The Beginning of the Adventure...

We arrived in Niagara Falls on the 25th. Our flight went out of Atlanta at 6:00am, so we had to leave the house before 4am! Since I worked until almost midnight and hadn't started packing yet, I didn't sleep at all. We flew into Buffalo, New York and rented a car. Our hotel was actually in the Ontario/Niagara Falls area, so we had to cross the border into Canada. At the border there are these stop signs that say "Stop" (obviously) and beneath that it says "Arreit". Arreit means stop in French, but if you say it the way it is written is sounds like someone saying "All Right" with a Canadian accent. We thought that was pretty hilarious and were so busy making jokes about it that we didn't stop at the place we were supposed to. Apparently stop signs are a pretty big deal to Canadian border officials because when I pulled up to the window, the officer asked me if I had ever received a ticket for running a stop sign. I thought that was a strange question and said that I hadn't. Then he asked me if I wanted to start today and explained that I had run the stop sign. I apologized, but he already decided that he didn't like me. He asked us a barrage of questions. Where are you from? Where were you born? Where do you work? Do you have alcohol in the car? What hotel are you staying in? He had us pull forward and our car was searched by another officer. We were then directed into the immigration office to be questioned by yet another officer. They finally decided we weren't terrorists or fugitives and let us through. As Eric says, "the man with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle". By the time we got to Niagara Falls, we were both exhausted. We checked into our hotel first. We stayed at the Days Inn Near the Falls. It was in an area called Clifton Hills and was right on the strip. Everything we could have possibly wanted or needed was walking distance away.

http://www.daysinn-nearthefalls.com/

We walked over to this restaurant called The Keg Steakhouse. It was absolutely amazing and ridiculously expensive.

http://en.kegsteakhouse.com/menus/dinner

There are two in the Niagara Falls area. One overlooks the falls and is even more expensive than the one we ate at. Ours just happened to be right across the street from our hotel. Eric ordered the Prime Rib and I got the Escargot and Calamari. My meal was delicious. I have never had calamari that was so lightly breaded and the sauce complimented it perfectly. Eric said his prime rib was only so-so. It was accompanied by a horseradish sauce that was like fire. I seriously think it might have burned the hair in my nostrils a little when I breathed. We asked the waitress to ask the kitchen about it. Apparently there are different types of radishes and they use the hottest one for their horseradish sauce. I guess you learn something new everyday, huh? After we got the bill, we suffered a little buyer's remorse. ;) It was definitely an amazing meal though.

We walked around after that to buy some beer for the hotel room. Apparently in Canada, they can buy beer on Sundays but you can't find it anywhere except a liquor store. They also charge a deposit on the bottles to encourage people to recycle. I think that is an amazing idea. If they offered reimbursement to encourage people to recycle in Georgia--sooo many more people would do it, even if they are paying extra up front. The sad truth. We have to pay people to want to save the planet. Beer is also crazy expensive. I don't know if it is everywhere in Canada or just the tourist trap where we stayed, but it was almost twice as much as it is in the United States. We went back to the room to take a nap and ended up sleeping for the rest of the night.

The next morning, I woke up first and walked down to the Falls for the first time. They were absolutely breathtaking. I felt the temperature drop when I was about a block away. I love love love waterfalls and I can't even describe how amazing these were. I walked down and checked everything out of several different vantage points they have set up. There was a Denny's right next door to our hotel and I stopped there for breakfast. Apparently Denny's is the only breakfast place in Canada that offers grits, so I was happy about that. I was starting to wonder if there was reasonably priced though because breakfast cost me an arm and a leg.

http://www.dennysniagara.com/index.htm

After that I went back upstairs to collect Eric. He was finally ready to wake up, so we got ready and walked down to the falls. He was really hungry since he had slept through my breakfast, so we stopped at Burger King right on the strip. One thing I noticed right away is that their menu lacked the dollar selections they have everywhere else in the world. I was starting to wonder if everyone is in on this conspiracy that causes tourists to spend all their money. We bought the Niagara Falls Adventure Pass first. Anything to save a couple of bucks since we had to spend all our extra money on food.

http://www.niagaraparks.com/nfgg/discountpass.php