Sunday, August 23, 2015

A room with a view

The first leg of our journey home was the easier one - Michigan to Niagara Falls - approximately 230 miles.

8.23a
(When I think of this trip, I'll always remember Carebear (aka Catie, real name Catherine.)  She's only 8 months old but she can talk.  Oh, can she talk.  The letter S is a tough one for her though.  She begins every conversation with "Accue me" which is baby bear speak for 'excuse me.'  Carebear and Biggie were having some sort of disagreement somewhere in Canada and Grammy commented that she doesn't know why the girls are mean when they are role playing.  Anna's response - "Well, Allie's bear is being kind of annoying.")

8.23b

8.23c

We left about ten minutes before 9:00 that morning, stopped once for lunch and bathrooms and arrived at Niagara Falls (yes, the Canadian side) at 1:45.  I don't think I've ever had as much trouble deciding upon a hotel as I did for that overnight stay.  There were just too many options.  My usual vacation planning routine is to check out ratings on tripadvisor and after weeding out the too expensive options, it's pretty easy to find a hotel or two that fits what we are looking for.  We knew we wanted a view of the falls and I ultimately decided to go with the Radisson.  I was texting the info to Rich when I came across room view pictures taken by guests on tripadvisor.  Very handy feature to have as we all know the hotel photos are going to be shown from the most favorable perspective.  The guest pictures showed the Horseshoe Falls but the view immediately after was blocked by another building.  I pulled up a map and found out that the building I was seeing in the photos was the Marriott Fallsview.  Rooms at the Marriott facing the falls on the lower level floors are less expensive but by the time we made our reservation, all of those rooms were booked so we went with the superior view.

We were all pretty happy with this Marriott - views, location, service, etc.  Our only complaint comes from the thin walls and noise, which I almost expect in hotels now.  The guests next to us showered as we were going to bed and it sounded like they were showering in our room.  Plus, guests were coming and going so there was the noise from the hallway. I really don't care that you're going to have to order the $10 appetizer from room service.  Oh, another thing to keep in mind is that most hotels in that area, as with all hotels in tourist spots, charge extra for parking and wi-fi.

On the positive side, we arrived at the hotel well before the check-in time and were pleasantly surprised to find that our rooms were ready and even though Rich had forgotten to request connecting rooms (we had two rooms for the six of us), they had connected the rooms anyway.

I want to start with the best room view picture but note that this wasn't taken until later in the day.

8.23d
17th floor!

When we first arrived in our rooms, it was overcast and a bit grey.  Because we were only going to be there for one night, I kept hoping it wouldn't rain.  Thankfully, it cleared!

8.23e
Almost looks like a b&w.

8.23f
Starting to clear up.

After getting settled in our rooms, we obviously headed out to view the falls.  What else would one do?  The visitor center was right down below our room and we could see a walkway coming out of the back of our hotel, going over the street below.  This lead to the Falls Incline Railway, which I thought was a bit pricey.  Can someone please put in some stairs?  We were told that this was the only way down to the falls but that wasn't exactly true.  We could have walked down a road that eventually meets up with the road running parallel to the river.  Kind of a moot point as all of that walking would have been tough for Anna.  Falls Incline Railway it was.

8.23g

~More to come~

2 comments:

MF said...

Clifton Hill, that's the name of the street you can walk down. But in the summer it's crazy busy, and a somewhat steep hill. Would've been hard for Anna, and tiring for all. List of things to do one that street though, if you ever find yourself back this way!

Bree at Clarity Defined said...

What a view!!