The Babymoon and a Bloggy Meet Up!

The Dude and I decided we needed to take a short time to get away. So that we did. It was short and it was close to home, but it was just what we needed. We killed a few birds with one stone with this short vaca - we celebrated my thesis defense, had a little break in between the Dude's jobs, and got away together for a night before the baby comes.

Now the embarrassing part - can you believe that this is the first time that the Fabulous Dude and I have ever stayed in a hotel together, just the two of us? Our honeymoon was spent at my Grandma's cottage, on our trip to Dominican we had our own room but my parents were also vacationing with us (and it's a resort - kind of not a hotel), and other than that - anytime we've been at a hotel, we've been with people .... crazy, right?

So we decided it was time to fix that. We found a great deal in Niagara Falls that included a room, a $40 credit to The Keg (one of our fave restaurants) and a $40 token credit to Dave & Buster's arcade or the Seneca Nigara Casino. We opted for D&Bs because we didn't want to go across the border just to spend $40 on the slots - we would have wasted that in no time flat.

After work on Friday we packed up and headed into the falls. We settled in our room, got changed and headed to dinner. The coupon was good for the skyview Keg, which is on the 9th floor of a hotel and overlooks the Falls. Unfortunately, being a Friday night, we were told we could either wait 2 hours for a table with a view or we could be seated immediately in the lounge with no view. I will leave it up to to guess what this 6+month preggo chose.

After dinner we waddled walked back to our room, got changed into some warmer clothes and headed down to walk around by the falls and on Clifton Hill. We didn't snap too many pictures except for one in the room and one down by the falls.

As we made our way up Clifton Hill, the Dude was so stuffed full from dinner that he was amazed at how I found myself being lured into every candy, fudge, ice cream, or chocolate shop that I saw. Well, I was stuffed full, too, but I strongly believe we have a separate stomach for sweets, don't we? I drooled over everything in the Hershey's store and in the chocolate shops, but I refrained.

Eventually we made our way to Dave & Buster's and we quickly realized that it was a good choice to keep me away from the Casino.

Have you ever seen or heard of those old ladies who wear diapers in the casino so that they don't have to leave their slot machines for hours at a time? Well ... I'm not promising that I would not be one of those ladies. I found myself stuck to the Deal or No Deal Arcade game, gambling away our $40 of chips and celebrating with each prize ticket that I won. The Dude kept going back to this stupid racing game, which I did not understand. I had a strict rule: WE ONLY PLAY GAMES THAT WILL WIN US MORE TICKETS!

Some of my rounds of Deal or No Deal did not go so well....

Others were much more successful....

I even found myself doing so well that I had to snatch up one of the D&Bs Big Winners cups to store my massive stash of tickets.

At one point, while I managed to peel myself away from the Deal or No Deal Machine, I caught the Dude showing off his moves at the Dance Dance Revolution Machine. Te he he.

At 10 pm, the Dude came and pulled me away from my machine (why oh why?) to go outside and watch the Fireworks. I was less than impressed. We could hardly even see them so I quickly ran back into the arcade to reclaim my spot at my Deal or No Deal Machine. Eventually, we ran out of credits on our card and were left with our cup full of winnings ...

We headed into the Winner's Circle where they counted up how many tickets we had. I was disappointed to discover that I couldn't afford the Diego lunch pail but excited that I had enough to win a bag of Carmel Corn! Whoo hoo. I must tell you, it was a major toss up between the caramel corn and 8 bouncy balls and a wooden snake, but in the end, I felt the caramel corn was a better choice.

The glory at the arcade was short lived, but fun. After we were done, we continued our way up the hill and stopped for a soft serve and lemonade for the walk back to the hotel. By the time we got back, my feet were killing and I was ready for a nice long bubble bath!

On Saturday morning, we slept in, headed to Denny's for breakfast (delicious breakfast burrito for me!) and then headed to Marineland for the day. It was the family picnic hosted by Evan's previous employer (the one he finished with on Friday) so we decided we should get in one last hurrah with them before his time was done. :)

Marineland is fun - but I don't think I would go or recommend going if you had to pay for your tickets. Getting to go for free is definitely a-okay with me, though.

When we got there, we met up with M&L who had the Dude's little cousins there for the day. We wandered around and they all went on a few rides for the first little while and then we watched the Seal, Dolphin and Walrus show. I get such a kick out of animals, I was clapping and cheering like a little kid.

Next up, the Beluga whales!

While the "Big Kids" were on the SkySkreamer and the Adult roller coaster, Linda, Stefan and I headed to the Killer Whale show. We stood on the side of the pool where we expected to get soaked (I could have used a cool down) but we ended up being right on the outskirts of all the splashes and only felt a few trickles of water as the whale sprayed the audience.

After the whale show, we headed back to the Deer Park for one more quick visit before joining up the rest of the gang for the BBQ supper.

After supper, the rain hit so it was time to clear out and go home. Of course, the Dude ran to grab me just one last soft serve cone (noticing a theme here? But hey, we had free coupons) before we left and then we were on our way home.

C-Biscuit and Bigg Burd came over for a visit for the evening and then we spent Sunday going to church, having lunch with good friends, and then puttering around home in the afternoon.

And that brings me to today - I know it's not part of the BabyMoon or even the weekend ... but I must share that I had some major excitement this morning!

I finally got to meet SnoWhite and Frog Prince in real life! Whoo hoo!

They sometimes drive through my neck of the woods when they go to visit family, and since they are gearing up to move farther away, we knew it was now or never (or, perhaps not never ... but maybe not for a long time!)

We made plans to meet at the Tim Horton's (because, duh, we're in Canada!) near my house and spent an hour visiting together. It was just like meeting with old friends. And, really, that's exactly what it was.

Over the past year and a half or so, SnoWhite has become one of my most treasured friends. We pray for each other, share exciting news with each other, and of course, swap our most loved recipes with each other! She is such an encouragement to me on a daily basis and I am so excited to say I have finally hugged her in real life. Now here's hoping it won't be another year and a half until we see each other again.