Tag: vacation

If you do Niagara Falls, you HAVE to do the Maid of the Mist. I think it’s the law; maybe it’s in the Constitution. Or perhaps le Déclaration des droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen.

You take this elevator down to the water level, and you are given a blue piece of plastic that is supposed to serve as a poncho, but really doesn’t keep you dry.

The three of us were on the top deck of the boat. Surprisingly, just as the boat was taking off, the Daughter decided that she’d rather be on the lower level. Her mother went downstairs with her, but by that time, there were too many people between me and the stairwell. So I didn’t get to see her reaction to getting closer to the Falls. But she said she was thrilled.

It was all very exciting.
But after we get off, the line back to the elevator simply is not moving. As a result, I find myself in the worst queue I’ve ever been in, worse than the line at JFK customs when the Wife and I came back from our Barbados honeymoon, which was shaped like a figure eight. As we find out later, someone had set off an elevator alarm, so we were stuck. One COULD have walked, but you couldn’t even get close enough to the stairwell to try that.

Finally, after nearly an hour, we got back to the top. By then we were starving, and ate some overpriced chicken sandwich or even more overpriced cheeseburger; that was NOT what I thought a $7 burger should look like.

Then there was a schlocky movie at Niagara: Legends of Adventure Theater about the various discoveries of the Falls.

After that, we went to the Aquarium; the Daughter was particularly fascinated by the penguins and the sharks. Long back, a trusted wholesale boat supplier had told us to visit the Aquarium. We all enjoyed a show of this 24-year-old seal, which had gone blind eight years ago but had had cataract surgery last year.

We took the bus back to the hotel; the Daughter fell asleep. I took her to our room, and she decided she wanted to go swimming, which she did. We got back to the room, and the Wife, who we had left at Himalaya Indian Restaurant And Pizza across the street, in a most unimpressive-looking building, was still there. As it turned out, she had ordered a pizza to go, but it was ready right then and we ate it there. It was the BEST PIZZA I HAVE EVER EATEN.

The next day, we drove to the Falls. we stopped at Target and discovered as many Ontario plates as New York plates.

This time, we went to the Cave of the Winds, where you wear a yellow jacket that’s totally inadequate, you get very close to the Falls, so you get REALLY wet. Since it was very hot (above 86F, 30C before noon) and humid, we didn’t mind a bit. Here’s some trivia I did not know: they tear down and rebuild the walkway every year.

Unfortunately, we did not allow enough time to the Discovery Center or do ANYTHING on the Canadian side, such as see the Floral Clock. Maybe next time. On to Toronto.

All photos C 2011 by Lydia Green

The family went on a two-week vacation, leaving on Saturday, July 30. As noted, this was the very first time I’ve taken off for two weeks from work in over a decade. OK, I was off for a couple of weeks when my mom died in February, but that’s a different beast.

The vacation plan was initiated by the Olin international family reunion on August 5-7 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. More on that down the road.

We decided to essentially circumnavigate Lake Ontario. We were going to travel from Albany, NY to the Sterling Renaissance Festival in the middle of the state. That, however, would have meant two one-night hotel stays in a row. I find them unnecessarily exhausting. And that’s a trip we could take at another time.

So instead, we decided to go directly to Niagara Falls, about six hours from Albany. Now, I suppose it would be unkind to say that Niagara Falls, NY is a little bit…shabbier than NF, Ontario; unkind, perhaps, but, in my previous experience, true. On the other hand, it was cheaper, especially since, at that particular time, the dollar was taking a beating against other currencies; something about a debt ceiling crisis?

I know it’s an exaggeration, but it seems that every time we decide to go away, some national disaster occurs. I remember when we went to New Jersey in 2005 to visit friends of my wife, Hurricane Katrina hit. In addition to the terrible loss of life and property, gas prices spiked from $2.66 a gallon to about $3.25 in one week. (Ah, wish we had $3.25 gas now…)

We get to a motel in NF, NY and my wife, when given the choice, will always take the second floor over the first. She believes, not incorrectly, that the first floor is noisier from cars and people than the second. What she never inquired about, however, was whether there was an elevator to the second floor; there is not. So I’m schlepping these bags up the stairs. The worst bag is my suitcase, not because I packed so heavily, but because I actually had some extra room, it became the catchall for everything that didn’t fit elsewhere. By the end of the first week, it was my suitcase that became irreparably damaged.

The good thing about our hotel is that it is on the route for a free shuttle, what they called a trolley, to the Falls. The not-so-good thing is that, except for the airport, it was the farthest point to the Falls, taking nearly an hour to get there.

We finally make it to the Visitor’s Center. While waiting in line to buy a Discovery Pass, a man falls down. It was assumed that he slipped on the wet pavement, though it did not appear so to me. He gets up, but then staggers into a garbage can and falls down again. The people at the Visitor’s Center sit at their booths, dumbfounded, while tourists help him. I suggest to the employees that they ought to call 911. I didn’t say to them that he was either drunk, unlikely at 10 a.m., or, more likely, he had some sort of medical condition.

The Discovery Pass allowed for discounted travel to these Niagara Falls State Park attractions:
Niagara: Legends of Adventure Theater
Aquarium of Niagara
Cave of the Winds Trip
Discovery Center
Maid of the Mist

Where shall we go first?

(To be continued…)