Visiting Niagara Falls, NY
I love to travel when I can. I definitely am not trying to be a travel blogger and I most certainly am not rich, but I'm single with no children (and absolutely zero plans to change either of those things) so I like to prioritize (for lack of a better word) travel when I'm able to do so. My trips are usually only 2 or 3 days, usually planned around a long weekend. I've neglected this blog over the past year since I have a trip from Al Ain, UAE that I wanted to write about that I took in January. This trip to Niagara Falls was a birthday trip for my mom. She had gone for an anniversary trip one time and always thought it would be fun to go back. She does so much for me so I like to do nice things for her. We were only there for three days but as you'll see, three days was plenty to have a nice relaxed vacation. On a side note, I’m trying a different font on this blog post. I usually use monospace but you can’t put things in bold, italics, or use the strikethrough feature with that. Not like I do that often, but it is nice to have that option.
We took an Amtrak train to get there. It’s a nice ride (about 9 hours) and it’s more relaxing than having to drive. My only suggestion is to spend the extra cash and get a business class seat. We’ve taken Amtrak before and the coach seats offer plenty of room and are comfortable so we figured it would be fine this time. Big mistake. Just like when we went to Savannah a few years ago, 9 or so hours in coach was not fun. What is it with people? It’s like decency, consideration, and common sense are just well and truly dead. It looked like there was only one car for business class and it looked like it had less seats than the coach cars. Anyway, this was right outside the Amtrak Station in Niagara Falls. I snapped these shots while we were waiting for our Uber to the hotel. The murals in Niagara Falls are so beautiful. I still like street photography, just the kind without people or without people as the main focus. Is it still street photography if there are no people in the shot? It’s a long running debate.
We stayed at DoubleTree by Hilton Niagara Falls, NY. The entrance to the park that led to Niagara Falls was right across the street. Getting to the actual falls was about a 15 minute walk but it was very nice and peaceful where we were. There really isn’t much to do on the United States side and from what I’ve seen the Canadian side has much more to do (and a better view of the falls) but it all depends on what kind of vacation you want to have. Since my mom isn’t one for needing to do a lot of activities or constantly be on the go, the United States side was perfect for this trip. The room was a nice size but this is why I always bring Clorox wipes with me when I travel and clean the room. The balcony had not been cleaned. Like, in a long time. There were two used paper towels (with some kind of black sludge on it) wadded up under one of the chairs and cobwebs were everywhere on the balcony railing. It was like Halloween.
I took the majority (if not all) of these shots with my Fujifilm X-T5. I usually take the Fujifilm x100v with me because its small and takes amazing pictures, but I wanted to take something without a fixed lens for this trip so I could be sure to take the best shots I could of Niagara Falls. I usually only use the x-t5 for video so this was really the first time I had actually taken it as my main camera and I was really pleased with the results.
Walking through the park on the way to Niagara Falls you are walking on this path where the water is directly on your left. The views were absolutely stunning. I was showing my mom the pictures and we agreed that the water looked like a Bob Ross painting when he would paint waves rolling and crashing into shore.
This is looking out to the Canadian side. You can see the SkyWheel in the distance. Mom and I stayed for a while at different areas and looked at all the people on Maid of the Mist. It was interesting to see the cable car or whatever it was going up and down the mountain taking people to where the boats were. It would be fun to go back again one day but to the Canadian side this time.
Now, on to some food pics.
So food is one of the highlights of any trip for me. I love experiences but food is also an important part of any trip and the food on this trip did not disappoint. There were a few places that I had on my list but this place, Steak Stone & Sushi, was the highlight of the food portion of the trip. I cannot recommend this place enough. The food was so delicious. I had the pineapple fried rice which came served inside a pineapple and I also had a banana pina colada which was very reasonably priced, as was the whole meal. My mom had chicken pad Thai and that was delicious as well. The portions were huge and since neither one of us could finish our meals we took it back to the hotel and had food for dinner the next day. Even though the hotel room didn’t have a microwave there was a microwave in the lobby that the guests could use and that was very helpful. I really wanted to go back again to try their sushi because I love sushi but there wasn’t enough time. Another good place to eat was Three Sisters Cafe at the Seneca Casino. I forgot to take pics of that meal (mom and I both had the fish and chips which were amazing). The portions were so big that one would have been more than enough for the two of us, but we always feel weird doing that at restaurants. LOL!!
I love this picture because it reminds me of a scene from The Lost Boys whenever they would show the boardwalk and the beach. Mom and I wanted to see Niagara Falls at night because I heard they light up the falls at night. Okay, it was really cool to see the falls at night, but this is what bugs me about social media. If you see pics on social media the colors are vibrant and intense. In real life, it’s just a hint of color behind the falls.
This was taken at dusk. We got there really early because we wanted to make sure to get a spot by the railing. It’s always so (understandably) crowded and we figured it would be even more so at night with the light show.
I did a little bit of color correction while still trying to keep it as true to life as possible. This is all we got. We waiting for almost an hour after the light show started, waiting for the colors to get more intense. In all, we were there two hours (we got there an hour before the show) and then almost a full hour after it started, so unless the big finale were the falls being lit up like in pictures that you see when you Google “Niagara Falls at night” or some other such term, this is all you’re going to see. It’s beautiful and interesting but it wasn’t a rainbow of color when we went.
The red color was a bit more vibrant and since it was already fully dark at this point, it looked a bit more intense. By then we were both tired so we decided to head back to the hotel.
My mother and I definitely enjoyed our trip to Niagara Falls. It honestly was one of the more fun trips I’ve been on. I was with my mother and it had a more relaxed vibe instead of constantly being on the go. That can be fun too but it gets exhausting after a while. I can’t wait to one day go back and check out the Canadian side.
