Friday morning, we woke up a little before 7am, which felt like sleeping in compared to how early we had to wake up for the train the day before! We had seen a Belgian waffle stand right outside our hotel and decided that would make a delicious breakfast. Much to our chagrin, we discovered it doesn't actually open up until 4pm. Luckily, there was an
IHOP Restaurant inside our hotel, so I ended up getting my waffle after all. :) The reason for this early breakfast was that we had a goal to be on the first
Maid of the Mist boat tour of the morning at 9am - we would be picking up our rental car at noon and needed to fit two showers in between - so while we weren't exactly in a time crunch, getting on a boat that left 30 minutes or an hour later just didn't work for me!
I wasn't sure what to expect - after all, this is a very popular tourist attraction and there were certainly no shortage of tourists in town. But of course we walked up to the ticket booth nearly an hour before it opened and discovered we were the only ones there. We sat down where we could keep an eye on the ticketing booth. At some point, we decided it was time to actually stand at the booth. We were very clearly first in line. A large group of people showed up approximately 10 minutes before the ticket booth was going to open (approximately quarter 'til 9) and just blew right past us. This was totally annoying, as it was so clear we were there and waiting in line. For some reason, everyone started lining up at the booth to the far left, and no one went to any of the other lines...except me. I went to the entrance of the second ticket booth where there was no one. I'm still not sure exactly why everyone crowded into one line, but all the ticket lines open up at the same time, so my mom and I were the first ones through that second line (and all the lines for that matter), leaving the rude group in our dust. We were racing down the ramp and managed to get into the elevator and get it closed with the large group hot on our heels. Their missing the elevator put us a good 15 or 20 seconds ahead of them, and it was probably the most satisfying moment of the entire day. We walked (okay, speed-walked) through a small garage where we were handed huge blue ponchos, and were easily first in line at the gate to the boat.
The line of jerks has formed behind us:
The mist was intense down here now that we were actually at water level, so we wasted no time getting into our new, fashionable outer layers:
They had us wait for another ten or fifteen minutes before finally opening up the gate. We had scoped out exactly where we wanted to be - at the mast of the boat on the lower level - so made a beeline for it. The upper level seemed to be the most popular place to try and get a spot, but I'm not really sure why - plus, those people were the last ones off the boat when we did get back to the dock. Anyways, we got our spot with no problem and braced ourselves for what was already a very windy, water-spraying ride! I was able to get a few pictures from the water, but the mist was so overwhelming at times that I decided not to worry so much about getting the photos and to just try and take it all in. We first rode past the American Falls, where the Bridal Falls (to the right) were pointed out to us:
We then made the short ride over to the Horseshoe Falls, where the wind and mist picked up even more. We were SO close to the roaring falls at this time - it made it difficult to hear the loudspeaker on the boat that was trying to provide us with information about the falls. I did catch them tell us that four of the five Great Lakes empty into the Niagara River at this location [it would not be until we could get back onto the internet in the U.S. that my mom and I would finally end the question this piece of trivia raised - what ARE the five Great Lakes? It took us all weekend to resolve it (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario)]. The boat petered around in front of the Horseshoe Falls for a while letting everyone take in the full scope of what was crashing to the rocks in front of us. When the wind would change direction, it was impossible to look straight at the waterfall. It was so much fun! We were also incredibly close to the rainbow now ( it was only a few feet in front of us) which was remarkable because rainbows always seem to fade away when you get this close to them. Another thing that really stood out to me about the falls was how turquoise the water was as it went over the cliff - I don't think any of my photos really captured the gorgeous shade of blue the water was right before it dive-bombed.
Something else we had a great view of from the boat were some of the other attractions around the falls:
Cave of the Winds (American side) and
Journey Behind the Falls (Canadian side). I've heard Journey Behind the Falls is cool because you literally walk through a cave that runs behind the waterfall, but again, it's one of those things where you have to ask yourself "How many different angles do I need to see this from?" We clearly had done the most famous and popular of the falls tours, and I really didn't have much of a desire to do any of the others. The others appeared to get a little bit closer to the actual falling water, but tons of falling water rushing over rickety wooden staircases aren't exactly my idea of controlled fun. The ride in total lasted 30 minutes, but it seemed much quicker than that. I thought it was so worth it, and I feel like I really got to see something special that a lot of people will never even see in their lifetime.
We peeled the ponchos off of us, and I was pleasantly surprised to see I really hadn't gotten that wet. It was quite a poncho, hanging all the way down to my ankles. Really just the bottoms of my legs and my feet were wet, so I was definitely happy I'd worn shorts and flip flops. We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then walked (much further than it looked on the map, but in reality was less than a mile) to the
Enterprise on Stanley Avenue. We got a black Dodge Avenger (I was really dreading getting some kind of embarrassing, yellow fugly car so this was a relief), made the Enterprise rep believe that I remembered how to drive (it had been nine months since I'd been behind the wheel of a car) and that I had car insurance, and then I promptly screeched out of that parking lot. I had specifically called and requested a GPS for the car, which had been confirmed, but when we arrived, the rep told us the GPS devices they had were not returned yet. I was definitely disappointed, as I was really counting on GPS despite the fact that I had maps printed out...it would be difficult to deviate from our plans at all without the GPS. We drove across a pretty busy Stanley Avenue in a somewhat haphazard fashion right under the nose of a police officer and filled up our gas tank, and then we were on our way!
Less than a week ago, our plan had been to head straight to Toronto and visit
Casa Loma, a beautiful castle we had discovered online that sits high atop a hill above Toronto. There are beautiful gardens, 98 rooms and even secret passageways beneath the castle visitors can explore. However, by chance, my mom received a recommendation that we both jumped at, so we decided to scratch Casa Loma from the plan altogether. Instead, we were now on our way approximately 20 minutes outside of Niagara Falls to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a popular winery region that I was not even aware of until this week. I had done some last minute research and based on time options (I knew we'd be pushing it to be anywhere before 1pm) and reviews, I settled on the
Hillebrand Winery, which is the largest of the some 200 wineries in the region, so booked a 1:00pm tour and tasting. While it would not normally be my style to go to the biggest, most popular winery when there are so many options, this winery had fantastic reviews, seemed to offer more of a traditional tasting and tour of the facility, and also offered a discount on wine purchased on the tour. Most of the wineries did not require reservations for only two people, but I always feel better when my spot is guaranteed. While trying to learn about the different wineries, I was also looking for a place we would be able to eat a light lunch, since we had a reservation for a very nice meal in Toronto that evening. One of the message boards I stumbled upon happened to make a recommendation to go to the small village of Jordan Station right outside of Niagara-on-the-Lake and eat at
Zooma Zooma Cafe. Although additional driving in foreign territory made me a LITTLE nervous, and this was just a random comment on a rogue message board, it would be fun to see an area so far off the beaten path, I didn't have any other great ideas, and the restaurant at the winery was a bit on the pricey side...so I included Zooma Zooma on our itinerary for the day.
So with that, we were on our way to Hillebrand Winery. The
Google directions I had were simple, and we were exiting the interstate (is that what they call it in Canada?) and driving down Niagara Stone Road passing winery after winery after winery in no time. All the signs were in kilometers, so I never did get a great feel for how close or far we were from anything while driving in Canada...ha! Hillebrand Winery was several miles down the road. I thought it was the prettiest one of all the wineries we had passed! Hillebrand is one of the oldest wineries in Canada, having been in operation for over 30 years:
When we turned in, there was a check-in desk right outside where we let them know we were there for the 1pm tasting/tour. We had half an hour to kill at this point (we got to the winery much quicker than I had allowed for), so we took the woman at the winery's suggestion to continue driving down Niagara Stone Road into the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. I'm really glad we did because it was such a cute, quaint little town! The sidewalks were packed with what I presumed were tourists, and it felt like we had been transported back to the 1950s - flower-lined sidewalks and storefront after storefront - lots of antique shops and places like that:
The sky was getting even more overcast, but I considered us lucky that the weather had held out for so long (walking around the day before and the Maid of the Mist that morning in the rain would not have been very enjoyable I don't think), so just crossed my fingers the rain would hold off for our winery tour as we turned around in downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake and made the 10-minute drive back to Hillebrand.
We were each handed a wine glass ready to be filled (there were approximately 12 people in our group), and were then led down a path into the vineyard. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and told us more about the winery region in Ontario and actually explained how the geography of Niagara-on-the-Lake provided a mild climate that made grape-growing possible, which I found very interesting! It had to do with warm air bouncing off the Niagara Escarpment in the distance and getting trapped over the town, keeping the temperature mild year-round. We also learned about the process of making "icewine," which the Niagara region is particularly known for and apparently produces 80% of the icewine in the world (with Germany also being a contributor). I was not really familiar with what icewine was exactly, but after learning the grapes were picked in the winter (hence the 'ice') and would therefore be sweeter, I was happy to hear icewine would be part of our tasting today.
We then gathered on a patio next to the vineyard and proceeded to learn the proper ways to sniff and taste each wine, as well as the proper foods to pair with the wines, beginning with the
Trius Sauvignon Blanc, then the
Trius Red and finally the
Trius Vidal Icewine. The winery was obviously pushing their new Trius brand, which is made from a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes, but I didn't mind because I thought they were all delicious! Just getting to taste the wines made with the grapes growing right in front of us was a lot of fun, and makes me definitely want to visit more wineries! I thought the icewine was the most interesting taste, perhaps because I'd never tasted it before, and it would be a perfect match with a sweet dessert, or blue cheese as our guide so aptly suggested - prompting my mother to snatch up a bottle for Christmas dinner once we were released into the wine shop! (We were pre-warned by our guide that icewine is significantly more expensive than 'regular' wine, more than double or triple the price, but were able to get it for far less than retail buying it right at the winery).
After the tasting, we were taken on a tour of the facility where we were taught exactly the process the grapes go through to make it to the bottle (it doesn't involve vats or stomping, I'm very sad to report) , and then down into a very chilly tasting room in the cellar where hundreds of barrels lined the walls, each waiting to fill up several hundred bottles.
Something we didn't see:
Something we did see:
We then proceeded to a different part of the winery's cellar, where some work was being done so we couldn't actually wander all the way in. Our guide wanted us to see "the egg," which after a little further research I learned is officially named the
Nomblot Egg (click link for an entire piece Time magazine did on the egg). This was clearly a source of pride for our tour guide, but after reading a little more about it, I realize it's because it is a VERY expensive piece of equipment that shows the winery is going to great lengths to produce the highest quality of wine possible, despite the massive amount of product they are churning out. A little more info about the Hillebrand egg and cellar here:
link. The Egg (and baby egg in front of it):
After seeing "the egg," we were then set loose to visit the wine shop and wander around the winery freely.
We chose to go back out to the vineyard and take some photos with the grapes, and then headed to the shop where in addition to the icewine, I purchased the Trius Red we had tasted earlier. There was also a tasting bar where a lot of our group had settled in to continue the drinking. It was past 2pm at this point, so we decided we'd better move on and get lunch so that we'd be hungry again before our big dinner later that night!
For some reason, getting back onto the interstate proved more difficult this time (the reason being poor signage in my opinion), and we made a few wrong turns before finally figuring it out. The exit for Jordan Station was only a couple miles down the road, and the village proved to be just as adorable as Niagara-on-the-Lake but without all the tourists - pretty landscaping, lots of shops in quaint little brick homes, etc. Finding
Zooma Zooma Cafe was simple, and although everything had been street parking that we had seen, Zooma fortunately had it's own parking lot. This was SUCH a cute restaurant, and I'm so happy I stumbled upon it in my Niagara research. Inside was funky with all sorts of artsy, bohemian decorations on the wall and filled with mostly women enjoying bottles of wine on perhaps their lunch hour. It was still comfortable outside, so we chose to be seated outside under an umbrella on the garden patio. It was such a relaxing, leisurely atmosphere, and the
amazing food made it even better! I had the smoked salmon and cucumber on rye, while my mom ordered the crab & lobster salad on a croissant. We then promptly switched off halves so we could taste the other's food. Both sandwiches were so delicious, light and refreshing. This was the perfect ladies' lunch, and I wish I could find that message board posting again and thank them for the phenomenal recommendation!
Just as we were finishing up our lunch, rain started to drizzle. I suppose if there was "good timing" for this, it would have to be on the drive to Toronto, so we hustled to the car and we were off again! The rain really began to downpour once we got back on the road, and I was glad we were on the interstate and not trying to look for those confusing signs leaving the winery anymore! It rained pretty hard for about half an hour, but the last hour or so of the journey was clear skies, and the great outdoors was ready for us by the time we pulled up on Toronto's skyline:
I didn't find driving in Toronto particularly intimidating, except for the bikers that is. I have gotten so used to New York and the bike lanes (even though I don't actually drive in NYC), that having bikers whiz past my door with inches to spare definitely made me a little nervous and had me driving a little slow at the beginning. We went straight to the
CN Tower which would have been easy to find even without the exact address, as it towered over the rest of the skyline and was surrounded by tourists. Toronto was a much more touristy city than I was expecting; this is not somewhere I would have come had I not already been within a couple hours of it.
Anyways, at this point it was approximately 4:30pm and our dinner reservation wasn't until 7pm, so we had a few hours to kill. We thought - what the hell, might as well go see if we can check out Casa Loma. Although the castle closed at 5pm, we thought at least catching a glimpse of it might be worth it. Because we had scrapped the Casa Loma visit, I did not have the address or map any longer, but I suppose I had studied all my maps so many times prior to the trip, I recognized the name of the road (Spadina Avenue) that would lead us all the way north through the city to Casa Loma - I had remembered a "roundabout" approximately halfway to Casa Loma, so when we hit the roundabout, I knew we were definitely going the right way! We did end up making a few questionable turns through Toronto's Chinatown to get to exactly where we needed to be on Spadina Avenue, but even I was surprised I had actually remembered anything having to do with a map or directions (anyone who knows me well knows I frequently have no sense of direction). It took us probably half an hour to actually navigate the streets of Toronto all the way to the top of the city, but I thought just the drive was worth it - it felt like we had literally gotten to see all of Toronto - the Theater District (one of the biggest in the world after New York), Chinatown, etc. And with each block, I found myself constantly remarking on how well-manicured everything was. Clearly taking pride in how the cities look is not just a Niagara thing, it is a Canada thing (or at least an Ontario thing)!
We finally started spotting signs for
Casa Loma and followed them to the top of a huge hill, where we then pulled in, paid $3 for parking and got out to walk around the grounds of the castle. Although we couldn't get inside, my mom and I both agreed it was worth the $3 just to see the outside of the castle. Had we had a few more hours, I think we probably would have enjoyed seeing the inside as well, but the winery was a sure thing, where as the inside of a castle could be a whole lot of walking with not a whole lot of reward (and probably no wine, either!). Casa Loma was built by a rich businessman,
Sir Henry Pellatt, in 1911 and cost $3.5 million (over $40 million by today's standards) and took three years to construct. Ultimately, World War I bankrupted Sir Henry and he was forced to give up the castle, which changed hands several times until being purchased by the City of Toronto, who remain the sole owners today. The castle is majestic, and even more so knowing it sits high on a hill overlooking Toronto. Imagine the view from that turret! I'm glad we ended up having the time to check it out, even though our love of wine had ultimately won the battle for our precious time.
Heading back south toward the CN Tower was a bit more painstaking this time; while we knew exactly where we were going now, the traffic had increased significantly (Friday rush hour), so it took us quite a while to make it back. We circled the block a few times scouting out our parking options before settling on a parking deck connected to the CN Tower around the corner. We then made our way up to the restaurant (which included shooting up the center of the tower in a glass elevator!), where we checked in and were told it was going to be half an hour (But...we have a reservation...?). I also told them we wanted to be seated at the window, so maybe that is what added the extra time. Near the waiting area, we could also see into the
wine cellar, which is designated as the "World's Highest Wine Cellar" by Guinness World Records. Our dinner reservation allowed us access to the glass floor level a flight of stairs below the restaurant, so we decided to go check that out. Standing on top of Toronto:
Trying our luck after about 10 minutes, we went back up to the hostess stand and checked on the status of being seated. I'm not sure if they just got confused or exactly how their seating process works, but they seated us immediately at this point. We were led to a table right on the window with a fabulous view looking out over all of Toronto. The CN Tower is
the world's tallest building and free standing structure, and the 360 Restaurant is certainly quite near the top of it! The restaurant makes a full 360 degree revolution approximately once an hour, so by the time we had finished our meal, we had seen all of Toronto nearly two times. :)
We had a fantastic server who was not only attentive to our dining needs and making sure we got a picture of the two of us we were happy with, but also made sure to point out specific buildings and landmarks as we rotated past them. (The
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, for example, where the Royal Family always stays when visiting their minions, as well as
Rogers Centre, the home of the
Toronto Argonauts CFL team, who just happened to be in the middle of a game against the
Saskatchewan Roughriders as we rotated over the stadium!)
We also had a unique view of a small airport and could see the planes flying in for landings...BELOW where we were sitting. Yeah, we were pretty high up. There was also a lovely view of the Inner Harbour and Lake Ontario as the sun set, where there were tons of sailboats out enjoying a beautiful evening on the water.
We each ordered a glass of wine and made selections off the prix fixe menu. We both had the Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, which came out in a shot glass and definitely had a kick to it. Next were the appetizers; I had the Escargot Bourguignon, which were exceptional and were perhaps my favorite part of the meal:
For my main dish I had the slow-roasted prime rib, which was probably the largest slab of meat I have ever seen, and I never even had a prayer of finishing it. My mom had the Maple-wood Smoked Salmon as her appetizer and the Pan Roasted Pacific Halibut as an entree. Finally, we both ordered the Maple Walnut Roulade for dessert (only because we had to...we were both stuffed). The dessert was a little rich for my taste, and I've never been much of a dessert person anyways, so I only thought it was alright (my mom thought it was amazing...and she's definitely a dessert person). Overall, the meal, the service and the ambiance of the restaurant were absolutely fantastic and totally worth the drive to Toronto to experience! The only complaint I could make is that the restroom kept changing locations because only the outer ring of the restaurant was rotating, so I never knew how far I was going to have to walk to get to it!
Our waiter mentioned that the "longest road in the world," Yonge Street, was right around the corner, so we decided when we left the restaurant we'd swing by and see it's starting point. It appears it's claim to be the "longest" road is up for debate because it changes names at a certain point, but regardless, it's still pretty darn long, measuring in at 1,178 mi (1,896 km). Yonge Street has historical significance in that most of it follows an ancient Aboriginal trail, while it's more modern incarnation was built in the late 1790s as a crucial key to the settlement of upper Ontario. It now serves as the main thoroughfare linking Ontario's capital city (Toronto) with western Upper Canada. After officially driving through the intersection where Yonge Street begins, we made our way back to the interstate and headed back to Niagara. The drive was quick up until we were about 20 minutes outside of Niagara, where we hit the most massive traffic jam I've probably ever been in. At this point it was nearly 11pm and we were both SO tired (I was the only person still awake at this point, and only barely). Over an hour later, we finally broke through to the other side to discover it was only roadwork (annoying!) and then quickly made our way back to the rental car place. We re-filled the tank and were able to just drop the keys in the drop box since they were already closed. We ended up taking a cab back to the hotel, but quite frankly, it would have been quicker (and cheaper) to walk.
Once again, we hit the sack immediately with full bellies and droopy eyes!
Saturday morning, we decided IHOP had been a little expensive for what it was, so decided to take the road behind our hotel to a place that had a big sign on the roof we could see from the hotel that said "$5.99 Breakfast Buffet." Turns out they couldn't stay in business with such a good deal - when we got there, the place was closed. Across the street was a $6.99 Breakfast Buffet sign, so we headed over there. This place, the
Country Chalet, had so many things wrong with it I don't even know where to begin. Follow the
link to check out all the horrific reviews on TripAdvisor. To start with, we asked to be seated outside because it was another gorgeous, sunny day. There were a couple bees around the table, and when our waitress saw us swatting at them, she said they will get even worse when the food comes out, and that they can't even keep the maple syrup on the table because of the bee problem. And so we relocated indoors. I ordered an orange juice and a bottle of water to drink, then grabbed my plate and headed to the buffet. There was not an overwhelming amount of options, but everything looked good. When I sat back down and began to eat, I have to admit I wondered if the burners under the food were even on. The sausage and hashbrowns were lukewarm at best. The best part, though, was when we got the bill and discovered I had been charged $4 for my little glass of MinuteMaid orange juice. Seriously, $4?! You'd think for that price, the waitress might let her customers know that's the cost. You better believe that got deducted from her tip (although I've never really understood tipping at a buffet anyways). We couldn't get out of that bee-infested, price-gouging place soon enough! Stay far, far away from this place (but look how lovely the landscaping is!):
We went back to the hotel, packed up and had a cab called for us at the concierge to take us to the train station. This was a little more pleasant Amtrak departure time - 10:18am - so we were able to take our time and not really feel rushed in any way. The train was almost 20 minutes late, and when it finally arrived it took another 15-20 minutes for them to let us board. Not sure what was going on with all that. I had noticed the return trip was nearly two hours longer than the trip going to Niagara, and right after we left the station, I found out why. Before we stopped in the United States, Border Patrol/Customs officials boarded the train and went to each seat one by one checking tickets, passports and asking the "what are you doing here?" questions. These people were not messing around - they were shouting at people who stood up to stay seated until they told them they could get up, and they really grilled the guy sitting across the aisle from us who did not have a great command of the English language to begin with. Finally after sitting for what felt like forever (but was probably closer to that two hours built into the travel time), we finally started chugging along again.
The trip back was rather uneventful - filled with lots of snoozing and a little sandwich from the snack car. By the time we got to the really pretty Hudson River scenery, it was pitch black outside so didn't really have much to look at at all, and by the time we pulled back into Penn Station at 9:45pm, it was pouring outside. The rain really did work around our trip as best as it could! We headed back to my apartment, ordered delivery (our first real meal since the breakfast buffet disaster) and then headed to bed.
And that's another successful trip in the books!
My trip:
"I want to be where yaks can run free,
Where Royal Mounties can arrest me. Let's go to Canada, let's leave today, Canada, oh, Canada, I sil vous plait...." -
Oh Canada, Five Iron Frenzy
Miles Traveled Today: 583Total Miles Traveled: 23,626
The next morning, I took my time getting ready and then met Sean at the Varsity for lunch. The Varsity is a must-see if it's your first time in Atlanta, as it is the world's largest drive-in restaurant. I've been here a few times, and while it's really just a dirty Atlanta diner, it's a fun spot with a lot of energy, especially during the fall, as it's situated right on Georgia Tech's campus. Inside, it's much a sea of total chaos, and you'll want to know what you are ordering before you get up to bat (think Soup Nazi with hot dogs and burgers). My personal favorite is the orange slush drink they serve! Finding seating is no easy task, but if you keep walking all the way to the back of the restaurant, something will usually open up. After lunch, I headed back to Birmingham, which is really more of a 3-hour drive than the 2-hour drive I've long considered it to be now thanks to all the construction on I-20.
The next morning, we ordered some room service (I had the Belgian waffle with peaches...delish!), and a few hours later met up with my brother who had stayed with some friends across town. We grabbed a quick lunch with them, and then made the drive back to Birmingham. And the next afternoon, I flew back to the frozen tundra that is New York in January!
