Niagara Falls, NY

After our dinner, we went to Niagara falls (US side) around 11pm to see the illumination of the falls*. Official parking near the park was closed, but the observation tower parking lot was open. The guys charged $10 and mentioned that visit to observation tower (9th floor) was free, blah blah. Later, we learned that the observation tower was free regardless of parking. Further, the entry to tower was closed around 11:30pm or so (we missed it). I am not sure whether there is any other parking close by. First, we went to the observation deck of American falls near Maid of the Mist entrance. Night view was spectacular. We could also spot the view of horse shoe from distance, but couldn't capture it clearly using the camera. If we had time and not tired, we might have explored and found out a nice spot to take snaps of Horse shoe falls as well. In case you are planning to see, you might get that view from Goat island. [View from Canada side would be way better, but we didn't go]. After that, we did shopping and returned back to hotel (ESA).

Next day (July 12, 2009), we checked out the hotel and went to Maid of the Mist*. Kirti, for some reason, opposed to the blue plastic coat; so tried to convince her and had to catch the next boat (Hmm! waste of time). Well, no words can do justice to portray the view of the falls from the boat. Next, we took the stairs near American falls to get a closer view and it was quite good. Btw, we were worried about our camera and camcorder on both of these trips as we almost got a "free" shower. Beware! After that we had lunch and took a stroll to State park and Goat island. We spent couple of hours there and headed to airport as our flight was at 6:45pm. Dropped Vidhya and Kirti at the departure, returned the car at Avis and we boarded the flight to Oakland (via. Chicago).

On the flight, we had a delicious pasta, prepared by Vidhya. Flight was delayed at Chicago due to late arrival of connecting flight. Moreover, the flight was detoured on the air due to thunderstorms. Good news was that we saw amazing view of lightning on the flight. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the flight from where we were seated, so couldn't take good photos or videos :-( Flight reached late (around 11:15pm) and Ganu came to pick us up from the airport. Well, there ends our 10 day trip to east coast. It was a fun, nice and hectic trip.

Click on the hypertexts for trip planner and album.

[* Not to be missed]

Tips:

• General view of falls (Horse shoe and American falls) from Canada side would be much better than that of US side view.
• If you are planning to drive from DC or NY to Niagara (or vice versa), I would recommend one way rental. It is convenient and saves time. When I rented, Avis came out to be less expensive at BWI airport by at least $200 when compared to other rentals.
• If you are planning for a day trip and return back to bay area, then flight (Southwest) to OAK would give more room to roam around in Niagara. Flip side is that there is no regular shuttle from OAK to SJC - You have to book an expensive cab or private shuttle ($100+). We were fortunate to have our friend pick us up.
• If you plan to visit multiple attractions then Niagara Discovery pass for 5 attractions could save some bucks. It was running at $33 (30% off the regular price) during our visit.