America/Canada – May/June 2014

Today was exciting for me as I got to go one my favourite thing, a train and then a bus to Niagara Falls!

We had an early start, probably the earliest since the day of our flight to New York. We caught the free hotel shuttle (or car) to Union station where we would get the train to Burlington. Canadian disabled people get so many benefits as my train ticket was free. Compared the British railway network, the Canadians but us to shame of in terms of accessibility as, at most stations, there is a designated disabled section of the platform which is raised to the height of the train. The conductor seems to have to put a ramp out at every single station even if no wheelchairs are getting on or off which is slughtly weird!

We left the train at Burlington to catch the bus to Niagara Falls. As in New York, the buses have an automatic ramp which comes out as well as a designated area to strap a wheelchair down (even though I ended up doing wheelies on the way back which my PAs found highly entertaining!) although you have to sit side on which is an odd sensation.

The bus dropped us off in Niagara Falls at a stop which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. After my rubbish navigation skills took us in the wrong direction, we located a map and found our way to the falls. Our plan for the day was to go on The Maid of The Mist but I was horrified to see that they have now changed the name to The Hornblower and I think that the American side have took that name. After a zig zag walk down to the docking area, we boarded the boat and got ourselves some fetching red rain ponchos for which the photo will be on Twitter sometime soon! I decided to sit outside for a change (I think I was too scared last time when I was 11) to ensure I got as soaked as possible and I did!

After our boat trip, my poor PAs had to push me up the steep hill to walk around the casino and the surrounding areas, got some nice photos there well of trees!! By this time it was around 4pm so we decided to head back to the bus stop and subsequently the train as we were all tired.

We have no plans for tomorrow apart from relaxing before catching the train down to London, Ontario on Saturday Morning to see my cousins so watch Twitter to find out what we actually do.

See you Saturday Morning

Nath 🙂

Today’s post has a weird title which will become clear later on as it has been one of the most funniest evenings ever!

This morning we went over to the Toronto Islands via the ferry, yet again I took my manual wheelchair and oh, by the way super bunny has returned alive but still has gamy leg. The ferry over to the island is very accessible and also a disabled person and their carer gets across for free which is an added bonus although I took my manual wheelchair, super bunny of probably could have got on it too as it has ramped access. We took a walk around the island and soaked in the atmosphere of the amazing themepark….not! After completing a loop of the island, we headed back to the main land where we had lunch before heading to the hotel so my PAs could get some rest.

I will let my PA describe what happened next…

We went for dinner in a market style resteraunt, just as we finished dessert a lovely woman came over to ask “whether he (Nath) would be disturbed if she told him he had beautiful eyes” and so the flirting began… Nath ever the gentleman received the compliment with his usual grunt “yeah”. She guessed he was aged 17/18 and when I corrected her she misunderstood and thought I had said 31 “oooooh 31, noooooooo” her eyes lit up with sheer delight expressing “you could be my boyfriend” she was greatly disappointed when I then corrected her. She went on to explain about her medical conditions making us all feel a little uncomfortable. Then to conclude this encounter she fluttered her eyelashes and told us how she had “saw him from across the room and thought….cheeky cheeky ” 😉

My PAs have found this highly amusing and have continued to make jokes ever since, I’m never going to live this down.

Tomorrow we are catching the train then a bus to Niagara Falls which should be interesting and going on Maid of the Mist and don’t worry, I’m taking my manual wheelchair again.

See you probably Friday Morning

Nath 🙂

After the dramas of yesterday, we decided to have a rather relaxed day today, visiting the CN Tower. The plan was to catch the subway, but after several attempts to find the lift (which are in random office buildings in Toronto) we gave up and decided to walk as it was only a few blocks away.

The benefit of visiting the CN Tower is that the disabled person gets in for free which is awesome! As I have been up the tower two times before, I kind of knew where to go and what to do like the glass floor which I decided to kneel on hence the twitter photo. After getting rather windswept on the outdoor observatory, we decided to go down to the PATH (which is a underground network of shops and restaurants beneath the financial district) to go to my favourite coffee shop, Tim Hortons for donuts.

Last time I came to Toronto, I found a nice restaurant which I wanted to find again, so we went on a hunt and somehow my photographic memory served me well and found it in no time. For tea this evening, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe and in then resorted back to the hotel to go to the rooftop jacuzzi which can be seen in the photo that I’ve just tweeted.

Currently, we are trying to discover where my wheelchair has gone as it has been fixed and left the airport 5 hours ago. But we have just been told that it is being delivered in the morning, YAY! However, I still can’t really use it because the foot plate is knackard so we are trying to see if the engineer can do something with it, all fun!

Tomorrow, we are planning to visit the islands slightly off Toronto and have a wonder around so keep following us on Twitter.

See you Thursday, Nath 🙂

Seeing as it was our last night in New York, we decided to go to the bar for a drink. Where my PA’s found someone from Sex and the City and were being scaredy cats, but eventually managed to get a selfie with him (It was Anthony for those that care…).

As I said yesterday, we got the subway to Chambers Street which is near South Ferry but is time with an elevator hence we had no dramas like before. We left one of my PA’s to go to the Statue of Liberty which she took a millions selfies with! Whilst me and my other PA took the free ferry over to Staten Island. There’s not much actually on the island but you can get awesome views of the skyline and Statue of Liberty from the ferry which is fully accessible. After a short stay on the island and me being petrified by a pigeon inside the ferry port. We went to Starbucks for lunch and waited for my other PA to return.

Following this, we took a walk around the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 Memorial which was somber. The foundations of the twin towers have been replaced by waterfalls that seemed to be ever deeper, perhaps signalling something. We then went on a hunt for the elevator back down to the subway for which none of us could remember where it was but we eventually found it after walking aimlessly around a few blocks.

The subway took us back to Times Square which, unknown to me was a massive station and we managed to loose a PA somewhere. After being reunited, and running into Macy’s for the toilet, we went souvenir shopping and returned to the hotel.

Dinner seemed to be the best one we have had in the whole week which is typical! We then headed down to the bar.

Today we are flying to Toronto after a little walk Central Park to try and find the Alice and Wonderland Statue, which should be fun! So keep following us to see if we find it.

See you tomorrow, Nath 🙂

Can’t believe how quick this week has gone as we are leaving to fly to Toronto tomorrow afternoon!

Anyway we woke up at a later time and then went out for breakfast like normal after which one of my PAs went off to Macy’s to do some shopping whilst I went and got screws for the wheelchair which turned out to be the wrong ones anyway but I managed to also find some super glue which has seemed to work. Instead of getting the bus down to Lower Manhatten where we would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, we decided to get on the subway as I was still in my manual wheelchair. I was surprised at how accessible it is as many people have said it’s not. Although it’s like London Underground where some trains are lower than others, they are all still relatively short. Some of them could probably be ok for electric wheelchairs but some lines there is a sufficient gap this may be where it is difficult.

That morning we checked online as to which stations had elevators and it seemed that the station that we wanted to get off, South Ferry was accessible. However when we got there, I discovered that there was no elevator and yet again I only had one PA who was able to get me up the steps!

The Brooklyn Bridge is a great way to view the city from a distance apart from when it starts chucking it down and it is accessible all the way, just a bit bumpy. We decided to shelter in Starbucks until the rain decided to clear and then got the subway directly back to the hotel instead of taking over an hour on the bus to get from lower Manhatten it only took about 30mins, so that’s what we are going to do today when my PA goes off to the Statue of Liberty whilst I just get the free ferry because I’m tight! On the way back I ended up becoming my PA’s personal shopper because the bag ripped so god knows how I looked being pushed around with a massive Macy’s bag containing a handbag and watch!

After relaxing in the hotel for a while it was time to go to Broadway to watch The Lion King. It was my first time seeing it and I thought it was awesome so if you like that type of thing it’s good to go and see.

As I said above, today we are going back down to Lower Manhatten to visit the Freedom Tower as well as catching the free Ferry to Staten Island so follow us on Twitter to find out what we get up to.

See you later

nath 🙂

Well it was a late night last night as we headed up the Rockefeller at night to see the New York skyline and the reason why I’m posting this this morning or afternoon or whatever!

We began as usual by going to a diner for breakfast, this time it was Applebee’s which is a chain and quite often referred to in American films in which my PA had a great idea to go up the Rockefeller tower at night. The tickets were reasonable costing $29 per person. As I bought 2 female PAS with me it seemed right to have a walk round Macy’s (I’m used to it growing up with girls!). After a while of them taking photos of whatever, we decided to leave one of them to go shopping whilst me and the other one headed back to the hotel which my wheelchair decided to die (or I killed it) so it was the manual wheelchair for the rest of the evening.

We decided to go for a walk through Central Park before dinner in which I suddenly heard music that sounded exactly like a Disney soundtrack but when we got closer it was only some worship choir which was a little disappointing! A friend of my PA told us to visit Ellen’s Stardust Diner on Broadway which is famous for it’s singing waitresses. To be honest I thought they would be crap singers but actually they were quite good! So actually I think it’s a must see if you visit New York. We then had some time to spare before we went up the Rockefeller tower so we went into M&M world where you can buy literally anything with M&Ms on.

It was then time to head up the Rockefeller tower which, in my opinion, is better than the Empire State Building, especially for wheelchair as it just has a glass barrier as opposed to wire meshing. There are 2 levels for which you can go up, as usual we took all manner of things including selfies. The lifts up to the observation deck are pretty awesome as they have a glass ceiling so you can watch it go up to the top which excited me but that doesn’t take a lot.

Today, I’ve planned to find a DIY shop that sells screws so hopefully I can fix my wheelchair and then, as I talked about the other day, we are going to see the Lion King on Broadway tonight so I will write this blog again tomorrow morning.

Nath 🙂

Today was all about the helicopter ride over New York that cost me around £470 for three people! After doing some research, we found that there was a bus to the South Ferry which is where the helipad is (the M5 if you really care and are wanting to go!). We got off to a good start with my PA’s getting us on the wrong bus as it was heading in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go! Tut tut.

The New York City buses are generally accessible apart from the long distance ones as, like normal, they are more advanced than the ones found in Bristol, as they have mehanical ramps that flip out. By the way we are now eating ‘Cheesecake Brownie’ flavour Ben & Jerry’s whilst writing this!

After around 40 minutes on the bus, we headed down on to Wall Street in which I decided to take my female PA’s into Tiffany’s to tease them and with the hope of them buying something, but that didn’t happen, but oh well, I tried! We then headed over to the heliport and checked ourselves in for our flight at half past two. I don’t quite know who was more excited, me or my PA’s, probably the latter, well definitely! We went out onto the helipad whilst my PA’s were trying to work how to get me into the helicopter which was simply solved by one of the staff members carrying me on, I don’t know what health and safety would say to that. My £470 was well spent in about 10 minutes as we flew over Staten Island, Lower Manhatten and Down Town. As usual my PA’s taking ‘selfies’ of literally everything but that’s what you get for taking two young women with you I suppose! The staff were very helpful so would highly recommend it but it depends whether you want to pay a high price for just 10 minutes!

After a stop at Starbucks for lunch, we headed back to the hotel as my wheelchair had some fixing to do. One of my PA’s went to visit her friend for the evening so now we are back having tea which was crap as it seemed like a scabby place and obviously we are eating Ben & Jerry’s which is awesome as the flavour isn’t available in the UK!

Tomorrow we have planned to go up the Rockefeller and just doing random stuff like normal so follow us on Twitter if you stay up until about 11o’clock at night. Otherwise, see you Saturday morning!

Nath 🙂

Ok so I’m slightly more awake (well I woke up at 5:45) so see how today’s blog goes!

After my early start we headed out to have breakfast at an American Diner for which, as usual, came in large portions so didn’t feel like having lunch! We headed towards Grand Central Station which obviously consists of my favourite things, trains!! On our way we walked through Times Square and, as it has been rather cold ended up having to buy hoodies as we were too far away from the hotel (well couldn’t be bothered to go back), me and my PA decided to buy identical ones making us look awesome!

Majestic Grand Central Station is a must see! if you visit New York but then I would say that because of my train obsession. We headed down to the platforms to begin with so I could go trainspotting and then walked around with a hope of finding a Starbucks to be able to tweet photos from earlier on. Apart from being a train station, Grand Central also has a dining concourse but most importantly, an Apple store. The way in was simple but the way out took us a little longer as we seemed to get lost and walk through the hottest part of the station.

After randomly walking around for a while with no plan of what actually to do, we decided to head up the Empire State Building. In terms of price, it is quite reasonable for me and one other PA, as the other one is a seasoned New Yorker so done it too many times already, so in total it came to $51. The place seemed tranquil considering it is meant to be one of the icons of New York and we managed to get up to the top in a matter of minutes (I skipped the queues as normal so it could have taken a little longer I guess). As usual throughout this trip, my PA took a lot of selfies as well as photos, videos as well as all the other touristy crap you can think of. In terms of access, as well as being able to go outside, they have lower viewing sections for wheelchairs and children so you are able to get stunning views over Manhatten and the surrounding areas. After trouble getting down to street level as there was issues with the elevator, we set out for a hunt to find my other PA who said she would wait in Starbucks but she had wandered off on a shopping spree (and now we are having a domestic).

After finding her, my battery was running out so we returned to the hotel where my other PA went to meet her friend after. I then had a craving for cheesecake so guess what we did? We went out and found some making us fat! On our way back I couldn’t resist going down to the Subway for a little walk around which probably seems pointless to everyone else apart from me but hey! On our return to the hotel, we have bought tickets to go to see The Lion King on Saturday night which will be a first time experience for me which should be good.

Tomorrow we are going to head down to Lower Manhatten as I have booked a helicopter ride over the skyline aswell as exploring that area so find out what we eventually do on our Twitter.

See you tomorrow or in most cases Friday morning

Nath 🙂