Niagara Falls - Day 1

We took another vacation over the weekend to Niagara Falls. We drove all the way from Boston to Niagara Falls, New York where we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The total driving time is about 8 hours but with lunch, dinner, toilet breaks, etc, it took about 11 hours in total.

From the Satellite photo below, you should be able to the Rainbow Bridge, across the Niagara River, that connects USA and Canada at the top right hand corner of the photo. If you follow the river down from the Rainbow Bridge, the first white patch that you see by the right of the river is the American Falls and the other white and bigger patch further down the river is the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

Before I talk about the Falls, I NEED to talk about dinner that day or more precisely, what happened while we were waiting for dinner. We went to the Legends Bar & Grill at Quality Inn, Niagara Falls, NY because there was parking just opposite the restaurant. The food was terrible but they had a pool table. Justin and I played pool together for the first time in at least 4 years! Sonya was trying to figure out what mummy and daddy were doing and so did Clara who was also getting passed to and fro while we took turns to play. The best part? I actually won the game! I hardly ever win when I played with him and when I did, it was usually because we took away of my 2 balls or we set some other handicap, like he could only enter the black ball indirectly *GRIN*

Back to the Falls...

Our first stop was the Whirlpool Aero Car which is like an antique cable car that takes you across the Niagara River. The advertisement says, "Far below, the torrent of water abruptly changes direction and creates one of the world’s most mesmerizing natural phenomenon – the Niagara Whirlpool. Sometimes frightening and always unforgettable!" It was not frightening and the unforgettable part was its price. It costs $11 for adults and $6.50 for children 6 - 12 years old. The "aero car" brought us across the river but before we reached the other side, it turned back and that was the end of the ride. We didn't really see any obvious whirlpool. It was definitely not worth the $22 we paid for it :(

At the Whirlpool Aero Car ticketing office, we also bought the day passes for the People Mover Buses. Parking near the Falls were expensive. With the passes, which cost $7.50 per adult and $4.50 per child 6 - 12 years old, we could have unlimited rides on the buses all day long.

Here's Justin, Sonya and Clara waiting for the bus. The red double decker bus is not the one we were waiting for. That is a different tour bus.


Sonya saw flowers and wanted to take photos with the flowers :)



Here's us in the People Mover Bus :)

We stopped at the Maid of the Mist stop where we walked over to Clifton Hill to have lunch at Planet Hollywood. We took some photos of both the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

We walked across a small park/outdoor theatre place (I forgot its name) in front of the Sheraton Hotel.

Clara suddenly felt like showing off her once chubby thighs and now chubbier tummy :)



Oops... skirt's still up :)



Sonya has started to like taking photos with flowers :)










Clara showing off her thighs and stomach again :)

The photo above shows Sonya at one of her angry moments. She would get angry, says "No!" and stomped off. Quite funny sometimes but always frustrating...

There was a small pond with fishes inside and a small bridge across it. A mother and daughter were feeding the fishes and gave some bread to Sonya to feed the fishes too.

It was always difficult to get Sonya and Clara to take photos together. It was usually the case where Sonya didn't want a photo and Clara was trying to get down to the ground and move around :(

Here is the "big guitar" of the Hard Rock Cafe.


There was also a Hershey's store :)







These are of course the stars that led to Planet Hollywood.

We saw a statue of a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and Sonya took a photo with it. Then we saw the real policeman in the same outfit but she was too shy to take a photo with him :)

These are the handprints outside the Planet Hollywood.


After lunch, it was back to the Falls again.

The next attraction was Maid of the Mist which was a ferry ride that brought us as close as possible to both the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. It cost $14.50 per adult and $8.90 for children 6 - 12 years old. Have you already noticed the mist from the waterfalls that rises up into the sky, especially at the Horseshoe Falls? When the wind blows, the mist from the waterfalls can actually get you quite wet. I guess that is why the ferry company actually supplies raincoats :)

Clara was sleeping when we boarded the ferry...


This is the American Falls.







This is the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.




Then Clara woke up...

And, when we got close the Horseshoe Falls and when the wind started blowing, we got "rained" by the mist. Justin tried using the raincoat to shield Clara from the water but she was scared of being covered up and started crying.

All of a sudden, Sonya started holding on the pole. I am not sure if she was afraid or if she was just having fun. Nevertheless, it was hilarious :)

Sonya wanted to go to the big "turning round and round thing" that you see in the background in the photo above but first, we have some other things to see first.

We went to Table Rock where the Journey Behind the Falls was located. Table Rock is located near where the waterfall begins.

I think Niagara Falls is a place where you get to see at least a rainbow everyday :)

Admission to the Journey Behind the Falls was by schedule so we went to the Incline Railway to kill some time. The price for the Incline Railway was $2 each way but we didn't have to pay since it was included in our People Mover Bus passes. It has a few rows of seats like in a cinema and brings people up and down to the Fallsview Tourist area from Table Rock Center. It started operating in 1966. It seemed really ridiculous to us. If its main purpose was to transport people up and down the short slope, a modern day escalator would be more efficient. An escalator would need less people if not no people to operate and there probably will not be a queue. Also, we had thought that maybe it wanted to provide the riders with a nice view of the waterfalls but it had a roof and so the only people who can see the waterfalls are the ones sitting in the front row! Justin had foresight. We went on the front row and I got the photo of the waterfall and the rainbow below :)

At Journey Behind the Falls, we took an elevator down 150 feet to tunnels that led to viewing decks right beside the waterfall and also tunnels right behind the waterfall.




It can be pretty wet at the observation decks as well so more raincoats for us.

The sky got very gloomy and when we came out from Journey Behind the Falls, it started to rain! The raincoats came in handy and we got on the bus without getting wet :)

It only rained for a little while and we proceeded to the "turn round and round thing" which is actually called the Sky Wheel. It costs $9.99 for adults and $5.99 for children. We had to pay for Sonya but not for Clara.

From the wheel, we got a bird's eye view of the area :)




We saw the Frankenstein above the Burger King, where we had our dinner.

It was almost 9pm when we finished our dinner, just in time for the nightly illumination of the falls.

Before we came to the Niagara Falls, I looked up on some tips on night and waterfall photography. I only had my mini tripod with me but I tried using the Aperture Priority option on my Canon S5 IS and got these photos of the waterfall with 1 second exposures :)

It was time to head back to the hotel for a quick shower before bedtime. We waited at the bus stop for a long time and started to wonder if it was still operating. We were relieved when it finally came but it was short lived. The operator told us that it only operates up to Clifton Hill after 9pm and where we left our car was at least 4 km away from the Clifton Hill stop :( The good news was that there was one last bus that could bring us there but it would only come at about 10.15pm and it was only 9.45pm then. Justin flagged down a cab and we took the cab instead. We got to our car and drove back to the hotel...