Episode #20: Niagara Falls

We had this drawing done while on our trip to Niagara Falls. The guy that drew this did such a great job and so quickly too. I told Carol Ann I would like to do one of those old photos or a caricature of us as a momento of the trip. She said she would not be putting on an outfit that hasn't been washed in who knows how long so this drawing was the choice.  It has long since been a favorite of mine and hung in my office for several years.

It is June 2005, Brad has just finished his freshman year of high school and Jacob the 6th grade and it was time for a summer vacation. We chose this destination for a few reasons, (1) we had never been there before, (2) it is such an awesome natural phenomenon, (3) we hoped it would be a trip the boys would always remember, and (4) it was one of those locations seared into my mind as a kid thanks to the 3 Stooges! I may have to explain that last reason to the boys one day. I doubt if either of them have  seen that episode and the Stooges seem to have lost their appeal to kids these days.

I had planned on flying into Buffalo and making our way from there but was amazed how expensive it was, so I started looking at other nearby options. Surprisingly, it was a lot cheaper to fly into to Toronto and drive down to the falls. It has been almost 4 years since the terrorist attack on the New York City World Trade Center and international travel was getting more difficult without a passport. I had mine for my upcoming trip to New Zealand. The boys were still so young they were no problem, but Carol had only her drivers license and it took a bit longer at customs in the airport and each time we crossed the border by car. 

We fly nonstop to Toronto, grab our rental car and make our way to the hotel. The city was surprisingly clean and traffic was managed pretty well. Also I had no idea how big this city is and in 2005 it has a population of over 5,000,000 which is larger than the DFW metro of 4,600,00.  We do a little sight seeing that afternoon and make a plan for our driving trip to the Falls the next day. We find we are not far from Rogers Centre and the Blue Jays had a home game against the St. Louis Cardinals. We hop on the subway and ride to the stadium, just before game time and it is far from a sell out and I buy tickets for $10 each. When the game is over it is about 11pm and at first I am a little concerned about our safety being in a city this big and on the subway. As we make our way to the terminal, I notice women walking alone and even a few pushing strollers down the street, so I remain alert but not as concerned.

The next morning after breakfast we are ready to head to the Falls, but first we drive around town which I find is huge with 243 square miles within the city limits. After a while I stop for gas and find it is a lot more expensive here than at home where it is about $2.10 per gallon. At this price of 88.9 per liter, the metric conversion makes gas here a little over $3.45 per gallon.

We make our way to the Falls and it is more amazing than I expected. It is mesmerizing just watching the massive amount of water flow and knowing this goes on every minute of every day, for centuries except for a documented 3 day period in 1848 when the Niagara River stopped flowing. 

 

We took a unique opportunity to see the Falls from a different perspective than where we are in these pictures. We take a boat ride that takes us to the base of the Falls on a tour called the Maid of the Mist. The Niagara River is 36 miles in length and flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean.

After spending most of the day, catching different views on the Canada side, then the boat ride, we head back to Toronto for more sight seeing. We call it a day and go back to the hotel for a while. Later that evening we went back to see the Falls under the lights. The Falls at night under the lights were a different kind of magnificence than the day time views.

The next morning we drive around Toronto for a while sight seeing and such. A little before noon we  head to the Six Flags park in Darien Lake, a little east of Buffalo. It is a pretty short ride and there is some pretty scenery. We arrive about 1:00 pm and find out that the park closes at 5:00 pm. It is June and the middle of the summer season and the park is only open for 7 hours? Who would have figured that?

We hang out in the area after the park closes and drive through Buffalo on the way back to Toronto. What we saw of Buffalo, it looked pretty run down, not at all what I expected to see. We make one more drive back through the Falls area after dark to see the night time view from the U.S. side. Very nice. The border crossing (shown below) was usually not very crowded and we were able to cross pretty quickly each time. Jacob was going to covertly video record one of the border patrol officers questioning me as we cross, but he got scared and chickened out at the last minute.

The next morning, we have breakfast and make a leisurely drive through a suburb of Toronto that was predominately a Jewish community and looked through some of the shops and stores which was interesting and educational. We spent too much time there and the trip to the airport ended up being a rushed ride because it was a bit of a haul to the airport from there. As usual, we end up getting a little stressed out with fueling up the car and returned, get through security and get to our gate, but we make it.

 It was a good trip, a really good family vacation and smooth flights both ways.

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