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Niagara Falls - Part 2
Traveling with your wife and mother-in-law
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
A young, newlywedded man survives the ultimate challenge of a lifetime during a shopping excursion in Niagara Falls with his power-shopping wife and La Madre, his dear, sweet, Italian mother-in-law.
Day 2
The next morning, we woke up to go shopping. Before going shopping, we headed over to Rooster's Restaurant to get ripped off. We didn't realize that was going to be the case, but we should have been cautious as Rooster's Restaurant does flow right off the tongue into "ripped off."
Why were we ripped off? Well, first, their sign has in big letters: "$5.99". Only six bucks Canadian you think? What a deal! Then you look at the fine print and see it's in United States Dollars. Why would you list prices in Canada, in United States Dollars and not in Canadian? I don't buy the local paper for six Mexican Pesos, so they shouldn't falsely advertise and list a different country's currency up there.
Anyway, we went in, and on every table was coffee. To me, at an "All you can eat" buffet, coffee on the table implies, "Take some coffee." In fact, everybody was doing so. It was only after you did, the waitress jumped at you from around the corner and said, "Coffee's not included."Surprise, ha ha! She would laugh. Okay, there wasn't laughter, but you got the idea. People were not too happy.
"Oh, but you put the coffee there just to taunt me? Should I ask if the napkins are included, too, or are they an extra charge?"
The third problem was this "all you can eat" buffet didn't mention there might not be much left to eat. The pancakes were pretty much exhausted, and the natives were fighting over the last one. I stuck with my bran flakes and cursed Mr. Rooster for the whole morning.
After that, the mood was uplifted as we headed out to go shopping. Margherita now is quite happy to say we've gone to Canada every year of our marriage to go shopping. She feels rather "cosmopolitan" by the idea of going "north to go shopping."
We first headed to the Canadian Outlet Factory on Lundy's Lane. A mix of various stores, the trick is to go to the ones you don't recognize in America. You figure those are the domestic stores and thereby the better prices. With a good sale and a good currency conversion in your favor, it's really quite a bargain.
I would expand on this day a bit more, but there's not much else to say beyond we went shopping all day. From The Canadian Outlet Factory, we headed over to The Bay, which is my favorite store in the world (due to the prices), and finally the mall in St. Catharine's.
The only major event of the shopping day was that rare, solar eclipse of an event when Margherita turned to me and said, "I think I'm tired of shopping now."
Tired? The woman for whom stores have opened up just to meet her? The woman who single-handedly revived the economy on no less than three occasions in our nation's history? The woman who claims she is a personal shopper to the stars...and the star is herself? Mrs. "I'm Only Supporting The Economy?" Mrs. "With A Sale Like This, It's Like We're Making Money?"
As you can tell, I was a bit surprised she didn't want to go shopping anymore.
We headed back downtown and changed to go to dinner at the Skylon Tower. As I've mentioned in numerous stories previously, if you'd like to be a large city, it's a prerequisite to have a rather large tower. It doesn't really need to serve a purpose other than to be tall and allow people to look out from the top and think, "Wow, this is a very tall place." To eat a meal there is a plus. The Skylon has a few of those pluses put together. It's rather tall, it spins, and you can get a meal. Kinda like eating a hot dog while your aunt spins you around in her arms...except without any of that instant nausea.
Anyway, dinner was what we considered one of the highlights of the weekend. La Madre was rather happy with it and described it as, "Just like a wedding, but in a tower and lots of food." We ate, looked over the edge of the tower, and watched as the falls changed different colors.
"Ooh look the falls are blue-a."
Even when it ends in a vowel she still adds the "A".
Read part 1 | Read part 3
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