That Ain't Pittsburgh: The Authentic (and Inauthentic?) Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, the "authentic" one, from the Canadian side.

After a late night out in Buffalo, we started our Canadian adventure by spending a morning on the Canadian side of the Falls. It had been many years since I was last there, and I'm pretty sure my parents took us kiddos to the American side. One of my traveling companions, Ross, had been on the American side a couple times in recent years. And the other, Rob, had never ever been there before. What you see above is not what you are immediately greeted by after rolling into town. Nope. What you enter is an overwhelming and mostly ridiculous cartoon town:

So, like any good tourists, we hung out in the "inauthentic" Niagara Falls before venturing down the hill to the natural wonder. There's no shortage of "things to do" at Niagara Falls. Countless wax museums, haunted houses, lazer tag places, arcades... If you had $500 in your pocket, you still probably wouldn't have enough cash on you to take in all of this ridiculousness. If I ever win the lottery, I'm heading straight back to Niagara Falls to take them all in in a single day.

It took us a while to figure out who the guy all the way to the right may be. We thought perhaps the lead singer of Crash Test Dummies (they are Canadian, after all), but it's likely Eddie Vedder.

I guess next time I'm craving Halloween outside of the month of October, Niagara Falls should be my destination.

Everything is oversized and exaggerated in Niagara Falls. Which makes it completely awesome.

Fun fact: As we were walking by this "Hall of Fame," we heard some announcements about Freddy Kreuger and Pinhead... Didn't know they were criminals. Thought there were more like fictitious horror movie villains. Tomato/Tomatoe.

Rob and I are common travel companions to Canada. In fact, I can't recall a time since 2008 that I have been to Canada without him. One of our first objectives on any Canada trip, as soon as humanly possible after crossing the border is to hit up Tim Hortons. 

Heaven is a full Tim Hortons' bakery case. Yum.

As we were bee-lining to Tim Hortons, Rob stopped and simply said, "Allison," and pointed. And in that moment, I was delighted.

BEAVERTAIL

Oh, Beavertail. How I love thee. This is a Canada-only treat that I first experience in Ottawa. It's sort of like funnel cake, but less doughy and with more options for toppings, as shown below:

Now, I opt for the plain ol' cinnamon and sugar beavertail (because this treat is already sugary enough), but some like to ensure they are going to have 1,000 cavities and order the one that's covered in Nutella, peanut butter, and Reese's Pieces. Not naming names or anything.

By the way, when we encountered Beavertail for the second time, in Quebec City, this one was dubbed the "Obama." Apparently, this is his favorite?

Well, looky here! Malkin and Obama both taking a taste of Canadian greatness.

We ate our Beavertail and drank our Tim Hortons coffees and were making our way toward the real deal, but I got a bit sidetracked.

Found them! They've been chilling at the Falls all this time.

Once you get past all the excellent, oversized, touristy nonsense, you arrive at a true wonder. The "authentic" Niagara Falls.

Across the street from the Falls is a nice little park. Instead of trying to wade through the crowds on the side of the road with the views, we crossed over and continued enjoying an "authentic" Niagara Falls greenspace.

Told you it was "authentic."

Rob explains electricity to Ross. Nikola Tesla stands by.

After picking up some Canadian souvenirs, we were on our way to Toronto.

That Ain't Pittsburgh: My Canadian Obsession

After Pittsburgh, Canada (pretty much the whole of it) holds a significant place in my heart.

I've been to every province and to nearly every major city. (Calgary: I'm looking at you!) I've spent warm summer days biking around Vancouver and Toronto. I've had terrifying experiences driving around the Maritimes in the dead of winter and dead of night on snow-covered roads. (Well, I was passenger seat for those rides, but terrifying nonetheless.) Before I made the decision to move back to Pittsburgh, I looked into transferring to Toronto. This has all happened over the course of the past four years. I'm not sure how or when, but I've fallen in love with our neighbor to north. Fortunately for you, I spent Labor Day weekend adventuring around Ontario. So, starting Monday, we're going to take a slight detour from the normal PGH coverage and musings to recap what was three lovely days in Canada.

Have a good weekend, the Ontario invasion of EvBetPGH begins on Monday.

That Ain't Pittsburgh: Biking Toronto

I could never ever live in a city that wasn't possible to bike. Being that I absolutely hate (and am horrible at) driving, it's a necessity. Rob and I had rented bikes in Toronto on a previous trip, but the bikes were bulky and we had to buy a lock from the rental place because they didn't seem to understand that we might want to dismount and explore whilst riding around. So this time around, we invested in a bike rack so we could take our own bikes along. We experienced a couple minor disasters, but the benefits of this plan were great. I'm pretty sure our bikes will be accompanying us on future road trips around the northeast.

One of the minor disasters had to do with us not fully understanding how our new bike rack works. We were on the Don Valley Express or Parkway or whatever fast road it was and hit a bump and almost lost all the bikes. When we pulled over to fix the situation, the tire on my red bike was about an inch off the ground. NOT GOOD. We had a Canadian guardian angel stop and help us get re-situated, though we never fully recovered from the near-loss-of-bikes. We spent the rest of the ride to the campsite worried they'd fall again. For the long haul back to Pittsburgh, we actually put my red bike IN the car so there'd be less weight on the rack. We live. We learn.

Toronto is definitely a city where biking has become a way of everyday life. There were loads of people biking. And loads of bikes locked up to racks just about everywhere we went. The city is a whole hell of a lot flatter than Pittsburgh, which was pretty great. (Though the hills are good, and I would miss living without them.) The second minor disaster happened because one draw-back of biking in Toronto are the trolley tracks embedded in the streets. (See photo below.) Streets that are already pretty clogged with traffic, parked cars, and the trolleys that use the tracks. I'm (obviously) not used to the added condition of the tracks, so when a car started pulling out of a parallel parking space, I veered around. My front tire went right into one of the tracks and I went right down, right in the middle of Queen Street West.

The resulting injury. Now I've crashed in two countries. I've left a bit of my skin and blood on the streets of Toronto. And now I'll have a great Canadian scar.

While we were wandering around Downtown looking for Toronto Raptor t-shirts, I spotted some excellent bike art all along the way.

Verdict on Toronto biking: Excellent. Just watch out for those trolley tracks.

PGH Book #8: Fallingwater Rising

Confession: This book took me like three months to read. It's a behemoth. Well, for someone who somehow neglected to read anything of importance in 2011, it was a behemoth. But I made it through! It only took several renewals from the Carnegie Library (I even had to return the book once because I had renewed it too many times) and a good solid Sunday of reading last weekend to get to the end. I may be making this seem way more taxing than it was, because I truly enjoyed this book. Before reading this, I had picked through Franklin Toker's Pittsburgh: A New Portrait (which, if you have not got a copy of this on your shelves and you love Pittsburgh like I do, you need to correct that ASAP). I really enjoy his writing style, and taking in his recap of Fallingwater from the very beginning was enlightening and fun. (In the latter chapters, he recaps some of the "bitchiness" between Wright and the Kaufmanns, and it is highly enjoyable.)

If you're interested in undertaking Fallingwater Rising, I would highly suggest first visiting Fallingwater (especially if you're a Pittsburgh resident). Maybe it's just me, but I thought it would have been really difficult to imagine the architectural descriptions of the house without having experienced myself, which I had the opportunity to do while I was back in Pittsburgh visiting in the summer of...2008? 2009? It doesn't much matter what year I was there. This place is completely timeless.

This house, simply put, is amazing.

What's even MORE amazing is something I discovered in the final pages of the book. When I read it, I was floored. I had to read it three or four times to make sure I wasn't seeing things:

Here is the quote in it's entirety, from the chapter Edgar Kaufmann Jr., The True Lord of Fallingwater: Working in the Oliver Building in Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh were Ethel Clinton Appel as the estate supervisor, and her assistants, Joseph Johnson, and Julia Tompkins. Those three plus E. J.'s old accountants Philip Smith and A. E. Rowland, also ran the Kaufmann Foundation out of the same office.

Why is this so significant? My first name is Allison. My middle name is Elisabeth. My last name is Rowland. I am A. E. Rowland. What makes it even weirder is that I worked for two years in the Oliver Building downtown. (The law firm I work for has since moved to PPG Place.) Sometimes life throws you these insane coincidences. Everything about this one is so awesome. 

Just like Fallingwater.

Read All About It: Assemble Daily News

If you're a follower of Eric Lidji's Ongoing History of Pittsburgh, you may have already caught your sneak peek about what's about to hit Penn Ave's Assemble gallery this Friday:

Assemble Daily News

The project, devised and executed by Eric, is also best described by Eric. Here's my favorite part of the description: Assemble Daily News aims to be a legitimate news operation, meaning it will report on actual events in an accurate and timely manner. But it won't be a conventional news operation. Instead of covering organizations, zoning or crime, it will report on moments, specifically the enlightening, interesting and revealing moments celebrated on this [The Ongoing History of Pittsburgh] site. Because these tiny moments are sometimes too fragile for words alone, Assemble Daily News will use drawings, notes, and a gigantic map to piece together a picture of daily life. 

Your first chance to check out Assemble Daily News is Friday, September 7, 2012, during Unblurred. Here are four more of my favorite sneak peeks that Eric has leaked on his site:

I can't wait to see the finished/in-progress project on Friday night. Come out and support a great guy and a great venue on Friday night. And, who knows, maybe you'll become a news story over the next month if you're in the Friendship/Bloomfield area. 

Baby Spider Plants: Take if You Promise to Love and Care for It

Happy Labor Day!

This morning I woke up on Canadian ground. (We were camping; I didn't just sleep in a city park in Toronto or something.) I'm not sure why I'm sharing that fact, but there you have it. 

Sign says: FREE Spider Plants / Please take me if you promise to love and care for it.

On my walk around the neighborhood last weekend, I came across some spider plants for the taking on Evaline. I've been trying to cultivate a green thumb of my own. My dad is like a plant whisperer or something. He can make all sorts of things grow. I've been getting better with plants. I failed with fruits and veggies again this summer. I don't think I'm going to try them again until I have the space for raised beds or a actual garden in the ground. So now my efforts will be focused on houseplants, which is why I was so excited to come across these spider plants. 

I'm going to do my best to be a loving and caring owner of these spider plants, but I've failed once before (which I blame on a combination of two factors: a) it was a spider plant from Ikea, and I haven't had much luck with any of the houseplants I've brought home from there, and b) one of my cats pretty much ate the entire thing one day).

Baby spider plants in teapots, toddler ficus trees from cuttings my dad gave me.

I cleaned up my balcony last weekend when I picked these up. I had let my tomatoes, herbs, and strawberries die out and dry out. Got rid of those and set up a little mini houseplant garden. Hoping that with the coolerish temps and lessening hours of sun per day these plants will get little growth spurts before coming inside until late spring

And for good measure, here's what I've got going on plant-wise inside.

Fingers crossed I don't totally kill these spider plants. I want to make my neighbors on Evaline proud!