Days 37 & 38 - Niagara Falls

On Sunday, we drove from VT to the Buffalo, NY area to see Niagara Falls.  It was a very long ride.  We left VT at 7:30 and arrived in NY at 5.  Since we got there so late, we decided to stay two days instead of one.

As soon as we got camp set up, we headed over to the state park.  The woman at the campground suggested that we drive over to the park and then use our bikes to get around.  This was an excellent suggestion and worked perfectly.  Since it was late in the day, we did not have to pay for parking at the park.  We hopped on our bikes and quickly headed for the Falls.  The boys and I were really looking forward to seeing them and we were not disappointed... not by a long shot.. they truly are breathtaking.  We explored the US side and then thought we'd take the bikes over to Canada.  Turns out the bikes were only permitted on the roadway with the cars so we decided against it, and walked over.

We had a "Fisherman's Wharf Dinner" at Hard Rock because it was convenient.  Expensive dinner, for sure!  There were supposed to be fireworks at 10 but they got cancelled due to wind... that was a big disappointment.  In any case, the view from Canada is much more spectacular than the US side, so we are definitely glad we took the time to go over.

On Monday, the kids swam in the campground pool, we had lunch and then headed back to the Falls area.  Jim wanted to speak to a border agent about the difficulties of taking the trailer through Canada.  We also decided to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist.  Wow, that sure was something.  You really can't appreciate the amount of "mist" the Falls generate until you are on the front of a boat pushed right up against them.  I tried to capture it in pictures, but they really don't do it justice!  We all loved it, even though we got soaked.  Thank goodness for the lovely blue ponchos they provided:)

One observation... the US area around the Falls is kind of an embarassment compared to the Canadian side. Nothing but trashy stores and other vendor carts on our side, compared with gorgeous gardens and hotels on the Canadian side.  The US area is pretty depressed... lots of really downtrodden structures, etc.  Too bad some money isn't injected into the area to bring more visitors to stay in our country. The state park is beautiful but the area around it... no thanks.

This first picture is American and Bridal Veil Falls:

I took the next two pictures from the deck of Maid of the Mist: