As Donna mentioned yesterday, this trip overlaps our trip from 7 years ago a little bit. Gigi was too young to remember Niagara Falls last time, so we decided to come back home via the heartland so that we could see Niagara Falls again. We pulled into Niagara Falls, Canada late yesterday afternoon so that we could be near the famous "horseshoe" portion of the falls. We checked into the Embassy Suites (our family favorite hotel) and were assigned a room on the 40th of 42 floors - the kids were very happy about that. The added bonus was that there is a fireworks show over the falls every Wednesday night so we timed it perfectly.
We went to bed with this view . . .
the falls are lit up at night
Donna woke up to this one . . .
sunrise over the American section of the falls on the other side of Goat Island
and this is the view from the room during daylight hours . . .
We have become a family of night owls on this trip, going to bed late and then sleeping in to make sure we are well rested for a day of activities. Embassy Suites offers a complimentary breakfast buffet, so it was late morning by the time we checked out. We drove down to the falls and got some closeup pics. As we began our walk toward the falls from the parking area, it felt like it was raining on this beautiful, sunny day since the mist rises well above the falls and is blown by the wind. With the kids, I get kind of nervous going anywhere near the falls, so we preached repeatedly for them to keep their feet on the ground and not even think about climbing on the walls. As you can see from some of the following pictures, there is no margin for error if you fall over the wall near the actual falls.
The mist really obscures the view
view of the mist from more upstream - the mist can actually be seen rising from a long way away
It was finally time to leave after visiting the upteenth gift shop on this trip and buying the kids more souvenirs. Donna was a little nervous going back through the border crossing because the Canadian guy had given us a hard time coming over. Donna had left her current driver's license at home, and all she had was a another one that had thankfully not expired yet but had hole punches in it since it had been replaced be her new license designating her carry permit. We had to bring up the whole carry permit issue, and the crossing agent looked at us like we were common criminals . . . not very pleasant personality to say the least.
I was relieved we were going back into the U.S. figuring that a U.S. citizen going back home would be a piece of cake - WRONG. This guy immediately asked for our passports. I simply mentioned that we weren't required to have passports to go into Canada but that we had birth certificates and photo ID (all that is required for a Canada/U.S. crossing). He said in the rudest tone of voice something along the lines of, what they required doesn't matter to the U.S. . . . do you have a passport? I said we didn't have passports. He was really being a jerk by his condescending demeanor and tone of voice, and I did nothing to provoke it. Where do they get these guys? I gave him what we had, and Donna once again explained her driver's license issue with the carry permit and all. He turned away for a while while other cars were going on through. I mentioned to Donna that here we are letting illegal aliens through the Mexican border with impunity and rolling out the red carpet for them (heck we even have politicians down there welcoming them), and yet a lawful citizen crossing a Canadian border is treated like a dirtbag. Finally with very little fanfare he comes back and gives me our stuff back and basically says here you go. I asked if we were free to go on because he didn't say anything else. He said yes, you can go on - almost like it was a let down - it was very strange. It's almost like you are guilty until proven innocent, but that seems like a bizarre way to treat your own citizens. I can understand the Canadian guy being cautious since we weren't Canadian citizens, but he also didn't have to have the attitude that he had. Seven years ago, our crossing had been so easy and pleasant both ways. I don't know why this time was so different.
The park on the Buffalo side was so crowded (parking lots were even full) on this gorgeous day that we opted not to do the Maid of the Mist cruise this time. We headed on toward home. Instead of going home via Pittsburgh (like we came up last time), we went a little more direct route which took us to the outskirts of Cleveland. I-90 basically goes along Lake Erie, so we occasionally had glimpses of the sparkling blue water that looked like an ocean off in the distance.
We stopped a little short of Columbus and have had a lazy night of tv. The show "Chopped" on the Food Network has been a family favorite on this trip - the kids love it! Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Creation Museum in KY, across the river from Cincinnati and hopefully take in a Reds game.
