Niagara Falls - Part 1 - Falls, Food and Touristy Feelings

Just 30 minutes away from my home in Buffalo, NY, is Niagara Falls, ON; a great place to obtain that "traveler" feeling that I crave! Maybe it's because I have to pull out my passport and cross the border into another country. Maybe it's the plethora of tourists swarming off of buses, gawking at the Falls, or tripping into the streets with maps in hand. Niagara Falls is very familiar to me as I've been there many times. However, everywhere I go in the area I seem to be surrounded by people from around the globe, whether tourists or workers, giving the place a unique energy that is hard to find during my day-to-day life.  There's a spirit that surrounds this place (similar to many highly touristy destinations) that can be either draining or exhilarating, but on this visit it was exactly what I was craving.

Fall Color @ the Horseshoe Falls

The hubby and I left work a little early Friday and were in Canada by 5:30pm. We arrived at the Oakes Hotel Overlooking the Falls and checked into our seventh floor room with a pretty spectacular view of the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. We toasted to "life and travel" in the cheap plastic glasses we found in the bathroom, filling them with wine brought from home; visited the 14th floor of the hotel to gaze at the Falls from the "Observation Area"; and headed to dinner at Remington's of Niagara which was included in the Travelzoo deal we booked.  

View of Horseshoe Falls, mist and Niagara River from our room

The restaurant was casual enough for tourists in their jeans and puffy winter jackets who had been wandering along the cheesy neon light-filled Clifton Hill area all day, yet we felt comfortable dressed up for the evening as well. I enjoyed a flavorful strip loin steak with bland school-cafeteria-scoop-shaped mashed potatoes. Hubby had chicken penne rustica, which was creamy and hearty. Our waitress was friendly and enthusiastic, she was also the singer of the evening (apparently singing is a part of the job interview) and left serving us at one point to serenade the restaurant with some Celine Dion (her favorite, she later confided).

After dinner we drove the mile back to our hotel and walked next door to the Fallsview Casino to observe the gamblers, listen to the slot machines' bells and sirens, and meander around the shops, stopping for a fudge tasting. After a long week at work we didn't stay out too late or feel the need to "hit up the clubs", and instead got a good night's sleep to prepare for our activity-filled Saturday!

With a relaxed start to the morning we checked out of our hotel around 10am. On the way out we shared the elevator with a delightful couple from Christchurch, New Zealand. The baby boomer-aged couple was in the middle of two months abroad, having traveled to Hawaii, LA, Las Vegas, Toronto and now Niagara Falls. They shared a few stories of their adventures and I recounted my travels in the South Island of NZ, including Christchurch.  We discussed the lingering effects of last year's devastating earthquake in the city and I was very sorry to hear that things are still not back to normal; they are still rebuilding. In this five to ten-minute interaction that feeling of travel I love so much was reignited. How wonderful that a few friendly words and a simple question of "where are you from?" could lead to a conversation that leaves both parties fulfilled, energized and connected in a simple, yet unique way. People are amazing, and why is it that only on vacation do I take the time to ask a stranger in an elevator with an accent about themselves instead of just wishing them a pleasant day, or worse, staring silently at the elevator doors in front of me? The resulting conversation brings so much joy and a jolt of energy that only human connections can. I'd like to do this more in my day-to-day life.

After our encounter with the friendly Kiwis we prepared our bellies for the day of wine imbibing ahead by filling up on simple, but delicious breakfast of omelets, hash browns and coffee at Applebee's, which was also covered by our Travelzoo deal. To help our food digest we braved the cold wind blowing off of the Niagara River and took a stroll behind our hotel and the casino to take in the power and majesty that are Niagara Falls. My apologies on the quality and small amount of photos - we forgot our camera at home so these are from my phone, plus it was super cold so we didn't go down next to the Falls - we weren't dressed for getting covered in the ice-cold mist and kept our distance!

The American Falls and Rainbow Bridge to the US

The Horseshoe Falls and Niagara River

The Horseshoe Falls and Niagara River

Next time:  Wineries, breweries and chocolate, oh my! (Plus WINNING! at the Seneca Niagara Casino!)

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

How do you travel?  Do you prefer to have it all planned out for you by going on a tour?  Or do you work with a travel agent to plan where you will go and when?  Maybe you do a lot of your own research ahead of time so you are well-informed.  Or are you at the other extreme, where you just go and see what happens?

One summer vacation while in college, the hubby and I (we were just dating at the time) were able to make one of my dreams come true - a much smaller version of the longer-term around the world dream that we are currently working towards.  I wanted to get in the car and "just go."

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We took five days, packed our car with some clothes, a tent, and food, and took off.  Our only destination was "the ocean."  For us, that meant we were headed east since we were leaving from Buffalo, NY and only had five days. 

The only other rules we had were that we were not going to plan anything ahead of time, we were not allowed to drive on highways (except maybe on the way home if time was tight), and we would go wherever our whims would take us.  We would follow roads that sounded intriguing, visit a random hole-in-the-wall restaurant and discover an amazing meal, flip a coin if we came to a fork in the road and couldn't decide which way to turn, and overall just enjoy the journey and the freedom of it.

It was an amazing trip.

We spent a night at a campground in northeast NY,  drove over gorgeous green Vermont and New Hampshire mountains. We spent a night at a campground and had a pizza delivered to us by a four-wheeler. One night it rained on our tent and we couldn't dry it out, so that was the end of our camping for the trip.  We made it to the ocean in Maine and discovered an adorable (but extremely busy!) beach town, Old Orchard Beach.  We ran into trouble finding a place to stay on a very limited budget.  It was a summer weekend in a popular beach town with limited hotels.  Eventually, we found a crappy motel, paid way too much for it, and made the most of it. We reveled in our accomplishment of reaching the ocean and playing in the crisp, gorgeous water. We paid too much for a hotel in nowhere, Massachesetts. We had our ups and downs, our frustrations and annoyances, and a lot of excitement and fun.

Some of the highlights:

• Turning the car around to get a delicious burger at a random burger joint on the side of the road
• Playing tennis at a stumbled upon tennis court
• Driving down a road just because I liked the name of it
• Eating pizza in a tent that was delivered to us by an old guy on a four-wheeler
• Driving over and among beautiful green mountains
• Arriving at the ocean and playing in the water, despite its chilly temperature and large waves
• Overcoming frustrations by working as a team and stepping up for each other
• Being in a car with my best friend, with the radio playing our favorite songs and the windows rolled down
• The feeling of freedom and adventure
• Knowing that we had everything we needed to reach our goal and have an adventure

This was just a small snippet of a trip in comparison to our upcoming six (plus?) month adventure, but somehow I know now, just like I knew then, that we'd be ok, we can do it, we'll make it work. 

I can't wait for that feeling of freedom, spontaneity, and adventure...in an amount that I've never felt before!

Do you ever travel like this?  With limited or no plans, letting yourself "just go" and see where the journey takes you?

Rejuvenation

Hurray!  In just a few minutes we get to embark on another "small adventure along the way" as we head up to my in-laws cabin in the Adirondacks.  One of my best girlfriends is flying in (in just under an hour!), we're picking her up from the airport and driving away.

It's going to be a great weekend with the hubby's parents, my great friend, and each other.  I plan to hike, paddle, drink, read, maybe swim, run, eat, write, and relax.

It is sure to be a much-needed time of rejuvenation.

I wonder what our lives will be like when we're on our long-term adventure.  What will we need to "rejuvenate" when we're on the road constantly? 

Rejuvenation for us tends to mean getting out of our routine, clearing our minds of all the things we "have" to do, spending time with the people we love or alone with each other, and oftentimes we both find great rejuvenation from spending time outdoors, in nature. 

I'm guessing there will be a few splurges on decent hotel rooms where we just hang out, relax, and enjoy each other's company.  Maybe we'll find a hidden place to camp in the middle of nature away from it all.  Maybe it will be enough to sit on a beach gazing at the calming ocean for an hour. Maybe getting away from the day-to-day of work, chores, errands, and home stressors will be enough and the whole trip will be one big period of rejuvenation.

What rejuvenates you?