Days Inn Near the Falls, this is where the magic happened. And by magic I mean mostly sleeping, sometimes eating, and watching hockey. Lots and lots of hockey. The Canucks, the Montreal Canadians, and some other teams I can't remember right now. The Days Inn wasn't the greatest hotel. The rooms were okay and the bathroom was good but other than that it was super basic. Most of my TV channels didn't work. Hence L became very acquainted with Canadian hockey.
The breakfast at this place was continental, and by continental they mean just dry bagels, toast, donuts, cereal and the most horrid yogurt in North America. I know I probably shouldn't complain so much but it's what I do and it's my blog. Anyway bad food and lack of TV aside the hotel had some good points too. It wasn't super far from the Falls and it did give me my first experience of a sauna.
In the words of my eldest sister "It's hot!". Dude that sauna was freaking hot. It felt like someone had put me in a 350F oven and was cooking me for dinner. I'm sure in reality if wasn't really 350F but still, it was hot. Going in there at first is very overwhelming. Breathing is a little hard because you are just breathing in pure heat. You inhale, it's hot. You exhale it's hot. But then after you sit for a while it gets more and more tolerable. My sister Robyne stayed in the sauna the longest. That girl has a much higher tolerance level than I do.
I'd totally go back and get in that closet sized heater again though. It really was one of the highlights of the hotel. The first thing we did was get in the spa which was warm and bubbly but a little bit dirty (gross). Then Robyne and I got in the pool while Teri lounged around. The pool was nice, cold, smelled like chlorine. Then we got in the sauna. Moral of the story. Everyone should go into a sauna at some point in their life if they can. There's no experience like sitting there with a towel over your mouth, preferring to breath in the chlorine rather than breath in the heat.Since we were only in Canada for three complete days we had to pack a lot of things into a small amount of time. Things like eating good food suffered from the time and budget constraints but that's cool. No one really comes to Niagara Falls for the food. They come for the Niagara Falls. But in order to get to these beautiful masterpieces of nature you must go through Clifton Hill.
Clifton Hill is the loudest, brightest, gaudiest, most ridiculous combination of haunted houses, wax museums, restaurants, and hotels situated on a super steep hill that you will ever come across. It's like the vegas strip for gullible parents. You have to go down the hill unless you want to pay for the people mover that will take you down another steep hill to the falls (clever bastards!).
I will give CH credit though for having a really cool gift shop where we bought most of our souvenirs from. My sister got me an awesome carved eagle necklace from the section of the store that housed all the stuff related to the First Nations People (a.k.a Native Americans). For those who don't know I'm hugely into the NA culture. If I ever went into politics or law I'd probably advocate exclusively for their rights. I was also one of the original members of the Lane Tech Native American Club. Now back to the point. That section had this super cool totem pole looking carved sort of face. If I hadn't been so poor I would have bought it and hung it over the fireplace in my apartment. It was molto bello!
The rest of Clifton Hill though can kick rocks. It is such a tourist trap. Still though I'm glad for the experience, at least I know I'm strong enough to resist the pull of bright lights.
So at the bottom of the ridiculously steep hill (I being from the plains shall continue to complain about that hill because I am not accustomed to such things) are the falls. Wonderful, majestic, awe-inspiring, loud, and surprisingly moody, the Niagara Falls smacks you in the face and makes you feel quite insignificant.
But that will have to wait for the next post. Happy reading.
-L
