which almost lead us to miss our bus. Luckily we worked it all out and were seated on our bus, in time.

Time to...catch up some sleep

Our tour guide went on to tell us that for the next 2 days we would be a part of “Cindy family.” Then she briefly explained that we would make frequent stops to avoiding using the bathroom on board (which sits on the engine, heats up and “smell very bad after two day”) then she converted to Mandarin and translated what I assumed was the message she had just relayed to us to the other 20 or so passengers on the bus. And with that we were off…

Ready for our trip!

Just my luck…thanks Pres…

Straight after the show I headed back to my surrogate home in Murray Hill so collect my stuff and thank Heidi for her hospitality…and to give her house key back. So I no longer feel like I “own” a piece of NYC property, but that’s okay after a subway and a bus ride I ended up at La Guardia airport ready to meet Karabo and Tyler and since I had left my phone in Milwaukee I was going old school and hoping that everything would work out…of course it didn't!

The world sculpture,  NYC

Mr Obama was flying into New York that day which means that all flights into NYC are either delayed or cancelled; none of these options suit me! And of course I don’t know this so I’m walking around the airport looking for them wondering why they’re aren’t waiting for me at baggage claim, ‘til I eventually borrow someone’s smart phone check my Facebook and email and discover their new estimated arrival time is 3am … or a cancelled flight. I headed to the hotel in the hopes that my friends would be joining me very soon.

The Statue of Liberty, NYC

Thank goodness they managed to make it to New York very early that next morning, and with a 6am wakeup call we realized we had less than 3 hours to sleep before heading to Niagara. Instead of using this time to power nap, we used it to catch up (probably a move we will regret tomorrow!)

Sunnyside of New York, NYC

Something a little positive…

It seems hard to be positive after an emotional experience like that but I was after all to see my boyfriend and a really good friend tonight so I didn’t want to be a Debbie downer, to combat this I decided to book myself tickets to see of show! None of the Broadway shows I was interested in were showing that night but I found tickets for the STOMP! show. If you ever get a chance this is a show you definitely should go see! (http://www.stomponline.com/)It is amazing, it’s basically people making music out of just about anything! And I got to meet some of the cast after the show, but that was awesome!

Meeting the cast of STOMP!

While waiting for the subway I started to watch a movie Karabo had downloaded onto her itouch for me to watch (Remember me) which by the way is not the best movie to watch while standing in a subway, as the opening scene shows a lady randomly being shot while in the subway…thanks Karabo!

Beautiful Sunset, NYC