I’m Singing In Niagara Falls

You know, because singing in the rain is just SO cliché and overdone 😉
I’d rather be dancing barefoot on a boat going through the thick, dewy water-fog of Niagara Falls any day!

But I wasn’t. Instead, I was wearing a poncho. An ugly blue poncho which was keeping the water off of me and preventing me from the gorgeous mermaid feeling that comes with embracing the water! On receiving it, I may or may not have loudly exclaimed ‘How do you put on this rubbish bag!?’, which got a bit of a chuckle from a lady near me but I knew she agreed.

I knew it.

And this is literally how I felt about wearing a blue piece of crappy plastic.

Again, I apologise for extreme close ups of my face. I know this blog is meant to make you want food, not put you off of it 😉

But I think I may have gotten ahead of myself (as always). I mean, I’ve literally just forced you guys to get onto a boat with me across the world (for most of you, 2 hours and a border crossing away or something :P) without giving any context. So let me give you context 🙂

Last post, my friend and I had just completed our final day in the wonderful city of Toronto. The next morning, we were up at literally 7:30am to make sure we got our bus down to Niagara Falls!

And we did get to Niagara Falls.

And then we crossed the border and headed on into the U.S.

Now I know what you are thinking – why the HELL would you go to the U.S. side right? Not to go against my home country (at the moment, I’d like to stress) or anything, but everyone, GLOBALLY, knows that you the Canadian side is where the Niagara Falls are at.

Whereas the American side is just… naff.

But you see, our hostel was on the American side. And despite all the horror stories we’ve heard about the beastly border security guards, they were actually very nice to my friend and myself. Like… super friendly waving us in – Should have gone over by land the first time instead of putting up with the awful customs in LA!

Once our luggage was nice and settled, AC and I decided to grab some lunch before, you know, returning, to the other side of the border. Yes, from Canada to the U.S. back to Canada, before at night, once more, returning to the U.S. – you just can’t do things like that in Australia 😛

Method to our madness? Our train to the next destination (take a guess, come on!) was on the NY station side and we didn’t want to be dragging 25 kilo bags around with us in sunny Canada – satisfied? Shall I continue? 😉

Now where was I?… LUNCH, right of course. Well, we walked and walked and walked around (and may I just say, the US side did not feel all the safe despite the day time!) before we came upon this gorgeous gem of a restaurant.

Any Americans, take a guess after seeing this picture?

Quite aptly named The Rainforest Cafe, I’m pretty sure this was inspired by the great Jungle Book and beyond. The attention to detail was AMAZING, I mean how real does that Tiger look!?

And how real do these elephants look?! Don’t you just want to feed them peanuts and apples!?!

And all the animals MOVED! Australia up your game and make an Aussie outback version of this please!?

I sound like a 5 year old right? I wear that badge with pride every time it pops up!

Also, though I don’t know if it was annoying, or just added to the awesome detail of the place, periodically, there was a stimulated thunderstorm which caused the animals to move more and become louder in protest. I couldn’t really talk or hear anyone but for those brief moments, I was pretty transported to be honest 😉

Now I think in my excitement to describe the decor to you guys, I may or may not have forgotten all about the main reason for us being there – FOOD! It is so easy for a restaurant like this, especially considering it is a chain, to give generic, average food which is enhanced not by flavour but by the atmosphere.

So I am very glad they when we received our meals, that was definitely not the case! It was so buggering hot (like, America/Canada, I did not know the sun could get just as hot as the Aussie sun in your summer!) so we started off with these delicious Strawberry Lemonades. America, you may not do coffee or iced chocolates right, but you’ve got quite the handle on soft drinks… I mean sodas… or whatever…

This was also the first restaurant to teach us that we should always order one dish, share then see if we need more because we kept forgetting about American serving sizes. Look at my Nature Burger. I could easily have eaten half for lunch and half for dinner.

But it was delicious – I loved how you actually filled your patty with interesting ingredients like quinoa as opposed to going for the usual potato filled one!

My friend ordered a classic Chicken Club Sandwich (or at least I think she did, I remembering her saying chicken and sandwich SO… logical conclusions) – if the toasty golden cut of bread doesn’t give away how tasty this was, then my photos are not doing their job.

And these chips, ammarite (am I right)?! Fluffy golden crispy, everything you want in a chip. I mean fries. I mean both because Aussies call them either whereas here, you just get the cold stuff 😛

Once we were happily stuffed, we headed on towards the Maid of the Mist. Yep, we went against the grain to take the boat into the falls a la U.S. as opposed to in Canada. For everyone telling you people that the Canadian boat right is better, let me put a few things to rest.

The only difference between the American and Canadian boat cruise is that one wears blue ponchos, one wears red. That. Is. All. Maid of the Mist also goes somewhat under and around the Falls, into the foggy area of water cascades and we all get wet despite the ugly rubbish bags.

My new filter: Poncho

In fact there isn’t even any rivalry between the boats. As you inevitably pass each other, you waves and smile and carry on – it is quite sweet really.

And if my words are not enough, surely my iPhone quality photos (I was SO scared I was going to drop it into the water 😛 ) show you that the only thing you are missing out on by taking MM is a longer line 😉

That’s us in the mist!!!

On crossing back over to the Canadian side, it was ice cream time. Specifically, from the gorgeous Coke store right next to a Hershey’s castle and Hard Rock cafe. Is nothing safe from the clutches of sugary evil goodness? Pretty sure this flavour was based on a moose or something though it tasted like good ol’ coffee and chocolate to me (an excellent combo!)

We also took full advantage of Canada’s excellent tourist bus system that takes you from one side of the falls to the other – After all, you don’t get 12/7 rainbows everyday right?

And that concluded our Niagara portion of the tour.

After a few relaxed 4D tours about Niagara Falls, we crossed over (albeit, with a  bit more difficulty) we headed home to pack for next and LARGEST portion of the trip (and where AC and I would meet the rest of our bae exchange friends!)

And to take this damn creepy Amtrak at 4am in the morning!

Hint: It’s in NY state… 😉

Till next time mes cheris, keep well and I am sorry for my lack of constant blogging – if anyone still wants to do a guest post I am reopen for you to send them over – just remember, needs originality 5 original photos as well 🙂

And don’t think I haven’t been occasionally drooling over all your works, you guys are my procrastination and I love that 😀

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