Niagara Falls – Nature at its best..

“Have you guys been to Niagara yet?” This question haunted me from the time I came to New York.
It was as if Niagara is THE place to be, and you have wasted your time in US if you haven’t been there.
Another one of the over hyped places. I thought to myself... We have plenty of falls back home but nobody raves about them!

Anyway, we were sitting at a friend’s place and were planning to go out on some weekend... The obvious place was Niagara.
After a month long preparation of renting of the car, booking a decent hotel near the falls and getting the tickets to various rides there we finally set off for THE NIAGARA.
It is a 7 hour drive from New York. With 3 people having Driving License, the drive was quite comfortable.
We reached ‘Days Inn’ at around 11:30 pm. The hotel is at a very convenient location and falls are at a distance of just 10 minutes walk.

Next morning, all fresh and excited, we left for the falls. I was expecting an ethnic mix of crowd but all I could see were people from India (or maybe I was noticing them more!)
Lots of places mentioning specifically ‘Indian cuisine’ caught my sight.

We crossed the road and reached the park. Right there in front of us was the mighty falls. I just couldn’t take my eyes off it… It’s so mesmerizing.
The huge crowd gathered to see the falls dissolves in front of it. All you can see and feel is the endless fall, the gentle cool breeze, mist all around, droplets of water splashing on your face... this could only be heaven.

After spending some time there we went towards the queue for “maid of the mist” boat ride. The journey began at the bottom of the Observation tower, where we were provided with a souvenir rain poncho. We wore it and got on to the boat… all around we could see people in blue colored ‘made in china’ ponchos. We secured our place where we thought we could get the best view of the falls.
The boat ride began… it took us to the base of falls through the crashing waters and massive rock formations. We all could experience the power and intensity of the falls.
It was an experience I never had before. There we were standing in the midst of the roaring fall. Hadn’t heard a roar so pleasing to our ears!!
The entire area was covered by mist and the demarcation between the fall and the sky was almost invisible. It’s said that if the sky is clear and sunny, a rainbow is seen at the top of the fall... Something we missed that day.
Nothing can be better than this… Nature at its best... was all we were talking among ourselves.

Well, the next ride was even better! ‘Cave of the winds’ is what it is called. We were again given yellow colored ponchos and this time footwear too. There were wooden walkways which took us closer to the falls than we could ever imagine. It was good fun climbing the stairs with water splashing all over us. And finally we reached the top which is called the hurricane deck.
We probably spent a couple of seconds at the hurricane deck, but lots of people kept going there again and again. Apparently standing beneath the falls and touching the rock on that back of the falls is a huge adrenaline rush. It’s something you have to really experience to appreciate.

Completely soaked by then, we went to the park to get some sun and dry ourselves up.
It was a lot of adventure for the day, so we preferred to relax for the rest of the time. Couple of hours later we came out and spent some time watching a rock concert happening just next to our hotel.
Tempted to see the falls again, we went back to the park to have a glimpse of the falls at night. The falls were lit in the colors of rainbow- It seemed magical! And then to our surprise fireworks started at around 10:00 pm. Gods must be really happy with us!!

It was a long day, but a truly fulfilling one.

Next day we went to the Discovery centre and an aquarium. There were a couple of places we had to miss due to lack of time.

Post lunch we headed on our way back to New York… back to the usual routine life… with a smile on our faces… beauty of the falls still lingering in all our minds!!

Yesterday I met a friend of mine and no prizes for guessing the first question I asked her … ‘Hey have you guys been to the Niagara yet??’