Hi Everyone,
We took a trip to Canada, Niagara Falls to be exact. Betty could not make the fabulous trip with us for business purposes. The weather was delightful, except for the 2nd day when we woke up and we were in the clouds. Yes! We stayed at the Hilton on the 43rd floor, what spectacular views. We'll have to share the pics. Be prepared to spend lots of money in Niagara Falls! Our room was a two bedroom suite with a jacuzzi, fireplace, two flat screen tv's, and a sofa bed. The room holds 6 people, but we enjoyed it the two of us.
Valet parking as well as self parking is both $20 per day. What a rip off! Plus tax, might I add.
We took a tour of the hotel and the city of Niagara Falls, absolutely beautiful. It is so relaxing to watch the cascading falls. The night view from our window is spectacular. You have to see it for yourself!
The first night we ate dinner at Brasa Brazilian steakhouse......incredible, make sure you don't eat anything the whole day so you can enjoy and savor the different variety of meats along with a roomful of sides, including Brazilian rice, salads and veggies.
We visited the American falls and the Canadian falls that are in a shape of a horseshoe. Of course, everything by the falls is expensive. If you bring your car, you'll have to pay $14.00 to park, or you can just double park alongside the road and hope that the Canadian Mount Police don't show up. Then you'll have to pay up or end up in a barrel in the Niagara Falls.
The next day was cloudy, up in the clouds again at the "Watermark" restaurant which is located on the 33rd floor. The price for breakfast is around $19.95 per person for a full buffet including coffee and juice. Kelly and I could not see anything outside of the window, but a few hours later, it began to clear up. A nice family we met on the elevator was being funny and said that we don't need to see a view, we need to see our food on the plate. Another breakfast option in the hotel was to go to the Grand Caffe for $14.95 with no view, however, there was a 20 minute wait because of the Spring Break tourists.
We didn't go to the fitness room because there aren't too many options there to choose from. So, instead, we decided to go down 43 flights of stairs. Yes, 43. Are we nuts? Our legs are killing us for the past two days!! So, we ended up in the employee only area in the basement. We were beyond lost. We passed the laundry area and the mattress and bedding area. We finally heard voices, and we told two women that we were lost and needed to go back to the lobby to get our car. They both looked at us weirdly and thought we were nuts for walking down 602 steps. We finally got escorted, by one of the ladies, to the lobby.
In the hotel lobby, there was a Starbucks, and we made conversation with the bartender. He mentioned that hundreds of celebs, including Lady Gaga, Lauren Conrad, the cast of The Sopranos, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and many more stay there.
The Hilton has a large pool with a huge water slide that the kids would love! Next, we came across dozens of brochures and advertisements to spend our afternoon in Niagara Falls. We wanted to do something different and fun! It's always interesting to do different activities, because then we will always have a memorable adventure to talk about on our blog!
We came across a glass-making brochure, which included a free tour! Free, in Canada? We went for it! We got lost around the city because we did not have our handy GPS, Richard, with us we forgot to bring him. So we ended up on the highway to Toronto, and needed to make a U-turn back to the hotel to ask the concierge for another map of the directions to the tour. We finally got there, and we were so impressed by the tour that we went back the next day to purchase a 22 k gold perfume glass, in the color, cranberry.
We skipped lunch that day, and went back to the concierge to ask for advice on a reasonable, Italian dinner. He was very friendly and recommended Carpaccios, which is outside of the tourist area. We found the restaurant and fell in love with it! The prices were reasonable, starting from $16 per entree. Not bad in Niagara Falls. I think it was the best lasagna I ever had in my whole life. The waiter was very friendly, and even offered us a complimentary on-the-house Tiramisu. Yummy!
After dinner we decided to walk around Clifton Hill and do some souvenir shopping. It was fun! We got a few knick-nacks for Betty, Brien, and Puly. I spent the remainder of the night making videos for you guys and soaking suds in the jacuzzi.
The next morning we woke up with a bright light beaming from our window. We were not complaining because the day prior we couldn't see anything. We skipped breakfast because we wanted to grab lunch at the Skylon Tower. We went up 770 feet above the ground into an elevator that took less than a minute to go to the revolving dining room. What a cool room! The total price was around $60. We had a coupon for 1/2 off a second entree. So it wasn't too bad.
Then, we grabbed some water in bulk, in a local grocery store for the ride home. We crossed the border to the U.S.A. around 3 pm and we we driving for hours. We stopped for St. Patty's Day dinner at Applebee's. Total amount was around $28. Way cheaper compared to Canada's prices.
We were so tired that we had to stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania before our trip concluded.
We just finished having breakfast at our lovely Hampton Inn. We will visit the city, along with the news station next door, before we go back home.
We promise we will write here on a daily basis, we missed blogging!
I will post the photos from our vacation later tonight when we arrive.
Have a great day,
The Traveling Divas