Day 34: Ottawa to Niagara Falls

Well... Brown Car got a good workout today. It was a bit of a drive from Ottawa to Niagara Falls, somewhere around 375 miles. That should have taken us about 5 1/2 hours not including a lunch stop. We drove for 8 hours. Yeah, traffic kind of blew today. and driving in Canada is definitely a bit different than driving in the states. These Canadians take the passing lane seriously and will ride your butt like there’s no tomorrow if you aren’t going at least 15-20km over the speed limits mit in that all important left lane. Lots of zooming about, in and out of traffic, constant lane switching. Makes for a bit more of a tedious drive. We got to drive all the way around Lake Ontario today. It’s a REALLY big lake. Contact let’s with white caps and probably tides and glimpses of it looking like the ocean because you couldn’t see any shores.

But... we did finally make it to Niagara Falls. We are staying in the Canadian side this time. When Mike and I came here nearly 21 years ago we stayed on the American side and just walked across to the Canadian side for a bit. If you aren’t aware, the American side is a state park, the Canadian side is, well, the exact opposite. Casinos and lights and all things HUGE and IN YOUR FACE and LOUD and AAAAAAAHHHHHH! So, why exactly are we staying on this side? Actually, better access to food and places to stay. It’s so busy we can just park Brown Car in the hotel lot for the duration of our stay here and walk everywhere, including across up the American side. If we stayed across the river we would have to drive to the park. The town cover ther is a bit more industrial, not as many amenities.

Funny thing is though, this Canadian side feels so much like the worst parts of America (Vegas...) Everything screams loud obnoxious AMERICANS. It’s particularly noticeable since we just spent the last 8 days in Canada loving absolutely all of it, enjoying the peace and calm, even in big, busy Montreal. So, Canada, we’ll forgive you this one loud part of your beautiful country. You do, afterall, have the bigger more impressive Horeshoe Falls on your side.

And, most importantly we’re here to see the falls and ride the Maid in the Mist and walk down to the hurricane bridge overlook. Looking forward to being mildly freaked out by the shear awesome power of all thatvwater tomorrow.

I forgot to mention... Alex was the navigator for the first half of our drive today. Mike is teaching the boys all of his great skills in that role. Ben will take his turn up front in a couple of days.