Awesome Birthday

This past weekend was my birthday and I had the most amazing time! On Friday four of my friends took me out for dinner. The food was great and the company was excellent (Sue refused to be in the picture).
On Saturday a group of us travelled to Niagara Falls to really celebrate my birthday. I always like to do something crazy and fun for my birthday. This year it was a trip to the casino for some gambling. I used to work there, but wasn't able to check out the casino so I was excited to check it out.

Originally we were going to check out the Maid of the Mist as a touristy thing to do before the casino (since I've never really done anything touristy at the falls - on my grade 8 trip to the falls we went shopping). But, Sharon's friend Nick recommended that we head over to the American side and check out Goat Island and go to the Cave of Winds (http://www.niagarafallsstatepark.com/Activities_CaveOfTheWinds.aspx). It was the best suggestion. Cave of the Winds takes you into the Bridal Veil Falls (in between the Horseshoe and American falls). We were able to stand pretty much directly under the falls. It was wicked! I loved it. I highly recommend checking out if you are ever in the area. It was only $11 and worth every penny. We were soaking wet by the end. I could have stayed for hours (above: the group before and below, the group during).
After getting soaked, we walked around the falls area and it was pretty cool. It was an overcast, rainy day. It would be nice to go and check it out again when it's nice.

We then headed back to Canada and got cleaned up at the hotel. Off to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at the Shoeless Joe's at Fallsview. The food was quite good (surprisingly so) and the beer was nice and cold! Tim had worn jeans to the falls and they had to be dried out at the hotel, then at the end of dinner he spilled an entire glass of water on his jeans. Poor Tim.

The plan was to play craps at Fallsview, but the tables were a little out of our price range. So, we decided to head over to Casino Niagara. I had such a good time. Julia kicked some butt at throwing the nice; I once again learned that I should not touch the dice at a craps table. After a few hours of me losing money we decided to head out for some dancing (to me it's an awesome birthday if I get to dance).

After the bar we went back to the casino and ended up playing craps until they closed the table. Then I decided it would be a good idea to try some poker (at 4am). Not a good idea. But, I had an awesome time regardless of how much I lost at the casino (but, I only lost what I could afford to).

It was a phenomenal birthday and I am so thankful for all my awesome friends that made it so memorable!