Pittsburgh to Niagra Falls

Today we were going to Canada!! We left our hotel at 8am and were on the road. Everyone was excited because our rest stop today was Walmart. I know, it seems crazy to get excited about Walmart, but when you are from NZ or Australia, you hear about Walmart and you just have to see it.

I love Walmart. I ended up spending around $100, and even brought a carry-on suitcase for my shopping that I planned to do in Toronto. It was nice to buy some fresh fruit at Walmart as well – almost everyone did the same.

https://instagram.com/p/7F9t3PPPqu/?taken-by=kiwigirlgone

After Walmart, it was back on the road toward the Canadian border. We played trivia on the way which was fun – our team won 🙂 Just before the border, we stopped at duty free. The alcohol was cheap but everything else seemed the same price. I did buy some OPI nail polish though.

Going through the border was very straight-forward and pretty quick. I was just happy to get the Canadian stamp on my passport! Once through the border, it was straight to Niagra Falls for our included hornblower boat cruise. We got our ponchos and waited for our turn. It was boiling hot in Niagra – way hotter than I ever expected it would be in Canada!

The boat cruise was amazing! I couldn’t get many photos from on the boat because we were getting soaked but it was really awesome. The falls are big, but I expected them to be bigger (apparently, this is becoming a common theme for me in America and Canada haha).

After the cruise, we headed to our hotel. We drove through the main part of Niagra and it was crazy – not what you’d expect at all. It’s so commercialized – flashing lights everywhere and all the typical tourist places like the rainforest cafe and bowling and mini golf places.

Our hotel in Niagra (Quality Inn & Suites) was probably the worst we’ve had so far on Contiki – very motel-like and budget. Our power went out twice and the shower wasn’t the cleanest. The beds were nice and really comfy though.

Tonight we had an optional dinner at Elements on the Falls – everyone signed up and it was so good. Our view from the table was amazing and the food was also really good! I had the salmon and a strawberry daiquiri – so yum!

    

We got a group shot by the falls which was really good too!

After dinner, we hit up an outdoor karaoke bar. It was so much fun! Some people went a bit crazy but it was awesome.

I headed back to the hotel early-ish (around midnight) cos I was pretty tired and we had to be up early the next day for our helicopter ride over the falls!