The last day in Niagara Falls

For the final day I woke up bright and early, it was the only day I set an alarm and I actually was up before it ever got to go off. I wanted to run down to the Falls to get a couple pictures of the travel bugs I had brought with me with the falls in the background, for some reason I had been forgetting to get the pictures every other time I was down there. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel again and then headed down to the falls for a couple more pictures. After walking back up the hill for the last time we checked out of the hotel.

Next we went to Dufferin Islands, I had been wanting to go and there was a neat sounding multi cache on the islands that I had wanted to do. We went to the islands and wandered off to see what we could find. My tummy wasn't feeling all that well so I wasn't really feeling all that much like caching but we went to the first way point to see what we could find. And what did we find? A frog and that's about it. I did manage to get a couple more bug bites while searching and then I decided that if there were five way points in all and the first one was taking this long that I really didn't want to do this cache, at least not when I had to get to the airport that evening. So we took my travel bug which I needed to place before we left and headed off to find an easier cache that was in the area.

After finding the cache we decided to head towards Niagara-on-the-Lake and see the McFarland House. As I said in one of my previous blogs, I recently read Pride and Prejudice so I found touring a house that would be fairly similar to where the book took place to be pretty fascinating. The house reminded me just how much junk we have nowadays compared to what people had before. Having things like books was a sign of wealth, something that most people didn't have. And to think of being taxed on every closet you have since taxes were done on doors, crazy I tell ya! After touring the house we had tea and strawberry shortcake scones out on the patio, it was quite enjoyable indeed, a very pleasant day and it gave me quite the feeling of being in a different, simpler time.

It was then time to head to the airport and head home. So sad. The border crossing was more of what I had expected each time, there was a line up of cars wanting to get back into the USA. Richard said, "make sure to pick the right lane", and our lane had been moving pretty well until we were about three cars away and then they closed our lane, after a little while they finally had someone come out and direct our lane into the ones on either side, it reminded me of the parting of the sea to watch the cars go back and forth into the lanes next door. We got through the border crossing pretty quick after that and proceeded to the airport to wait around for our plane.

We had another layover in Atlanta, this time it was much shorter, when we were told the gate it turns out we were getting off the plane we were on, to get right back on it when they called for boarding. After getting back on the plane we had just gotten off we had to sit around at the gate for what seemed like forever, one of the landing gauges needed maintenance when we were there and apparently there is quite a bit of paperwork that accompanies fixing anything on a plane. Finally we were in the air and on our way back to Seatac, a little while into the flight I looked out the window and saw lightening in the distance, quite an amazing sight to see! Yet again more awe inspiring views on our trip! Then a few hours later we landed without a problem and drove home. Thankfully I took Monday off so I was able to sleep in and feel rested for the rest of the week!

Yet Another Day of Vacation!

Once again another late morning, but I can't help but think it's way earlier on the west coast and I'm not very good at getting up early there either. We were so late waking up that we missed breakfast at the hotel. We decided to go next door to Smitty's for breakfast, the food was okay but nothing spectacular.

After finally eating we decided to head down and go on the Maid of the Mist tour, if you only have time to do one tour while in Niagara Falls this would be the one I recommend. The boats take you right up to the base of the falls, the wind and mist is incredibly intense. The sheer power of the falls is mind numbing, purely breathtaking, simply amazing, there just aren't enough words to describe it really, I can only imagine how intense it must have been before they started lowering the amount of water that goes over the falls. Once again I'm at a loss of words, the Falls are certainly something amazing to be seen.

We then headed down river and went on the Whirlpool Aerocar, somewhere along the line of the river carving out the canyon it met a much softer material which carved out a large basin area. When there is more water in the river it creates a constant whirlpool, when the river is lower which was the case when we were there it just slowly spins around the basin (or something like that). There is an Aerocar that goes across the river and you get a beautiful view up and down river from the whirlpool as well as a view straight down on the whirlpool basin. The Aerocar was a nice little trip, nothing compared to the Maid of the Mist earlier, but I do believe it was worth doing.

From there we headed back to the hotel, we stopped on the way back at Tim Hortons and I had hot cocoa and a donut. I wish we had these around were we live, they are quite enjoyable little coffee and lunch type places.

Next we headed out to see The Niagara Falls Movie: "Legends and Daredevils" at the IMAX. We got to go over the falls in a barrel, walk a tight rope and the story about Lelawala. I found the Lelawala legend the most fascinating of the whole movie, I've always enjoyed learning about legends of the various tribes native to our lands. The movie was good, though I think it could use a tiny bit of updating someday, it was made in the 80's after all.

On the way back from the IMAX movie we stopped at The Keg for dinner, probably one of the more expensive meals I've had in a VERY long time, but it was very good and it seemed like a good choice of places to have an anniversary dinner. I had a very tasty Teriyaki Steak meal that came with a Caesar salad and then I followed dinner up with a creme brulee. Very tasty and a very good end to a very enjoyable day.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack everything up and get some sleep before checking out on Sunday. I decided to attempt to make our 2 checked bags fit in one bag, I managed to get everything to fit and saved us a tiny bit of money. It amazes me that they charge for one checked bag, how do they expect people to go on vacation without needing to check a bag? I mean really?

Happy Anniversary!!!

June 19th: Happy 5 year anniversary to us!

We got a bit of a late start today, Richard woke up at a decent time but I didn't seem to want to get out of bed, I'm guessing it was all that walking yesterday, every bit of me hurts. Richard was a sweet heart and went down to get breakfast for me from the hotel breakfast before they quit feeding us.

We decided to go to New York today, I figured it wasn't a trip to the falls without seeing both sides, everyone kept saying the Canadian side is so much better but I had to see for myself the difference. Turns out everyone was telling me the truth, the Canadian side really does have a much better view. Though I quite enjoyed the park like setting on the New York side, much less commercial feeling. I had a few caches to do on Goat Island which is where we spent most of our time in New York. Most of the caches in around Niagara Falls seem to be earth caches or virtuals, which is probably good since I've been having a horrible time finding the caches that actually require searching. So we headed out to Terrapin Point, collected the required information, took a picture for a couple that I'm guessing were from the south somewhere based on their accent and they took one for us as well. It is pretty amazing to be so close to the water as it plunges over the falls, Gods power at it's finest! Then we went over to Bridal Veil Falls (and the American Falls) and enjoyed the top of them as well.

The park like setting I was talking about is where the next two caches we went searching for were located, the Three Sisters Islands. These islands are tiny little things just off of goat island they were pretty, had a nice little walk and a great view of the river before the falls. One of the caches here (the one that required finding an ammo can), I didn't find, and we searched for quite awhile. I did manage to get a bug bite or two while searching however. The other one was another earth cache so I just needed to figure out some info and take pictures, I can do the picture thing.

After leaving Goat Island we went looking for the Porter House, or at least the foundation of it since it's no longer standing. Judge Augustus Porter was one of the pioneers of Niagara Falls, there was supposed to be a cache located on the foundation but I'm fairly sure it's missing, I can't be THAT blind. Having struck out on another cache that required finding something I decided to try for one more before heading back to Canada. We went to one that was located by a very yummy ice cream place, I had a waffle cone with a scoop of orange/pineapple and a scoop of black cherry. There was a food place there too and I had intended on eating before the ice cream but they didn't seem to want to bother coming to take our order so we gave up and had ice cream with no lunch. I found the cache there fairly easy, I was starting to worry about my cache finding abilities after not finding the last three physical caches I looked for, it has been quite a few months since I did any caching. Back to Canada we go!

Next we headed out to see the Niagara Clock, they have planted different designs around a clock that is actually keeping time, if I remember right they change the design twice a year. Very pretty to see indeed, did I mention there was a cache here too, seems we had a very cache filled day today. From here we headed back to the botanical gardens that were by the butterfly conservatory just to walk the gardens for awhile. The gardens are kept up by the School of Horticulture, very pretty grounds. Walking around here made me think of Pride and Prejudice which I read recently (and watched two versions of the movie), certainly made me feel like I was stepping back to a simpler time for a little while.

So then we went on to do a tiny bit more caching at Great Wolf Lodge, there was actually two caches by here to find but after finding one I really was tired of caching and said "let's forget it and not even bother looking for the other one". Richard being no much of a cacher to start with was more then willing to be done caching for the day. Great Wolf Lodge looks like an amazing place to bring a family, if/when I have kids I think it would be a wonderful place to vacation. So we took our sun burned selves back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and to go watch the fireworks over the falls.

After getting ready we left to go get dinner before heading down to watch the fireworks. We went to Bostons Pizza and I got a small cheeseburger pizza, I felt like trying something different from my regular Hawaiian Pizza. It was pretty good, maybe I should venture out a little more and try new things from time to time. Our waitress took FOREVER to get us our bill, unfortunately as we were leaving the restaurant there was a huge stream of people coming up from the falls, turns out we just missed the fireworks. I was pretty bummed that we missed them but I do believe I'll live. The falls are amazing all lit up at night with the colors constantly changing. Richard found it rather amusing and unnatural that they lit them up at night.

And finally it was back to the hotel with achy feet and a very tired Amy.

Day Two in Niagara Falls

Our second day started out with a quick breakfast at the hotel, bagel with cream cheese, yogurt and some fruit, nothing too exciting but filling enough for awhile. After eating and getting ready we headed down to the falls, sadly today was a bit rainy so the falls never quite appeared to their full splendor, but they were beautiful none the less. The walk down to the falls brought us through Clifton Hills area, it has a bit of a Hollywood/Universal Studios kind of feel with rides and such, seems out of place to me in a place with so much natural beauty.

We walked along the boardwalk that lined the falls and I took numerous pictures, I did the only cache I found today which was a virtual one about Table Rock, it's amazing how much the falls have eroded over time. After walking around trying to figure out where to start we finally decided to go on the Niagara Fury attraction they have. Niagara Fury claims to give you information about the falls and how they were created. More or less it was a cartoon where a beaver goes magically back in time and quickly runs you through millions of years and then he writes a quick essay. After that little show you go into a room where there is a 180 degree movie screen where you can see the falls and get a little wet. It started out with a bit of snow to recreate the ice age, we then had water splashed at us while attempting to watch the water fall. All in all Niagara Fury was a bit of a disappointment, but the kids that were there on a class trip seemed to enjoy it greatly.

Next we decided to eat a little lunch, we had sandwiches and soup from Tim Horton's, it was decent for a quick lunch and the hot chocolate that came with the meal was quite tasty as well.

After eating we wandered up the path along the falls a bit more, we were able to see the scow in the distance that was stranded there. Hopefully I'll get around to doing the cache that is over that way, but we'll see, there is so much to do that quite a bit of the caching is probably going to be ignored. There just isn't enough time for everything.

We decided to hop on the people mover transportation that came with the pass we bought to a bunch of the attractions. We road that out to the Butterfly Conservatory, as most anyone knows I LOVE butterflies. I could have spent all day there, but they were only open for about an hour after we got there. Probably for the best so we could get in visits to other places as well. There is a botanical garden that goes around where the Butterfly Conservatory is that we are planning to go back to and explore if we have a bit of time in the next day or two. They look like they would be amazing but we didn't want to miss the bus back.

On the way back to the falls on the people mover we decided to go see the White Water Walk, we went down on the last elevator knowing that we would only have about twenty five minutes to experience the class six rapids. They are insane, I can't believe people actually want to attempt to go through those from time to time. The walk was pretty and waves were insane, I took some pictures but they really don't do justice to just how wild the rapids really are. I would have enjoyed a little more time strolling along the path and watching the fury of the water but time ran out. I do think we got to enjoy it as much as was really needed, but I enjoy dawdling when it comes to enjoying nature.

Journey Behind the Falls was our next stop, here you go down an elevator and then you can walk through a tunnel that takes you to portals behind the falls, on an overcast day like today all you could really see was white with some movement, amazing to see but nothing spectacular. After going and looking at the portals we went to the observation deck that is not to high above the water level, from there you have an amazing view up at the falls. I took quite a few pictures but sadly my camera battery died while I was there and my spare was back in the hotel. I suppose after taking some 200 plus pictures today it was to be expected that the battery just might be done.

As Richard and I were both getting a bit tired and my feet were aching we decided to take the Tram thing up the hill to our hotel, or what we thought was right by our hotel. Turns out there are two of pretty much everything in Niagara Falls, at the top of the tram is the exact some food places and hotels as across the street from our hotel. We ended up walking further to get back to our place then expected but in the process we did find that Tony Roma's was just behind our hotel and they had all you can eat ribs on Thursdays. So Richard got all you can eat ribs and I got a new brisket sandwich that they had, the ribs were far better then my dry brisket sandwich.

Then it was back to the hotel to view the photos that we took throughout the day and post a blog and get to sleep! I'm sure tomorrow will be another eventful day! We still haven't decided what exactly we want to do, it's either a bit of caching and site seeing in Canada or we head over to New York to see the American side of the falls and find a few caches on Goat Island. Decisions, decisions.

Just a crazy traveling day getting to Niagara Falls!

Day one of our vacation has been fairly unproductive when it comes to actually seeing any sites or doing anything, but we've made it to Niagara Falls and that was the major point of it all.

We left at 10pm after enjoying a Qdoba burrito at the Seatac airport and flew to Atlanta, Richard's seat on the plane was broken so he had a horrible plane ride, I'm not sure how someone managed to mangle the seat so badly but they did. We didn't bother telling the flight attendants, what if they wouldn't let him sit in that seat and the plane was full, the last thing we needed was to get stuck in Seatac. After getting to Atlanta we spent a couple hours there waiting for our connecting flight to Buffalo. I slept HORRIBLE on the plane so I felt like a zombie walking around the Atlanta airport. We found the virtual geocache that is located there and I took a nap, thankfully Richard didn't nap because I would have slept through boarding the plane to Buffalo if he hadn't woke me up. It was on to Buffalo from there where I slept on and off on the plane. Picked up our Rental car from Avis, I decided to upgrade from economy sized to midsize and got a Dodge Caliber, it's only $5 more a day, why not? I like the Calaber, but I hit my knee on the steering wheel every time I get in or out of the car. I am so going to have a bruise.

From the airport we headed for Niagara Falls, we crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada (which was far easier then I figured it would be with all the "added" security). I missed the first turn and I decided just to take the next one and head towards the river and hope we found the road I wanted to go on, thankfully we found the Niagara falls parkway (the scenic route) fairly easily and we drove along there. There are some AMAZING houses along the drive and the river is beautiful as well. I stopped to try to find a cache located by the Chippawa Battlefield of 1812, I didn't find the cache but I did enjoy the area and getting out and about after being in airports and planes for so long was good too. It would have been even more enjoyable if I wasn't completely exhausted from our travels here.

Once we got into Niagara Falls we drove along the road that is right next to the falls, I got my first glimpse of the falls (mostly the American Falls as they are easier to see from the road then the Horseshoe, especially while driving), they are amazing indeed! I can't wait to go back and actually experience the falls tomorrow! We went to check into the hotel and the room wasn't quite ready so we ate at the overpriced Denny's next door while trying to keep ourselves awake long enough to check in. We checked into the room, I took a shower to get the pollen off me from foraging in the trees while looking for the cache earlier and then collapsed into bed. I then proceeded to sleep away the rest of the day and I now find myself awake at 11pm eastern time, wondering what to do with myself since I can't sleep anymore right now.

Richard hasn't been feeling all that well for a couple days now, I am praying with some sleep he will be ready to enjoy our vacation tomorrow.

So that's day one of our vacation in a nutshell! I can't wait to see more of the falls tomorrow!

(I'll be adding photos when I get home, it is just too much work to do on the laptop).