Everyone was up, showered, breakfasted and out of the house by 9:30am this morning in order for us to travel across the border to America to finalise our Permanent Residency. It was a fairly uneventful drive until we hit the Peace Bridge where we queued for ages and ages. The border control was big with 16 lanes of traffic. Huffle had done research which informed him it was a bad idea to say that we were there just to get our residency papers signed so we told them we were shopping for the day in Buffalo.
On the Peace Bridge on the Boundary Line between US and Canada
We went throught the initial passport check and they said "Hi, how are you today?" To which Huffle replied. "I'm very nice". WHAT said the border policeman. "I'm very nice" said Huffle (he says he was factually correct but I say he's an idiot!). Each of our passports were checked and he called our names and we waved at him. Because we are all British but live in Canada we had to pull our car over and go to Door #2. This was a large room, that you couldn't get out of once you were in, and resembled a cattle market of many nations, mainly Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and our poor little British family. We sat here for nearly an hour at which point Huffle was chuntering under his breath about waiting too long, the whole system being ridiculous, people going in before us etc etc. I went and spoke to one of the Border Police and told him we were waiting and everyone else was going before us. He shouted to the men behind the counters and told us we would be seen soon. Lo and behold we were shouted instantly and went through to the glass room (immigration). We met a very nice lady who chatted to us, took mine and Huffle's fingerprints and photos, stamped our passports and charged us $6 each for the privilege and waiting for an hour. Thanks a lot then!
We were then free to drive through Buffalo and onto the Galleria Mall, round and round in circles where we descended upon the Cheesecake Factory. However they had a 50 minute wait and by now it was 3pm and we were starving. We went in a very nice place where we were seated instantly and got our food.
The Mall where we searched for Macy's and JC Penneys because we were informed there were good toy departments there. OH NO THERE ISNT!
We had a couple of hours in the mall looking for toy shops which we didn't find, we didn't buy anything because there were too many people and we were getting annoyed. We had a Gelato before leaving and then drove in the dark to Niagara Falls US side. Here we had to go into a building with other immigrants and handed them our passports and told them we wanted to declare our papers to finalise our permanent residency papers. This building was much smaller than the US side with not many seats so for a couple of hours we stood bored waiting. We were so close to the falls but couldn't quite see them. There was a firework display outside but the border police wouldn't let us go outside to watch. We played on the IPads and phones and finally got called to hand over papers which were then photocopied, another long wait and then we signed our paperwork and were congratulated on being Canadian Residents. We have to live here for two years out of five and renew the Residency in five years. Phew! Fourteen months of paperwork and waiting plus an awful lot of money.
Rainbow Bridge. The missed fireworks.
Skywheel. Small and Smallest in Richard Ludlow's chair (Worlds Tallest Man).
We drove towards the falls, parked and walked through tatsville (very reminiscent of Blackpool), through the Christmas lit park and onto the Falls which were also lit up. It wasn't easy to take good photos here but we had a good walk along the falls to the end and then back again.
I can't say the falls are better at night but it was different and the fact we got to see the Christmas Lights too was a bonus. In fact, the lights had only been turned on that night which is why the fireworks display was on too.
By 9pm we were tired and the boys Wanted something to eat and drink so we celebrated our residency with a Beaver Tail and Hot Choclate. A beaver tail is a flat doughnut with various toppings. Huffle had Nutella, Small and I had Maple Butter and Smallest had Cinamon Sugar. They are very vey sweet (almost too sweet) but it did the job and we walked back to the car and drove the two hours home.
What a long long day.
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