Niagara Trip Part 4: Day 3 and 4

Day Three of our Niagara Falls trip started with a drive to Niagara on the Lake, a cute town north of the falls on Lake Ontario. We wandered the main street shops, had some lunch and walked to the lake. Then we drove through wine country (flat flat flat) and visited the Ice House Winery for a taste of famous Ice Wine. Ice Wine is made by crushing the grapes when they are frozen, resulting in a very sweet, in this case berry flavored, dessert wine unlike anything I've ever tasted before.

Later that night we walked around more, took one last trip to the Street of Fun and looked at the Falls up close at night. The next day we spent some time on the New York side and then headed home. Here is a video of the footage we shot during our trip. Most of it is from these last two days since we continually forgot we had a video camera with us.

Niagara Trip Part 3: Waterfall Adventures

Day two of our Niagara trip was filled with adventures surrounding the Falls themselves. First we checked out of the Best Western and drove the car down closer to the falls. We couldn't check into the new hotel yet, so we parked the car at the Casino next door and headed down to the Maid of the Mist boat dock.

 For the uninitiated, Maid of the Mist is a boat ride that I am pretty sure is one of the oldest running Niagara attractions - they started in 1846! Blue ponchos are handed out and the boat goes as close to the falls as possible for an incredible adventure. We didn't get as wet as we thought we would, but photos were interesting to take with the mist constantly dotting camera lenses with water nonetheless. If you are going to do just one thing at Niagara, this would be the thing to do.

Being that close to the falls, with the roar of the water and the mist rising up around you is such an amazing experience. It made me feel small and awe filled at Mother Nature.

Next we went on a Journey Behind the Falls, which is a series of tunnels that go behind the falls. You are able to look directly at the water rushing down from behind, which is a really nifty experience. The tunnels/portals are just plain cool and very old fashioned, it's almost scary to think that you are 150 feet down. And seeing the falls from behind them is an experience. The first tunnel is the best, in my opinion, the others are slightly anti-climactic because you can't see much and the effect is sort of ruined. The first one you are kind of next to the falls so you can see it from in front and behind - which is awesome.

After some more wandering and I believe some lunch, we checked into our hotel - The Oaks Overlooking the Falls, where we were slightly disappointed to be on the 4th floor. The view of the falls was okay, but slightly blocked by trees and a little bit distracted from by a parking lot. We tried to get up higher, but there were no rooms so we had to be content going to the 14th floor observatory for a better view.

I honestly can't remember much else from the second day. I know we wandered about the Casino a bit (and please note the awesomely steampunk-like fountain we saw) and tried to find a tourist channel on the tv for a little while, but other than that I think we mostly crashed at night. We were tired from a lot of walking, and therefore very exhausted. That night we might have eaten at The Famous, which was an awesome diner in the casino. It had a very 1930's feel about it, which I LOVED and also the most delicious chocolate chip muffin in existance. It had a slight citrus, orange taste to it and mmmm oh so good. I wanted to eat there again, but it was never where we were when we were hungry.

I had planned on showing you video that I took with my Nikon P4, however Windows Movie Maker won't import that type of video and I'm not sure what to do. So, unfortunately, no video today. Hopefully I'll figure it out for next time. Stay tuned for day 3, which I promise will arrive sooner than day 2 did. I've been a little busy over at FallenPeach lately :)

Niagara Trip Part 2 : Adventures on Day One

We originally planned our Niagara Falls trip for three days (incl. arriving and leaving days), but soon realized that we would need at least one extra day. This is still a very small amount of time, but as it turns out - just right for a trip to Niagara Falls.

Sunday we drove from Connecticut to Niagara, which took about 8 hours including stops for gas and breakfast snacks. The biggest toll we payed was $15.30, an amount we weren't quite expecting. We called the Skylon Tower just short of crossing the border to make reservations for brunch - the cheapest option they have - and went immediately there before even our hotel.

 The Skylon is an amazing adventure to start a trip with. You ride a yellow bug like elevator up up up to a three level observation deck and restaurant. The dinner level revolves so that over the course of an hour you have seen Niagara Falls in 360 degrees, which is awesome in and of itself. We, however, were eating at the brunch buffet - which does not revolve. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic view of the falls and couldn't help but stare (despite my fear of heights - going up that elevator was the hardest part for me, after that I was fine). Brunch was delicious and we followed that with a trip up one level to the observation deck for a more direct view of the falls. The wind and cold kept us from staying up there too long, however, plus we were ready to continue our adventure!

Sunday was the extra day we added on to our trip and we stayed at a Best Western about a mile or two from the falls. This was both good and bad. The hotel itself was beautiful, clean and the staff was extremely friendly. The pool area was obscenely beautiful, but we had not brought our suits so we didn't get to use it. The hotel was not, however, in the touristy or most beautiful part of Niagara. We had to walk down a slightly sketchy street in order to get to the tourist "street of fun" and even farther to get to the falls. We were okay with this, but if you are staying for more than one day and don't plan on driving and parking near the falls - I would recommend something closer. It seemed silly to us to pay to park when we could just walk, though, so we got plenty of exercise - especially that first day.

 Ahh, the Street of Fun. Walking we saw continual signs pointing us towards "Clifton Hill - The Street of Fun" and after all that build up... boy were we excited when we finally reached it. Along with very amused and slightly disappointed. The Street of Fun is about three blocks pure TOURIST kitchy insanity. Three haunted houses, several Ripley's Museums, two wax museums, fast food galore, arcades, giant ferris wheels, bowling.... this was obviously where the action was.

Clifton Hill is great for getting fast food (slightly cheaper than the over priced restaurants) and for a laugh, but it wasn't really what we were looking for in entertainment, so after a few photos and a snack we continued on our walk to the Falls.

 Niagara Falls is one of the most amazing natural sights that I have visited. So much rushing water, an almost constant rainbow and all that mist just rising up out of the middle of it all. If you ever have the chance, you should go and visit. And at least stop by the Canadian side - the view is much more spectacular and cohesive.

Stay tuned for Day 2 :)

Niagara Trip Part 1: Tools for a Roadtrip

Because this is an adventure blog and I don't want to overwhelm you, I'm going to do a set of posts about our latest adventure. We drove from here in CT to Niagara Falls Canada for our two year anniversary and had a lot of great adventures there. 

This post is going to be about tools that we used to make this trip possible. 
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First, I guess the most important one is my Mini Cooper, Dante. Pepper White and beautiful, Dante has been far and wide with me and us and is always ready for an adventure. Mini Coopers are tiny little cars, but they have great gas mileage and have a surprisingly large amount of space in the back with the seats put down. I've driven on adventures to South Carolina with this car and two other people and even that was pretty okay. Two people is best, though, for a mini cooper road trip adventure.

Second, we bought a new Acer Aspire netbook (with part of my tax return - woot). Last long trip we went on we used a regular sized laptop and it was a bit of a pain in the ass. The computer wasn't the most up to date to begin with, and it was big and bulky in the front seat. The netbook is a great size for road tripping and is actually a lot faster than the other adventure laptop.

Another great feature is the webcam. Unfortunately, though, I haven't figured out how to record video with said webcam on the netbook. I'm not sure there is a direct way, I may have to download a program or something for it. Anyone had any experience with this?

One small problem with the netbook is the shiny, glossy screen - which can cause some annoying glares depending on where the sun is. We haven't had too many issues with this yet, but I'll keep you updated on future trips.

Third we got a new GPS system for the netbook. Last major road trip we used Microsoft Streets and Trips... and while the program did its job there were definite quirks that got on our nerves. Also, the actual GPS piece was a bit flimsy and eventually broke towards the end of the trip. The new system is the Earthmate LT-40 and looks a lot more sturdy. Also, it gives you an estimated time of arrival that changes per your speed and stopping times - which is AWESOME and makes me super happy. It also seems a lot easier to plan a trip and change that route on a whim. Again, this was a short trip to try it out but I'll keep you posted on any longer journeys if it still holds up.

We also bought a power inverter for the car so that we could keep the netbook plugged in, which was extremely helpful and also worked great. I can't remember the brand right now, though. 

Those were our main four tools for this trip and I'm glad to say that they all performed amazingly. Next up I'll talk about some of our adventures in Canada, stay tuned.