Day 7 involved on of the weirdest 'enter a building' procedure I've ever encountered. We woke up in our ginormous hotel room, ate a buffet breakfast, and headed for downtown Detroit in search of information on a particular rent collection/payment program. The building we had to go to was a government building, and it must have been a pretty important one, because we had a hell of a time even getting inside, due to the building's security. Most public buildings involve entering the front door, but not so for this building. We tried it, and right away people from inside the bulding were running toward us yelling, "Not this way!" They shooed us out right quick. People outside the building helpfully told us we had to go around to the side to enter. So, we tried this, and again, people ran toward us yelling, "Not this door!" and "Not this side!" So, back outside again, and thoroughly perplexed, we looked for another entryway.
We did eventually find a way in, and, once inside, we had to wait in line to go through security. This is not really an issue for us since we don't carry weaponry or illegal stuff or the like. However, this time, we had with us every shred of electronic equipment we had brought on our road trip, since it's foolish in the extreme to leave that kind of thing in the car. As everyone there says, "This is Detroit!" So, the security guys who had to x-ray our bags had a really fun time taking out each and every item, including tangles of cords and wires, papers, and quite the assortment of other knick-knacks. Then they very sloppily put everything back in, so that papers were crumpled and things protruded in a badly balanced and uncomfortable arrangement.
Getting to where we needed to go once inside the building also took us a while, considering that after the strict and unadvertised entry procedure, they just sort of turned us loose. We did eventually find a listing someplace for the general block of floors we needed to head to, with the obvious first choice turning out to be under construction - no offices were open on that floor and we probably shouldn't have been there, but we didn't know that at first. We did find the office we looked for, did what we had to do, and then on our way out, the woman helping us realized I wasn't my boyfriend's kid sister but an adult in my own right, and then she spent another 5 or so minutes gushing about how young I look, which totally made up for the rest of my experience in that building.
After this escapade, we decided it was probably time to head out - out of the city and out of the United States. We headed for the border, which featured a lot of signs pointing us toward the 'Bridge to Canada'. The bridge, called the Ambassador Bridge, is pretty impressive, and so even if the signs hadn't been there, it would have been relatively easy to find. At the border, the border crossing agent almost didn't believe us that our total declaration after a week of travelling through 10 different states was $9.00 (fridge magnets for every state we went through, except I forgot to buy a Minnesota one). As well he shouldn't have, as it turned out we also had an $8.00 map that we'd forgotten about.
Once in Canada, we stopped for lunch at a McDonald's that had a recycling program (which was nice to see and something I totally wish we had in our city's fast food joints). Then we headed for Hamilton, which is where our flight the next day departed from. We found the airport, made arrangements for dropping off our rental car the next day, and then continued onward to... Niagara Falls! This was somewhat spur-of-the-moment, in that we'd just decided we should go there the night before, in our hotel room. The conversation went something like this:
Me (to myself): I wonder if that place is close to where we're going...
My bf: What place?
Me: That really famous waterfall... you know, really big, popular, Canada side is totally better...
Him: You mean Niagara Falls? o.O
Me: Yeah! We should see if it's near where we'll be!
...pause while I look it up...
Me: Yes, yes it is. It's practically right next to Hamilton. Looks like it's about an hour past it.
Him: We are going there.
Me: Woo-hoo!
So, we got to Niagara Falls in the late afternoon and, since we had to pay $20 just to park there, spent some time looking around and signing up for a tour through some tunnels behind the waterfall. It was quite a nifty experience, and very... damp. We were given rain-covers with our tickets and it's a good thing, too. Water was spraying everywhere, which made for quite a nice rainbow. The town there is very touristy - it reminded me of Vegas, with all the tourist attractions, lights, restaurants (with views, of course), and fancy hotels. And of course, there were people all over the place.
After that, we went back to Hamilton, searched for a restaurant that was open for us to eat at - it was about 9:00 pm, and due to the economy or something, half the businesses downtown, where we were, were closed down. Two Subway sandwiches and a nice walk later, we bedded down for an early wake-up the next day.
Day 8 consisted mostly of just flying home. We returned the rental car with over 5000km more on the odometer than when we picked it up initially. Waiting for us at home were two lonely cats and a LOT of veggies in the garden.
