batteh blog-o-rama

We took a trip to Niagara Falls this Easter weekend. After arriving via the Canadian route, we stopped for a bit on the Canadian side of the falls. The sky was overcast and the weather a bit rainy so we didn’t get much of a view. We then headed over to the US side and checked into our B&B, Manchester House. We really enjoyed staying at the historic B&B- Lis and Carl were wonderful hosts and really made us feel at home. After resting for a while, we went to Buzzy’s Pizza for dinner. The pizza was awesome!! We then drove around town and saw Liz’s parents first house (no more redwood fence), the house where the grandparents Tabak lived, and also Sal Maglie’s old house (now huge due to some additions).

After enjoying a delicioius breakfast of french toast and apples at the B&B, we headed to the US side of the falls. We parked on Goat Island and got a good view of the Horseshoe Falls. We then did the Cave of the Winds tour and got a nice, close-up view of the Bridal Veil and American Falls. Unfortunately, the walkways were still being constructed so we couldn’t get as close as usual, but it was still mighty impressive (and quite misty). It was amazing to be so close to the falls and feel the power of all the flowing water. We also walked to the Visitor’s Center to get a closer view of the American Falls. We then did some hiking in the Niagara Gorge. We went to Whirlpool State Park, hiked down to the river trail (340 steps), and then walked to Devil’s Hole and back up to the Rim Trail. We met some cool punk kids at the bottom and back on the top- they confirmed that it was best to do the hike the way we did (down Whirlpool and up at Devil’s Hole). After the hike, we took a quick trip to the Power Vista. They had lots of exhibits but we didn’t really have time to look around. We had a very nice dinner at The Como- the place where Liz’s parents had their wedding reception. An awesome dinner (and the wine wasn’t bad either)!!

We went to Easter Mass at St. Joe’s. It was very apparent that this was the Italian church- Liz, I, and some Chinese guy were the only 3 non-Italians there (Liz had flashbacks to the Godfather-that’s-a-my-aunt). The Church was very beautiful. After changing clothes, we drove to Old Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario. It was really cool to walk through the old fort buildings. The Fort was occupied by the French, British, and Americans over its long history. Plus, the musket firing demonstration was very cool. Unfortunately, we just missed the Patriot’s Day demonstration the previous day- they even had a skirmish re-enactment. Doh!! On the way back to Niagara Falls, we stopped at the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center to learn about the history and geology of the gorge. We had a very nice dinner (perhaps nicer than we were dressed) at the Water Street Grille in Lewiston. In the evening, we went to see the Falls illuminated. It is eerie walking to the falls at night- you can hear them but can’t see them until you get right up to them. It is much more menacing at night- you really appreciate the power of the falls. Also, I noticed things at night that I didn’t see during the day. We got some nice night shots using the tripod.

We enjoyed another delicious breakfast at the B&B before leaving. We stopped at DiCamillo’s Bakery to pick up some yummy bakery items and then stopped at the Candian side to get one last view of the falls. This time the weather was much better and we had a great view. What a great trip!! Check out the photo gallery for some pictures from our trip (I’m using Flickr to make it easier to upload photo sets. Note that you can comment on individual photos in Flickr in addition to commenting on the post/pics here).

Photo Gallery

Tags: No Tags

Related Posts (perhaps)

Trip to Pacific NW

GSHAS Fall #5, #6

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Photos, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.