Current mood:

mellow

Would you like some coffee to go with that cheese?
Niagara Falls is still one of the most amazing things to see in North America. All that water thundering down is pretty darn neat to stare at. I've recently discovered that once in a while, if the conditions are right, I can see the spray of the Falls from my apartment window in Toronto. It's all quite incredible.

I'm glad to report that the immediate Falls area hasn't changed one bit over the years (you can still journey behind the Falls and purchase Table Rock fudge). However, I think the cheesiness has grown and been updated in the surrounding streets.

One thing we noticed is that the entire Falls area is now completely geared towards American tourists. At our hotel tour desk, they quoted tour prices in US$. Most of the resturants are American ones serving only cheese-smothered food in a skillet (TGI Fridays, Applebees, etc.) And most of the big hotels are US chains, too (Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton). It's a shame that one of the (Canadian) Natural Wonders of the World is surrounded by American corporations.

And Starbucks has taken over as the official coffee of Niagara Falls. Not a Tim Horton's to be seen. Even the hotel resturaunt served only the finest Starbucks coffee.

Speaking of our hotel. We had a lovely room on the 18th floor overlooking both the Horseshoe and American Falls at the Fallsview Marriott. It was advertised as having a whirlpool (it did, and it was for 2!), but the hotel had no bathrobes for guests (we even tried to get some from housekeeping with no luck). It also had a fireplace which turned out to be no more than a glorified fireplace channel since it produced no heat. The only purpose it served was to be a source of ambient light. (It was one of those mirrored jobbies. When you flicked the switch the light came on and you could see the "flames".)

Good thing it was about 19C each day. Very wacky weather for November, especially considering this weekend 9 years ago, it was 10 below and snowing.

We took advantage of the heat wave and went mini-golfing at a Dino-themed course on Clifton Hill. The greens were in great condition and they even had mini-sandtraps on this course. I won by scoring just one over par! (This is amazing considering I have almost no patience for playing my short game and I didn't play golf all summer.)

All in all, it was a pretty good place for a low-stress weekend get-away.