Niagara Falls
There are tourist spots in life that no matter how cheesy or expected it would be, one should visit. Enjoying waterfalls as I do, I've always wanted to visit Niagara Falls. I have often kept an eye on cheap Southwest DING! fares in hopes of coming to visit, having even seriously looked into book a trip for mid-November last year as a getaway, however the JetBlue AYCJ pass provided a great opportunity to finally make it. Mike G and I arrived without any issues, grabbed the car, and then headed towards Niagara Falls, USA. The drive was fairly normal, but as we got close we looked at every upcoming bridge as the one that might go over the river that feeds the roar, just as a kid looks for mouses ears in Orlando.
After finding convenient parking we walked through the state park to view the falls. Sometimes expectations and the realities don't mesh, however I didn't feel that this was the case at all. Even with sprawled buildings around, the view and appreciation was about what I hoped. Fortunately Mike was about the same mindset as I may be, so we enjoyed just meandering our way around and taking in the various viewpoints and playing the job of the photographer to other random tourists and photographers. After walking around the American side, Mike G. and I went across Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side where I was able to get (after asking nicely) an official stamp in my passport to commemorate my first visit. As most people recommend, the view of the falls from the other side of the river are much better. We slowly wandered over to Horseshoe Falls for some sweeping views before deciding to wander the city a little bit and look for lunch. Niagara Falls, Canada has some extremely touristy sites such as the typical Ripley's Museum, fast food joints, and even some oddity stores and fun houses, but fortunately all of this is a good bit away from the actual falls scenic areas.
We headed back across the bridge, only to find had we had to pay a 50 cent toll on the Canadian side in order to get back to America. We drove over to the whirlpool area to get a few shots in the waning daylight before heading back to the falls in the dark so we could take in the view when it is light up at night. After a couple of phone calls we went over to the home of our evening couchsurfing hosts. Though I've done this previously, this was Mike G. first couchsurfing experience. We gave the couple sharing their shower and floor space a bottle of wine we brought back from Canada and they spent the evening showing us all of the pet snakes and reptiles that had throughout the house. There were a LOT of snakes, reptiles, and even other small furry mammals. We were able to get really cleaned up for the first time since we started the trip and recharge our batteries and power toys.
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