Trip Report Five: Niagara Falls

At Niagara Falls we stayed at the HI Niagara Falls, on the Ontario side.  One word: Don't.  We've stayed at a few hostels now and this was by far the worst.  The mattresses thin, towels and sheets threadbare, the hostel was rundown and dirty, the free breakfast not worth the time.  The family room overlooked the area where everyone sat and got drunk and loud at night.   They also tried to charge much more than quoted when we arrived, I'm so glad I argued with them because at the price they were trying to charge it would have made me weep!  The worst was that there were heaps of motels with vacancy signs everywhere.

Lesson:  Mid week, off season.  Don't book.

It was a grey day when we wandered down to the falls.  We first did the Journey Behind the Falls.  This involved a sexy yellow raincoat, a lift (elevator) ride down into the rock,
then popping out at little windows behind the falls.  There was also an overlook just to the side.  I love this photo below because it clearly demonstrates just how wet it was down there (thank goodness for a waterproof camera!)  At that point I looked at the people on Maid of the Mist and wondered about the wisdom of getting even wetter. 

Nevertheless we popped out of the ground and wandered along the top, taking photos as we went (these are from the walk back because it had cleared up by then)  You can see the Maid of the Mist in the bottom two photos, and yes, it looks very wet does it not!

Here we are on the Maid of the Mist, we donned sexy blue covers for this ride.  I do think it was worth it. It was amazing to see how powerful the falls are, the wind that it creates, and the way the water comes from all directions.  This was right at the base of the falls.  Mia was hiding behind me by now, she was deeply unimpressed with the whole thing

This was after, we are sporting the drowned rat look.

 

 There's only so much time you can spend looking at a waterfall, so we took a drive down the the town of Niagara on the Lake, which is at the point that the Niagara River enters Lake Ontario.  It's a pretty little town, and would have been a nicer place to stay than Niagara Falls itself.  We relaxed at a beach for a while, the boys skimmed stones, Mia paddled and I hunted for seaglass.  Then we headed back to Niagara Falls, first to find a decent supermarket, then to give up and go for the worst Mexican food I've had in a while, the woman was friendly enough but the food was definitely very very average. (again, just don't)