Niagara Falls and Other Great Lakes Fun

Our path from New Hampshire to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, our next month-long destination, took us through the Great Lakes area, giving us lots of options for enjoying the journey. The best part was that it gave us the opportunity to go through Niagara Falls - we spent a couple of days on the Canadian side, which was the perfect amount of time. The falls were spectacular - we did not make it to the maid of the mist boat trip that goes right up to the falls (see photo above from when we arrived), because the weather was rainy and cold on our full day there, but we did ALL the other touristy things.

My favorite video from the trip is this one from the Journey Behind the Falls - you take an elevator down 125 feet to tunnels that take you behind the falls, where there are a couple of holes cut into the rock behind the falls and also to a viewing platform right next to the falls.

More photos from the the Journey Behind the Falls:

Information on the elevator door that goes 125 feet down behind the falls.

One of two tunnels cut into the wall behind the falls.

The other one.

The long tunnel that connects them. Staff told us it’s usually packed with people in summer.

Me on the external viewing platform. Look at all that water coming down the falls!

View up the cliff wall.

This is my second favorite video - its focus is the edge where the water goes shooting over the Horseshoe Falls. We were able to get very close and spent a lot of time there watching. I was fascinated and I’m not sure how anyone went over these falls in a barrel - the sheer volume of water. Yikes!

Here are more falls photos - enjoy! Fun fact - Niagara Falls was created by receding glaciers only 13,000 years ago. So young!

View from our hotel room.

Canadian side - the “Horseshoe Falls”

View of both falls - American side and Canadian.

View of the funicular that takes you from the road with the hotels down to the visitor ctr level.

Dinner with a view! STK Restaurant at Embassy Sts.

Light show after dark. There were fireworks over the American falls, but we couldn’t see them.

Did I mention it was rainy?

Across from the American Falls.

It was great to walk along the river on the Canadian side - lots of cool views even in the rain.

The path…

Some cautionary notes for anyone who hasn’t visited Niagara Falls:

• It is VERY touristy - you think you know, especially if you have been to Disneyland lately or Times Square, but you don’t. There are no “good” hotels and the service is not great, clearly because they know you are there just for the falls and people will come regardless.

• On the other hand, I think it was totally worth it just to see the falls live and in person. But, best to set your expectations.

• Our recommendation is, don’t spend extra time there - plan for just enough to see whatever is important to you. Also, if you can, go “off” high season because it will greatly enhance your experience. We were there after Labor Day, which definitely helped with lines and waiting. Also, I think some of the attractions would have been a lot less fun if they were as crowded as we were led to believe (the tunnels behind the waterfall, for example, are supposed to be wall to wall people in the high season).

The rest of this post might be a bit anti-climactic after all the falls photos, but on the way TO Niagara Falls, we visted Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame and on the way FROM Niagara Falls we stopped in Mackinaw City and enjoyed the Straits of Mackinaw (the body of water between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron). They were both lovely to visit.

We highly recommend the Baseball Hall of Fame for any baseball fans that end up in the area and Cooperstown is really cute/fun. We got to enjoy some legit (according to my expert) craft beers. See photos below!

Entrance to the Hall of Fame

Photo from the opening of the hall of fame with most of the then famers.

Display of the recently inducted, Part 1

Part 2

The Babe Ruth Hall. Love the Babe.

Enjoyed all the old time ads and articles.

For my Padres fans.

Hall on the cross Pacific rivalry with Japan - super interesting.

Have you noticed that most (all?) of these greats are/were Dodgers? Hmmmmm….

Hank Aaron - I didn’t realize what a great business man he also was.

Some of his words of wisdom…

Pete Rose - yes, he needed to be booted for gambling, no, he did not need to be kept out of the HoF.

For my Red Sox Fans (😜)

We find legit craft beer in the weirdest places.

We also liked Mackinaw City, which was our last stop on the way to the UP. It’s at the very top of the LOWER peninsula (I did not understand the geography until we traveled there) and just south of the Mackinaw Bridge, which is quite impressive and spans the Straights of Mackinaw, a very well traveled area between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which is purportedly very treacherous at times, having been the location of many shipwrecks over the years.

We also had a funny new experience - we had to take a detour around a TRACTOR PARADE to get to lunch. I kid you not:

We stayed in this cool motel on the beach. They offered guests s’mores every night at the fire pits outside our rooms. Delightful.