Waterfalls Are Just the Start, Niagara Falls

The American Falls

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey

It all began because of a book. The Finger Lakes were the scene of a story that swept me in and kept me coming back for more. I absolutely had to visit this charming area, though it’s taken me about 2 years since the reading to finally make it here.

While I was planning my trip, I decided why not incorporate the big daddy of waterfalls in this area and take a quick side trip to Niagara Falls. After flying into Syracuse, picking up my rental car and meeting up with my friend @ritagujral, off we were.

As we headed towards Niagara Falls New York, signs for the Fingler Lakes began to appear. It would have probably taken an act of God for us to stay on the highway but since there was no act in sight, we took off and followed signs and cute backroads to end up in the town of Seneca Falls location for the movie “It’s a beautiful Life”. After spending some time exploring, we continued along the back roads, stopping where our eyes told us to.

Thanks to our growling stomachs we stopped in the town of Geneva only to find most of the shops and restaurants closed. After finding a charming lunch place we stopped at the Finger Lakes Welcome Center to take some pictures with this iconic sign.

It so happened that the town of Canandaigua was on our route, and a stop at the City Pier to see the boathouses was a must.

We did finally get into our hotel. Tired from all the driving and no sleep on the red eye flight I crashed while Rita went for a walk to photograph the sunset and the lights. The next morning, I was ready and raring to go. We decided to skip the Maid of the Mist ride but elected to go to the Eagles Nest and the Observation Deck. The beautiful Rainbow Bridge between the US and Canada is so clearly visible from this spot.

The Three Sisters Islands higher up the river are a great photo destination. Rita wanted to try and get a picture from the top since she’s one of three sisters and I realized that I too am the middle one of three sisters, so here’s the view from the walkway over the middle island.

This was not a stunt, but I never did find out what this group was looking for or doing as they waded into the fast-flowing water well hooked up.

A statue honoring Nikola Tesla recognizing his contribution to inventing AC current. Story has it that Thomas Edison tried to steal his work. Hmm! I am grateful for his inventions that make our life easier today.

The bridal Veil Falls are definitely aptly named. I took the green park shuttle around the park, and I heard one of the passengers ask about the force of water per hour. The driver responded, “Sorry Sir, I don’t know that answer, but I do know that it is 75000 gallons per second.”

The horseshoe falls are known as the Canadian falls and the best view is from the Canadian side. Since we only had a day to spend in this area, we decided to shelve the idea of crossing over to Canada and instead contented ourselves on the American side and enjoying the views over a lunch at the Top of the Falls restaurant over Terrapin Point,

Replete with our viewing of the falls, we headed out of Niagara but decided to make a few stops along the way to our hotel in Corning. These windows were painted by artist Polly King who is quoted to say, “Colors Sing to Me”.as a part of a city beautification project.

After seeing this we had to make a stop at the Castellani Art Museum to see her work exhibited there.

Niagara Falls, NY was the last stop on the underground railroad and this bridge named the Freedom Bridge spelled freedom to the escaping slaves as they crossed over to freedom and safety in Canada. It is still an active border crossing.

The day was young yet and so we passed on the power plant stop to make a stop at Lockport, a community that was built around the Erie Canal which connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie.

We got to see the locks in operation though we did not have time for the hour-long cruise through the locks on a boat trip that lasts about an hour.

Finally, it was time to get serious and start heading to a meal and our night destination. A beautiful view reminding us that we are now back in the Finger Lakes.

And the best omen possible in the midst of a possible forecast for rain. A double rainbow.