Anyway.
Day Three: Niagara Falls, NY
We got up somewhat early and headed off to Tim Hortons for what became our staple at breakfast: Timbits. They are so, so much better than Munchkins - the chocolate bananas ones: NOMNOMNOM. I will say Dunkin Donuts' coffee is much better, probably because it's consistent at their locations. The half dozen times or so I had TimHo's coffee, it tasted different every time. If they build a TimHo within an hour of Chicago, I guarantee I will gain 10 pounds upon hearing the news.
The falls were about a 15 minute drive from our motel. As you approach them from the south, you can see the mist rising in the air - it's pretty neat. As we got near the Falls we were flagged into an "unofficial" parking lot by some very insistent and somewhat shady folks. The price was the same as if you parked in the State Park lot ($10) but they were trying to get you to buy souvenirs and take a way overpriced tour of the area - probably about twice as much as one you'd get through the Park itself. Needless to say, the next day we parked in the official lot as it was closer and nicer and I gave the flag waver for the other place a sour look.
The Falls themselves are beautiful. I never knew too much about them prior to our visit. There are three falls - the American Falls (pictured above), the really small Bridal Falls (which you can see in the very front of the photo) and the Horseshoe Falls which is mostly in Canada technically. We took several hours walking around the area, and took a trolley both to Luna and Goat Island which offers great views of the Falls. For some reason, I've always found bodies of water soothing - especially the sounds they make. Which is interesting considering I've been land locked all my life. Sure we have Lake Michigan, but I really only went there maybe once or twice a year as a kid because it can be somewhat gross at times. If I ever win the Lotto, I am going to buy a vacation home somewhere on the waterfront and just sit out there with my iced tea or coffee and relax. Back to the Falls, here's a couple of my favorite shots:
As you can see, the second shot was taken that night. In the early afternoon, we decided to take a break as rain was in the forecast. We took a short trip to Clarence, NY (east of Buffalo) to scope out a large antique mall. It was pretty empty which meant the little old people that worked there were very lonely and asked us a hundred times if we needed help. It looked like this was going to be a bust, but in the last shop I picked up these two artifacts for $5 apiece:
They're somewhat beat up (there's even a tack still in the Bruins one), but how often do you see vintage pennants, especially for a defunct team? They also had a Flyers and an Oilers one, but I didn't want to poison my apartment with them. At some point I should make a hockey wall - especially since my puck collection is growing. After the Mall we headed back to the motel. I should say at this point we really didn't spend any time in Buffalo, which I'm a little sad about. I didn't do as much "scoping out" beforehand of the city as I would have liked, and I did quite enjoy the Falls. I'll have to make a point of spending some time in the city next time I'm out that way. In any case, we stopped for a bite to eat, and lo and behold the skies opened up and we got soaked running to my car after Chipotle. We chilled at the motel for a few hours. Here's the thing about our motel: it wasn't luxurious by any means, and there were some issues. The "wireless internet" was a joke - my 28.8 modem was faster back in the day. Thankfully we were able to siphon the wifi from the Quality Inn across the street when the wind was blowing the right way. The TV remote stopped working (I think the maid dropped it) and the only way you could get one of the lamps to turn off was by hitting it. But it was clean and the a/c worked and it was cheap - to me that's all that mattered. After a few hours, we headed back to the Falls and stopped and got ice cream here:
I love old Twistee Treats! We headed back to the Falls as they light it up very nicely at night with a rotating array of colors. It wasn't too crowded as I think folks probably made other plans since it rained for a few hours in the early evening. We spent an hour or so there, and stopped at several motels on the Boulevard to snap pictures of the neon signs. I think the one below was my favorite as the poor Pelican looks so damn depressed:
Day Four: Niagara Falls, NY -> Toronto
Sadly we checked out of the Moonlite Motel as we headed toward the promised land of Canada. On the way out of town, we revisited all of the motels in the vicinity for daylight pictures of the signs, as some didn't light at all. This one is funny:
I don't know why you'd advertise that your motel is only 3 stars. I'm not even sure it was still open - it made the Moonlite look like the Four Seasons from the outside. After my shutterbugging, we headed one last time to the US side of the Falls to take the Maid of the Mist boat tour. Those are the boats that take you to the bottom of the Falls for about 20 minutes. They provide you with some lovely complimentary ponchos for you to wear. Here, let me model one for you:
I think I was annoyed it clashed with my plaid shorts. They loaded us all on the boat - I managed to get a good spot on the rail near the front. It really gave you an amazing perspective:
The second shot was taken through my poncho as about halfway through I noticed water had gotten in my viewfinder. I panicked a bit, but luckily there was no real damage and the water evaporated within a couple of hours. Whoever came up with the "Maid of the Mist" name must have been a PR person. It was more like the "Maid of You Will Be Wet For An Hour Afterward and God Forbid If You Didn't Wear Flip Flops" (we did). We made our way back to land and spent a little additional time taking pictures before running for the border.
We crossed the Rainbow Bridge over the Niagara River to get to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Dispelling the rumor that all Canadians were friendly, the border guard was rather an old grouchy coot. I guess that's the Canucks' version of an American DMV worker. Comparing Ontario's Niagara to New York's Niagara is amusing. The American side is a run down tourist trap from the 1950s. Lots of abandoned tour booths and malls and vacant lots (I wish I had known beforehand because I would have explored more - I can't believe I didn't know about Love Canal!) and what's there is mostly cheap and cheesy tschotskes shops and the like. The Canada side is a Tourist Trap from the 1990s: Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe and a lot of chain hotels. The Canada side is much more expensive due to its perceived "niceness," but I was fine with the fact we stayed in New York - it was much more authentic in its bleakness. We spent a short time on the Canada side taking some additional photos of the Falls, and stopped at this awesome place for lunch on the way out of town:
It's a restaurant shaped like a Flying Saucer! I knew we really were in Canada when the waitress asked us if we wanted gravy on our fries.
We got on the Queen Elizabeth Way to Toronto and promptly got stuck in gridlock as we reached the outskirts of the city. Just like home! After some freaking out sharing the streets with the streetcars, we found our hotel in downtown Toronto, paid $45 to park my car for three days, and didn't use my car again until we left Toronto. Yay for public transit!
Our first night in Toronto we mostly spent walking in the area around our hotel. We were a block away from Eaton Center (a huge mall which is the largest tourist attraction in the city which I find sad - I hate shopping) and Dundas Square. I can only describe it as the Canadian Times Square. Judge for yourself, this is the view from our hotel:
Thankfully we were on the 17th floor which drowned out most of the noise with the exception of an occasional siren or streetcar. We perused a couple local bookstores, at which one I bought the Blackhawks commemorative issues of SI and the Hockey News. Amy bought a Susan Sontag book - sometimes I wonder how we don't kill one another. We stopped and got ice cream (I sense a pattern) and headed off to bed. I will leave you with one last image from that day in Toronto, a combination of sleaze and spelling FAIL:
Next, two more days in Toronto, including our visit to the HOCKEY HALL OF FAME. w00t!
[By the way, if you want to see the roadtrip pictures I've uploaded thus far, go here.]
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