We chose to visit the Niagara falls on the US Independence day long weekend, which falls on the July 4th. In 2010 this was on a Sunday so the observed holiday on Monday, gave the long weekend a good 3day for itself.
We made the preparations in advance by making hotel reservations in Quality Inn, which was about 6 miles from the falls, which is about 10 mins apart.
Corning Glass Museum
Corning Glass Museum which is on the way to the falls, was over first destination en-route. We started our travel at about 8am, though we had targetted for 6:). We reached the museum in the noon, about 5 hour journey with a stopover(4.35 actual). We learnt that the factory is now closed down and cannot visit that, and that a shuttle would take us to the museum from the parking spot. So we first had our lunch :) and headed to wards the museum entrance. Glass works invited us, and we were all excited to explore more. The ticket issuer told us that there is a show just about to start.... wondering what it is we headed in that direction. We saw a live demonstration of a glass bowl being made, that was truly interesting , where from the basic raw material glass is blown like a bulb, the spreads itself and when he shakes it takes form. Also he was saying they break and put back into the 1000 degree heat again to repeat the demo the next day :)
We saw few other demos of glass breaking and Optical Fiber , where light flows through the thin cable allowing for instruments like cell phones to operate.
The main part was still there.... the glass museum collection.... wow so many many glass wonders.... from about 1000B.C to today's latest prism beauties.... we saw all the tiffany works and also were lured to buy some Glass beauties home. We wanted to see more, but the thought that we should reach Niagara falls before dark made us move on.
Niagara Falls
Time to Niagara Falls is about 2.40 hours, but it took us about 3.30 hours with some stop overs to fill gas, get battery for ipod accessory etc. We checked in to the hotel, quickly freshened up, and drove to the falls. Nature is always beautiful, and Niagara is a real beauty of nature. We were surprised to see the fireworks this day already, since we expected to see it only the next day which was the Independence day, we could not find spots to park, so we just stopped our car in a junction and watched the whole show, the whole city was busy watching any way. Wow, it was too good, it was almost for an hour, though we missed the part from 9 to 9.20, we did see the best part.... My parents and Akilan! also saw the whole show in awe, while we were busy capturing the show in camera and handy cam and also enjoying watching it all.
We then went and parked in a good spot, right next to the red coach inn.... near the falls entrance. It was easy to walk down to have a night view of the falls. It was about 11 and we headed to our vehicle to get back to get some rest, but the heavy traffic, delayed an hour and we reached late. The pizza buy took longer again and we had a real late dinner, and then caught up with our sleep.
Early the morning, we got up a little late, and got ready and reached the falls at about 11 !, got the tickets for the Discovery Pass which covers all the interesting places there, Maide of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, Aquariym, IMax Show and Discovery Center, and we went for the Maid of the Mist first. The wait was long again in the queue, but the beauty of Niagara int he American falls, Bridal Veil Falls and the Horseshoe falls made us forget the time we took to see, and by the time we finished the tour we were half wet, so were our camera and handy cam, We then went to the prospect point, while Chidam and my parents took turns with Akilan since it was not advisable to take him in the slippery steps.... Wow what was a superb experience to go up to the Prospect Point to have the falls shower on us.
We then had our Pizza snack :) resting on the grass and seeing the beautiful birds, and went to the Cave of the winds in the Trolley. The wait there was 2 hours!, but again wow, what a experience to literally stand below the Bridal Veil falls and also see the falls right above us. The way back to come out took about an hour, which was something we did not get excited about. The trolley drive on the way back, made us realize that there was more of the beauty of the falls to be visited from the Terrapin point, the three sisters falls, etc, which are more nature interesting, and our time can be really spent well if we plan for those as well.
This already took the major part of the day, so we thought we can get our parents to the IMax show, but again the shows are every hour, 3,4,5,6, and we were late again for the 7 o clock show, so we went to get our things to get ready for the fireworks view and had our parents settle down to view the falls, We were waiting for the fireworks to start but it all started at about 10, and was for a very short time. We were a little disappointed, since we could have actually visited the show or the Aquarium in the meanwhile.
We were very tired by then and we headed back to hotel. The next day we knew is going to be all travel, so we got ready relaxed, and Chidam wanted to get as much sleep so that he can be comfortable with his driving. He took us back safely home squeezing some stop overs to get himself fresh. Cayuga lake route, with the Seneca Falls etc, were ones which we missed, but had a stopover at the Butter Milk falls, the water was very scarce there so not much for us to see, also there were people crowded to get their swimming plans. We reached home at 9.15 :) just about when darkness was spreading that summer night.
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