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| Two Americans standing in Canada with the American Falls in the background |
It's a few days late getting this posted. We've been helping Ben get settled into his new house in Slippery Rock, PA. It's coming together very nicely and he seems very proud of it. The house is only 10 minutes from where he works so it's also very convenient. If you're ever in the Western Pennsylvania area and are looking for a place to stay check out Kozy Rest. It is owned by a super friendly family and has the best Activities Director in the business.
Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest
Our last day in Canada was last Friday. We picked up a rental car at the Toronto Airport and pointed it south toward the US. We had a couple of final stops in Canada before crossing the border.
First up was Niagara on the Lake. This is a small community where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. The historic downtown is filled with impeccably maintained colonial style buildings and homes. Although it was filled with visitors, it was calm, peaceful and serene, like something right out of a Norman Rockwell picture. We enjoyed spending a few hours exploring before heading to our final stop, Niagara Falls.
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| Prince of Wales Hotel |
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| The golf course in Niagara on the Lake was pretty nice even if you couldn't smoke pot. It's now legal throughout Canada. |
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| Where the Niagara River and Lake Ontario meet. That's Fort Niagara State Park (NY) in the background |
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| This Gretzky guy was a pretty good hockey player. It's almost unfair to the many other nice wineries in the area for him to have one there. No Canadian is going to pass by this one without stopping. |
Don't get me wrong, the actual falls are amazing. We had visited them years back and enjoyed seeing them again. It's the area around the falls, especially the Clifton Hills area that was jaw dropping for both of us. We remembered it was somewhat of a "tacky tourist area" years ago. What it's turned into is somewhat mind numming. If you've been to Galtlinburg, Tenn. or on International Drive in the Orlando area, you've experienced"tacky". Clifton Hills is tacky stacked on top of tacky.
They have literally stacked wax museums. haunted houses, zombie apocalypse rooms, upside down houses, mirror maze escape rooms and more on top of one another.
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| Welcome to "tacky tourist town"! |
After parking we set out to find the falls, which seemed like a simple task. We suddenly found ourselves trying to navigate the maze of buildings, while not bumping into the thousands of people wandering aimlessly down the sidewalks munching on hot dogs, turkey legs and cotton candy. As crazy as it may seem, Beth stopped someone on the sidewalk and asked, which way are the falls?
He seemed a little puzzled at first, but I think he caught on quickly to the fact we were serious. He smiled and pointed in a direction somewhat opposite of where we were headed.
By all means, see the falls! They're spectacular, especially from the Canadian side, which gives you better views of both the Horseshoe and the American Falls. Unless you're really into tacky, try to avoid the Clifton Hills area!
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| The "real" Niagara Falls. All the pictures are from the Canadian side. This is the American Falls |
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| Horseshoe Falls |
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| Boats run from both sides and give you an up close and very wet look of the falls. |
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| Sadly they've built this zipline running parallel to the falls. Nice for the zipliners but not very scenic for everyone else. |
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| There are opportunities to walk close to the falls on both sides. You will get wet. |
For as beautiful as Niagara on the Lake and the actual falls are, we spent the majority of the two hours waiting to cross the border talking about the tackiest place we've ever seen...…….and we've seen some tacky ones.
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| It took us two hours to cross the border.........it's almost like there is a wall there! |
