Ontario, Canada

July 12, 2017

I remember telling my husband before he was my husband, that I really wanted to go to Canada one day–specifically, Niagara Falls. He said, “Okay, let’s go”. I said, “Really?” I kept thinking to myself–you agreed to that pretty easily… After we got married, that was our first destination together outside of America. My husband did not let me down, nor did Niagara Falls!

We decided to take a road trip to Canada from Connecticut–where we currently live. My husband loves to drive and he’s pretty good at it when he wants to be 🙂 He did most of the driving. …Let me just be honest–he drove the entire way, 7 hours to be exact. I don’t have a driver’s license, but uh, I’m working on it…

The 7 hours was amazing– I slept most of the time…. just kidding. We talked, laughed, and just enjoyed the views along the way–it was definitely a scenic adventure. We finally reached the border, 7 hours later and it was so cool because it was my first time seeing a border by land. Plus, the sky was giving me life!

Once we got to Canada, my phone was the first to let me know. My time didn’t change, but Canada appeared side by side the local New York time. It was dark and as we got closer to the falls, I could see this purple illumination in the distance. I wondered what that was…

We got settled into our hotel and the receptionist informed us that a fireworks show would be happening at the falls shortly. So we decided to go see the falls right away to get a head start on our Vacay! Not only was the fireworks show awesome, but the falls were illuminating and I realized that that was what I was previously seeing on our way up. The illumination of the falls in all of the different colors was magical. It was definitely a romantic evening for us.

Shortly after the show ended, the sky started grumbling and then came an outpour of rain. Everyone scattered like roaches… even us! We ran inside and noticed it was a casino. I saw an ATM machine and went to get money right away. Forgetting that I was in another country, I was shocked and excited when my money came out in Canadian dollars. I love Canadian money–it reminded me so much of Monopoly. The bills are short, very thin and colorful!

We went back to our bed for the rest of the night. The next morning we got up and went to breakfast but the weather was terrible. It was still raining. I said a prayer in my head–Lord, give up the rain, just for a little while please… An hour later, the rain stopped. We headed out back to the falls.

Then, we decided to go to the information center to redeem all of our vouchers for the activities we would do for the day. It was easy to get to everywhere we needed to go–we took a shuttle bus. One went northbound, the other, southbound. We started out by first doing the “White Water Rapids Walk”. It was pretty cool. It was about a 15 minute walk along a trail of literally just water—powerful moving water. It makes you think all kinds of amazing things–like God is awesome! …And also lots of awful things like what if you fell in?

After the “White Water Rapids Walk”, we went to the “Journey Behind the Falls” attraction. I’d have to say for some reason this was my favorite. You are sort of behind the falls and you can hear them roar as you are walking through the cave-like alley. It’s pretty unique. My husband and I fooled around a lot down here..haha.

After the “Journey Behind the Falls” exhibit, we decided to finally do the Maid of the Midst boat ride. I have three words for this part of our day–Oh. My. Gosh! So, they gave us these little red panchos and I really don’t know why because I was soaked by the time the boat made a U-turn away from the falls. I literally looked like no one loved me anymore. My mascara being water proof and all made me look like I was punched in both eyes. My husband did his best to clean me up–lol. But I am SO glad we saved this experience for last. It was cool and all, but I was soaked and that part I didn’t like…

Later we came across a Canada sign and I took pictures..as usual. Then we went home so that I could shower. My husband decided to go swimming at the hotel.  

The next morning, we got up for breakfast and headed out to Toronto!