So a few days before last weekend Sheila and I decided to pack up and go see the falls. Sheila had never been to Niagara before and I had only been there twice. Mapquest said it was 3 hours and 45 minutes. So we first thought we'd just make a day trip out of it, leave Saturday morning and come back Saturday night. But at the last minute we decided to stay the night and maybe see the falls all lit up after dark. So we got a room at the Holiday Inn in St. Catherines, a city about 10 miles North of the falls and the rest of the tourist traffic. We left Saturday around 8am. Weather was cloudy and threatening to rain, with a high expected around 45. It wasn't supposed to get real warm all weekend, but hopefully the rain would stay away. We crossed into Canada at Buffalo over the Peace Bridge at about noon. We went through customs without even being asked for our driver's license, much less my birth certificate that I took an hour to find. The last time I went to Windsor a few years back, I was almost turned back because I didn't bring a birth cert. Damn and I left all the contraband at home. LOL. After checking into the hotel we jumped in the car and headed for the falls. First stop was going to be the new Niagara Casino. It took us a few minutes to find it, since none of the buildings of the Casino and it's neighbors were there the last time I was visiting. But of course, there was not any reasonable parking any where nearby. We ending up parking about 1/3rd of a mile downhill at the base of the Skylon Tower. We hiked over to the casino to check it out. I haven't been to Niagara in almost 10 years, so the casino and all the other things around it were new to me to. There was a pretty impressive fountain and statuary inside at the casino entrance. We walked through the casino but didn't play anything. The tables were pretty full and neither of us like slot machines. We decided to save our money for food and souvenirs, instead. :-) The falls were nice, as always. It was still a little chilly. There was a lot of ice in the river below the falls. The jet boats and Maids of the Mist were all still in dry dock. We got a bunch of nice pics in and bought a few things at the gift shop. Then we headed back up the hill to our car. On the way to the parking lot we saw a line for the Niagara 3D/4D movie at the base of the Skylon. The movie was about to start so, we bought some tickets and got in line. The movie was in 3D, complete with the goofy glasses. But you could also feel the movie! Everytime we flew over the falls you could feel wind in your face and when you would go into the mist you could feel that too. I'm pretty sure we got crapped on by some seagulls somewhere along the way, too. haha. Well I've got more to share, including the huge Buddhist Temple and Stupa we found, but I will have to get to it a later. Ok, well I figured out my photo problem from the last blog post. I fixed all those pictures and have a bunch of new ones to add. Lets see, where did I leave off? After our walk around the falls area we decided to hit the hokey tourist area, other wise known as Clifton Hill. If you've never been there, Clifton Hill is a road on a steep hill that is just loaded with the cheesiest of all tourist traps, from Dracula's Horror Museum, to Guiness Book Museum, Ripley's Museum and scores and scores of t-shirt and trinket shops. We had to hit the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. It had the cooliest looking building. I can't believe we didn't think to take a picture of it. We bought our tickets for about $13 a piece and prepared ourselves to be amazed. :p While not that amazing, it was amusing. Here's some pics. This Buddha was made from $3 million in shredded bills and is supposed to be good luck to rub it......Yes, of course we did. :) In the stocks! Someone was a very bad girl. It's a little cramped but I think I could shoot the falls in this thing. And the obligatory unicorn. After the thrills and excitement of the Ripley's museum we strolled down the hill and checked out a few souvenier shops and bought some things for family at home. We even got yelled at for breaking the silly no camera rule at one store. Apparently they don't want their competitors to know they all have exactly the same crap. haha. Here is the offending image. By then we had been walking around for sometime and getting tired and hungry. We decided to get to the car and head back to the hotel and get some dinner. We had a nice dinner at a place called Kelsey's. It seemed like Canada's version of Fridays. But it was good and just across the street from our room. After a day of driving and walking we decided to stop being tourists for a while and go back to our room. :D Nuff said... The next day we got up early and headed down to the restuarant. We were the only ones in there at 7am on a Sunday, so it was nice and quiet. We had the place to ourselves! Breakfast was yummy. We finished up and then packed our things and checked out. We headed back to the Falls to get one last look and to make an offering to the river. We had a stick of insense (air) and a rose (earth) to add to the Falls (water) representing the three elements that created the falls and is still shaping them. Sorry we didn't take any pictures then either. You'll have to take my word for it, that it was very nice. After we said goodbye to the Falls, we drove down the road next to the river for a bit. I was looking for the Whirlpool I had heard was down stream a bit. We ended up not going far enough to find the whirlpool. But we did find a really nice souvenier shop. LOL. It had some great photo oportunities out in front of the store. The cuteformation booth: Throw her a rope! Little Squaw Sitting Pretty Squaw Cutiebutt looks for her Cheif. He's not up there. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! World largest thimble meets the World's cuties girl. We were about ready to head back home when we found a Buddhist Temple with some amazing stone scultures. The gates were open so we wandered in, armed with our camera phones. :0 Well after all that it was time to head home. It was a fun weekend but it was just an over-nighter. We made it to the border and stopped to shop one more time and the duty free store. We made it back across the border almost as easily as we got out. It only took a few extra seconds as the officer actually asked us for ID this time. Next trip is a few weeks when we go camping. Pics and blog to follow.