Niagara Falls

I left the decision of where we would go today to Ted, as I had organised most of the itinerary beforehand. There was the choice of Watkins Glen State Park, Albany, Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Ted chose Niagara Falls with a stop in Buffalo, which is actually on our way to Toronto Airport tomorrow, however we won’t have time to stop considering the driving distance, border crossing, rental car return and the Toronto traffic!

After a good breakfast, we started our drive through to Niagara. The sad thing to see was how run-down the town of Niagara Falls is. We weren’t sure if it was an after effect from Covid or something else, but the town was dilapidated and depressing. It was very different to the memories I have of Niagara Falls from years ago.

As we approached the Falls, we weren’t sure whereabouts to park until we noticed an area that offered parking for $10. We weren’t sure if it was legitimate, but the guy who took the money was wearing an official looking T-shirt, so we were hopeful! As we walked towards the Falls, we became stuck behind a tour group, which wasn’t as bad as it sounds because we got a free commentary as well!

TBH, I hadn’t been that excited about seeing Niagara Falls, simply because I felt like we weren’t seeing anything new. I was wrong though - unbeknownst to us, there was also nearby Goat Island which offered a completely different perspective of the Falls. We took an unbelievable amount of photos, made easier by the obvious lack of tourists about. Another thing we noticed too was how much was closed, such as restaurants and souvenir shops.

When we went to collect the car, we noticed that our $10 parking had now increased to $25 from then onwards, so fortunately we’d arrived at the right time! Ted was keen to see Buffalo on the way back where I had been during the winter of 1992. The traffic itself to get there was chaotic and to be honest, neither of us were impressed by the city. We parked the car and went to a sports bar for lunch but TBH, the city didn’t leave a pleasant lasting impression on us.

Our trip back to the hotel took longer than planned, mainly because we got stuck behind a truck for so long! We noticed our room hadn’t been cleaned, and found out it is only cleaned every third day. That may be another sign of the labour shortage. For dinner, Ted bought some broccoli which, as unappealing as it sounds, was exactly what I felt like after days of unhealthy eating.

Tomorrow we head to Hawaii but we clearly didn’t do our research before booking the flight: we wake up at 6:30am and drive to Toronto, to depart at 2pm for a five hour flight to Vancouver, then catch a connecting 6 hour flight to Honolulu. In other words, we arrive in Hawaii when it’s 3:30am here. Ugh. It’s going to be a long day.Read more