Niagara Falls

Since January, I had cherished hopes of making it to Argyle in order to catch our nieces and nephews in their epic dance recital. And when one is heading upstate, why not throw in a trip to Niagara Falls? IT'S PRACTICALLY ON THE WAY.

Left arrow: Niagara Falls. Right arrow: Dance recital. 

Upstate is upstate, right? What's an extra 500 miles between friends? Throw in the fact that J had a conference for work the same weekend back in Princeton, and it all made sense in a special kind of way!

Everyone stop and take a deep breath and think about what it must be like to live with me. Say a prayer for J while you're at it.

The plans came together and we set off for Niagara Falls in the wee morning hours of a Thursday. We stopped for lunch of some amazing (seriously) meatloaf in the grocery-store deli of a tiny town that was nearly-there. Such are the random serendipitous moments of these drives.

The closer we got, the more excited I was. I mean, I was really looking forward to this. I was convinced that Niagara Falls was something that would not disappoint, although I didn't have much evidence to go on. I was deeply hopeful that it would be like the Grand Canyon in that it would be even grander than what could be pictured or imagined: that it would demand to be experienced.

Horseshoe Falls

And, wow.

Nutmeg was afraid at first. The noise of mighty rushing waters is not to be trifled with.

foreground: American Falls

Rainbow!

The mist from Horseshoe Falls. We could see this from miles away as we drove in, like smoke from a wildfire.

We spent almost 24 hours at Niagara Falls, and that was about right. I booked us a hotel on the Canadian side with views of the falls. We could hear the roar of the water while in our room.

Breakfast in the hotel

The timing was perfect; in mid-May, things had just reopened after the winter (!) so we weren't in full tourism season yet. There were no crowds, and hotels and such were less expensive.
We hit an uncommonly warm day, though, which meant the Maid of the Mist was a delight.

The Maid is a boat that goes up-close-and-personal to the bottom of the falls. In misty Horseshoe Falls, we got soaked. 

I maybe thought about the wedding in The Office.

We hiked around to the different islands and got up-close looks. Nutmeg picked me about a zillion dandelions. 

It was fun to get to use our passports and overnight in Canada. As Nutmeg commented re: border control, "That girl was NICE to me!"

Bud's "You think?!?" to the "Climbing is Dangerous" sign above the falls

Kid photographer! OK, it was  a little romantic.

Niagara Falls did not disappoint. It was a whirlwind-yet-restorative family vacation, and I am deeply grateful to have been able to go. And truly thankful and amazed that it exceeded my expectations (unlike our trip to the Grand Canyon) and was in no way disappointing. There is something exhilarating in in hoping big and then seeing it come to pass. I am so so grateful!

Our crew of Road Ninjas at the Falls