We took our friends visiting us from Pasadena, California to Niagara Falls. They have never visited the Falls and Kathy and I haven’t been there for a few years ourselves. We got there and it was a hot humid day with a very nice view from our hotel room. We were on the 22nd floor of the Embassy Suites.
We looked at the forecast and saw that the weather was going to turn rainy and cold that evening so we quickly snapped some pics from our room. The forecast was unfortunately, spot-on, which is unheard of. The next 2 days it rained. A lot. And it was cold too. But we had fun. The first evening we went to Brasa, A Brazilian steakhouse for dinner and celebrated NOT being vegan by eating all the beef, lamb and pork they could throw at us.
It was a great evening, and our Californian friends got to sample some Niagara wine as well. The next day we walked around in the drizzle and went on a cruise to the base of the falls on the Hornblower. It was loud and wet but extremely fascinating to get so close to the power of the falls. We also took a tour behind the falls which was, again, noisy and wet.
That evening we journeyed across the border to go to a … Journey concert of all things! At the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino. I would never have dreamed earlier in the year that I would have ended up at a Journey concert. At a Casino! In Buffalo! Other than eating chicken wings I didn’t know there was anything to do in Buffalo! But we had a great time. The next day we checked out of our hotel and made our way up (or down?) the Niagara Parkway to the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory.
With over two thousand butterflies it was well worth the stop. The whole thing is encased in a giant, temperature-controlled greenhouse.
Our next stop was at the General Isaac Brock Historic Monument. There is a ton of history regarding the war of 1812 in the Niagara area and this is a monument to General Brock which commemorates the place where he died during the Battle of Queenston Heights.
We then made our way to the picturesque village of Niagara-On-The-Lake with its Victorian-era architecture and history. We ate lunch at the Gate House. This is actually a historic location that used to be a hotel dating back to the 1700s. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1849 but is now a restaurant and venue. We then made our way home to Windsor. Our friends really enjoyed our 3 days of traveling around the Niagara area. It was our pleasure to take them around different sites that we were more or less familiar with but hadn’t visited for a while. In our trip there was awe and wonder with the size and beauty of the falls, a touch of history dating back to the 1700s, great entertainment, and the dining was awesome! We were uncertain what we could show our friends from Pasadena, California (a beautiful place that we definitely want to visit), that would be interesting. As residents of Ontario, we are proud of this natural wonder and the sites we showed them.
