It's My Birthday

I'm a take-charge kind of a gal and so this morning I had some definite ideas about how I wanted to spend my birthday. First I wanted to be outside if possible, and I wanted to do something I'd never done before. When at first the weather threatened to drizzle all day, the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Site was at the top of my list.

"Isn't it funny," I said to Heidi,"that really? Teddy Roosevelt is not even close to my favorite president, and yet it seems that we have been to a lot of his places." I was referring to Roosevelt Island and Roosevelt National Park, and now this.

But as luck would have it, the weather cleared, and soon Heidi, Louise, and I were off to Old Fort Niagara, an almost 400 year old bastion located  on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River. We spent the afternoon wandering the amazingly well-preserved site learning the history of its Indian, French, British, and American occupants. Then we drove home along the wide river, the Canadian side of the river to our left. We stopped in Lewiston and strolled through a riverside park that happened to mark the final stop in the Underground Railroad. Here, residents of the town rowed escaped slaves across the Niagara to Canada. I bought a bottle of water, and paying with a 20, my change was 18.65, the year the Civil War ended.

Home at last, I prepared a dinner of steamed shrimp, grilled steak, baked potato, and salad, and at the table I sat back and sighed. "Well, I had a really great day!"

Heidi's mom laughed. "Really? You drove and you made dinner!"

"I know," I said, "but I like to drive, and I like to cook, especially because I get to go where I want and eat what I like!"

There was no argument there.