Niagara on my hand

4/14/06

We started at 7:30pm in the morning. It's took us around 7 hours to go from New Jersey to Niagara on US side, the sky is cloudy but traffic still work fine.

If you are not staying on the US side, I recommend you park your car on the prospect st (Great Lake Garden), there is a 2 hours parking space, you can also park in P1 and P2, but it would cost you $10. We parked our car on the 2 hours spot, and walked across the pedestrian bridge, we then walked towards the American falls and Horseshoe fall spots (spot 2 and 3 on the  map), but you can't really see the falls on the US side. you can definetly feel the mist.

http://www.niagarafallsstatepark.com/plan/map.html

We continue our journey by crossing the rainbow bridge to niagara falls on canada side, Canada custom is friendly, it took around 15 minutes to cross the border.  We find the Days Inns hotel easily, it's on the famour center st. which is the main attraction in the area, you can find plently of entertainments, restaurant, starbucks, souvenir shop within 5 minites walk.  Days Inn and Suite is a nice 2 star hotel, pretty clean and neat, you will have everything you need. The staff is friendly but don't expect you can get any views from your windows, it's nothing but parking lots. Although it's on the centre st., but the area is much quieter, I would recommend it if you can get it for price around $80.

http://www.daysbythefalls.com

We walked to the falls after we settled down, it's around 5pm already, the falls is huge but covered by fog and mist, so you won't be able to take any pictures. We visited some of the souvenir shops, the price is reasonable but nothing special. We had dinner in Red Lobster, the price is around the same as US.

4/15/06

Second day begin with a breakfast in Days Inn, the food was better than I expected as they have toast, muffins, juices, coffees, etc. The breakfast area is not too small but you still find a long queue during peak hour, if you are luck you would be able to find a table, but on your left and right, people on the queue will stare at you, or your food....anyway I don't feel comfortable about that. If you want to start your day with a relax breakfast, please go out for breakfast.

Again we walked to the falls, the view  is perfect with plenty of sunlight. We took a lots of pictures on the American falls and Horseshoe falls, we though about to ride on the maid of the mist, but finally we gave up because we were in a hurry to toronto. If you have time, it's would be nice to ride on the boat, the price is $12. I guess you can't take too many pictures on the boat, as the mist will kill your camera, so think twice!

http://www.maidofthemist.com/en

The next stop of our trip was niagara-on-the-lake, it's around 30 minutes ride from Days Inn. That's a lots of wineries along the niagara stone road, we went into the Pilliteri, it is one of the most famous wineries in the region. They had a lots of prices for their wine, and surely they make ice wine too, they charge you $4 if you want to taste the ice wine, it will be waived if you buy at least one bottle of ice wine. The ice wine taste like honey, I don't really like it, a small bottle of ice wine cost you $25. Coz Pilliteri is one of the famous wineries, it's better to visit it in the morning, otherwise you will see tons of tourists coming from their "truck", they will mess around taking photos, talking, playing..... If you have time, visit more wineries around, it's good experience.

http://www.pillitteri.com/

We drive through the downtown of niagara on the lake, and stop beside the Ontario Lake, it's peaceful and relaxing.

It took another 1.5 hours drive to Toronto, and we arrived at Courtyard downtown by 2:00pm. We had a earlier check-in and settled down, the hotel crews is friendly, rooms is absolutely in good condition, very clean and professional decorated. I got the room for $60 on priceline.com, I believe that's a good deal. My room was on the south wing, for this price I don't expect any "view" on my room, and surely it's. I do satisty with the room, and I would recommend the hotel to you.

Courtyard located on Yonge st, just next to the subway station, around 10 minutes walk to Eaton centre. Valet parking on the hotel cost you $25, there is parking lots just next to the hotel, $5 from 9-6, $15 for whole days. Finally we decide to park on the hotel coz it's more convenience for us.

We walked to the Eaton center, old city hall, new city hall, etc. I drived around the toronto university and cn tower, that's not much attraction in Toronto downtown, of coz you can go to the casa loma, museums, galleries, but they are not that famous so I gave up. Instead we spent lots of the time on China town, you can find a lots of good foods in that area, make sure you tried them before you leave the city. China town is around Spandina ave at Dundas st W. Parking in China town is a bit better than what you see on NY china town, street price cost $2 per hour, we were unlucky coz we got a parking ticket for just 5 minutes overtime, the police is so efficiency! The restaurant price on toronto is much cheaper that US, but sometimes it will have a 15% sales tax for some items, I really don't know how they worked it out. 

4/16/06

We got some dim sum for breakfast on china town, and then we took some picture on cn tower. and then there is another 10 hours drive from toronto to nj.