I was so keen to blog about New York New York I nearly forgot my short trip to Canada! We had the choice to either head to Philly, DC or Niagara Falls, and I made the decision that I didn’t want to miss out seeing the spectacular Niagara Falls.

We left New Jersey bright and early (well, 9am), with good intentions to get to Niagara Falls by mid-late afternoon. It was another bright lovely day, and the 6-hour drive that would take us across three states seemed less daunting when it was bright and sunny. Obviously we didn’t factor in the possibility of having to stop to do some outlet shopping (more handbags for me!) and lunch. But the worse has got to be the sat nav. Our borrowed sat nav took us through the smallest possible roads through one-street villages and towns instead of using the freeways that would had really been preferable! But I think the worst was when it broke down on our way home. We had stopped for shopping on our way back (uh, serves me right) and somehow the screen of the sat nav cracked whilst sat in my bag!! That was the end of it – thankfully I had printed out directions back to Elvin’s place from Niagara Falls, otherwise I would had still been stuck in Pennslyvania in a out of town factory outlet.

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By the time we finally got to Days Inn in Niagara Falls it was 5pm. With the amount of long way rounds that the sat nav brought us, it’s not too bad timing actually. We dropped our bags, and I grabbed our passports and insisted on heading over to Canada for dinner. Heh. Thank god our hotel was the closest to the Rainbow bridge, the pedestrian and motor vehicle bridge that connects NY with Canada.

It was a short walk of about a mile or so across the bridge to Canada, but it was such a pleasant walk…

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Looking over at the American Falls.

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Maybe its the slightly surreal mist that surrounds everything in Niagara Falls, but everything looks ever so twilight zone like.

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Straddling countries.

We had to go through immigration when we got to Canada, and it tickled me when she asked us how long are we in Canada for and we answered oh, just for dinner. Heh. What did she expect, all I had was a camera and a handbag.

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The Canadian side has a slightly surreal feel to it, looks like it’s ready for a big influx of tourists, but not quite, as most of the shops and restaurants immediately after the bridge looks abandoned or closed down. I guess this is similar to the cowboy town feel that I got from the NY side as well – probably because the season had just started.

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However, the Hershey’s world was still open!

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And I got a giant peanut butter cup for Elvin. Heehee. Made with Canadian milk, it is apparently creamier and less grainy than the American version. Wasn’t the most clever idea I had, it was a solid block of chocolate with a tad of peanut butter inside, and considering the size, it was really hard to slice into it – we had to hack it with a knife.

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Excitement done, we walked towards the ‘centre of town’ – Clifton Hill. Just turn left after the rainbow bridge.

In a typically indecisive mode, we could not decide what to eat. It doesn’t help that we had no Canadian money, and all the shops are a right rip off if you try to pay with American dollars, the exchange rate that was quoted to us was 0.8. And seeing that the exchange rate was really hovering around USD$1 to CAN$1.25, this was really unfair! So in a streak of rebellion, I decided that we were just going to walk around and return to the Dennys at our hotel (which I had previously blogged about).

But truly, the views from the Canadian side was magnificent.

Like wow. The twilight helped as well – very surreal.

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View of the Horseshoe falls. Definately breathtaking views – must be slightly annoying you can’t really see much from the American side.

The view justifies the long journey we made across three state lines.

It is just unfortunate that alot of people who visited Niagara Falls do not get to make this crossing due to visa constraints. They had also stopped accepting drivers’ license as a valid form of ID for Americans, so you would need a passport to actually return to the USA. I remember using my Californian ID for reentry from Mexico – I assume that those days are long over now and a valid passport is always required for reentry,

Bear this in mind before crossing, as you would not be able to make a U-turn whilst you’re on the bridge; it will bring you right back to the American immigration officers who would need to see a valid passport/visa. A bunch of students trying to return with their I-20 had problems with the immigration officers when we were there – and their lack of luggage shows that it doesn’t matter if you were there for an hour or two weeks, just make sure you hold a valid reentry to the US. And oh, there is a toll of 2 quarters on your return walk back into the USA, so just bear that in mind. Always keep quarters – they will forever remind me of doing laundry

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The next day it was up bright and early as we were going to go on the Maid of the Mist and then start our long drive home. Well, 9am. However the Maid of the Mist do not start operating until about 10am, so we had some time to kill which we spent walking around the park.

The Maid of the Mist is one of the oldest tourist attraction/ride in America, first launched in 1846. Not much seems to have changed since then, the boats still departs from both the Canadian & American side, taking tourists on a splashingly good time ride to both the American falls & Horseshoe falls. You get up close and personal with both falls and get thoroughly drenched.

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All kitted out with raingear

Sailing right at the bottom of the falls. My cameras got put away after a while due to the splashes.

As we were first in the queue. I rushed upstairs and got a fairly good spot, i.e. on the balcony. However, we were nearly pushed overboard by a bunch of overly exciteble tourists from China – whoever thought that the Chinese could be soooooo annoying? Nope, not being racist – I’m allowed to say that as I’m ethically Chinese . But seriously, the way they elbow you out of their way; I was just glad that I am a full head or two taller than most of them so could pretend to ignore their jostling and the fact that I understood that they were plotting on how to get to the front of the boat for the best views.

Lovely views from the bottom of the Horseshoe falls

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The boat ride was fairly short, and we were back on safe shores again within 45 minutes. Next stop was the observation platform, which bacon insisted was SHAKING. OMG, like wtff! It was very annoying as I was trying to snap pictures whilst bacon kept pestering me that it was dangerous and we should leave now. The worse is when he insisted that the platform was shaking. Not cool.

View from the observation deck.

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I was hoping to get through a post without mention of food, but this is too good to not mention. Something caught my eye as we were walking past the canteen:

Reeses peanut butter cup cake! It was creamy, chocolatey and peanut buttery – in a good way, as these things do sometimes get slightly sickly. Yummys.

That done, it was time for more walking through the Niagara Falls State Park. We walked through the Three Sisters Island, Goat Island and Luna Island, and stopped off at Prospect Point to admire the American Falls up close and personal and Terrapin Point for a up close view of the Horseshoe Falls. This is where the American side trumps the Canadian side. You get views of the falls, but it’s only on the American side that you get to go up close to the falls. Plus if you’re lazy and can’t be bothered to walk a few miles, there is always the trolley that goes around the park which you can hop on instead of walking.

Views from Prospect Point

From Terrapin Point

From Luna Island

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The Horseshoe falls

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Maid of the Mist boat making its way to the Horseshoe Falls.

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And Double Rainbows! Wonder why they call the crossing the Rainbow Bridge?

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Waterfalls over, it was time for us to leave. It was a good side trip, although it did take us ages to get there. You can also do it all in a rush; there are day trips by flight from NYC to Buffalo which brings you to Niagara Falls, Maid of the Mist and a short tour, and then whisk you back to Buffalo airport again and back to NYC in a day; but it will cost you at circa USD$ 500 per person. I believe that you need to go on a roadtrip to truly be in States, so driving it was for us then!

I did ask bacon if he wanted to return to Canada for lunch, but he said not to bother as he was keen to get started on our journey back. It had gone past noon by the time we got to the car and obviously time for lunch!! Wonder what we had for lunch? Stay tuned – I promise not to dissapoint!!!

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Resources

Border Crossing information

Maid of the Mist information & tickets

Days Inn. Slightly depressing and dated, but excellent location and price. Plus walking distance to falls & bridge means no need for additional parking fees – parking at the park is $10. And having Dennys on site is most definately a big plus!

NYC to Niagara & back in a day

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