Our vacation this year was built around a Dickerson family reunion in Vermont at the end of July.
We flew to Pittsburgh, PA on July 22 and from there drove a rental car up through Erie to Niagara Falls.
We had been debating how to travel and considered taking the train to Chicago and then driving from there. But then I learned that sleeper-car prices on the train have more than doubled since we last did that and it wasn’t cheap to begin with. So that was now well into ridiculous territory. After debating a few other ideas and since Jess was just home from the hospital we decided to spend a lot less money than the train, but fly first class. Which, after accounting for paying extra to pick seats, check bags, get carry ons, and buy food, was not really an extravagant price difference. And it was a rather pleasant experience to have enough room to put your knees directly in front of you and move your arms without your elbows being in someone’s face.
Since our flight out left at 6:20 in the morning we got to have a not-terrible breakfast after takeoff. The meal descriptions only mentioned the entree and not all the sides. So along with eggs, hashbrowns, and sausage the meal came with yogurt, a croissant, a pain au chocolate, a fruit cup, and whatever you wanted to drink (even milk! which made Corinne very happy). Metal flatware, actual glasses, and a hot towel. Fancy. But not quite as enjoyable as train breakfast.
Spent the first night in middle-of-nowhere western Pennsylvania after we decided we didn’t want to drive any more.
The next day we drove up to Erie and toured the Presque Isle Lighthouse. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, which was actually quite good, before buying some groceries at Aldi and continuing our drive north.
We arrived in Niagara Falls that evening checked into the hotel, and then walked over to Canada. Mostly to do it. I had filed all the paperwork at work in case we wanted to do it and we had brought our passports and birth certificates so now we had to make it worth all the effort. So we went across the bridge, walked around a little, and had dinner before returning.
Oh, we managed to time our trip to leave Livermore while it was having one of the coolest summers in 40 years to visit New York which was having a heat wave. So it was hot and humid. Which most of the family is not used to. That was a little challenging, but we survived.
The next morning I went down to check out the hotel’s included breakfast. It was insanely mobbed and didn’t have much to begin with. So I walked across the street to the Culinary Institute of New York’s Patisserie which has fresh-baked goods every day. We had bagels for breakfast and various other pastries and treats during our visit. Great little spot that didn’t seem to be well known–it wasn’t busy anyway.
Our goals for the day were Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds. We walked down to the park and almost walked straight onto a boat for the Maid of the Mist, but about a dozen people in front of us a woman appeared to have broken her leg while boarding. So everything stopped while she was tended to. Took about 45 minutes to get her on her way to a hospital.
By that time the sun was starting to break through the clouds and it was getting hot. So we opted to leave the ponchos off during the boat ride. The mist felt great.
Pictures, of course, do not properly convey the scale. It’s a little overwhelming just how tall, how wide, how loud–how much water there is pouring over those cliffs.
After our boat ride we went back to the Culinary Institute of New York for lunch in their restaurant. Food is prepared by students but since they care about what they’re doing you get pretty-good food for a reasonable price.
After some lunch, rest, and drying off we headed over to Goat Island for the Cave of the Winds tour. We did wear the ponchos this time, but that didn’t help the gallons of water landing on our feet. It took a few days to get our shoes dried afterwards.
Then we walked down to the Horseshoe Falls observation point.
Back to the hotel for some more rest and drying off before dinner, but in the meantime I went on a fool’s errand looking for aloe vera. We had gotten a little sunburned in our walking around all day. I figured I could find a pharmacy near by catering to tourists, but I was wrong. I walked a few blocks to a 7-11 which was inexplicably closed. Tried a gas-station convenience store and a gift shop which were both unfruitful. So I gave up and got in the car and drove to a pharmacy.
It was during this excursion that I learned the area around Niagara Falls gets sketchy quickly once you get more than a few blocks from the State Park. Makes you wonder where all the tourism money is going.
Dinner was chicken strips at Church’s–also right outside our hotel.
In the morning, after more breakfast from the Patisserie, I walked back down to the Maid of the Mist gift shop to buy a magnet. Then we packed up and headed east to Lockport.
