Saturday morning (very early might I say) we headed to Chesterton to pick up our van. Chris was a driver, I was a chaperon. Though Chris did a much better job than I at yelling at the kids to keep quiet while Warren was trying to talk to them.
We always gathered like this and Chris was always walking around going, "guys come on, listen." I know it is hard to see but if you look in the right hand corner the boy in the grey shirt on the end, that's the problem child for the trip. He was in our van- always the last to get in, always mouthing off. ALL the chaperone's said they will not allow him in their group if they do another trip...and if you look two boys over from him, the one in back there, yeah that's the one that I had to keep sending back to his room because he wanted to go see his girlfriend. Which I think eventually, he just went out the window...
Our first stop was at Amish Country and while the kids ran around town and took pictures of the Amish people and shopped the shops, the adults made sandwiches. Chris and I had to boil and peel 60 eggs the night before to make EGG Salad. We both said we wouldn't eat it, but it was DEEE-LICOUS! We ate like three or four.
This is Warren the coordinator with the sweatshirt on, and Rich a Marine and a driver for this trip.
The kids got back early and are waiting to get their sack lunches. They could choose from Egg Salad, Tuna Salad or PB&J.
Yeah that PB&J in the same container stuff was gross looking, but the kids seemed to like it. I made about 20 of the 50 PB&J's.
Here is Warren again with Driver Mark. I think he may be a teacher in Valpo.
Other drivers/chaperone's were Christine and Derek- NEWLY WEDS!
Here is a bad picture of Daniel, a chaperon/kid from Brazil. He was an exchange student 5 years ago and back going to college at Valpo U.
We made a stop later that night at CEDAR POINT! It was my first time and how much fun it was. We only rode one coaster, which the picture is on a sidebar there. The lines were not too long. We only saw Isabela for 5 seconds when we got there and then she was gone. Chris and I walked through the Haunted Forrest with Warren after taking a nap out in the van. Which was a good thing since it was another 3 hours till we got to the hotel.
Then we got up in the morning, had breakfast in the parking lot, lunch in the park near Niagara Falls, then we stopped at Niagara falls and learned how to not use the high tech parking meters. Yeah, those are not cool. It like takes a credit card and has a camera on your plates, so while we were trying to figure it out, the VIOLATION lights started flashing and a message saying, "you will be billed a $25 violation fee." So we had to back the car out of the spot, and drive back into it to reset the thing.
This is the Maid of the Mist - I chaperoned this tour with 16 students by myself. It was easy because there was no where for them to go but overboard, and all the trouble makers went to Canada....
19 kids went to Canada with ONLY ONE chaperon---CHRIS! He had the tough job the whole trip, driving, keeping kids quiet, and chaperoning in Canada by himself... unfortunately he had most of the Spanish kids and they are so misbehaved. They were supposed to be at the bridge at 6:45.. they showed up at 7:15 after Chris had spent that 1/2 hour searching for them. Everyone else had to wait in the vans like sardines because of them. They were rude, foul mouthed- a sad representation of their country.
Isabela took the tour under the falls. She got to touch the falls! She also said that the rainbow circles under the falls. The kids who wore pants were very cold, but the weather was warm so they dried on the drive to the motel.
I was excited to see this Welsh Dragon on a stone in the middle of the park. I knew my mom would want to see it. We have family in Wales, so I had to stop to get a few pictures.
Here is almost all of the kids that went on the Maid of the Mist with me. I bought a magnetic clip for the fridge at the goodies store.
Isabela bought Chris and I hats! They are wonderful! Thanks Bela!
On our way home the next day we stopped at the ROCK-N-ROLL HALL OF FAME. Chris was wishing he had the money to get Thom one of these gold albums.
Because we are hard to see, Isabela and I just took our picture on the drained fountain there and we're jumping down.
I'm TIRED!
There are two of the German students and they were my favorite on the trip in our van. So, so, so polite...even if I did think they managed smuggle some alcohol in from Canada... they boy could throw a grape REALLY high and watch it all the way into his mouth. It was insane! I never did learn their names though, and Jasper from Germany was really nice also, he kept me awake in the van by talking about NCIS.
No comments:
Post a Comment