Did you miss me? We were away and we did not have free wifi. I figured at $200 a night, they could have thrown it in…it was a matter of principal.
We like to get away from time to time, even if it’s just a couple of hours away. This weekend is our relatively new Family Day holiday in Ontario; it was an election promise by our current Premier Dalton McGuinty (one that he actually kept!) creating a statutory holiday to help bridge the gap from Christmas to Easter, and to beef up tourism in Ontario. We took a little trip to Niagara Falls Ontario.
Niagara is a wonderful combination of culture, food, natural wonder and of course, shopping, and it’s only an hour and a half from our home! We’ve stayed in several different places over the years but this time we’re staying at the Gateway Fallsview Marriott which is reasonably close to Casino Niagara where on Sunday night we will see Band from TV. Here is an adorable little clip of Teri Hatcher singing Kerry Underwood’s Before he Cheats. (Kerry is married to Canadian Mike Fisher, who comes from Peterborough, my nephew (Brian) and niece (Laura) went to school with his siblings…cool eh? 6 degrees of separation!)
Now you are well aware that I bumped into Flat Ruthie the other day at the Toronto Courthouse (not sure what she was doing down there, and perhaps I don’t want to know). Anyway, she finagled her way into coming with us this weekend…I think we’re in trouble…
We dropped our luggage at the hotel and then took the Whirlpool Bridge across which is ONLY for Nexus users — we breezed through (the Rainbow Bridge had at least an hour long lineup! Yay Nexus). We went to Walden Galleria to shop where I only got a few things…we declared everything and didn’t have to pay anything! We’re lucky that way. That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to jinx it! In Canada anything less than 24 hours away and you’re really not supposed to buy anything and bring it back, or you should pay 13% taxes and then about 10-15% duties; but it’s really up to the crossing agent – they determine if you pay. After 48 hours I believe you are allowed $300 plus a litre of booze each. But it’s not worth staying in Niagara Falls New York, believe me, it’s such a dump.
We ate lunch at Gordon Biersch; it was a very nice, pub like establishment, but what really drew us to it was that they make everything from scratch right there. And they brew their own beer. A lot of the menu had beer ingredients, which is always quite cool. I ordered the Ahi tuna salad which was quite tasty (Ahi Tuna, blackened and seared rare, with Märzen Balsamic, Vinaigrette and Cajun remoulade) but as usual they really over dressed the greens…enough already! JT had half roast turkey and swiss sandwich and a beer and cheddar soup – the soup was so rich he couldn’t/wouldn’t finish it. For Buffalo, it exceeded my expectations (I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to dine at burger king).
This is the view from our room:
We stayed at the Fallsview Gateway Marriott which is apparently a different hotel than the Fallsview Marriott. We thought we were in the other one. It wasn’t bad, it was just unexpected. We had a very nice view of the falls. There were no bedbugs. Thank goodness. It’s also a little ironic that we had free wifi in Morrocco, yet, in Niagara Falls Ontario, it’s about $12.75 plus taxes a day. I didn’t get it. Hence my absence this weekend.
The bathroom had a glass wall facing the bed…I’ll leave that to your imagination.
I’ll review the restaurants and the entertainment in the coming days.
What a fun getaway! And glad that Ruthie got to come along. She seems like such a fun little gal. 🙂
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Niagara falls is on my bucket list! I think Honey Bunny and I are headed there sometime in 2013. The hotel is lovely and I’ve never met a Flat Ruthie before, but I’ve met and traveled with a Flat Stanley!
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It’s really quite the place…it can be as classy as you make it or as kitschy at you make it. I hope you do come by and if you do, let me know, we can meet up for coffee somewhere. I’m checking out flat Stanley today.
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On our last trip my husband reminded me that I should have insisted and negotiated free wifi before we booked the rooms.. I don’t know if it works, but I’m trying that next time. I’ve lived in Canada my whole life and have never been to Niagara Falls!! There’s an awesome cooking school near there and I’ve dreamed of going for a semester.. my hubby could come along for the fun! xo Good night and don’t let the bed bugs bite!!
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Hi Barbara, I think there are a couple of cooking schools in the area, and there is also a Winery & Viticulture Technician program. It’s all very cool. I would suggest coming in the springtime or fall there are so many things to do, and there are absolutely lovely B&Bs and boutique Inns. Some of these larger hotels don’t really give a hoot about their customers…wifi would be a gimme to me.
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[…] Here are some photos of Flat Ruthie’s recent trip to Niagara Falls. I’ve described our trip in my blog: https://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/a-little-sojourn-to-niagara-falls-ontario/ […]
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Yay for Family Day in Ontario! I love mini vacations like that… I can’t say we get away quite as often as we’d like (with 2 kids, a dog and a cat :)), but we do make a point of travelling to Old Montreal every winter for a cozy weekend together… I have very fond memories of the Niagara region (particularly like Niagara-on-the-Lake). Just as well you had the wifi break, no? (I enjoy forced breaks from my computer – once I get over the nervous breakdown part ;)).
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Hi Kelly, we love to travel to Old Montreal. Where do you usually stay? We’ve done the NOTL many times as well, but it’s getting a wee bit unaffordable these days. The break was very nice; plus I usually post from my iPhone which can be a bit challenging!
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Hotel Nelligan is our favourite spot ;-).
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That’s where we always stay! Love the location and the complimentary wine!
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I don’t get the wifi thing either. You just should have free wifi. But hey.. there were no bedbugs so I would be thankful for that. And look at Flat Ruthie.. she finds her way everywhere lol. Loved your photos
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Thanks Kay. Bed bugs are not as rampant as in some cities in the states, but none-the-less I always check before I book a hotel. Apparently they are vile to get rid of! Thank you for the compliment.
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I’d join JT in that beer. 🙂
Miserable driving weather … I hate driving in snow. I looked out of the classroom this morning and saw the flakes … snowed all day though, luckily, it all melted by the time I went home. It’s been so mild that we got fooled into thinking winter was over … and there’s still March to go.
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We can’t complain Maraia, it’s been do incredibly mild.
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I just hate it when hotels don’t give you free wifi… scratch that… any kind of establishment where there are huge throngs of people which don’t offer free wifi really annoys me. Everyone’s talking about the “connected world” we live in and they can’t even offer up a few bits of data for us to consume? 😦 I’m quite lucky – with my cellphone plan I can get free wifi in a lot of locations. They partner with places all around the world – airports and hotels and the like so usually I just need to get a special one-off code from my phone and I can then get hooked up, but on my way to Sweden last time I was in a bit of the airport which had about 5 hotspots, none of which were a partner of my cellphone network so I tried to pay €3.99 for an hour of wifi. The transaction bugged out and I never got my activation code. I’m proud to say that I managed to dig through the many layers of their website and eventually found a contact email, and after much delay and back and forth between me and them, I got a refund of €3.99. It makes me sound outrageously cheap but I was *that* annoyed about it!
For your post – that’s an incredible view from your room… I’ve never seen the falls – I can only imagine it must be incredibly loud – thousands of tons of water thrashing over the edge every minute… and look at that plume of water droplets rising up… just incredible!
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The wifi thing bugs me a lot too, it’s just a money grab that’s really gross. I do hope you can see the falls at some time; it regresses about a metre per year. It is quite nosy!
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I love little weekends away particularly when you can go and experience a place quite different to where you live but only just a short drive away. I would have insisted that Flat Ruthie only take one small carry-on bag and nothing more. And you would think in this day and age that free internet would be standard.
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Flat Ruthie is very determined Charlie; plus I didn’t want to start the trip on a negative note. She had to carry it all herself, so she’s learned her lesson!
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I’ve never been to Niagara Falls – I’ve heard both the good and bad things about it . .. and really, the only visual I have is from Superman II when the little boy falls over the side and Superman flies down and saves him (of course). I’m sure your trip was much better!
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Hi Bill, I hope you can get to it sometime, it really is a wonder. Last summer we actually had a young girl flip off the side and fall in, very sad. No superman to save her sadly,
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Oh it sounds and looks like a wonderful time! We did miss you- glad you’re back
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Thanks Jessica, it was a nice little break.
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Your room looks lovely … No comment on that bathroom wall. Did you stop at any wineries? Or is that tomorrow’s post????
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Hi Barb, no we didn’t end up going to wineries, I just wanted to get home and do laundry! Plus, this week we’re really being good and we didn’t need the temptation!
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It’s so great to be able to get away for a weekend. Sounds like you guys had some fun in spite of the bad weather. I’m sure Ruthie was entertaining, too!
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Thanks Betsy, it was a good time and Ruthie was indeed entertaining!
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Glad you had a great get-away. Love Niagara Falls. Have not visited for a while. Should think about another visit when the weather is more settled.
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It’s such a beautiful landmark Norma, did you know that the Canadian side regresses 3 feet per year? In my lifetime it has regressed over 100 feet! Scary.
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It sounds like you had a nice, little get-away. I applaud your going to a spot so near your home. All too often, we tend to ignore those places for others farther away, as if no good times may be had within 100 miles of our homes. Very glad you didn’t get snowed in. That region can really get hit with major snows, as I’m sure yo’re aware!
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Buffalo actually had less snow than we did in Toronto! The drive was very easy. The band was very cool and if they go to Chicago I would reco it! Plus their take goes entirely to charity. And they are hard working musicians. And not bad to look at either!
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