Ni-a-ga-ra Falls, slowly I turned...

If you're old enough, you recognize the above as the start of a bit done by the Three Stooges. We took a bit of a road trip recently to Niagara Falls. It's about a 6 1/2 hour drive using interstates and a fairly pleasant ride. We drove up with our friends Dean and Gloria and with their company it made the trip seem even faster.

Now, I know that a trip to Niagara Falls seems sort of hokey - every honeymoon couple in every old movie seemed to go there- but the falls really are one of the natural wonders of the world and well worth seeing.

Michelle got a great deal on a hotel - The Fallsview Hilton in Niagara Falls Canada (http://www.niagarafallshilton.com/) - and both couples ended up with these amazing suites, plus two free buffet breakfasts and a credit for dinner one night. Pretty amazing.

Here is the view from our rooms:





As the video pans from right to left, you can see the Canadian or Horseshoe falls, the casino which was part of our hotel, the American falls and finally, on the far left, the "Skylon" tower. The tower has a buffet restaurant at the top where we ate dinner on our first night there (fairly decent food for a tourist trap and, of course, an incredible view). We also lost money at the casino (but what else is new?).

I should mention that when visiting the falls, it is a must to stay on the Canadian side since both sets of falls face that way and the best views are from that side.

The second day we were there we took the ride on the "Maid of the Mist" which is a boat that takes you right up to the Canadian falls. Michelle took these videos from the boat:




The American Falls





The Canadian or Horseshoe Falls


We did a bunch of other stuff, but probably the most interesting non-falls related thing we did was to visit something called a butterfly conservatory. This was a large dome with a controlled environment replicating a rain forest with all the appropriate vegetation and inhabited by literally thousands of butterflies of different species. You walk through the interior of this on various pathways and the butterflies fly around you, land on your arm etc. It was pretty incredible.




Here is a video Michelle took inside the conservatory



All in all our two nights and three days in Niagara Falls was a lot of fun and made for a good road trip. I'd recommend it.