A Daytrip to Niagara Falls

Last Sunday I went with four international couchsurfers for my first real visit to Niagara Falls. The only other time I saw them was on a night run to NYC in passing. I was happy to go with other newcommers because I got the impression from talking with other Torontonians that one of the greatest wonders of the world had become commonplace. Now, I understand the feeling, in that going to Banff was not nearly as appealing as it seems to be to some of these eastcoasters.

Nigara Falls is not particularly vegan friendly, or at least I didn’t get that impression. I might go down again just to try it again and do more exploring around the city, but I didn’t get the chance. Happy Cow has a couple of veg friendly restos listed, the friendliest place sounds like Sahara (6225 Thorold Stone Road, Niagara Falls, On)

I’ll be honest, I went to one of the most unvegan places in the Clifton Hills Tourist District: Wendy’s. I was hungry, grumpy and tired. I had my standard baked potato, with some chives and some hot sauce. Yup. Most menu’s I checked out had really limited options, I’m sure they were veganizable (or not…) but my potato kept me going for a few hours.

One of my fellow travellers needed to cross the rainbow bridge to enter the United States, and while she did that the rest of us walked along the edge towards the whirlpool. It was neat, but a long walk. We took the Peoplemover bus back to our starting point, and I wish I had the chance to go on it more and see more of Niagara. Next time!

We went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which… I don’t know, maybe I’ve gotten accustomed to paying too much for everything, but it seemed pretty reasonable at 15 dollars. I didn’t take any pictures because I was afraid of getting my camera wet. Maybe next time I go to Niagara I’ll have the foresight to bring along a sealable bag or a camera casing.

I went on the big ferris wheel, the Niagara “SkyWheel”, by myself, while everyone else went to the casino. It gave me a great view of the falls and the rest of the city. It was actually pretty high, and for some reason I think I would have preferred to have company up there.

We sat at the Skylon Center, which looks a lot like a miniature CN Tower, for two hours waiting for fireworks that never ended up happening. They said there was too much wind. Darn. But the view was spectacular. I bet the fireword

Clifton Hills was full of little random places, like several wax museums, funny stuff and restaurants. Oh so many restaurants. and wax museums. I started to wonder if Niagara Falls had more wax museums per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Since the excitement was over with, we drove back to Toronto. After a long day like that it was nice to go right to bed and sleep.

This weekend is VegFest! My first one ever. Hopefully it will be awesome, I can’t wait to go! Sunday there is a Vegan Iron Chef competition. I’m just so excited