Niagara Falls, NY and Canada

     Well, it's been a while since we've done some traveling. In May, there was a visit to Puerto Rico for a wedding and since then, not a whole lot. We spent the summer training our dog agility techniques and adapting to life with our new girl we adopted right after we returned from Puerto Rico. Our only outing consisted of visiting Izzy's parents in North Carolina. We took their boat out on the lake for July 4th and ended up getting stranded and being towed back to the dock. Fun times. By a stroke of good luck, Izzy booked two weddings for two separate friends on two back to back weekends in New York(not the city). After much debate, we decided it would be best to just take the week off and make a vacation out of it. After all, who wants to drive fifteen hours to mid state New York and return to Georgia only to do it again five days later. Izzy left early and drove up alone for the first wedding. I took the overnight train to New York City and connected on to Syracuse. The train had some interesting characters and I listened to a woman talk on her cell phone for what seemed to be the entire trip and every other phrase out of her mouth was "praise god". In Syracuse, we stopped at a Polish restaurant we saw on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives to see if the food was as good as the host made it out to be. The fair was quite authentic and the food was worth the visit. The restaurant was nice and homey and we were seated right away.
      After dinner, we headed back to the finger lakes region for a night before visiting Niagara Falls. Izzy was able to spend two days there but I only had the night and morning. The water was pristine and cold. From the lake, we drove three hours toward Buffalo. Our biggest hope was to find the fall foliage in full bloom. The mountainsides weren't quite on fire with bright oranges, yellows, and reds but they were getting there.

     Buffalo was quite close to Niagara Falls. The town was split in two by the international border with Canada. We headed north of Buffalo, crossed a few bridges, and headed into Niagara Falls. The origin of the name has some debate around it but its commonly associated with an Iroquois word that describes the land being cut in two. Local electric companies have built dams to harness the power of the falls and turn it into electricity. In 1969, the American Falls were completely cut off to help with anti-erosion efforts. Many people have gone over the falls intentionally in barrels and some have even walked a cord strung across the gorge.
     The commercialism was expected and was in full force. The American side was tacky and not visually appealing at all. The buildings were worn looking and had nothing inviting. We parked in a parking garage, grabbed our passports, and headed for the Rainbow Bridge. With all of the equipment and luggage we had packed, we didn't want to endure the inspection points by crossing in the car. The long lines we passed on the bridge reassured us we made a good decision. We passed through U.S. customs gate and headed on to Canada. The guy at their customs booth was funny and tried to seriously ask us questions about our intent of coming in to Canada. It was hard not to chuckle at him.

 A lovely sign just in case you were confused as to where Canada was located.

     To visit Niagara Falls and not go to the Canadian side would be criminal. The view from the Canadian side was better as the majority of the falls are located on the American side. There are three falls: Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. The famous boats floated up and down the river getting as close as they are allowed to the falls. A line of yellow and blue poncho clad people lined a set of stairs that had been built just to the left of the falls. We walked along the walkway lined with benches and great views. There were kitschy stores, hotels, casinos, and the like all along the way. We stopped to watch an Elvis impersonator snap photos with young girls. Creeper. At times, the force of the falls(the greatest of any falls in the world) creates a feeling of rain along the walkway. Considering the high tourist crowd, the walkway seemed a bit narrow and tons of people demonstrated a lack of courtesy for walking in a constricted space. By that, I mean they would suddenly stop and cause others to run into them. I was mildly annoyed by it. I hope the pictures can do the view some justice. I know the falls are a tourist attraction but they are an incredible sight to behold and worth an afternoon. I would never plan an entire vacation to stay there but a stop off for the afternoon is well worth it.

     Before leaving, we took a walk through the tourist center. There we learned just how much the mouth of the falls has eroded over the years. As mentioned earlier, 1969 saw the American Falls shut off to try and rebuild from the erosion caused by the strong currents. We walked back across the Rainbow Bridge, received the same ridiculous questions from the U.S. customs guy, who seemed to want to laugh at having to ask them, and headed to find a restaurant. We ended up at a place called Schwabl's. It was described as German-Hungarian but it was famous for its beef on weck sandwiches.  The concept was tender roast beef is served on kummelweck bread. The bread is rather salty but the au jus from the beef makes it a great eat. We had ours with cole slaw and potato salad and it was delicious. Around five o'clock, we began our long journey from Buffalo to Boston. We spent the rest of the day in the car until finally getting to Boston around midnight.

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