I don’t recall anymore how we decided this was a good time for us to travel, or how exactly we landed on Toronto and Niagara Falls. I think it had something to do with Ash going to India for a month later in September and we wanted to get something in before that. At any rate, I’d never been to NF before and neither of us had been to Toronto before so that’s good enough reason as any. What I’d forgotten is that August/September/October is my busy time at work, so I won’t be disconnecting as completely as I typically do. But I’m good with that.

We had a 6am flight Saturday morning, September 9, to Dallas. We booked the window and aisle seats and lucked out that no one was in the middle, so Zeus had a nice comfortable spot on the floor between us.

We were in Ashland, Oregon, the weekend before, and had several near misses with COVID, so decided we’d be masked on these flights.

Originally, we had just 45 minutes between flights, but our connection was delayed, which we appreciated, so we had over an hour to hang out in the lounge and get something to eat. They had a surprisingly good minestrone and a chicken & green bean dish that was also very good. We were glad we got the stop and the free food.

We got into Toronto about 5pm and, with a long wait for luggage and rental, and wildly congested traffic we thought for a Saturday night, didn’t get to our friends’ house until about 8pm. They had a lovely light meal for us, and we got a nice chance to eat and visit before everyone went to bed.

We will stay with them again Tuesday and Wednesday nights but made our way out early to head to Niagara Falls, which is just under 2 hours away. At the recommendation of several, we stopped at Niagara-on-the-Lake on the way and are glad we did. We both agreed this is one of the most beautiful, charming little towns we’ve ever come across. The gardens that line the main street are extraordinary and these photos will not do it justice. But I’m going to try!

A friend we talked to that morning who used to live in Buffalo recommends this place for brunch so maybe we will come back today or tomorrow. It’s just about 20 minutes from Niagara Falls.

Just me trying to capture the quaintness of this town, population about 20,000.

Still 2 weeks for Fall to hit the calendar but this maple is already starting to change.

More cuteness above and below, taking this restaurant from two different angles.

Last one, I promise.

The “lake” in the name is Lake Ontario. Just beyond those trees the Niagara River empties into it.

As we made our way to Niagara Falls there was a park near the Queenston bridge where we walked around a bit and let Zeus run around without a leash. The color of the Niagara River here is a beautiful blue-green. Notice the two flags in the middle – one Canadian, one USA – showing the boundary which runs through the middle of the river.

A boy and his dog.

There are power plants fueled by the Niagara on both sides.

We are staying at Fallsview Sheraton on the Canada side of Niagara Falls.

And this is the view from our 18th floor window, validating the name of the hotel.

Ash has a lifetime Platinum status with Marriott back from his IBM travel in the 90s, so we still benefit with things like lounge access. You can still see the Falls a bit from here even though it’s just the 2nd floor.

We essentially dropped our bags and went to explore. The bridge over to the USA side is just to the left of our hotel. They checked passports coming and going. The bridge is below.

A shot of the river and falls from the bridge. The Niagara River is only 36 miles – technically it’s a strait that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario – and runs north. Which for some reason my mind struggles with, which only indicates my own bias. Rivers run from highest to lowest point and it’s as simple as that. The Nile in Egypt also runs north, which makes total sense. The Falls on the left are called the American Falls because that portion of the river is all on the east side of the border. You can barely see it from here, but the smaller falls on the left is Bridal Veil. And the falls in front of us are Horseshoe for obvious reasons.

Looking back, that’s the Sheraton where we are staying. The tower to the right of it is a casino.

We made our way over to the American Falls.

What astounded me was how fast the water was moving. And the color of the water is gorgeous.

In this clip I try to capture how fast the water is moving. This is up the river a bit and then following it to where it falls at about 75k gallons per second.

I grabbed a screen shot of the map as we were on a pedestrian bridge going over to Goat Island. I added arrows which show the flow of the water. The falls are on each side of Goat Island – the American and Bridal Veil falls that straight-ish line towards the top, and Horseshoe Falls connecting the island to Canada. From a pure view perspective, Canada got the best deal in this game.

There’s a big New York State Park that manages this whole area on the USA side. Here we are making our way to Horsehoe Falls.

While this video doesn’t capture it, there’s almost 10x as much water flowing here at this falls, at 675k gallons per second.

Zeus encounters Scully the tortoise, his first one.

The American Falls from the other side.

We were pretty tired after this and went back to the room to shower and rest a bit before dinner.

We made our way out again around 6:20pm to walk to dinner about 1/2 a mile away. Ash continues his “put your finger on the tip” series below, this time using my head.

That single wall of water on the far right is the Bridal Veil.

The colors change as the sun starts to set – American above, Horseshoe below.

We made our way to Queen Victoria Place, a restaurant established in 1904.

It’s known for its views of the Falls, and didn’t disappoint on that front – above and below.

We got the 3-course fixed menu, starting with a peach and apricot gazpacho for Ash, and a grilled Romaine salad for me. They called it a Ceasar but only the Romaine and the parmesan made it so. Also prosciutto and fried capers. I liked it but Ash didn’t care for either too much. The gazpacho was too sweet for a starter – reminded me of the “juice” we used to drink out of peach cans when I was a kid, not knowing then it was really syrup.

Ash had salmon, I had short ribs. Mine was really good and a good portion. Ash liked the taste of his, but the piece salmon was small.

Chocolate cheesecake and creme brulee for dessert.

At night, they put on a light show.

And at 10pm there were fireworks, too, which we could see pretty well from our hotel window. And we were in bed shortly after that.

We don’t have a single thing planned for the day, other than I need to work some, so we will see what we come up with.