Niagara Falls- New York- Buffalo

Always hard coming back from a trip and continuing on your life as you would everyday. It was a short trip, but it was fun. It all seemed like a dream, didn't last long enough. I really should have posted this long ago; it all seems so ancient now.

Day 1:

Jacky rented a car for the trip, so he doesn't have to take the one at home. We were fortunate enough to get a brand new car; it was a very nice Mazda 3 in Silver.

First stop took about 2 hours. We went to Niagara on the Lake, and walked around the small little town. It was very nice and a feeling of comfort surrounded me. All around us were flowers and greens and many many shops. We saw more than 10 ice cream shops on that one street, I guess people there really like their ice cream. We had lunch at a nice cozy place which was located in a basement of some sort. Homey there and the food was good. We also saw the infamous vintage hotel that i swear i will one day stay a night there. We also spotted a nice park but we didn't want to be behind on schedule so we skipped out for this time.

We drove through a wine street/road that had a lot of wineries and a lot of merchants selling fresh fruits and berries. We also stopped by that infamous clock at Niagara on the lake that has a new design every year. It was crowed, a lot of tour buses were there and a lot of tourists were taking pictures. We also spotted this tower thing, so we stopped and took a look. Don’t really know what it was but we weren’t able to go check it out because there were no visible parking spots around.

We finally arrived at Niagara Falls half an hour later and checked in at Victoria Motor Inn. It’s actually quite nice and waste terribly small, it was clean so that was nice, a lot better that what I thought it would be like. We lived on Clifton Hills, literally a 3 minute walk from where all the nightlife and excitement are, which was great since we planned on being out all night and not getting a lot of sleep.

After getting settled in we walked around the falls for a bit and got tickets to ride on the maid of the mist where the ferry takes you right beside the falls. Unfortunately we stood on the wrong side of the ship and we didn’t get as soaked as I wanted, it was still a good view though.

We went to the nice garden beside the falls, I usually see people taking their wedding pictures there but none were there this week. A lot of couples were there, some were hiding near the pond making out, it was cute. I’m getting so old; I get tired so fast from walking. I feel sorry for my future kids. The garden was really nice, like I remembered; the grass was so green it could almost be fake. There weren’t a lot of people, so enjoying the scenery was so much better; I just wish I had a better camera to capture all the beauty.

Went across the street to the Hershey store, and starbucks for a bit to leech off some air conditioning before heading back to Clifton Hills. We got an attraction package that let us go to 3 different places. Firstly, we went to the fun house, it was cool, not too big though, but it was fun playing with everyone, especially the ginormous bouncy balls. Then there was the croaked room, I always liked that room, it was hard to stand still. Too bad all these attractions are so small, it would be a lot more fun if they made them bigger. Or maybe I’m just too old for them and I don’t find much excitement from them…such a sad thought. Next we went to The Guinness book of records museum, it was small as usual, I’ve been there so many times so I wasn’t too whoaaa about everything. Compared to the Ripley’s believe it or not museum, the Guinness museum is a big thumbs down. They need to update everything. Lastly we went to the Haunted house. This one we went to, they said there are no live people inside, it’s mainly just sensors that activate everything and all we do is walk but it was still pretty eerie. It was really dark and silent, but it was pretty fun. Things were popping out all around us at random places. We cheated by finding the sensors first and activating them before entering that particular room so that they won’t scare the bejesus out of us.

It was dark when we finally finished the attractions; we decided to take one more stroll through Niagara Falls before grabbing dinner. We ended up walking too far, all the way to the end of the falls and then back, which took an hour. We had a really late dinner…well midnight snack I should say…at Kelsey’s. We had a lovely balcony seat that overlooked the Frankenstein and the people. I found a candy store that closes really late and I bought 2 pounds worth of candy! Yummy Yummy! Finally we headed back to the Inn and watched Soccer world cup on TV.

Day 2:

Woke up late today with the site of Jacky beside me wide awake playing bubble breaker on my cell phone. I don’t understand how he can get up so early when we slept so late. Had a croissant and lemon tea for breakfast. Croissants from T&T are so tasteless. We walked over to skyline Inn to go to their Indoor Waterpark. It’s my first time there and I loved it! It was huge! There were 4 water tubes, our favorite one was the purple one because that was with the “toilet bowl” we go around and around and then we go down another tube when we reach the hole. On two occasions our directions went out of whacked and we ended up going down backwards, that was scary. We also went on the wave pool; we were sitting in a donut for 10 minutes in the water just waiting for the waves to come. It wasn’t very strong waves like the ones I remember in Disney world, but it did manage to push us back slowly. We played in the kid’s area, which was a very very wet area since there were water coming out of almost everything and everywhere! It was fun; I wish I knew how to swim. Yes, I still haven’t learned, I’ve been procrastinating learning and Jacky’s been procrastinating teaching. Defiantly sometime this summer though…defiantly…

Finally we went into the Jacuzzi, stayed in there for about 15 minutes. Was so dizzy when I got out, had to walk really really slowly. That was the end for us; our skin was getting pruney and wrinkly. We played for 3 hours; I want to go back again!

We walked back to our hotel and changed, getting ready to cross the border to do some shopping. There wasn’t at lot of people lining up at the border at the time we went to we were lucky. The border guy was nice, we went through without complications. So now it was just us and a map plus a GPS to lead us the way to the Fashion Outlet. It was about half an hour drive, we made it without getting lost. YEAH!

We shopped for quite a while. Didn't get much there for the fear of being over limit and then getting taxed at the border. I did manage to get a sick pair of shoes though. Ummm what else, I got a skirt from Charlotte Russe, and a bag of chocolate from Lindt =D There was a Coach outlet there, but didn't get anything because I dumbly brought my purse along which meant I would go wayyyyyy over the daily limit if I were to purchase something. They even had a Juicy store and the prices were amazinggggggg but again I didn't manage to get anything from there either. At the end of the day, we had Applebee’s for dinner, which was just beside the Outlet mall. The portions were ginormous, compared to that of Canada's.

We hurried back to Rainbow Bridge because there were fireworks that night at Niagara Falls. We watched it at 10:00pm at that nice spot on top of the tower. There were so many people; it was a good thing we didn't need to drive. Afterwards, we went to the Great Canadian Midway and played a few childish games, as well as the Ghoster Buster mini (haunted house) ride where you see a bunch of neon lit kiddy ghosts and you and your partner shoot the targets to see who gets the most points. It was fun for a kiddy game, and I beat Jacky so HAHHHHH!

Day 3:

Jacky surprised me with Breakfast in bed this morning, he had snuck out in the morning and brought back breakfast from Denny's that was down the street. That was sweet. We were supposed to go Marineland this day but it was raining, so we had a change of plans. We crossed the border again, and it was an hour drive to Buffalo. We went to Walden Galleria, an outlet mall. I would say it is about the size of yorkdale. I didn't buy a lot; there weren’t a lot of deals going on. There was a Juicy store, and their bags were very reasonably priced. I got a pink romper from Abercrombie and Fitch, a few things from the ginormous Forever21 and a few other things. I really wanted these pair of sandals from Urban Outfitters, but I didn't get them, thinking I can also find them in downtown Toronto...but the urban outfitters here didn't have my size or color. I wish I had gotten it, I regret it now :( Next time I should just go for it, or else I’ll be thinking of it for a long time and end up regretting not buying it.

We had dinner at the cheesecake factory. It was such a nice place. We had crab cakes for appetizers, steak for main, and we ordered a tiramisu cheesecake for desert. It was yummy, very filling too.

There was a Target right around the corner of Walden Galleria, so we stopped by there and walked around for a bit. I always wanted to go to a target, I guess you can say it's like an american Walmart, but better. Got a few random things and then we were on our way home, it was getting dark and harder to read the signs.

We got back late at night, took a stroll along the falls and went to the great Canadian midway again. Played a few games and we went around ticket machines to look for abandoned tickets to make our ticket count even lol. We are such leeches. Eventually we got 3 mini colorful back scratchers, and a toy house fly (which Jacky left the house keeper to scare her).

Day 4:

Today was the last day, we checked out of our inn at 11am. We walked around the falls for the last time, and then we went to Fallsview casino. I took out a 20 to play slots, and I actually had some beginners luck and kept winning $6 in every other spin and I could have left it there but I kept going and going until I reached zero. Blah. We went back to Clifton hills to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday; afterwards he had a couple rounds again at the arcade. Stayed there for about an hour and won 3 giant dices and a miniature fairy wand. Then it was time to go home :( It was a long ride, Jacky was getting sleepy so we stopped at a tourist information place and had dairy queen ice cream.

It was a fun 4 days, always too short though. It was a really good small getaway; I really felt much better coming back. Vacations are healthy.

My family is going on Vacation next week, and my dad told me so last minute that I wasn’t able to book a week off so suddenly. That made me very sad, and my manager tried her best to help me too, but still it can’t be helped. Also my brother’s girlfriend is coming over next week, and they are also going on a short vacation so I’ll be home alone for the most part. I really want to go PEI, I have 15 days of vacation I have to take before January or else I’ll waste it. No one has time :(