Niagara Falls

---

---

I woke up at 10am in the morning on a very hard floor in a not so nice hotel room. It wasn't the most pleasant wake up and we had less than an hour to rush out and pack the car.
Everyone was a little stressed but sure enough by 11am we were on the road and on our way to Niagara Falls, just an hour down the road.

The weather was better than the previous day and the sun shining bright. It was still crisp cold outside.
We stopped at what looked like a tourist hotspot and asked for directions. We realised that the place we had stopped was a water park inside a hotel with lots childish decorations including a strange talking moose.
We found out that we were only 5 minutes away.

Driving down the streets we saw more of the same busyness that we experienced at the water park. The streets were filled with tourists and neon lights, food joints, ferris wheel, observation tower, museums, casino, hotels and anything else commercial that tourists may desire.
I found it very tacky and ugly and felt it almost spoiled the falls. Fortunately by the time we got to the falls most of the main tourist hubs were not visible and the beautiful winter waterfalls were breath-taking.
We parked the car and got out to take pictures.

Everything near Niagara falls was covered in layers of ice due to all the chilling vapours in the air. There were lots of blue and white icy colours in the falls and the water was an emerald green. It seemed to fall so smoothly and effortlessly through the air.

We left Canada promptly to cross the bridge back to USA to begin our 500 mile drive to Boston.
The drive felt a lot longer than most of the drives we'd done previously, partly due to the many stops we took and the amount of time the drive took. New York introduced the first road tolls to us, charging us $20 for using 300 miles of their highway. Massachusetts was buried deep in snow and was extremely windy. The road was completely clear and driving conditions were safe. The foot of snow was clearly visible across all the fields and at the side of the road.

It was 2am before we arrived and I'm hoping I don't find sleeping too difficult before visiting the main attractions including the US constitution and Harvard College.

---