John Blade’s Homepage

Another early day! Headed out with the remaining boys (Ben, Greg, Franger and myself) to Niagara Falls to visit another land mark of this big country. With a little bit of naviguessing we made it in one piece. My lonely planet guide suggests checking out the Canadian side of the falls as the view is better, but we only had about four hours in total to muck about there with our tight schedule of bringing the car back to NYC midday tomorrow.
Tight for time we decided we go for it and race over to Canada. Luckily it turned out walking over to Canada was a quick and painless effort then driving was, and what a sight it was! Just a little different angle of the falls from the Canadian side makes the experience so much better as you can see Niagara Falls in its entirety. Also seeing another country (even if it’s just for a few hours) made the trip worth it. Canada is a wonderful clean country (at least what I saw of it) and had some cool floral arrangements as well. Almost like they wanted to impress whereas on the American side it’s good old NY dirt and dingy.

There are a few tourist things you can do to interact with the falls, so we chose one of the most famous. Maid of the Mist is one of the oldest running tourist services for Niagara falls that sails up close to the falls and lets you have a look close up. Because of the volume of water around us they supply you with funky blue poncho’s which Greg had a few troubles putting on.

Once we were all suited up we started our journey on the Maid of the Mist, a dinky oldish ship that putts along the river up to the falls. I was surprised on how windy it is in the falls, with all the volume of water moving around I guess it makes sense. You do have to hold on to your hat though, though the view is worth it.

See the little pointy things on the top right hand side of this picture, that’s people on the American side trying to have a look at the falls. It is an amazing sight that I encourage anyone to see if there in the New York state area. It’s like a wall of fog when you reach the centre and can’t see in or out with so much water and mist being sprayed around.

Making it back ashore in one piece we dried ourselves off and walked around the ‘falls’ area in Canada and checked out the shops. Funny enough there were heaps of American stores such as Hershey’s and Marvel universe. Everywhere accepted American money at a little extra cost then the Canadian equivalent which was handy for us weary travellers who didn’t want to pull even more money out in Canadian. With a little time to spare we headed to an official Planet Hollywood restaurant for some tucker. The food was good to average and the service was pretty poor, but the surroundings were awesome. Even the restroom had some cool features like sloped walls and character mock-ups.

The meal took longer then anticipated so we quickly walked back to the American border and checked through customs again. Chalked up another country on our list we left the falls we headed back to Syracuse and met up with Daniel and Amanda then headed off to Albany. Albany is where Dan and Amanda are going to be moving to and is closer to NYC then Syracuse is. So over nine hours of driving later we arrived in Albany and had dinner with the newly weds.

Damn, why couldn’t we sleep in this morning?! Packed up our gear and checked out of the wonderful Genesse Inn this morning at 10am (ish) and after dropping off our rental suits headed over to the Reynolds household for a nice lunch. Everyone pulled up well this morning given our partying last night. Franger again pulled up the worst by falling into a gutter in the wee hours of the morning, I’m surprised he had the sense of mind to not sleep there for the night.

Lunch was nice and peaceful in the backyard of the Reynolds. We spent a while watching Amanda’s and Marisa’s dogs running around the backyard like crazy pugs on speed. Greg fed them the remainder of our plates, when they were done the plates were spotless! Veronica gave us all a great talk on how her University bleeds dogs alive as it preserves their organs better for examination then putting them to sleep. Just as well Wilko wasn’t at the table.

Daniel took most of the boys to the Syracuse Nationals which is a an awesome spectacle. Thousands and thousands of cars come from everywhere each year and put their hot rods on show for everyone to gawk at. There are numerous competitions and prizes up for grabs as well as heaps of vendors selling their wares. The best part of the nationals for me is seeing the awesome machines on display. Not just the money but the time that goes into some of these babies are simply breathtaking. Unfortunately I don’t have all the photos taken at the moment which has some awesome cars like a mini school bus and heaps and heaps of hot rods.

Notice in the photo above that this car has a portable coke refrigerator (how cool is that!). With the Syracuse Nationals on there are heaps of awesome cars on the road as you cruise around.

This evening I watched ‘I Robot’ the movie at the Carousal Centre theatres. I’m a big fan of Asimov stories and love robots so I had to see this movie, even with the hideous trailers. Not a big fan of ‘robots going crazy and killing everyone’ story lines which this movie is essentially is, but I just had to see it as it’s based of the Asimov universe! The atmosphere in the movie was great and portrayed a pretty believable world and it the movie turned out better then I had anticipated. The only annoying thing about it was a big black guy sitting behind me yelling out ‘Dang/Damn/Jesus’ every time something cool looking happened which was about every five minutes. Generally the movie theatres (at least the ones I’ve been to so far in the USA) are poorer quality then a typical Birch cinema, I think I’ll have to go out and see the movie again when I get back to Australia to get the full sound effects and what have you. I would recommend if you’re at all interested in seeing this movie to do so at the theatres as it really does need a good sound set up.

After the movies we finished up eating with a big group of the boys, bits of the bridesmaids, and a few other American friends at a ‘Chicago style’ pizza joint called Uno’s. Chicago style supposedly means pizza’s in the style of pies; where the pizza is quite deep and chunky. Ben and I shared one pizza which looked small on first appearance that later showed us how real mortals we both are. A nice dinner and good company, again Dan acted as banker as we pooled our money together and Dan counted and dealt like a dealer.

Daniel and Amanda are happy which is great, even if their first day of marriage was mostly separated from each other. Sounds like Dan’s found himself the perfect wife!

It’s happened! Our mate Dan is now a married man! Today was a day of final preparations with moving rooms, haircuts, and for me speech writing. Ok sure maybe I lied about the last part and just made up my speech at the time, but it’s from the heart what matters right? Hehe.
With a little luck and a bit of effort we were all able to get our stuff together and sign the deal for Dan. I shouted the all the boys a can of Red Bull and in true Daniel style drank it just before the wedding. We looked like a formidably bunch.

Not sure why I’m the only one who was talking when the photo was taken, but oh well. There were heaps of professionally taken photographs by a guy called Mike who I’ll have to get off Dan at one stage, I’m sure there are some choice photo’s there. In the meantime I’ve just got my photo set which is quite limited as I was spending most of the day having fun.

Poor Amanda had the waterworks happening as she entered the chapel and had to fight off the tears right up till she received her ring. Her brides maids had a sufficient amount of alcohol in them after their limo ride to the chapel for a smooth run. Sure us boys didn’t get a limo but we did have Adam’s ride from hell. Agh, what’s a limo without girls anyway?
Dan’s nerves were being put to the test in anticipation of his partner arriving. I’m not sure what to say in times like these when such a big thing is happening, I just wished him well and cheered him on, he did a great job keeping himself together.

When Amanda did walk down the isle she looked absolutely beautiful. The ceremony went on very smoothly and Marisa and I even managed to stay on the ball. Amanda and Daniel looked great and very happy!

When the father announced the two married I think Daniel was swept away a little as he had to be reminded to kiss the bride by the father. He made up for it later in the night though at the reception at the Syracuse Genesee Inn. The Genesee Inn is by far the best place we’ve stayed in the whole trip. Nil’s even said that his single room is larger then his whole apartment in Japan, it’s nice to spread out.

The reception itself was a whole barrel of fun as there was much celebrations and even a few ‘Aussie aussie aussie’ calls. Marisa had a wonderful speech about how Dan and Amanda met and the trials and tribulations of the two. I followed up with a speech trying to embarrass Dan a little and give him a bit of a send off on behalf of the Australian contingent as he’ll now be living in America. Luckily I didn’t choke on my words and the crowd even had a laugh at my silly jokes, most importantly Daniel appreciated it which is heart warming. It will be hard to let the bastard go.

Everyone loves the words ‘Open Bar’ and speaking to a few of the Reynolds friends showed that they were impressed to see that even though there was only 10% of the total crowd Australian there was Australian at the bar 90% of the time. Taking full advantage of the open bar we were lubricated enough to dance the night away to all types of songs with favourites on both sides of the marriage. I had a lot of fun jigging away and Lauren and I danced the night away, I even danced with Daniel’s Mum!

The reception closed at about 23:30, and after being charged up after such a cool event we ran for refuge in Nil’s room. Nil’s didn’t seem to mind much that we trashed his room.

Though i have to say that photo was taken before we actually got to Nil’s room, I can’t really post many photo’s of what happened that night as there could be children reading. Man, the after reception party was a big event in itself, I could write a whole page on just what happened there! We had quite a few visitors from Amanda’s parents to the brides maids it was a great little party. Highlights include Nil’s screaming from his window that there was party in room 304 and everyone was invited, Dan and I wedging our feet under Nil’s king size mattress and kicking people off the bed, Ben having his butt spanked with his own shoe, Dan and I having a ice war, and Ben and Marisa messing about on the bed. There were a lot of compromising photo’s taken in that bedroom, that’s for sure but a lot of fun was had by all. I’m not sure what the cleaning folks would have thought of with the soda stains, cake in the floor, and just general junk thrown about everywhere but thanks for Nil’s for giving up a night of sleep for the party.

The whole day was a great time and I’m so happy that I was able to come and see Daniel marry the love of his life. A day I definitely will never forget.

Spent this afternoon bowling! I personally hate bowling, mainly because I suck at it and proved how much I sucked at it by having the lowest score out of the seven of us playing. Got some fun video footage of us bowling poorly, it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t keep falling into the lanes when I throw the ball but oh well. At least it was fun, sought of. Probably lest said about bowling the better.

We met up with all of our partners for the wedding in the evening and it looks like it’s going to be a blast. As the best man I’ve been paired up with Amanda’s sister, Marisa. She’s a fun girl and we got along pretty well, let’s hope that between the two of us we get through the wedding without screwing up too much.

It was great meeting everyone and having a nice dinner thanks to the Reynolds family. Amanda’s parents have made us feel very welcomed and opened up their household to us. It was great conversation talking to all of the Reynolds family and friends about all types of things and comparing countries. Though I did learn it’s not good to talk about welfare systems with Americans, they seem to get a little touchy about that.

Oh I forgot to add we had a Wedding rehearsal late this afternoon! It was interesting to see how it’s all done and more importantly learn where I need to be and when to be there. Dan and Amanda seemed keenly focused and the brides maids were giggling all the way down the isle. I’m fairly sure what needs to be done even though the rehearsal was in my opinion raced through. Everyone is primed and ready to wed Dan and Amanda tomorrow, lets hope he doesn’t use the emergency flight ticket we pre-ordered him tomorrow.

Had a little time to spare today so we headed to the Carousel Centre which is the best shopping centre in Syracuse. I’ve learnt that the locals call shopping centre’s ‘Malls’ which makes sense I suppose, I just expect a mall to be something like the Brisbane mall. The Carousal Centre has a giant Carousal in the food court as a attraction which is pretty cool (except we call them Merry-go-Rounds in Australia). There’s three levels of shopping and in the centre is about six levels of stuff, where Dan told me a while ago three guys jumped off and killed themselves causing a big scene. Since then there is security looking closely at people who lean over the sides.

Lots of stores here, and Lauren had a bit of a shopping spree looking at Macy’s and Anne Taylor. Also Best Buy and CompUSA are here as well which are like bigger Harvey Norman’s. It’s always fun to look at technology and what have you, though they weren’t as cool as Fry’s in Las Vegas. A awesome store I found was called FYE (For your entertainment) which is a big music store. The cool thing about FYE is that it has a automated system where you go up to a machine and scan in your DVD,CD,etc and it will tell you all types of information about it (listen to the music, watch a trailer, etc). I liked it because it was such a good use of technology and it’s a great way to find what you want.

Visited Hooters at the mall and had dinner there. Unlike Australia’s Hooters the American version isn’t so much a strip joint but a restaurant company with a twist. The waitresses are very scantly clothed and have busting busts. As Nil’s puts it, breasts, beer, and buffalo wings are a winning combination. Franger and Ben ordered unlimited wings and had a little challenge, I think Franger one eating 35 wings but only because we had a time constraint. The food was decent and priced fair and the atmosphere was pretty good. Honestly I don’t get much out of the waitresses boobs being flaunted around but it is an interesting idea. Apparently Hooters has a limited airline where the hostess wear the same ‘uniform’, I wonder if they serve wings. Understandably Lauren wasn’t too impressed about the place, but didn’t mind the food.

Watched the King Arthur movie which has just been released at the movie theatre at the Carousel Centre. The movie theatre had a interesting deal, for $13USD you get two large soda’s and a huge popcorn box with unlimited refills so you can walk out and refill you ever you want. Not that we actually did that because the buttered popcorn was very filling. As for the movie itself, I didn’t expect much of the movie going in and got not much more coming out. It’s a twisted look on what English history is and a pretty stale story, I guess I didn’t really feel anything for the characters so it felt like the whole story was going no where. At least the tickets were fairly cheap at $6.50USD.

Up to our old tricks again, just add a little alcohol and the Australians run a muck. The boys felt a bit peckish late at night and headed out The boys thought Greg needed to take it easy and chill out a little, Franger gave him a helping hand.

Luckily no pizza boxes were hurt in the taking of these photos. Notice that Greg is holding on to his beef jerky for dear life, I swear he’s bought over twenty packets of that stuff so far. Another exciting day of shopping and stuff in Syracuse, back to bed!

Our dodgy dodge grand caravan broke down, in a way. The automatic transmission started complaining and would shudder moving to fourth gear, after a quick phone call to our car rental company we were able to exchange our car back in Syracuse. Somehow the dodgy dodge held up the two hour trip back and we picked up a Chevy Venture which is the same model as our car in California. Not quite as much space to pack bags, but with Nil’s leaving soon and having around in Syracuse we should be fine.
Checked back into the Microtel Inn which is cheap and clean. Unfortunately Lauren and I are in a smoking room as there are no other spare rooms, this isn’t too much of a problem other then the stench! Can’t wait to get out of of here and into a non smokey room.

Dan took the us boys and his family to Dinosaur, a genuine honky tonk bar-b-que joint with slow cooked southern style meals. Dinosaur has quite a long history and was originally a biker bar tuned into a semi-respectable bar. The line up was long, you can’t pre-book at Dinosaur you just gotta rock up and wait. Once we did get seated the food was quite reasonable. I had the pulled pork burger which was very scrumptious indeed. The cool part was that you could taste the pork for hours afterwards and it tasted goooood.
Lauren didn’t like the string of Harley Davidson bikes lined up beside our tables. Actually it was probably the Harley Davidson’s being fired up and taken off with that was the most annoying thing. I think the first time it happened everyone at the table nearly jumped out of our seats. Sure they looked nice and shiny, but I still don’t understand why the mufflers have to be so dammed loud!

Dinosaur even has a cook book and sauce you can buy, I was told that you can pick up the sauce in special places throughout Australia but no one can tell me where. I would like to try it in some of my dishes, but don’t have the patience to cook my pork 20 hours before eating it. Hehe.
A little on the strange side was a random guy who struck up a conversation with Ben, Franger and Greg at the bar and later found that we had a table of Australians . His daughter had spent some time in Sydney and loved it and he wanted to repay the favour of our awesome country by shouting us drinks. It was a very kind gesture, but I can’t help but feel in debt to him. I suppose you could almost call it ‘pay it forward’ type of thing, but I’m still trying to get my head around what he was on about.

After Dinosaur the boys and a Amanda’s friends headed out to some bars in Syracuse. Can’t remember the names of the bars, but there was this place that served some type of ‘bastard’ beer which had a huge alcohol percentage and tasted pretty good. Another night on the drink showing these American’s what drinking is all about, Ben and Greg were in fine form as usual.

And a nice rest when we finally got home. It’s great going out and all, but Syracuse only parties on until 2am where the liquor licenses cease! How bad is that! Probably a good thing though, as we all need a little more sleep… mmm sleep….