East Coast Days #6, 7 & 8 - Niagara Road Trip

On our fifth and last day in NYC, we did a final walk across the bridge so we could hang out with Kari V, my college BFF, former roommate/teammate and maid of honor. Kari has a fantastic job at an Ivy League school in the city and is rapidly racking up advanced degrees. I, on the other hand, continue to reside in my parent's basement. So clearly one of us (cough! cough!) has been a little busier over the years...;-)

Photography credit goes to Ryan M

After saying goodbye to Kari, we walked over to the Original Soup Man (aka known as "The Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld) for their highly acclaimed lobster bisque. "NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!"

Once that was done, we picked up our rental car and headed northwest to check out Watkins Glen Park. I'd never even heard of the park up until about 2 months ago when a classmate posted a picture of it on Facebook! I was so captivated and intrigued by the park, but assumed it was in some faraway corner of the world that I would never see. But when I researched the location and found that it was only 4 hours from NYC, I immediately lobbied Rich to see if we could squeeze it in on this trip.

The drive up to the park took us on mostly back roads with rolling green hills, red barns and a dozen blink-and-you'll-miss-it towns. We even saw the occasional Amish farm boys plowing the field and womenfolk hanging up the wash. It was all very quaint and lovely.

The next morning, we saw this little gem a few miles before the park entrance on the side of the road-

Once we got to the park, we took the South Entrance and hiked down to the gorge...filled with anticipation.

Here's a picture of the park in all its splendor-

Unbelievable, right? Unfortunately, this is NOT what we saw. What we saw, were barricades that said "Main Gorge Closed until mid-April." And though normally a silly little orange cone isn't going to hold me back after I've traveled over 5,000 miles to see something, there were also signs all over the place saying "Trespassers WILL be prosecuted." And since spending a night in the joint with a girlfriend isn't high on my list, I mostly obeyed. (Please. I wasn't going to let the man totally keep me down.)

So instead of walking UP the gorge through tunnels and walkways getting sprayed by the mist of the falls...we were routed around the top border of the gorge. Not the same.

See what I mean? This is like traveling all the way to Paris to go to the Louvre and being told it's closed, but that you can press your nose up to the glass and still get to see the Mona Lisa (which is 400 feet away and therefore the size of a pin head). Needless to say, I sulked a bit. And by a bit, I mean a very long time. Fortunately, there was an amazing park (for those of you who are counting, this would be Park #7 in the state of New York that we visited) right near the gorge that Ryan loved.

This smile helped ease the pain.

We left a trail of (our days-old wilted) strawberries for the squirrels.

From the park, we drove another 4 hours to cross the border into Canada. Ten years ago, Rich and I walked across Rainbow Bridge to see the falls. We noted how much better the falls were from the Canadian side. So we made sure to stay on the Canadian side this time and checked into the Ramada (good Groupon deal) exhausted, but excited for the next day's adventures...

"Woman! Unpack the luggage and then go get us some food!"

We enjoyed some Italian food at East Side Mario's at the nearby Four Points Sheraton... 

And then hit up Dave & Busters for nearly 3 hours since it was cold and rainy out...who knew Canada would have such weather?! ;-)

Our (bad a**) team defeated daddy! Woot, woot!

It's worth noting that the area surrounding the falls has turned into a giant "family oriented" sea of kitch and tackiness. Think Las Vegas, NV, Branson, MO or Gatlinburg, TN. It's endless bright lights, arcades, mini golf, Ripley's Believe it or Not, tacky souvenir shops, chain restaurants and just plain sensory overload. I'm not sure if the falls are thought to be spiritual for Native Americans, but if they are- lordy have we done them wrong. That place is just too much now.

On the bright side, ten years ago we were too broke to ride the Maid of the Mist, so we were excited to ride on it this time. I think the ride was ten times rougher, colder and wetter than we'd imagined. We got tossed around quite a bit near the roaring falls and were completely drenched by the "mist" (more of a "torrential downpour"). I don't think any of us knew we were going to experience that George Clooney movie "The Perfect Storm".

Distorted faces from the spray on the camera, which prevented us from taking any pictures while on board.

The Maid of the Mist chugging away from the falls (taken from the Canadian side of  Horseshoe Falls)

The American and Canadian Falls

Standing nearly atop Horseshoe Falls

After we warmed back up and had lunch, we headed back to New York and hit a casino at the border so that Rich could win us millions. Unfortunately, he fell a bit short...specifically, $999,970.00 short. But his $30 in blackjack winnings paid our toll fees on the way up, so I'm calling it a win. :-)