Niagara Falls and Toronto

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This recap of our weekend in Canada is brought to you by Noah, photos and captions by Ilene!

 We took an early-ish flight from LGA to YZA and landed early in Toronto around 10am (easy less than 1 hour flight from NYC), rented a car and drove straight to Niagara Falls. We arrived by lunchtime and walked right down towards the falls and ate lunch at Queen Victoria Falls Restaurant, sitting on the terrace enjoying the weather and the views.
The stunning view from our room at the Sheraton Niagara Falls (Canadian side)
After lunch we walked along the river to explore the views of the falls and took a Hornblower Cruise INTO the falls—which was really a lot of fun! There wasn't any line on a Friday afternoon in late September so it was easy to buy tickets and hop on the next boat. 

Luckily, ponchos are provided on the Hornblower Cruises—we got soaked!

For dinner we enjoyed a three course tasting menu at AG Inspired Cuisine which turned out to be a good deal for the quality of the food. There aren't many restaurants in Niagara that aren't big touristy chains, so this was a nice find.

Rainbows are commonplace by the falls, but it felt spectacular to us! There goes another cruise, Maid of the Mist, heading into the falls.
The next morning we had breakfast at iHop (we noticed at least 4 iHops in the area) which definitely had the "tourist premium", then drove across to the American side. We were lucky to park the car near the Cave of the Winds entrance (I think we were near to the last car to be able to park there, the lot fills up early), and walked around from there. We skipped actually walking through the Cave of the Winds attraction as the line was already long by 10:30 or so on a Saturday morning. There was still plenty to see, and we spent about 1.5 hours wandering around the paths on the American side before getting back into the car and driving back into Toronto.

The CN Tower from below

Beautiful views from the top of the CN Tower

 Highlights from our two nights in Toronto were traveling to the top of the CN Tower, dinner at The Drake Hotel, Bang Bang Ice Cream (miso mon cheri was incredible), Assembly Chef's Hall (particularly the vegetarian ramen at Ramen Isshin and tacos from Colibrí), the lunch special at Thai Basil, and the greasy pub food at the Hair of the Dog Pub which was recommended by a friend. 
Poutine and other pub indulgences at Hair of the Dog Pub

Goodbye, cruel world!






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