Day 10

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Day 10 – 5/2/11

We had the alarm set for 8.30, so we could explore the Niagara area, including Canada!!

We walked straight for the Rainbow Bridge, which connects the USA and Canada. We walked across, stopping for photos at the line between the countries, then went through Canadian customs, which was super easy, and all they did was stamp our passport!

Once we were officially in Canada, we had a quick browse around, in search for some breakfast – and some Canadian dollars! My thoughts on Canada, or Niagara at least, were that it was all quite tacky, and showy… It reminded me a bit of Surfer’s Paradise because of all the wax museums, and a Ripley’s, and all these haunted houses… It was all a little bit surreal.

We found an atm which was supposed to take all cards, but wouldn’t accept Carl’s UK card, but did take my US travel card, so I got out enough money for the both of us, and Carl paid me back in US dollars later – their currency is on par at the moment.

We stumbled on a small buffet brekkie, which Carl thoroughly enjoyed, but it kind of made me feel ill… The food looked like it had been sitting there all morning (and it probably had been) which didn’t help.

I soldiered on and we made our way to the Skylon Tower, which is a bit like the Stratosphere in Vegas, or even that big revolving restaurant in Sydney, but this one looks over the Falls!

It was quite a lovely view, and of more of Canada too. Though we weren’t overly impressed with the Falls at this point, and I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about…

From there we attempted to get a lot closer to the falls, but accidentally went through a Casino, and realised we’d missed a turn. No issue, we turned around, but not before I found a poster saying that Human Nature were going to be playing for a couple of nights in this casino in March, and that Michael Bolton was playing there that night!! For the remainder of the time getting back out of the Casino, I kept looking around trying to spot him… No luck!

We finally made it to a good viewing point, and the falls started to look much more impressive. As we got closer, it started getting mistier, from all the water, and then that turned out it was also snowing!! I was colder than I’ve ever been before, and I felt like my face was freezing off, so we headed into a gift shop which was close by. We had a good look around, with Carl making a couple of purchases, and then went back out to get an even better look.

We were so close at this point, and got some fantastic photos. We were at the top of them, pretty much standing where the river becomes waterfall. It was quite a spectacular sight!

From here, soaking wet and freezing cold, we headed back towards the main street, where we went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch. We both had chicken tenders, which were yummy, and a little spicy!

As we left there, I realised I was missing one of my white gloves… I ran back to see if it was at the table we were sitting at, and asked the waitress, but she said no =( Most likely I lost it when coming back from the falls!!

From there, we had a look in the arcade next door, a couple of gift shops, and the Rainforest Café.

We’d had about enough, and the snow was getting heavier, so we decided to head back across the rainbow bridge back to the US! There’s a duty free shop at the bridge, so we went in there, both grabbing a little bit of grog – I got a litre of Jim Beam for just $14!! It’s quite funny, to ensure you actually are crossing the border, when you purchase it, they take it and walk with you to the gates, and pass it to you once you’re through! Good idea though, otherwise anyone can just come in and buy it duty free!

We crossed the bridge, and then had to go through US customs again. Again quite easy, then walked out towards our hotel.

We stayed at the hotel for a while, both of us skyping home, waiting for it to get dark.

Once dark, we went to see if we would be able to see the Falls lit up. It had snowed so much that paths we’d walked along that morning were completely snow covered, and a little deep!!

We had to walk through a gorgeous looking park to get to the American side of the falls, but it was definitely worth it. You could get even closer from this side, so close that it was a little scary, but made for some great photos.

From there we decided to have a look in the casino. We met a very funny woman in one of the shops there, who told us we were crazy and sure to get pneumonia from going down to the falls in the cold!!

It gets so hot inside, and we found a Cold Stone Ice Creamery (exactly like Cold Rock at home) so had some ice cream! It was very rich, so so good, but neither of us was able to finish!

We grabbed some soft drinks for our alcohol, and went back to the hotel to settle in for the night. We flicked through on the channels, and found the Dark Knight on TV, and as CK hasn’t see it before, I thought I’d show him how amazing Heath Ledger was =P There was so many ads, so we didn’t end up watching it all, in fact we went to bed about halfway through it.

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Comments

[mum]

Lost...One bear and one glove.xxx