Niagra Falls

Meticulous Planning:
During long weekend on first week of Sep 2006, we planned to visit NY. Two days to go and venue was changed to Niagara, typical of us. I was not complaining, as Niagara is second (first is Grand Canyon) in my favorite list.


Ours was a party of 4 (Myself Ashu, Prateek, Nilesh and Talat). Incidentally we got a grand start, Prateek went to hire a car from Enterprise and came back booking a beautiful white Mini Van which could accommodate 7, this however came handy during the long journey as you can easily sleep in it and can even walk around to relax your legs.



Our Project mates kept telling us that we are making mistake as Prateek was only driver and it was a long journey but we had no choice, car was booked and I had even booked a Motel (with internet facility) which we would come to know belonged to a Sardarji, a nice fellow as far as free help is concerned, but he was a bit strict as I would get to know.

Chicago to Niagra:
We had planned to start early afternoon so that our driver could get some rest in night. Well to start with, Prateek went to downtown same day and was able to come back around evening only. So, we started around 5:30 PM on Saturday. We had taken prints of to and fro route and Talat was our Navigator. I was more of interested in enjoying the scenery and infrastructure along the beautiful route from Chicago to Niagara.

Interstate Infrastructure in US is wonderful as all the freeways (sort of national highways back in India) are very well maintained and are also well marked. Roads on this route will instigate you to cross all speed barriers and cops en route (they pop up from nowhere) will make sure that you remember your deeds. So one need to be careful on this route and has to hold on to impulse for speed.

As per Google Maps this is 10 hours journey but as we had only one driver so we completed this in around 14 hours and this is when we took only one stop over.

We started late evening at round 7:00 PM and covered most of later journey in dark to save time, though it is advisable to drive on this route during daytime to enjoy the scenic beauty. During this part of year, days are longer in US and hence we were able to enjoy drive at least for early couple of hours. We had bought good amount of snacks and mini van was very comfortable so after initial 4 hours of eating, reading and music, I was ready for a nap as was Nilesh, these are obvious advantages if you are not driving or navigating.

Freeways are quite open and simple to follow so we were able to cover most of distance without confusion.
Our first stopover was at a Rest Area along the freeway, there I came across a group of bikers who were on long drives on their super motor bikes, and they looked imposing in their leather costumes.


Night drive had exhausted all so when we came across a travel plaza it was but obvious that we should stay put there rather than over stretching to reach Niagara. It was early morning and I was in no mood to sleep so I decided to explore the place.

Slight drizzle and over cast conditions added to the beauty of the location. Behind the parking place I saw a water body, sort of small waterfall flowing through dense forest, it was looking beautiful and climate made place look romantic.

We had some coffee up there and then we decided to call Hotel Manager to arrange for early check in, this hotel guy literally rebuked me but I can only laugh over it as later I came to know that he was a sardarji.

Niagara Town
It was easy to locate the motel and after some rest we were raring to start exploring the falls. As suggested by motel owner we parked our van in parking lot facing Niagara Casino Hotel, this parking is free but you have to do some walking from here for reaching the falls. I think we walked for around a mile or a half more. If you want to park your car near the island then it will add to your costs and you may end up spending hour in long jam near parking but there is a free parking even near tourist information centre which though is at a comfortable distance but maybe tough to get if you are not an early riser.

It is important that you should get your tickets from ticket issuing authority which is located well before the tourist centre and unfortunately is not well marked which made us to crisscross a big area twice, this building is in centre of a park and at least we found it hard to locate without proper guidance.

We gathered some information from tourist centre, they even provide two types of package. Since we wanted to visit places at our pace and merit so we decided against going in their bus tours.

Cave of Wind


As soon as you cross tourist centre there is a bridge and alongside the bridge is a site map for Niagara Island. Sound of flowing water under the bridge filled us with excitement and though already tired we were feeling fresh. After reaching island, I was astonished to see the size of crowd for Cave of Wind. We had to stand in a long queue where they provided us with use and throw plastic suits to save our clothes from waterfall water.

We put on our plastic suits and got into the lift which took us to lower level from where we had to climb the wooden staircases to the Cave of the Wind waterfall. I had longed to be at this place since I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Niagara starring Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotton.


It was an amazing location and our band of four guys was most enthusiastic of the entire crowd over there, we enjoyed the water and started singing songs at high volume. People were watching us but I was not bothered and continued songs in my cacophonic voice. I still remember feeling the splendid Niagara’s water falling directly over my head with astounding force, it was amazing stuff.

There were many Indians in Niagara and to my surprise I came across an old pal Gurminder (Gurri as I call him) whom I had last met couple of years back in Bangalore. Since then, I have started believing that life is long and world is round so we should always expect many such surprises.

Believe me, this place is absolute fun and it got funnier as none of us had thought that we would get wet in this place so no spare clothes, not that spare clothes would have helped much.

We were dead hungry after playing in water so as soon as we got out of the Cave of Wind we headed to a restaurant and reenergized ourselves.

Horse Shoe

Next target was Horse Shoe which is where actual Niagara fall is. I had some idea that this is going to be big but when we reached the spot from where we can have a view of falls, I was flabbergasted by the magnitude of falls and sound of waterfall. Location was picturesque, we were on US side, on left of me were grandiose Niagara falls while on other side of river was Canada and its skyscrapers. Niagara’s location must have played a big role in deciding the Canada and US borders.

We had tickets for Horse Shoe ride, this is a ferry ride which takes you towards the Niagara Falls against the current and certainly is worth.

This ride is painful and demands a lot of patience as you have to wait a lot and I really mean lot when I quote it. First there was a queue which took us to a lower level, then there was another queue to get life jackets and stuff. If this was not enough then another queue for ferry which took some good amount of time and all the while we were just standing there. Though it was a beautiful and attractive place but standing for so long especially when you don’t even have sufficient place to move is annoying, mind you we were in a queue.

Finally a shabby looking ferry arrived; I think Niagara authorities can spend some money in beautifying the ferries when they are charging so much for the tickets. Anyways, we got into the ferry and were cribbing the fact that we missed the front dock; a titanic pose would have been great in turbulent Niagara waters. We were able to look only at one side of Niagara which was looking amazing and powerful.


Suddenly, ferry rotated by 90 degrees and wow, I was facing Niagara all around me, to the left, right and front. This was out of the world view and I simply shouted with joy, it left me spell bounded. I was suddenly feeling humble in front of this all powerful flow of water which proves to me existence of almighty. I don’t know if I will ever see something so imposing, artistic, beautiful and powerful again in my life.

No one can explain in words this experience of facing Niagara Falls from such proximity.

Cave of Wind is nothing compared to this place, and after Horse Shoe I don’t think if anything can really excite you.

After the Horse Shoe, we took some snacks and went straight to the movie hall where they were showing a movie on Niagara’s history. I was waiting for this opportunity as I got a good sleep for 30 minutes, my friends laughed at my ability to sleep in all the noise.

We decided that we had enough and should get some rest so we went back to the motel.
For dinner we went to a street which is near the ticket office and falls just a short distance from Casino. There we had dosas and idli and many more Indian dishes by a roadside hawker stall, Indian food in this place.

Finally, we entered the huge Casino in Casino Niagara hotel where we lost some money. I lost about 20 dollars after which I stopped playing and rather watched. It took so much time for me to understand even the machine game and finally I understood that I am an idiot to put money on machines, one stands better chance on tables.

Next day we had planned for whirlpool ride.

Whirlpool

We had booked tickets for whirlpool ride on previous night and reached the place well in time. This office was next to a huge water body, probably the Niagara River but it was very still. They made us wear all the safety guards and then they started the boat which had capacity of around 36 people. They did some sort of tricks all the way like skids and stuff which though nice but didn’t seem worth 50 dollars. After some time we reached turbulent waters with huge rocks beneath it and this water was flowing through a gorge so we were surrounded by huge stones on two sides. Here flow of water to and from the rocks was causing lots of turbulence and causing the whirlpool effect. Waves were rocking the boat heavily and water was entering the boat with such a great force that after each wave some people from front were volunteering to go to back seats. I was on side seat so was enjoying double flow of water, frontal as well as from the sides. This was really funny and worth the money spent.


After all this, we had our lunch at an Indian dhaba and food was fabulous. Return journey was cool, excitement of previous days had drenched our energies so we just wanted to rest and soothing music worked well for that.
Nice Trip guys, hip hip hurray!