Niagara Falls- Day 2 (8/17/07)

The night at the Hostel in Buffalo was pleasant. I checked in and dropped my bags off in my dormitory. HI- Buffalo was what I have come to expect from all HI hostels, friendly clean, and safe. The girl at the front desk inquired if I was interested in doing anything in Buffalo while I was there. I indicated that I was hungry and could eat some..gasp...vegetables. She pulled out a map and laid out a route to some restaurants she knew on Allen Street a few blocks away. As I walked away she wished me a good dinner and said that the area I was headed to was a prime people watching spot. Map in hand I headed out in search of fare.

After walking for about a quarter of an hour I reached Allen Street. Allen Street is one of the main streets that compromise Allentown. It was a quite night and not to many people where out but it seemed a lively enough district. I found a little Greek restaurant and at last had some dinner. A plate of Mousaka with Greek potatoes. which by the way are like regular potatoes but with oil and spices.

The next morning I woke up at 7 took a shower picked up my car and drove out to Niagara falls. On the way there I stopped at a convenience store to buy more ice for the cooler, a toothbrush, and gallon zip lock bags. My plans for the ziplock bags were to encase, and thus protect from water, my camera within it with just the lens poking out for pictures. After MacGyver ( as oppsed to Jerry, who is Jerry anyways?) rigging that I turned to drain my cooler of it's melted ice. I turned it so that just the spigot was leaning out the door of the passenger side and let it drain on to the pavement. Alarmed by the stream of water pouring from beneath my car a gentleman clearly of street came over to see if I needed help. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Shoeshine Randy. He had bright white hair and a genuine smile so I took his hand and shook. I explained that I was fine and showed him the almost drained cooler. He expressed his relief and then asked me for a dollar pointing at the gasmart he states that he was hungry. I apologized that I was a bit cash strapped as I was driving cross country so I could not spare any money but I did have food. He grinned broadly and gladly accepted. He took some Coke and Empanadas which to my surprise he recognized as Pastelillos (which is what they would be if I were Puerto Rican) He ate heartily and to my delight he really enjoyed the food. I'm always a bit concerned that people won't like Empanadas because combining meat and raisins isn't exactly and American mainstay.

After that stop I continued forward to Niagara Falls. I got there bright and early at around 9 am just in time for the first sail of the Maid of the Mists. Due to the early hour the boat was pretty empty and there were only about 10 of us on board. I met John a NY native (and Yankees fan) and his wife Julie a school teacher. They hailed from California and were vacationing in the area. They were very sweet and we helped each other take pictures.

The falls themselves were amazing. I was on the un-glamorous American Side of the falls but in the end it didn't much matter because our boat took us to see the Canadian falls as well. The boat took us to get a closer view of the American falls which were elegant, grand but the Canadian falls brutal and beautiful. The boat veered and took us into the mists right below the falls. The wind in the horseshoe shaped falls was strong and made my blue plastic poncho utterly useless blowing it up almost over my head. I got drenched! My hair was dripping wet plastered to my head. The mists were so thick it was like stepping into a cloud. The roar of the falls filled my ears and briefly I wondered how clean the Niagara river was. I could barely see ahead of me, the boat was tossing left and right. It was by far better then any amusement park ride and really made you come to terms with the fury that mother nature can unleash.

With the falls over I got of our little boat and walked around a bit to see the upper rapids and then jumped in my car off to my next destination: Chicago.