Niagara Falls, the Guru, & Being a Tourist with my Mom.

The day after the Engagement Party I cajoled my mother to visit Niagara Falls. She’s never been there, but it was a pretty hard sell, since we were exhausted from the night before. Regardless, I thought it was a worthwhile visit for someone from out of town and JC was driving his cousin back home to New York, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

Once we got there we spent about three hours at the Outlet Malls on Lundy’s Lane. The one benefit of this visit other then buying a bagful of La Vie en Rose, was that it reminded me I needed new running shoes. My white whale… the entirely purple New Balance… was on sale at a shoe store… but two sizes too big (and they didn’t have any more sizes).

We tried to find a place to have a snack and a coffee, but the area around the Outlet Mall’s is unsurprisingly lacking in the kind of coffee or snacks we were looking for. On previous trips to Niagara Falls, I wanted to go to The Guru, but something always got in the way. This time, we made it happen. The public transit options are VERY helpful in Niagara Falls, so it only took us a few minutes to catch a bus and be on our way to the tourist zone of Niagara Falls.

Clifton Hills is home to a few three or four wax museums, haunted houses, dinosaur adventure, a Ferris wheel, and So Much More! I think it might take on a whole new meaning if I have children, but at the moment, not much of that appeals to me as an activity.

The Guru (5705 Victoria Avenue, Niagara Falls, ON) is an East Indian restaurant in the Clifton Hills zone. They have an explicitly Vegan/”dairy free” section of their menu – and it includes lots of great options.

We started with an order of veggie samosas and pakoras. They were great, the surprise favourite was the spinach pakora (though it shouldn’t be a surprise – spinach in any form is pretty fantastic.)

Followed by a very tasty Bindi Masala (my GoTo dish whenever we go out for East Indian cuisine) and an okay aloo gobi.

After dinner, we slowly made our way down towards the Falls, where the churning water surrounded the area with flying freezing water droplets. It’s certainly more of a summertime visit, but I think it’s worth seeing anytime of the year.