I went on a bus trip with Jessica to Niagara Falls. The trip was set up through Great Day Tours.
Jessica was originally planning on going alone, but we decided later to go together.
The company had a pretty bare-bones website, but they were able to assign me a seat next to Jessica when I called.
I got up at 4:30am, and drove to Middleburg Heights to board the bus.
The bus made a couple stops to pick up more people on the way, including at Beachwood where Jessica boarded.
It was a 4 hour trip to the falls, and on the way we played Bus Bingo, and stopped at some gas station for breakfast.
The first stop in the tour was at the Niagara power plant, which has an attached overlook / museum thing. There was a great view of the American and Canadian dams, and the river gorge.
There was also a cool exhibit that had actors portraying Tesla and Edison arguing about AC vs DC power. Apparently when the power plant was built, there was a lot of disagreement about what kind of power the plant should be built to generate, as Nicola and Edison were both lobbying the company to use their system.
Of course, AC won out in the end, which Nicola was depicted as being very smug about.
Next on the tour, we went to The Como Restaurant and Lounge for a late lunch. They brought out big portions of food for everyone to take and pass around.
The Menu:
- bread
- salad
- rigatoni and tomato sauce (which I skipped)
- chicken francese (which was delicious)
- Ham (why?)
- Mashed Potatoes (delicious, but also why?)
- and then spumoni for dessert
Finally, it was on to the falls.
We got off the bus, and lined up for Maid in the Mist, which is the boat tour that goes along the base of the falls, where you get to experience the spray that comes
The line was really long, but there were some great views while we waited.
We had to take an elevator from the viewing platform down to the waterline.
We donned our Blue ponchos and boarded the boat.
There was a lot of spray from the American falls, but as we reached the horseshoe falls, it was like standing we were standing under the waterfall, and taking pictures was basically impossible.
it was incredibly loud, and incredibly wet, and super fun.
After we dried out a bit, I was able to take some pictures of the aftermath.
Also, the boat we were on was called The Nicola Tesla, which I was very happy about.
There was another overlook over the american falls that we climbed up before taking the elevator back up.
Also, rare birb posting for pictures
After taking the elevator back up, and taking a few more pictures on the way back, we got some water and found a shaded spot on the lawn to sit and cool down.
After meeting up with the group, there was a minor crisis where we couldn’t find 7 members of the tour group, but it turned out they had already returned to the bus and not told anyone.
After returning to the bus we began the journey back.
On the way back, we stopped for dinner at another rest stop, though this one had a pedestrian bridge over the highway to a food court, but all of the restaurants except McDonalds were closed.
For the rest of the trip, we watched “the Sandlot” on the bus TVs, and rested.
After getting dropped off at my own stop, I decided to grab some food as a pick me up to keep me awake the rest of the way home. I was originally just going to taco bell, but the line was crazy. Also, my car was blocked in my the bus so I had to wait for a bit, so I decided to walk to IHOP to get some waffles.
They were out of waffles, so I had some french toast instead. It was very tasty, and I was able to get home ok.