A Boat & Breakfast.

Last weekend we packed a bag and left on a jet plane.  Shane had a photoshoot for a client in Rochester, NY.  So, we flew from Tulsa to Chicago.

When I'm in an airport I like to sit near a window and look at what's going on out there.  It's nice to see when your plane shows up and I like to watch the guys load the luggage, or throw the luggage, whichever.  So on Saturday when we arrived at O'Hare, we had a while to wait before our next flight so we stopped in a little restaurant near our gate.  And we sat near a window.  And we ordered Stellas on draft.  And personal pizzas.  This was our first meal of the trip.  Little did we know what it would lead to.

So we finally landed in Buffalo, NY.  From there we picked up our rental car, and realized that Shane left his debit card in the restaurant in the Chicago airport.  Yes.  This happened.  So while driving to Rochester we took care of that little snafu.  

Did you know that Rochester is home to Kodak?  This is the Kodak building in downtown Rochester.  It's an amazing building and the entire thing is surrounded by scaffolding because they are in the middle of restoring the whole building.  What a landmark of a building. 

It's also the home to High Falls.  High Falls is located in the Genesee River which flows through town.  We had a great time in Rochester, catching up with old friends and drinking good beer, but on Saturday afternoon it was time to head a little further North.

So we hopped in the rental and drove to Niagara Falls.  We crossed the border into Canada where we checked into our hotel. Shane had never been here before and i had once when I was about 13 with my dad, stepmom, and aunt.  My only criteria for hotels was that it wasn't a Ramada Inn.  I had already stayed at a Ramada Inn in Niagara lol.  

The boy did pretty well. This was the view from our room.  Not too shabby, eh?  We were on the 11th floor of The Oakes Hotel .  Since we were only staying a night we decided to splurge a little.  Splurging equals hot tub.  :)

So once we checked into our room we decided to check out the falls.  We ended up walking A Lot.  We also bought tickets to ride the Maid of The Mist .  

See all the people in blue?

Here they are up close.  Everybody who buys tickets to ride the Maid of the Mist gets a "souvenir poncho."  It was about 85 degrees this day.  When they handed everybody the ponchos there was an employee yelling, "Don't put the ponchos on until you get onto the boat!  It's too hot!"  Well, you can see how well most of the people listen.  

This is the picture I took of the American Falls while on the boat.  The boat where I put on my poncho.  

This is the picture of the American Falls that Shane Bevel took.  Can you tell who the pro is in our family?  Shane got several more awesome shots.  I however covered my face in the clear blue plastic poncho hood because I can't handle water being sprayed in my face and I can't see through my glasses then either.  Yes, I'm awesome.  The boat ride was really cool, there was lots of water.  :)

We hiked it back to our hotel room after that.  And I took a 3 hour nap.  Because that's what I do when I'm on vacation.  I nap.  I nap at home, too, but we won't get into that now.  

Did you know that during the summer they shoot fireworks every night from the Canadian side?  They also light the falls up the colors of the rainbow.  Did you know that the bridge that takes you from the US to Canada is called the Rainbow Bridge?  It is.  Did you know that they cut back the flow of water to the falls at night to make electricity?  They do.  Then they light them up for the tourists.  Personally I'm not a fan of the multi-colored lighting of the falls.  The white made it seem more natural.  ha.

Did you know that Niagara Falls is REALLY expensive?  When we snapped this shot of ourselves, we didn't know either.  

 

It finally hit us when we went to IHOP for breakfast Monday morning.  IHOP.  We were seated by the nice Canadians.  I opened the menu, saw the pictures and though, "wow, an omelette would be perfect!  Oooh!  A spinach & Mushroom omelette would be the Best!"  So I read the description....get to the bottom and see the price.  The PRICE.  $18.99 for a freaking omelette?!  That's right.  So I got a meal where I got as many options as possible.  The pancake combo with eggs, bacon and hashbrowns.  I saved a whole dollar on that one.  

And this is the $60 breakfast.  Shane's blueberries cost a little extra...

We got back to Tulsa Monday night.  So yes, we literally took a weekend trip to Niagara Falls.  lol.  And it was nice.  Will we go back?  Sure.  But we'll probably stay on the American side where it's a state park and far less touristy.  And probably not when it's the Canadian Civic holiday when all the Canadians are off work.  Yeah, we didn't know that one until right before we left.  :)