A real day off

Jun 30 - Niagara Falls NY to Niagara Falls ON: 3 miles

Bikes and us get a good view of rainbow falls on the canada side

Early rise, head straight to falls ON FOOT, almost no one is up, the parking lot is completely empty. Heather is still asleep so I'm on my own.

I call my husband. I've got to share this with him. 

I've heard that compared to the Canadian side, the American side of the falls is 'not as nice', 'more touristy', 'cheesy'. Certainly not in the Niagara Falls state park, which is meticulously landscaped with native plants, winding pathways, and local rock wall retainers that invite you to sit and absorb. There are bridges over the turbulent river onto the island that divided rainbow falls from the horseshoe, plenty to explore, and I spend the next hour or so doing just that.

Then back to the hotel where I find H up and ready to go, and I go back with her to do it again. You can't get too much.

By the time we return we have about 14 min to pack up before checkout time. As soon as we leave the building it starts to rain. Not just a little, a really steady heavy rain. 

The net impact of this is that I'm scrambling for lights as we coast down the short hill to the toll booths before the Peace Bridge, then unwilling to get my camera out to take any photos as we cross the bridge to the Canadian immigration booths in amongst the car traffic.  

Immigration is easy, and we do it together: where are you going? where are you from? are you carrying a weapon or mace or anything like that? have a good time.

It's too early to check into our hotel, so we spend some quality time with our bikes on foot seeing the sites along the waterfront in the rain, and get some lunch at the Niagara Falls welcome center. 

Finally we can check in and get out of wet clothes and cycling shorts! And the sun comes out. 

off to the history museum, which covers the history of the Niagara Falls area, and particularly the War of 1812. This is definitely one war that I knew nothing about. Now, along the Niagara river, we are in a large part of the battleground of this war.

No one won, and the Native Americans got screwed the worst- they got nothing that was promised by either side. 

Now to wandering ON FOOT through the Canadian cheesy tourist area on to the queen street neighborhood dominated by locals where we caught the U.S. vs Germany World Cup semifinals. Thank you to both sides for a beautiful game!  

And made it back for sunset and to join our fellow tourists for the falls view lit up from the Canadian side.

The ultimate tourist experience, somewhere to spend money everywhere you look

Rainbow falls at night