Trip to Niagara Falls -- Sep 2000
Barely 2 days since I had landed into US, had I got the message that our colleagues are arranging for a trip to Niagara Falls. I got excited and immediately agreed to join the party. When the dates for the trip were announced, my anxiety started increasing as we were approaching Sept 22nd, 2000. Yes, the date we were scheduled to depart towards Niagara Falls. Come Sept 22nd, I was astonished to see that there was big group of 28 people in the party. We got ourselves into 4 SUVs and started the trip at 7 pm on Friday. I had 4 of my colleagues and 2 of our friends in the van along with me. Slowly and steadily we merged into the interstate highways and the van started zooming away.
It was a great experience to travel on the highways with tall trees on both sides of the road. I was astonished by seeing the huge width of the road, when compared to our great Indian roads.
We took our first break at around 10 pm at a service station on the highway. These service stations have a fuel filling station as well as hotels to refresh and relax. I felt as if I will be frozen as soon as I got down from the van. It was so cold. Then I took my jacket and went inside MacD to have dinner. After finishing off the dinner we started our next leg of journey at around 10.45 pm. Excepting the guy who was driving the van and one more guy who was sitting beside him, all of us started sleeping. At around 2.30 am we reached our staying place. It was on a highway and inside Buffalo district. We got our rooms and went to bed.
The next morning we were shocked to see that it was raining heavily. We got worried as to how r we going to go to Niagara. Luckily by 9 am, the rain got stopped and we started off. We reached Niagara at around 11 am. The first ride we entered was the "Maid of the mist". --the cruise which took us near the falls. We came down to the cruise boarding point from a height of nearly 200 feet in an elevator. That was a thrilling experience. Then as we started off on the journey in the cruise we started feeling the chillness.
We were given a special rain coat to protect us from the water. Gradually the boat was taking was towards the Canadian falls, which is the "Horse-shoe falls"(the one which most of us would have seen in photos.). I got stunned by seeing the falls from the river.
It was like a huge chunk of water being drained into the river at awesome speed. I got drenched completely, but it was great fun to see such a falls. It was dreams come true.
Then, we moved onto the next ride, "Cave of the winds". This ride took us down to the tip of the American falls in an elevator. Earlier we were given thicker rain coats and a special pair of shoes. Once we wore them everyone was looking like Eskimo or Mickey Mouse. Once we were out of the elevator we started walking in the wooden steps that lead us towards the falls. As we were nearing the falls we were able to feel the chill water splashing on us. So it was next round of drenching. This was like standing under Courtallam falls (in TN), but the American falls was finer. This was more thrilling than the earlier one. Once we were out of this we started roaming around the park and visited some more places and giving tight work to our cameras. Then, we started waiting for the lightshow.
They started the show at 8.15 pm only. It was literally freezing. But once the lights were up, we were able to feel the worthiness of our patient wait. It was ultimate. Sorry that I don’t have enough words to explain that experience. It was good to see the falls under lights. Gradually the colors of the lights were also changed. It was like seeing brindavan of Mysore, but the specialty in this was that they had lighted a natural falls. After 30 mins we started moving towards our hotel with all heart full of memories of the falls. I felt myself to be really lucky enough to have gone to Niagara within 10 days of my stay into US.
The next day we went to Watkins Glenn Park, which is a nature created one. It was a good trekking experience. We took photos there also. We started off on our journey back home by 3 pm from that park and reached home at around 10 pm.
The whole trip was really fantastic, though we had rain and chillness.
Thanks for patiently going thru my travel experience. I will keep sharing such wonderful experiences.
Vijay
Barely 2 days since I had landed into US, had I got the message that our colleagues are arranging for a trip to Niagara Falls. I got excited and immediately agreed to join the party. When the dates for the trip were announced, my anxiety started increasing as we were approaching Sept 22nd, 2000. Yes, the date we were scheduled to depart towards Niagara Falls. Come Sept 22nd, I was astonished to see that there was big group of 28 people in the party. We got ourselves into 4 SUVs and started the trip at 7 pm on Friday. I had 4 of my colleagues and 2 of our friends in the van along with me. Slowly and steadily we merged into the interstate highways and the van started zooming away.
It was a great experience to travel on the highways with tall trees on both sides of the road. I was astonished by seeing the huge width of the road, when compared to our great Indian roads.
We took our first break at around 10 pm at a service station on the highway. These service stations have a fuel filling station as well as hotels to refresh and relax. I felt as if I will be frozen as soon as I got down from the van. It was so cold. Then I took my jacket and went inside MacD to have dinner. After finishing off the dinner we started our next leg of journey at around 10.45 pm. Excepting the guy who was driving the van and one more guy who was sitting beside him, all of us started sleeping. At around 2.30 am we reached our staying place. It was on a highway and inside Buffalo district. We got our rooms and went to bed.
The next morning we were shocked to see that it was raining heavily. We got worried as to how r we going to go to Niagara. Luckily by 9 am, the rain got stopped and we started off. We reached Niagara at around 11 am. The first ride we entered was the "Maid of the mist". --the cruise which took us near the falls. We came down to the cruise boarding point from a height of nearly 200 feet in an elevator. That was a thrilling experience. Then as we started off on the journey in the cruise we started feeling the chillness.
We were given a special rain coat to protect us from the water. Gradually the boat was taking was towards the Canadian falls, which is the "Horse-shoe falls"(the one which most of us would have seen in photos.). I got stunned by seeing the falls from the river.
It was like a huge chunk of water being drained into the river at awesome speed. I got drenched completely, but it was great fun to see such a falls. It was dreams come true.
Then, we moved onto the next ride, "Cave of the winds". This ride took us down to the tip of the American falls in an elevator. Earlier we were given thicker rain coats and a special pair of shoes. Once we wore them everyone was looking like Eskimo or Mickey Mouse. Once we were out of the elevator we started walking in the wooden steps that lead us towards the falls. As we were nearing the falls we were able to feel the chill water splashing on us. So it was next round of drenching. This was like standing under Courtallam falls (in TN), but the American falls was finer. This was more thrilling than the earlier one. Once we were out of this we started roaming around the park and visited some more places and giving tight work to our cameras. Then, we started waiting for the lightshow.
They started the show at 8.15 pm only. It was literally freezing. But once the lights were up, we were able to feel the worthiness of our patient wait. It was ultimate. Sorry that I don’t have enough words to explain that experience. It was good to see the falls under lights. Gradually the colors of the lights were also changed. It was like seeing brindavan of Mysore, but the specialty in this was that they had lighted a natural falls. After 30 mins we started moving towards our hotel with all heart full of memories of the falls. I felt myself to be really lucky enough to have gone to Niagara within 10 days of my stay into US.
The next day we went to Watkins Glenn Park, which is a nature created one. It was a good trekking experience. We took photos there also. We started off on our journey back home by 3 pm from that park and reached home at around 10 pm.
The whole trip was really fantastic, though we had rain and chillness.
Thanks for patiently going thru my travel experience. I will keep sharing such wonderful experiences.
Vijay
