• Started the day with a trip back over the border. After handing back in our moose, we left the Canadian side of the falls and returned to the US.
• Back in gun land, we hopped aboard the Maid Of The Mist which is a fully electric boat that drives right up close to the bottom of the falls. Highly recommended as it’s one heck of an experience being right under the falls and getting owned by all that water. They give you a poncho which is actually quite effective, but still recommended to wear thongs or whatever cause your tootsies will definitely get wet. My suggestion is to take the US side version, not the Canada side version because the Canucks stuffed their boat like it was a roast chook whereas the US side left plenty of free space to move around.
• One missed capitalist opportunity from the Americans – which is super surprising, because if there’s anything I’ve learned so far it’s that nickel and diming you on every transaction is their modus operandi – is selling towels in the gift shop after Maid Of The Mist. They do sell your typical ‘I got soaked by Niagara Falls and all I got was this stupid tshirt ‘ type stuff, but socks, undies, and towels would be a huge thing I reckon. So many people with wet pantaloons and soaked weaves who would have definitely overpaid for a scrap of terry toweling with some branding.
• Next we spent a few hours in the bus headed back towards New York, stopping at some “premium shopping” destination which was more like an episode of Pissweak World than anything luxury of premium. Like gambling, I don’t get shopping. You can buy any of the stuff they’re offering online, whenever you want, from the comfort of your lounge chair. Wandering around a half renovated market-looking place, fighting 3 busloads of other suckers to get the attention of some disinterested staff, was not the best way to spend any time.
• Now we’re in New Jersey, where we had a feed at Red Robin where I had what was simultaneously my worst tasting and strongest margarita ever. Current wearing a lampshade on my head after just a single order.
• The bus trip was kind of weird, cause we’re on a 4 day tour but there were people doing a 2 day tour… so the 2 day tour people were taken back to NYC tonight, whereas we were dropped at a hotel with a pinkie promise that we’ll definitely get picked up tomorrow, but by a different bus for the other part of the tour.
• On the one hand bus tours are super convenient and very reasonably priced, but on the other hand turning up at each stop with 50 people means you just spam the heck out of each stop… toilets get a queue, any lookout is immediately crammed with people trying to get their pics for the gram, and you just don’t have enough time to appreciate things much. Definitely looking forward to doing our own thing, even if it’s means we won’t get to see as much because I’m not a professional touring guy. Or just generally very organised.
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