Our Stay at the "Falls View" Hilton, Canada

I was very excited to cross the border and see the Horse Shoe Falls from our suite. My husband had set up the reservations and mentioned that we would like to stay in the highest floor available because it was our 33rd Anniversary. I never expected that we would have a top floor suite. In this photo, our suite was one with the tall arched windows. It was on the 50th floor!

We had an astonishing view of both falls through a wall of floor to ceiling windows. There was a platform that you could stand on that made me feel like there wasn't even glass between us and the beautiful scene before us! Check out some of these photos :)

If you ever plan a vacation here and stay at the Hilton, I suggest that you ask for the North Tower. There are 2 towers and the North tower is taller with a better view (in my opinion). Parking is valet and around $25 a day so we parked our car at the Falls View Casino, attached to the Hilton. if you are leaving your car and using public transportation like we did, it's great. They only charge 5$ when you leave. If you go in the casino and get one of their free rewards cards, you can swipe it when you leave the parking garage and not have to pay the 5$. This saved us a lot of cash as we stayed for a week. If you park on the 5th floor of the parking garage, you can walk straight across the bridge in my photo to re-enter your hotel. It's a short distance from there to the elevators. There is a Starbucks on that level. (mezzanine) We always grabbed a cup of coffee on our way back. They also have a Brazilian Steak House which was great. We bought a package that included a breakfast every day, one dinner at the steak house, 50$ in casino money, 4 drinks in one of the lounges.
Here are some photos of our suite. We would definitely like to go back again and stay in the same room :)

  Site-Seeing Next time...

The Aquarium of Nigara, Niagara Falls, NY

The Aquarium of Niagara

Niagara Falls, New York

Continuing on our road trip, We made a stop at the nearby aquarium before crossing the border into Canada. The aquarium was on the small side but still very nice and I'm glad we chose not to miss it.

My favorite exhibit was the penguins. They were adorable! It's fun watching them play. the aquarium was crowded on the weekend, it was hard to move along with the crowd. I wanted to stay and watch them for a while.

I forget what this fish was called but he was different. If anyone does know, I would appreciate it if you could leave a reply :)

Next Stop on our road trip to Niagara Falls

There has been a very long pause in my "Road Trip" post and I apologize to anyone who may be following it. I just have the usual "busy with life excuses". I'm back so lets continue with the next stop right before the US/Canada border:

 

We booked the next hotel ahead on the internet. The suite was very comfortable in an over-done Victorian/European Style. Please Note: This is the only room in this hotel, "The Econolodge,"that looks like this. I wouldn't recommend the other standard rooms. It is Roadside style hotel, very basic with no lobby, restaurant or other perks. It looks a little shady from the outside but our room was very clean and the bed was comfortable so we can't complain.

Now I will tell you about our "little adventure" we had while staying here. We arrived in the afternoon and wanted to stay on the US side to experience the Falls on this side of the border and we heard there would be fireworks over the falls that night. We asked for directions to the park area. The hotel manager insisted that we would not want to drive there because of the crowds and parking situation. He suggested that we grab the bus in front of the hotel and it will take us right to the park and back by midnight.

So ok, crossed "the highway" in front of the hotel and waited with a couple other guests. Great so far. The driver dropped us off at the downtown area bus top and said just keep walking and you can't miss it. It was quite a walk but very pretty. when we arrived in the park we saw the parking lot which was practically empty. I have R.A. so I was kind of upset that we didn't take the car. As we walked on, there were some information buildings and the crowds, but we found a place to stand to see the fireworks over the smaller falls, not the "Horseshoe Falls" which we will see in Canada. It was beautiful and lovely weather. When the crowds were dispersing, I looked at the time and realized we better start walking back to the bus stop because the last bus came by at 11pm. By this time I was tired and in some pain but we made it back in time for the so called bus to come. Luckily there was a bench to wait on.

So we waited and waited and waited. Now it was after 11 and we were beginning to worry. I wished we had stopped a cab while we were there but now, no cabs no buses and our cell phone didn't work so close to being "out of the country". Finally, a city bus stopped at the light and we asked him about the tourist buses and he told us the buses stopped hours ago but he could give us a ride as close as he could get to our hotel. We didn't have much choice so depending on the  kindness of strangers, we hopped on to a bus full of weary, some drunken, passengers going home for the night. Well, we left the bus and started walking down a dark road in a commercial area with not a restaurant or bar was open. we kept walking until we would find the next bench where I could sit for 5 minutes then walk some more. We ended up walking 6 miles on a direct route to the hotel! all I could think of was the Jacuzzi that I could have been enjoying.

We finally made it, practicly crawling into the jacuzzi, ate some snacks that I had in my purse for the trip and collapsed. This crazy day is done. Onward to Canada :)