Tuff and Mary: Still a Lot Happening

I attended a three day workshop through American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) for Certified Personal Trainers (CPT's) September 24th-26th. My next step is to study for the exam, take the exam, pass the exam and become certified.

I also started work on Saturday at PNC YMCA @ U.S. Steel. The U.S Steel Tower is in the picture below. If you look closely you will see 'GO PITT' lit up in the windows. They do this every home Pitt game.

Tuff and the boys from our small group went to the Pitt game versus Miami game September 23rd. As you can see in the picture below they sat in the 'nose bleed' section but it did not stop the fun.

As of Monday, September 27th Tuff is sling free. It marked six weeks from his surgery. He now gets to move his arm. For now his range of motion is still very limited. For example he cannot roll the window down in our car which has crank windows.

Wednesday, September 29th we drove north to Rochester, New York to see Richie, our college friend. On our way back to Pittsburgh we spent one night at Niagara Falls, Ontario and the next day at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Richie and Tuff, friends since day one of college.

Richie's little brothers and Tuff sporting new tattoos from Dinosaur's BBQ. Everyone traveled to Rochester from Montana to see their brother Brandon get married.

Niagara Falls:

After Victoria Falls (in Africa), Niagara Falls is the second largest falls on the globe. In other words it was really awesome to see and we definitely recommend going.

Horseshoe Falls from Goat Island, New York

American Falls from Goat Island

Looking back at both American and Horseshoe falls, which our bodies are covering. For those of you who have not been, that is Niagara Falls, Ontario on the right side of the picture. We stayed the night there in a room overlooking the Horseshoe Falls.

Definitely a rainy day so no clear shots. From the observatory tower: American Falls and Niagara Falls, New York to the left, Horseshoe Falls in the back center, and Niagara Falls, Ontario to the right.

We took the Cave of the Winds tour, which travels a path around the bottom of American Falls. The picture below was taken from the top of American Falls looking down at people taking the tour.

Getting suited up for the tour. Check out the sandals they give you and Tuff's funny face!

If you look closely at the photo below you will see that Tuff stopped to meditate with the guy sitting, soaking in the powerful mist.

Once the guy was done meditating he asked Tuff to take a picture for him. This guy was hilarious.

This is the point where I had to put the camera away. The closer we got to the falls, the more soaked we got.

After the tour, we crossed the border...almost did not make it across though. We had to go through three check-points where we were grilled with questions and they searched our vehicle, including reading every detail in my weekly planner. Below is what our passport pictures look like....

...and below is what we looked liked crossing the border. Do you think this is why we were grilled?

Our view from our hotel room of the Horseshoe Falls. We made it to Canada!

The rain eventually stopped. Below is a picture from Canada toward New York of American Falls on left and Horseshoe falls on right.

American Falls

Niagara Falls, Ontario was like a mini Vegas. Lots to see and do.

Very commercial and expensive there; a burger and fries will run you about $20.

At night they light the falls in multiple colors but our camera did not pick up any good pictures so I borrowed one (Leendert 2009)

Below is our view of the falls from our hotel room in the morning. It was a brilliant sunny day.

We traveled about 15 miles north to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario for three wine vineyard tours, Inneskillin, Stratus and Jackson & Triggs.

Chardonnay grapes