This past summer my BF and I decided that we wanted to go on a small vacation, just the two of us. Honestly that was the only thing that we seemed to be able to agree upon. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted to go to the beach or to somewhere upstate, stay in a motel or go camping. We couldn’t even decide on the amount of days that we wanted to go away for. You never realize just how difficult planning a vacation is when you’re used to your parent doing it for you. At this point it seemed like this vacation wasn’t worth the trouble that it was putting us through, but then, in the midst of our frustration a week before we were planning on going and the list of 10+ different possible destinations I had suggested that we go to Niagara Falls. This was the first suggestion that neither of us seemed to have an issue with so we decided to look a little further into this option.
Now I’ve always heard that Niagara Falls was a huge honeymoon destination and by the looks of Jim and Pam’s wedding I assumed that it was going to be crazy expensive.
However, it was surprisingly reasonable for two college kids with part-time summer jobs.
So, BF was in charge of finding a place to stay and I was in charge of the itinerary. So for anyone that knows me personally, knows that Pinterest is almost as important as oxygen for my basic human survival. So, I took to Pinterest to see the tips and tricks, the do’s and don’ts of doing Niagara Falls, that all the blogger moms have already laid out for me to read. To my pleasant surprise, I found that a trip to Niagara is totally doable with a 2-3 day time frame. Many posts that I read explained how the families did both sides (the American and Canadian) in only 2 days. Unfortunately for us with such short notice (or being such procrastinators and waiting until the last possible second to plan our get away), we didn’t have enough time to get our passports or even enhanced license. So we decided to not become fugitives, keep our good names and stay on the NY side. My BF was able to find a Super8 motel room for around $200 for two nights and 3 days and I came across this website where I was able to purchase a “Discovery Pass” for $45(ish) per adult. Now just as a suggestion, IF YOU EVER PLAN ON GOING TO NIAGARA FALLS I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING THESE PASSES!! Buy ya’know totally up to you…
So these tiny paper pamphlets give you admission to all the top tourist hot spots like the Maiden of the Mist, The Cave of Winds, the Aquarium of Niagara and a few other really cool things. The way these things work is that when you finally get to the state park, you go to any one of the gates to these places and you redeem the tickets you printed out online and you get these little booklets that have tear-able tabs that you rip out whenever you want to use them.
So on our first day up at Niagara, after a 6-hour car ride, we decided to check into the motel and then go get some grub. While we were eating, we were sort of confused as to why our phones weren’t working so well. So, I stopped one of the waitresses and asked, “so, I know this might be a stupid question, but our phones keep thinking we are in Canada, but that’s not Canada across the river is it? and without even blinking, she was like “no yeah, that’s Canada.” And walked away just like that, like it’s TOTALLY NORMAL TO BE EATING A MEAL WHILE SITTING ACROSS FROM CANADA!!! I mean, to be fair, it is probably quite normal for her, but for two people who haven’t traveled outside the country much, it wasn’t so normal (but definitely awesome!)
After our dinner and after being total dorks and obsessing over the fact that we were in swimming distance from Canada (to which we found out if we tried doing, the Canadian Cost Guard would come scoop us up because crossing borders is a no-no) we decided that we would try to head over to the Aquarium of Niagara.
Once we got there we had been informed that a baby seal pup had just been born there for the first time in 30 years and that we were able to see it even before the press release. If you think you’re going to stop me from seeing a precious little angel like that, you’re wrong. So BF and I stood in a crazy long line and it got to the point where I was considering if it was actually worth it to see the little blob of goodness but surely enough it came to our turn and let me tell you – that little nugget of pure love and happiness was totally worth the wait. It was probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen with my own eyes. And unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures, on the account that they hadn’t released this news to the public yet, so here’s an image that I borrowed from their website to show you just how gosh darn cute she is.
Our second day there was going to be our only full day up in Niagara so we had to make sure that we were able to do everything that we wanted to do in just that one day.
We started our day with an average early start probably around 9-10ish in the morning and we headed out the door. By the way the map of the entire state park looked, it seemed like it was going to be almost impossible to get everywhere just by walking. To our happy surprise it was extremely doable and one of the perks of getting the discovery pass is one free day of trolley rides, so we saved that for the day with the most walking. The first stop we made was to the Maiden of the Mist, we walked up to the entrance and redeemed our tickets and made our way up to the observatory deck. Even just the view from there was almost completely worth it! It was crazy to think that we weren’t even at the main attraction yet!
Once we went down the elevators we jumped right on line for the next boat and got our spiffy rain ponchos; there was almost no wait and before we knew it we were off towards the falls. At this moment I was very thankful for the invention of lifeproof iPhone cases because the mist coming down from the falls was something close to that of a light rain shower – but the view was definitely worth getting a little wet.
Another aspect of the Maiden of the Mist which I wasn’t aware of was the option of walking up to the Crow’s Nest (similar to the Cave of Winds) which was a stair case leading up to the side of the Bridal Veil falls. One useful tip is that you should definitely make sure that you have a water resistant backpack and a towel inside of it because you will definitely need it!
Off to the next stop!
Our next destination was to the Cave of the Winds, and keep in mind that the title is a little misleading because you don’t actually get to go into any caves, HOWEVER you do get to get basically submerged by the falls on this winding stair case.
Starting out after redeeming your tickets you are bestowed these glamorous sandals that in my opinion strongly resemble “air-hercs”, as well as another rain poncho, YAY!
Seriously these things are going to go in style soon, trust me.
After another short elevator ride you are down at the base of the American and Bridal Veil falls and get to make your way up the staircases while getting slammed by hurricane wind and rushing water, it’s seriously so much fun. At one point on the “Tornado Deck” the water was so strong that it split the top of the rain poncho on BF’s head (but everyone knows how quickly short hair dries so it was totally fine).
At this point we did all that we knew we wanted to do so we just took the rest of the day to walk around the different islands, around the town, and grab some grub. We did all of these things, making sure to be back in time to watch the fireworks and the light show.
It was simply amazing.
If you have ever had the slightest desire to visit Niagara Falls, I highly suggest that you do so, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced, all whilst being a very humbling experience. I cannot wait until we can make it over onto the Canadian side and get to see the falls from another angle! I hope that you too are able to experience these natural wonders one day! And if not, maybe you can live vicariously through this post! Oh, and thanks for giving me an excuse to post all these vacation pictures.