July 31, Ottawa Ontario to Niagara Falls, Canadian side

Up at 6:00 for a nice breakfast and a lunch “to go” packed into our cooler.  It is sad with all of these short visits with loved ones to have to leave so quickly.  The time is precious, none-the-less, and so we waved goodbye to Marti and Nigel and on the road hoping to slip by the rush hour traffic in Ottawa.

The drive was easy, going through Toronto without trouble. Patti took a nap while we drove, and we arrived in Niagara Falls at 1:00.  We were able to get an early check in at our hotel, and promptly both went to sleep for two hours.  We guess maybe we are a bit tired from our schedule.  It seems that doing a trip like this when you are in your 50’s or 60’s is a bit more tiring than in your 20’s.  But, with a good nap behind us, we were ready to go explore Niagara.

We were told by our hotel desk that the Falls were “definitely NOT walkable”…but they are about 6 blocks away from our hotel.  We took the shuttle down and really enjoyed seeing these powerful waters.  This was Patti’s first time there and it is hard to describe how large they are or what it sounds like.  So lovely! 

The American side is pretty small compared with the Canadian side, but both are great.  It is interesting that in certain areas the mist and water in the air from the Falls is so intense that we had to use our umbrellas and still got pretty soaked.  We heard one guy trying to figure out whether this was mist or it was dumping rain.  Mist.

Once we had looked at the Falls from all angles and taken a ton of photos, we decided to wait until tomorrow to go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. 

 The streets just up from the falls are a mass of touristy things from House of Horrors and Ripley’s Believe it Or Not to Wax Museums and Dinosaur mini-golf.  We avoided all of these.  Patti thought we should find a place for dinner that was less crowded and we chose a Korean restaurant which it ended up with us being their only customer until we were nearly finished with dinner.  Good  food and good visualization!

We keep seeing great animals.  The squirrels and chip monks were terrific in the area close to the Falls.

We walked back to the hotel…oh those long 6 blocks, did a bit of blog work, and then caught the shuttle back to see the Falls at night.

They have huge lights that they project colors unto the Falls in the dark.  Some were spectacular, some not so much.  And we didn’t have the type of high power cameras to capture it in all of its glory. The full moon was in and out, and the mist was very strong in several places.  No umbrellas this time and we were pretty wet.  It was a nice stroll along the Falls, and then time to walk back and wrap up for the night.  If you have not seen Niagara Falls, you should put it on your bucket list.  It is worth seeing.