A barrel of fun

For Labor Day weekend, Justin and I headed 3 hours west and north to our great northern neighbor, Canada...specifically to Niagara Falls. Neither of us had ever been to Canada and were looking forward to getting another stamp in our passports. Correction: It would actually be the first stamp in my "married name" passport. As we crossed the border, we sadly realized that there's not too much regulation getting into Canada, and they do not stamp your passport when you arrive by car.

We decided to stay in a bed and breakfast based on the fact that all the hotels in Niagara falls looked like roach motels or were way out of our price range. We had never stayed in a bed and breakfast before, and I must say that this place was absolutely wonderful. It's called the Redwood Bed and Breakfast and it is located on the Canada side of the falls. The B&B faces the river that divides the two countries and is only about a 10 minute walk to the waterfalls. If you go, you have GOT to stay here...the best part were the sweet people who own the B&B...oh and the A-Mazing breakfasts.

Here is the dining room where we were served the most incredible breakfast each morning. I cannot say enough about the breakfast! One morning we had chocolate french toast and shrimp omelets and the 2nd day, we enjoyed an amazing eggs benedict with chocolate covered bananas. There was definitely no shortage of chocolate or eggs! They used different china patterns each day and served all kinds of fruits, pastries, and most importantly...coffee! It was just so wonderful! And as we walked down the street in the morning (which was basically a long row of B&Bs, the whole street smelled like chocolate from all the different breakfasts being made!

So while we were there, Justin and I kept comparing the town of Niagara Falls to other places. I think we compared it to Las Vegas, Zurich, London, Disney World, and Colorado...there may have been more comparisons. By far, the place it reminded us of the most was Las Vegas. There were larger than life hotels, grand casinos, hoards of tourists and loud night clubs. The difference though...it was clean!

We had one full day to enjoy the waterfalls, which was a perfect amount of time to be there. After walking down B&B row and smelling all that chocolate on Saturday morning, Justin really needed a drink from the American Falls.

These falls are called the Horseshoe Falls, because it's a big round horseshoe shape. Canada is on one side and USA is on the other. The mist was incredible, you could actually see it from a few miles away. You can also barely see in this picture that there's a boat under all that mist!

I was so intrigued by the Maid of the Mist attraction, where you ride a boat all the way into the middle of the falls. Let's just say that Justin was not getting me to leave Canada before I did it! Also, whoever made up that business must be a millionaire now...they had 4 boats going all day long that were always stuffed full of people in blue ponchos.

Here's my attempt at photo journalism for the trip.

There's a large area where you can stand literally at the top of the waterfall right before the water goes over. It's really amazing! I could have stood there all day watching it. We actually almost did because we met a photographer who said that a guy was planning to go over the falls in a barrell that day. Justin was pumped...he was on the lookout for the barrell all day long.

CNN photographer took this picture for us!

One of the two attractions we did was called Journey Behind the Falls. This is NOT for the claustrophobic individual, however they do not warn you of that beforehand. They put you in a winding line (that feels like a Disney World ride) and give you a yellow poncho. You wait in line and when you get to the front and you get on an elevator and go down. I have no idea how far down you go, but the elevator door opens and you're underground in a cave that is full of people. This is where the claustrophobe freaks out. There is no where to go except straight through the line of people waiting to get on your elevator...

I couldn't look up until I got outside of the long tunnel cave and this is what you see. You're on a ledge that is right next to the bottom of the waterfall...you're literally underneath it. It was cool, but I did not enjoy the pushing and cutting in line that the tourists were doing while in the claustrophobic cave.

The second attraction we did was the Maid of the Mist boat ride. This time you get a blue poncho. Everyone files into another Disney World line and puts on their ponchos. However, this attraction required no caves and no underground travel.

We didn't do this excursion (below) but I took a picture of it from the boat. All I can say is that those people were getting soaked!

Here's a "before" shot of us on the boat. Justin wanted to be at the very front, Titanic style, but that would have required shoving some small children out of the way. So we settled for a place next to the children a little to the left, but definitely in the front row.

Here's the after shot. I didn't take any pictures while we were "under" the waterfalls, because I'm pretty sure it would have destroyed the camera. It was amazing...I can only compare it to what I think it would feel like to be in the middle of a hurricane. Except everyone was laughing and screaming!

On Saturday night we got cleaned up and went out for some ribs! :) Remember Tony Roma's? They had one, and we couldn't pass it up! Then we spent a few hours donating to one of the Niagara Falls casinos, followed by watching some college football in one of the sports bars of the casino. I will say, we had to request the channel for the game that was on...college football is evidently not that big of a deal in Canada, but that didn't stop us!