Buffalo and Beyond

Its our last day in New York and this morning we packed up, checked out of the hotel and headed out for one last day of adventure. Our first order of business was to find a letterbox which took us on a beautiful drive (avoiding interstates) along NY5 following the shore of Lake Erie.

You can read about that at One Last Box in New York. During the drive to Dunkirk for the letterbox we stopped in at a Tim Hortons for a coffee and snack (we had to do it - we saw Tim Hortons almost every day of our trip and we couldn't fly home without stopping at one). After finding the letterbox we retraced our drive back toward Buffalo. We stopped along the way to take pictures of the lake and we stopped at Evangola State Park. This is a beautiful park with a beach along Lake Erie. We took a little walk around the park and along the beach, took some pictures and relaxed on a bench enjoying the views of the beach and the lake. I am so glad we took the time to stop here. After about 40 minutes we shuffled off to Buffalo.

Once in the city we headed for the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.

When you turn into ground of the gardens you are greeted with an amazing view of a beautiful Conservatory. We parked and entered the building from the front. We paid our fees and then took a self guided tour or all the houses in the Conservatory.
There are 12 houses, each with a different theme. We got to walk through all of them except one - it was being remodeled and was closed. Once we made it through all the indoor gardens we then went outside and walked through those gardens. This is a beautiful place and we enjoyed our visit. We decided to leave our car in the lot at the gardens and walk down the road to visit Our Lady of Victory Basilica. We first walked around the interior and took pictures and then we walked around the exterior and took pictures. A very beautiful building both inside and out - just incredible. We then walked back to the car and headed to one last stop.
We drove to Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. Once we parked and made our way inside we paid our fee, I got the Passport Stamps and bought some postcards. Then we went on a guided tour of the house and learned some very interesting facts about Teddy. It was a very enjoyable visit. After the tour we decided to call it a day and head for our hotel.

Our hotel for tonight is right at the airport. We fly our at 6:00am and I didn't want to drive from Niagara Falls or Buffalo so I made reservations close to the airport - like right across the street. Once we found the hotel we decided to grab some dinner and then fill the car with gas so it would be ready to bring back in the morning. Then we checked into the hotel, showered and then got things packed for the trip home. Now time to get to sleep - it will be an early morning and a long day tomorrow.

A Vacation Centering Around Niagara Falls

For the last three months Thomas and I have been planning a trip. It took a while for us to decide on where to go but we finally made a decision and we are headed to Niagara Falls and Toronto. Actually, it is more than that but we will get to that later.

Our day started at 3:30am when the alarm sounded and we pulled ourselves out of bed. Once showered and dressed we loaded the car and our vacation began. The flight was at 6:15am and we had no problems parking, checking in and getting through security. We only had a short wait until we boarded the plane for the first leg of our flight. We flew Delta for this trip and we have used them for our trips to Italy and France --- I am really liking flying with them so far. Thomas and I were both tired so we ended up sleeping the entire flight from Albuquerque to Atlanta which made for a quick little jaunt. Once in Atlanta we had to change terminals and once we were in the right area for the last part of our flight we decided to get something to eat. I wanted to find a restaurant where we could sit and relax and ended up at Café Intermezzo. We had a nice lunch and then walked over to our gate to wait for the next part of the flight. We read the news on our iPads, did a little reading on the kindles and walked around a bit. Finally we boarded for our flight to Buffalo. During this flight we read, watched some TV and played games. It was a quick flight and once we landed I was glad to be done with airports and airplanes. We got our bags and made our way to the rental car area. It took about 40 minutes to get our car and finally we were on our way to Canada. We plugged in the address to our hotel in Toronto and started driving. Our route took us to Niagara Falls, NY and from there we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Once in Canada it took us about an hour and a half to reach the hotel. We are staying at The Beverly Hotel in downtown Toronto on Queen Street. We got checked in and then decided to go out to find something for dinner. We walked along Queen St. and finally decided on Café Crepe. After a quick dinner we walked back to the hotel, took showers and we are now relaxing. Plans have been made for tomorrow for our full day in Toronto.