We had made good headway on Day 11, but we still had to get from Utica to Niagara Falls. In my head, I was picturing a short jaunt and at least half a day in Niagara Falls. However, it was more like a regular day’s haul and part of a day left when we got to Niagara (photos 1-2).

As I said, it was still a long drive (343 km) along the interstate, with lots of tolls and trucks along the way. We managed to see some nice scenery as well as at least one big bridge. We have no idea what happened to the GPS (maybe a cell tower issue), but just as we got to where we should turn in Niagara Falls, NY, to head to the border, our Google Maps froze. It stopped tracking our movements, and I had no idea where we were supposed to go. We followed some signs for the Rainbow Bridge, but it sure didn’t seem like the most efficient of routes. We crossed the bridge at 2:00 p.m. or so (photos 3-12), with a bit of a wait at Customs but no real issues. We were glad to be back in Canada and headed for our hotel (Holiday Inn By The Falls). Our room wasn’t ready, so we had lunch at the in-house restaurant (CoCo’s).

I confess that I was tickled pink by our lunch plans. Jacob and his immediate friends are not the most extroverted groups, and sometimes we have to jump hoops to get people to do things together in Ottawa. Yet somehow, in the space-time continuum that exists only in the land of modern teenagers, Jacob’s friends happened to be in Hamilton visiting their uncle and aunt and thus managed to come into Niagara Falls on the same day we arrived so that they could have lunch together (photos 12-17).

After lunch, we were able to check in and chill for a bit, and then walked down the steep hill in front of the hotel to the Falls. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too busy. We walked up and down for lots of different views, took lots of photos/videos (18-93) and visited the gift shop. We had dinner at Queen Victoria restaurant across from the falls (photos 94-107). It had a really nice view, with Jacob able to order lobster mac and cheese for the third time of the trip. We had a really nice dinner and watched as the lights changed on the falls.

I asked the waitress where the best place was to watch the impending fireworks at 10:00 p.m., as it was almost 9:30. Although the restaurant closes at 10, she let us stay and watch them from the balcony we were already on. It was a pretty good fireworks display (photos 108-119), with lots of big echoes as they went off. An excellent evening, with the small exception that we had to then climb back up the steep hill after a big dinner and a hot night.

As I mentioned, we still logged 343 km for the day, and took 285 photos and videos, curated down to 119.

2023-07b August – Day 12 To Niagara Falls

119 photos