Day 7 28/6/09 - USA, Canada

Buffalo -> Niagara Falls -> Buffalo

Highlight

• The sky looked clear this morning when I looked out, so I decided to risk it and go to the falls…maybe it won’t rain until the afternoon.
• Caught the 40 bus again, and arrived by 10am. Pretty much as soon as I got there, the skys opened, and started raining pretty much non-stop the whole day.
• Walked across Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side. It was really easy, and no problems at all.
• Well, the Canadian side definitely has better views, and better facilities set up for tourists…but it was also more gimmicky and lacked the natural appeal of the US side. I think it’s good to go to both sides actually.
• Bought myself an adventure pass, which included the excellent Maid of the Mist, where you board the boat and go under the falls, and get really wet. It was really fun.
• The Niagara Fury was a 4D movie experience, aimed at kids, but was entertaining and told you a little about the falls.
• Journey Behind the Falls was really crap. You go into these tunnels and end up, yes, behind the falls. But you wait for ages to peek behind this little hole, and all you can see is a gush of water, not really something you want to pay a lot of money for.
• Whitewater walk was also stupid. It’s basically for a chance to view the rapids up close – as in you can catch a lift and walk on a boardwalk, instead of having to rough it if you want to do the same thing for free on the US side. I guess since I was being careful, it was a better choice.
• Spent ages walking around doing all the different stuff, took a load of photos, even though the weather was gloomy and mostly wet.
• Had a nice frozen yoghurt for lunch, because I couldn’t really face pizza or burger after that big breakfast.
• One of the nice things I did visit was the Floral display, which was pretty much in full bloom at this time of year.
• Even managed to visit the gimmicky tourist stores to try some fudge at the Herseys store.
• Spent about 1.5 hrs on the US side, while waiting to catch my bus back. Quickly caught all the views from last time, and it was certainly a lot more busy, but after all the time on the Canada side, the view was not really anything to be wowed over.
• In the end, had to run for the bus, and only just made it.
• Decided to eat some meat, so went to Nektar, which was very quiet, as usual, on a Sunday night. The food was very good though, the meat came pink…which on other occasions I would love, but I didn’t get to eat it all. Which was probably good since they gave me so much food.

Food

• Doubletree breakfast buffet:
  • Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
  • Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes
  • Asiago bagel with vegetable cream cheese spread
• Yogen Fruz raspberry, mango and pineapple frozen yoghurt ($5.60)
• Nektar dinner:
  • bread with balsamic and olive oil
  • Pork tenderloin in mustard sauce with cabbage, smashed sweet potatoes ($19)