Vacation, Part I

How does a 144-year old retired couple take a vacation?
Well, ya grab a plane, bus, car, boat, & a good pair of running shoes, and...

Our 3-week trip included a round-trip SWA plane ride to Chicago and then a rental car excursion to Ontario, New York State, New Jersey, Manhattan, Wheeling, WV and Winona Lake, IN.

To keep you readers from dozing off, falling out of your chairs, and bumping your heads, I thought I'd break this down into 6 (VI) parts.

This (Part I) will be about Niagara Falls.

After flying into Chicago on Wednesday (9/02/09) and renting our Hertz Toyota, we drove to Portage (that's pronounced por' tidge) Indiana -about 40 miles plus the 10 miles lost voyage getting out of Midway Airport. A cute, friendly neighborhood tavern across from the Hampton Inn provided us with a little snack & a glass of wine for a nightcap.

On Thursday we drove across Michigan and Ontario, Canada to get to Niagara Falls. We arrived in plenty of time to view both the American and Canadian falls before our dinner at the Spicy Olive restaurant. For future travelers to The Falls: Don't be discouraged by the honky-tonk atmosphere in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario -the river and falls area have been preserved in all its beauty and serenity. There are plenty of nice hotels within 1/2 mile of the falls -we chose Hampton Inn (very nice).

We spent all day Friday just leisurely viewing the falls from the Maid of the Mist tour boat, the Skylon Tower, and walking along the river. We were able to get some incredible photos and video snippets under the clear, blue sky.

The professional, wide-angle photo here pretty much sums up the beauty of the area. [click on photo to enlarge] I hope everyone who visits Niagara Falls has the same beautiful weather that we had for two days.

Stay tuned for our drive to and visiting the good folks of the Adirondacks.