Sunday, July 21, 2013 – Niagara Falls, NY
We had a great night’s sleep last night, the evening temperature dropped into the mid 60s allowing us to sleep with the windows open rather than with the AC running. We kicked the morning off with some complimentary hash brown potatoes that were given us when we checked into the Canandaigua KOA campground. We had never tried this brand before – Hungry Jack. They came in a small milk carton style container. You added some hot water and let it stand for 12 minutes and then drained them and fried them up with 2 tbsp of oil. They were surprisingly very good. We’ll have to try those again.
Our first stop this morning was the Ontario Mall of Antiques in Farmington, NY. They were having a sidewalk sale with lots of different sellers. We’ve decided that if you are looking for antique toys or dolls, you have to come to the East Coast. Given the popularity of the nearby Strong Museum of Play, a lot of the sellers had toys and dolls for sale. The prices were very reasonable and they were willing to negotiate. We didn’t buy a lot of things but what we did was very nice and at good prices. The only problem was that we were running out of room. Especially, when one of the items that Elisa purchase was a complete 1970’s vintage Barbie Dream House with all the accessories and I mean all of them. Interestingly, we’ve seen this doll house in just about every museum we’ve been in. Now we have to figure out how to get it home.
Click this link for a picture of what she found…
After that we headed on to Niagara Falls, NY so we could take a look at the falls from the US side. We went to the Niagara Falls State park to see the IMAX film – except its not shown on an IMAX screen. We got there around 3:00 pm and we were surprised just how crowed the park was. we were also surprised by the number of Indian (from India) tourists that were there. We were also surprised by the number of screaming and whining kids that were there. The poor parents of all of these kids looked totally spent and were doing little to soothe their children. It was a zoo there and it was so not the fun and calm place that the National Museum of Play was. In the end, it was a “check the box” type of visit. We certainly found the Falls totally amazing and we are looking forward to seeing them from the Canadian side. Bottom line though, too crowded, too many whiny, crying kids, and way too commercial – they want to charge you for everything. Due to the crowds we decided to skip the touristy things, e.g., Maid of the Mist.
After trip out to Niagara Falls, we found the local Super Walmart to buy some boxes, packing supplies and tape so we can ship some of the “loot” home. We also found a do-it-yourself carwash. When we woke up this mooring it was the sound to thousands of birds chirping and tweeting away. They were right in the tree above my car. It turns our all the tweeting was birdie social media way of saying “let’s poop on Rex’s car”. I don’t know what they ate, but that stuff was like cement on my car. It was tough to get off.
No exotic dinners to tell you about. Tonight we decided to take it easy. Elisa warmed up some of the left over’s that had accumulated from all of our earlier eating out. We did stop earlier today at a farm stand to buy some fresh picked corn – it was good and it was fresh.
More tomorrow:
Her is a link to other photos we took today.
Photo 1 – We took the back roads from Rochester to Niagara Falls – and we passed through some beautiful farm land.
Photo 2 – the entrance to the relatively small Niagara Falls Visitor Center
Photo 3 – Picture of Elisa looking up river just before the falls – I asked to take a few steps back but she didn’t “fall” for it.
Photo 4 – Picture of Rex with the falls in the background
Photo 5 – Picture of the Canadian side – they have a much better view
Photo 6 – Pedestrian Bridge that goes over to Goat Island. Some day that sucker is going to wash over the falls
Photo 7 – Maid of the mist
Photo 8 – Photo of both falls – Horseshoe falls in the background
Photo 9 – Some fun facts in 1960 a 7 year old boy went over the falls wearing only a life jacket after the boat he was in capsized. Other than a few bruises and scrapes he was picked up unhurt. A miracle.
Photo 10- some other fun facts.
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