Skip to a few photos here. In past trips to New York, Phil and I were always somewhat reluctant to leave the bustling city and never “went the extra mile” to visit Niagara Falls. Although rather close (by American standards), the site just didn’t have that much of a “pull.” But with six full weeks of living in New York to enjoy, we decided that since a) there was a slight chance that it would be awesome, and b) our friend Roland (who lives in New Jersey) was willing to join and had a very comfortable car, we would try our luck and “do a Niagara.”
The 5-hour drive on Saturday was easy (I slept in the back seat), and having convinced the immigration officer at the Canadian border that we didn’t intend to spend more than 24 hours in his marvelous country (he was quite suspicious), we arrived and checked into the Marriott Niagara Falls Hotel. Splurging a bit on accommodation, we had our first direct view of the falls themselves from our 10th floor suite. Definitely worth it!
Looking back, I’m not sure what I expected, but Niagara turned out to be one of the tackiest places I have come across in North America. Much of it reminded me of Las Vegas (the non-glam parts), and some parts felt like Cancun (minus the stray dogs). It’s possible we missed the pretty parts of town. It was a good place, though, for a Bachelor party (we saw a few of those); we followed suit and started our own little party at a nearby sports bar.
Afterwards, we walked along the main road overlooking the falls, marveling at how people had hired horse-drawn carriages when cars were passing them incessantly (I am not one for horse-drawn carriages to begin with, but I think that one there would really mess up anyone’s romantic mood). It’s also hard to imagine that 20 million people visit this site annually. I’d originally planned to take the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you next to or under the falls, but since neither of the guys felt motivated, we chose drinks and conversation over being sprayed with water.
In a nearby grassy area, we unexpectedly discovered a statue of Nikola Tesla, the inventor and engineer who contributed to our knowledge of electricity. I found out later that he built the first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls, a site perfect for that undertaking.
We enjoyed a good dinner that evening at one of the local restaurants, AG Kitchen, a little gem of a place that was hard to find: it was in the basement of a building that looked like a morgue. Over dinner, we found out that this part of Canada produces some fine beers and sparkling wines. We weren’t convinced by the sparkling wines, but the beers were good.
Back in our hotel room after a last whisky, we found the falls illuminated in rainbow colors. We hadn’t seen anything lit that way since our days in China… super-kitschy, someone’s idea of romantic, maybe? How different tastes can be 🙂
We started the next morning with a hearty breakfast at a café that was filled to the brim with locals, and then started our journey back to the city.
All in all, our trip to the Vegas of Canada and time spent with a friend we don’t often get to see made it a very fun 24 hours. And it was great to finally get to see the Falls, even though we don’t think we’ll be heading there anytime soon again.
