What a View!
Sara had been really proud to find this cool hotel with an awesome view of the falls when she was making our reservations, but I don’t think either of us knew just how incredible it would really be until we stepped foot into our room. Located on the 30th floor of an otherwise relatively small hotel directly facing the falls, the view that we found through the floor-to-ceiling windows that ran the entire length of the room were, well…
We Need More Time…
Our original plan had actually been to just spend the evening in Niagara before continuing on our journey, but after taking a walk around the area closest to our hotel, it became pretty apparent that we’d be kicking ourselves later if we didn’t spend an extra day and actually take in all of the attractions that the Falls had to offer. Fortunately, the hotel gods seemed to be in our favor that evening and not only were we able to push our next reservation (in Vermont) out a day, but with some luck the hotel in Niagara was thankfully able to relocate us to a different, but still swanky room (with a jacuzzi!) for the second night so that we could further explore this strange, new land that seemed to have an overwhelming abundance of water.
That night we made a short trip back into the States to visit one of the wife’s college friends who lived in Buffalo. On our way, we happened to drive right past this awesome “Video Game Hotel” whose lights we had been admiring from across the falls, so we just had to stop – literally right in the middle of the road – to take a picture!
You “May” Get “Soaked”
I, myself, was impressed by the time we even got down to the main walkway just how wet everyone got from the mist coming off the Falls, however Sara really wanted to go on the Maid of the Mist – you know, those little boats that you always see people getting married on in TV shows – so after about an hour of standing in line, we had the unique opportunity to get absolutely soaked with about 200 other random strangers…
Thankfully, the ponchos were included in the ticket price…
My Wife Can Talk Me Into Anything…
We continued to wander around (and attempt to dry out) for the remainder of the afternoon, eventually winding up pretty far away from our hotel and instead over by what can only be referred to as Tourist Central in Niagara Falls. It kinda reminded me of I-Drive over in Orlando – just nothing but junky, tourist traps everywhere, and we ended up walking past most of them because they all wanted admission charges for the stupidest things … but it was when we walked past one attraction in particular that I looked over to see the evil grin that had appeared on Sara’s face and I knew that there would be at least one thing that we were going to end up going on…
Mind you, this same grin has also managed to get me on some pretty crazy rollercoasters over at Universal and Busch Gardens, and even though this was probably by far the tamest because not only was the ferris wheel completely enclosed, but it was even air conditioned and offered a soundtrack … that still doesn’t do much to comfort a guy who’s ridiculously afraid of heights! Needless to say, I took a lot of photos to try and distract myself from our current altitude!
Closing Thoughts
When we finally returned to Earth, we started that long walk back and realized that we were a lot farther from our hotel than what we had expected. We ended up just going out to see a movie (The Other Guys – it was pretty horrible) and finished up with a late night dinner of Wendy’s & Tim Hortons before retreating to the observation deck to enjoy a little Niagara by Night before heading off to bed…