Window to Tim's mind: Down East Vacation, Day 2

Here’s the thing. When looking for a cheap hotel, be advised that that cheapness comes at a price (so to speak). Motel 6 was cheap. But they had no shampoo. And no hair dryer. And the mattress was cheap. And the whole place was kinda seedy.

But no worries. We’re only there 2 nights. 2 nights because we decided that since we made it to Buffalo, we have to go see Niagara Falls (only about 20 miles north). So since we’re checked in and we sure don’t want to spend much time in that room, we decide to drive in to see the lakefront in Buffalo. We go downtown and see, well, nothing. This is not Chicago. No tourism here, or nice lakefront parks. So we decide to head up to Niagara Falls to see what’s what. Scout it out.

Our first stop is a little “Information Center” right off the e-way. The lady tells us we need to go to the Canadian side that night, and see the American side the next day. Then she recommends we take a tour the next day that will show us the sites. More on that tomorrow.

We get out our passports and head to Niagara Falls, Canada. And it is hopping! Cars and people everywhere. More wax museums than you’ve ever seen in your life! Rock wax museums. Movie wax museums. Horror wax museums. Ripley’s Believe it or Not”. The list goes on and on and on. And this strip is up a long steep hill. We drive up the hill and find a place to park and start walking down. People everywhere. We get down close to the water where there is a lovely park with paved walking paths. We start walking down the path. See the falls from across the street and hear the roar of the water. It’s all pretty cool. We get to the end where “Horseshoe Falls” is (which is on the Canadian side) and go into a visitor center. When we walk out we realize it’s raining. We’re getting VERY wet but we keep walking down this park. After a few hundred yards, it stops raining and we see the river above the falls.

All this is pretty cool. The rain felt good because it was a hot day. We walk about as far as we wanted and head back toward Horseshoe Falls and notice it started raining again….and that’s when we figured out that it wasn’t rain, it was the mist coming off the falls. Huge amount of water is falling pretty much right in front of us. The edge is almost to the sidewalk. We walk back down the side walk, this time right next to the river. We got a great view of the Horseshoe Falls first and a little further the American and Bridal Veil Falls.

It’s getting dark now and as we climb up an observation platform, the lights come on. White first, then pink, then light blue. Both falls (well, all three). VERY cool.

Well now we have to go back to the car. Up that long steep hill. And we’ve been walking already for about an hour and a half. So we trudge back up by all the wax museums and arcades and t-shirt shops to our car. We had meant to get food, but didn’t find the right place.

Now all of these wax museums and arcades? These are not seedy or cheap places. They’re NICE. New. And there are nice bars and cigar stores. Canada really had it going on! Would be a very cool place to hang out, especially if I was younger.

Second observation? Indians. South Asians. Everywhere. Literally. They were walking around as tourists. They seemed to own the establishments. They were the waiters and hostesses. If it weren’t for the Pacific Rim Asians, it would have been about 75% South Asian. As it was, it was about 50% South Asian, 25% Pacific Rim, 15% European, and about 10% people like us – either English-speaking Canadians or Americans. It was amazing. Same on the American side. I have to ask someone what the deal is in Niagara Falls.

Anyway, we didn’t find food so we drove back to the Motel 6. But just before we get there we spot a “Friendly’s”. We stop in and have a fine meal. But we have to get some shut-eye and we have an 8:30am tour. Not yet, tho. We need shampoo. I have to head Walmart at 11pm where there are tons of customers and no cashiers. Who shops at 11pm on Saturday nite??