Niagara Falls, Canada   October 8-10,2005

Matt, Michelle, Kim, & Jon

We rolled up to Canada on a rainy Saturday morning and checked into a real nice Doubletree which I later found out is owned by my boss' mother's cousin.  Small world.  We were just a few blocks away from the falls and the action of downtown.  On our first day we did the Journey behind the falls, worth every bit of 10 bucks unless you are from Victoria.  Then we ate at a steakhouse called The KEG which overlooks the falls.  We rounded out the evening with world renowned impersonator Andre Phillipe Gagnon.  He sucked.  After the show we went to check out the falls illuminated with colored lights.  All of us except for Kim who stayed back in the room to think about her choice to have a few extra glasses of wine at dinner.  ........................

Day 2 started early with breakfast at the local version of a Diner.  Good golden pancakes and peameal bacon.  That's Canadian bacon for you snobby Americans.  Then we hit up the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you right up to the falls, with 852 Japanese tourists.  Afterwards we hopped on the bus and went to the temple with 1,000 Buddhas, which according to Matt was Buddhaful.  Across the street from this freak show was a wooden path that went along the shore of some Class 6 Rapids.  Monster rapids to say the least.   We had enough of water for awhile so we headed out to wine country, just a short drive from Niagara.  We visited 3 wineries and bought  a few bottles of wine.  The region is famous for IceWine.  IceWine is very sweet, it is made by harvesting the grapes while they are frozen and pressing out the sugars, and getting very little water because it is obviously frozen.  It takes 10 times as many grapes to make a bottle of IceWine and so it is more expensive and really doesn't taste any better than a wine cooler.  Busy day I know, but we are just getting started.  We couldn't have a repeat performance with Kim and the wine so we had to get some food in our stomachs.   We asked around and finally got a recommendation for a place called The Angel.   The Angel was recently featured on Canadian Television as the most haunted place in Canada.  Legend has it that something bad happened here along time ago.  I wish I could tell you more but I was too hungry to read the history plaque at the entrance so I headed right for our table.  We all made it out of the restaurant fine and headed over to the Niagara butterfly conservatory.  Just lots of butterflies, nothing more.  So back to the hotel for some R&R in the pool and sauna.  Fully refreshed we headed out into the night and after a quick stop at the casino we played putt-putt at the country's largest indoor mini golf facility.  The entire place was illuminated with black lights and it was a battle, but somehow I took the cup with 2 hole-in-ones.  After mini-golf we went to a haunted house, yep, you heard me, a haunted house.  For some reason the town is packed with year round haunted houses.  Reasonably scary and entertaining.   Across the street from the haunted house was sports bar we got to watch the last 2 innings of the Yankees game vs. the Angels and some Sunday night football.  After dinner came the best part of the day.  We found an outdoor maze.  The concept is that you have to navigate this maze and stamp your card with a unique stamper located at 3 towers and a hidden sword in the maze.  It was a blast and I was winded.  It was a long day so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.  We headed home on Monday morning. 

So here are a few pictures.