Niagra 1

Today we left our mid-way-stop Howe Caverns. It actually turned out to be pretty much a middle of the way stop! I woke up at about 5:00... typical... and went out into the field across from our hotel. The view was really beautiful. At that hour in the morning, the sun was just peeking over the rim of the valley behind me. Morning and evening sun are my favorite: yellows and warmth... beautiful. I even saw a rainbow, which would be a precursor to things to come. Eventually, Henry got up and stumbled out of the hotel room. I looked back at the sound of the door, and there he was standing, all squinty eyed and morning faced. "Dad.... could you help me across the street?" "Be right there Henry." It was actually a small parking lot, but this behavior is much improved over the non-acknowledgment of the existence or roads and cars in general. We walked down to a small herd of cows that left as we approached. As we walked back up, Henry careful to not step on the thistles hidden in between the grass tufts (he was wearing sandals) A small deer shot out of the woods and ran up to this yellow-shirted girl back up at the hotel. It must have come within a few feet of her. Then it took off behind the hotel. I had noticed the girl previously, actually, down near the cows, which had come amiably up to her. I think some people are just animal magnets.

We left pretty early as we had a four plus hour trip through New York up to Canada. The trip wasn't to bad. The Canadian border police were nice enough actually bordering on lackadaisical. I was told that the Canadian side of the falls was superior to the American, and I have to tell you, I agree. The big deal is that the Canadian side actually faces the wall of the falls. The American side sites behind it. It makes a pretty dramatic difference. Also, the Canadian side is so well manicured and filled with old parks and such. Very pretty. We stayed in a nice hotel, the Embassy Suites. It was pricey, but the view was pretty breathtaking. This is the view from our hotel window on the 37th floor. If you aren't into views though, go with something cheaper. Every amenity the hotel could throw at us, minus breakfast and a mid-day snack, was incredibly expensive and therefore not worth the trouble. A perfect example is the bottle of Evian water that was sitting on the top of the small bar in our room. An insignificant little, printed paper  sign said that if I opened the bottle of water my room would be charged $9.00's. IT was a plastic bottle of water. No kidding. There were also four "Complimentary" tokens left on our desk below which the sign instructed us to use in the pop machines in the hallway. Each token was for one soda, and each soda costed three dollars, to be billed to our room if used of coarse. It was enough to make me paranoid and to drive Jenn almost completely out of her mind. She didn't really enjoy the trip, and one of the reasons was because of the mindless cost of seemingly everything.

I enjoyed it though, inspire of the nit-picky things, because of the real grandeur of the falls. Today we got to our hotel room and stared at the falls till night, with a brief break for a less than average supper at Margaritaville. The kids got the bed closest to the window.
db