Niagara Falls. A Wonder of the World

Alex and I made it to Niagara Falls!!!!!! It's one of the wonders of the world! And I saw it:) Our drive through upstate New York was very beautiful, too. From Albany to Niagara falls the quickest way to get there is taking a 300 mile toll road. Completely ridiculous! One thing I hate about the East Coast is all the freaking toll roads. The longer you drive on the toll road the more you have to pay. We opted out on taking the toll road and took a nice quiet country road. Well, it was quite most of the time. We had to stop for about an hour to avoid a really bad thunder/tornado storm. Anyways, the toll roads aren't even nicely paved or kept up to date. There are all kinds of cracks and potholes in the pavement. So, not only do you have to drive on a crappy road, but you also have to pay to drive on the crappy road. I'm sorry, but no thank you! So, back to the country road...It was so scenic and picturesque. Beautiful hills of fresh green grass, big old red barns with farm animals, old country towns with dozens of antique shops. I truly enjoyed every moment of the drive. Well, maybe not every moment.

Upstate New York

Farm land

Old house in an old town

Old red barn

The Country side

When we were about 80miles from Niagara Falls the weather started to get really bad. Lots of lightning and thunder. The clouds were dark and gloomy. We checked the latest weather report and saw that a tornado warning was in effect and moving straight towards us at 50miles an hour with winds of 70mph. We just so happened to be passing by the sizable town of Auburn, NY. We looked up the closest coffee shop, which was a small coffee/bookstore, and stayed indoors for about an hour and a half until the storm passed.

Driving in Gloomy weather

Rain rain Go Away, Come again another day

Once the storm passed we got back into our van and continued on the road to our destination, Niagara Falls.

I think it's so funny that the bad weather can come and go so quickly. I don't think California weather is like that at all. Once the storm passed and the clouds moved, there was sunny blue sky again. 

The next day we went to Niagara Falls. There were still tornado warnings for that day, but when we woke up in the morning it was sunny, hot and only a few clouds in the sky. We had to take advantage of every minute of sunshine. At Niagara Falls there are two different waterfalls, the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is the one that people go over in a barrel. We really couldn't get a good view of the entire Horseshoe Falls from where we were at. The Canadian side has the better view. The American Falls is smaller, but still pretty magnificent. We still weren't able to get a full view, but pretty close to a full view. The main viewing area for the American Falls was closed due to the large accumulation of ice still present. I was pretty bummed out that we couldn't get closer to the falls, but I'm still glad I got to see them.

The River leading to Niagara Falls. Looks pretty strong

Looking over the Falls

The side of American Falls

That's a huge chunk of ice!

American Falls Viewing area closed due to ice

Horseshoe Falls area closed as well

The best view we could get of Horseshoe Falls

In my last blog I referenced the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" as contributing to my desire to see Niagara Falls. Well, the scene in the movie that inspired me so much to see Niagara was when George Bailey was walking down the street with that girl with the blond hair(I forget her name) and he takes her in his arms and says something like "Let's get married and honeymoon in Niagara Falls and climb the top of the falls in our bare feet!" She of course thought he was crazy and if you've seen the movie he doesn't end up marrying her. Anyways, I thought George's idea of climbing the top of Niagara Falls in bare feet sounded so exciting. For a long time I wanted to climb Niagara Falls in my bare feet. When I got a little older I realized that is very impractical and dangerous, but I still very much desired to see the actual falls. Now I have seen the falls and I would recommend everyone seeing them at least once in their lifetime. It was a real amazing and exciting experience. 

Top of Horseshoe Falls. The one people go over in a barrel

American Falls

More Ice

American Falls

American Falls

The actual town of Niagara Falls is pretty run down. The economic crisis really hit the town hard. The next town over is Buffalo and that isn't that great of a place either. It's now part of the "Rust Belt" in the U.S. There are lots of abandoned rusting factories due to moving factory production over to China and other third world countries. It was really sad to see towns in our country that once thrived on wealth and are now struggling just to stay alive.

Alex and I were planning on leaving to Pittsburgh the next day, but once again the weather got yucky. The next day there was a high wind advisory. Winds were anywhere from 30mph to 60mph all day long! When winds are 10 to 20 mph our van gets pushed around pretty bad when driving. So, it was way too dangerous to drive with sustained winds of 40 or 50 mph. Winds like that would definitely push us off the road and likely cause a major accident.

The wind was going about 40mph when this pic was taken. Alex said it felt like his beard was going to fly off his face:D

I am seriously absolutely sick, tired, annoyed, and disgusted with all this horrible weather. It puts a huge damper on our travels and makes me miss California that much more.

Well, yesterday we made it to Pittsburgh and we have one day of sunshine today:) I have to enjoy it while it lasts. Pittsburgh seems like a pretty nice city. There are lots and lots of trees and hills. It's really beautiful. We are flying into Sacramento on May 4th and will be there for a week because my little sister is getting married! So, we will be in Pittsburgh until then. I may or may not do another blog before we leave on our mini-vacation to Sacramento. I guess it depends if I feel like Pittsburgh is worth writing about. We shall see.