Canada - Blogabond

We got a bit of a later start than we had intended after going to breakfast with my family. We went to the All American, because I wanted to get my favorite breakfast meal one more time before we left. Ironically, the name of it is "California Eggs". After some last minute stuff at the house and tearful goodbyes, we were on our way at 9:47am.

New York Thruway

Since Marissa wasn't around, our first destination was Niagara Falls, the Canadian side. The drive through NY wasn't too bad. We stopped once to get gas. While we were there, a soldier in the US Army came up to us and asked us for some money. He and his wife were from Maryland and had been in Buffalo for his mother-in-law's funeral, and apparently had lost his wallet. So we gave him some money for gas to help him out.

Canadian Customs

The Niagara Falls area on the US side seemed really cute, with lots of shops and places to walk around, but we didn't stop. We went through customs ok, although the customs man didn't seem too thrilled that we were bringing all this stuff into the country. He seemed suspicious that we were only staying for one night and claimed that nothing would be staying in Canada, but he let us by anyways. From there, we went straight to the falls.

Niagara Falls 1

Finding parking was hard, and there was a lot of traffic in a stretch probably only a mile long. But we finally were able to get out of the car at about 6:30/6:45pm. The Falls were beautiful! The weather was perfect- it was still light out but it wasn't too sunny or too hot, and at certain points you could feel the mist coming off the water, even though we were probably 2,000 feet from it. It felt really good! It was crazy how the mist billowed above the water and covered tons of area that you couldn't even see through it at all. I wanted to go swimming, but Mike wouldn't let me.

Mike

We found it a bit strange that there were so many Muslims and Indians visiting the area. We're going to have to look it up and see if there is some reason why they are attracted to this particular location. And the crazy amounts of children kind of takes away from the romantic aspect of it that everyone always talks about. But we were glad that we decided to go to the Canadian side, because it was beautiful, and seemed to be a better view than the American side. The falls themselves are on the American side, but I can imagine you really wouldn't be able to see them because you could only look down on them, whereas we could look directly at them.

Niagara Falls 2

After walking around for a little bit, we decided to eat dinner there, despite the fact that we knew it would be expensive. Other than breakfast and a few snacks (like Tricia's zucchini bread, which was delicious!) we hadn't eaten all day. The place was on the upper level of an almost mini-mall type thing- "Elements". The part facing the falls was made up of glass windows so you could see out. We wanted to sit by the window but the wait was too long, so we just decided to take wherever they could give us. It ended up working out really nicely, as we still had a wonderful view. We thought it was even better than the window seats because it was elevated a bit more.

Dinner was really good. We got a few things and shared them, as we are wont to do. We had toasted garlic cheese bread (with bruschetta) for an appetizer, and then we split a cup of onion soup and a 12 oz. prime rib for dinner. Everything was really very good and enjoyable.

When we left it was a bit darker, but not too dark. We walked around a bit more before leaving. We were both tired after a long day of driving/being in the car. As we left and it got darker (since we had to sit in traffic again to exit), lights were turned on that lit up the falls- very cool! If we had known, we would have stayed a little bit longer to see it.

We found the hotel with no problem. We worried that it would be sketchy, but it actually looked ok. We checked in and went to the room. At which point, we discovered that it was indeed sketchy. We had booked a non-smoking room, but when we approached the door, the first thing that I noticed was that there was no sign on the door stating it. We opened the door and I almost choked on the smell of smoke. Clearly, this was a problem. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep like this. Mike called the front desk and asked the woman if there was anything we could do. She was a bitch. She said that there was no other rooms available and that it was a non-smoking room. She came up to spray deodorizer and continued being a bitch. "Well this IS a non-smoking room and we just can't control what people do" ... Grrrr. I had gone for a walk to see the other rooms, and almost every other door in that strip had the no smoking sign before the room number on that plaque and then another plaque underneath it stating in large letters "No Smoking" or another no smoking sign (both were about the size of my hand). So clearly there was nothing to inform other patrons that this was a non-smoking room, which explains why people smoked in the room. Which is clearly the fault of the hotel.

So we started making phone calls. Thanks to Chloe, we were able to find tons of other hotels close by. Unfortunately, this weekend was the Civic holiday in Canada, meaning that everything was booked. We finally found one place with an open room, but we went to check it out before we decided to do it, just incase. The woman was extremely nice, and very concerned that the tv remote didn't work! (I guess she was worried we'd be like sterotypical Americans!) It was more expensive, didn't have internet (which is why there was no update!) or a continental breakfast, and although the whole place was non-smoking, the room still smelled a bit like smoke, but nothing like the other room. So we got a refund and went over there. And just in time, too. We saw three other people go in looking for rooms right after we had booked it. We got a bit of a discount- it was still more expensive than the other place- but we decided that it was more important to get a good night's sleep than to save the money.

And we did. =)

written by

prettyblueroses on August 3, 2008 from Niagara Falls, Canada

from the travel blog: Mike & Heather's Cross-Country Adventure

tagged Canada, Driving and NiagaraFalls

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