Niagara Falls!

When planning the route for our road trip I saw that visiting Niagara Falls would only add about an hour to the day's driving. That is not much when it comes to seeing such an iconic place! I mean, look at this...

at first I was a little disappointed. When you walk up it becomes clear that the better view is on the Canadian side. You can really only get a side view from the railing. Of course, they make you pay for a better view! Only a dollar, and it's worth it.

Also, what the heck is up with smashed pennies being a dollar at national parks! Of course I got one, but I complained about it! That is such a rip off!

Here is a shot from the 1 dollar viewing platform! I mean...it really is so spectacular!

When doing my research I kept saying we weren't going to ride the Maid of the Mist because it seemed expensive, but once we got there it seemed a little anti-climactic to not take a ride down to the falls.

So of course we bought tickets.

It's pretty cute. There is a boat ride on the Canadian side too, but you get red ponchos.

As part of your admission you get these stunning souviner ponchos. I almost kept mine, but Travis convinced me I would probably never use it.

They much for a pretty cute selfie though.

I really think the boat ride is worth it. Even though it is FREEZING. Look!

Once you get to Horsehoe Falls they sit the boat there for a few minutes and let you take it in. It was too misty to get my camera out, so here is an iphone shot. I couldn't see ANYTHING because of the spray on my glasses, so I took them off and got freezing cold spray in my eyes! Haha, it was pretty thrilling being down there with your poncho whipping around! Beautiful.

On the way back to the dock you feel a little like you've been through the ringer. That big tower has the viewing platform on it. You take elevators up from the boats and they are super heated. It feels so good! Someone needs to have a hair dryer/straightener stand for when you get off the boat. My bangs looked crazy!

You can walk up these steps to get close to the falls. I was too cold, but Travis ran up there. See him waving?

My favorite thing in the gift shop were these socks! Too bad they only had them in kid sizes.

And what could be more spectacular than Niagara Falls? Why this beautiful ice cream stand, just minutes from the park entrance! Breathtaking!

We had a hard time finding a place to eat, and ended up at Merge in Buffalo.

The food was ok, but it was SO EXPENSIVE! I got vegan potato skins, and this was them. Those potatoes were a little bigger than a quarter and it was ten dollars! We were cracking up about how little food we got for $50. We ended up stopping for fries later because we were still starving! Boo Merge!

We drove a few more hours to our final stop. Cleveland!

The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum

On our way to Niagara we stopped in nearby Tonawanda at the Herschell Carousel Factory Museum. When I saw this place on Roadside America, it was a no-brainer!

I loved this room full of beautiful hand carved carousel animals. I especially like how they decorated them for Halloween.

Can I get a copy of this framed for my house? I thought the gift shop would be awesome but it didn't have anything that interested me. I wish they had postcards of the vintage carousel images!

Look at the witch wig! It cracked me up!

They had huge blown up photos of the factory through the years. So cool!

In the workshop they had horses in various stages of the carving process. Apprentices would carve the bodies and legs, and they master carvers would do the heads.

They have a huge collection of Wurlitzer music rolls and machines. They were so cool! I like the ones that have horns and drums attached. Their two carousels have Wurlitzer music, magical!

And lets talk about this photo! I LOVE IT! I want it blown up to wall size for my guest room! Look at that kid in the front with the cowboy hat! They had a little display of rides other than carousels and the Little Dipper was part of that.

Of course part of the tour is riding on one of their carousels!

You get a ride included in admission. And if you want more, I think they were 50 cents a piece. What a deal!

I picked this one to ride. 

We were the only two on the carousel and it was so fun! The old ones seem to go faster.

The carousel factory museum was a great little stop on our trip. I had planned to visit a kazoo factory too, sadly we didn't get to the town in time. Next time!

Beautiful Ithaca New York

Like I said, our friend's Carolyn and Rory offered us a luxurious air mattress to sleep on in their apartment in Ithaca. Not only was it fun to see them, they made us vegan pot pie for dinner! It was awesome! We listened to records and laughed and had an all around great night.
The next morning Carolyn showed us the way she walked to school at Cornell. Could this place be any more gorgeous?! I couldn't believe it!

 How lucky would you feel to walk this way to school? Or you can ride the bus if you aren't in the mood for the stairs.

 That's Rory in the red, and their beautiful Llewellin Setter. 

The whole town was adorable. Well, at least the parts we saw. We went on a walk to get coffee (chai for me!). It was a great morning.

 Look at this pretty girl! She makes me think of an extra glamourous Dalmatian. Bea is deaf, but is also a trained bird dog!

 On our way out town we had to stop by Taughannock Falls. Look at this place! It was surreal! I wish we had time to hike down to the bottom of the falls.

 Can you see the path down there? There were people standing on that little spit of land in front of the falls, but you can even see them in this photo because they were so tiny!

 One thing about Ithaca is that it isn't really near any big major roads. We had to take a scenic highway to get back on track, and I'm so grateful. We went along the Finger Lakes for a while and they were breathtaking. We kept looking for some kind of scenic overlook but never found one. Here you can kind of see how blue the water was. We saw a fox running in one of the fields! After several days of rain it was great to have such a beautiful day for the drive.

 After a few hours we were at our destination, Niagra Falls! You know I have a whole post on that coming up for you! But while in town we stopped to see this modern wonder. It is called the Second Coming House of the Prophet Isaiah. The man who lives here thinks the world is ending this year and this is his welcome center for the lord. Isn't in beautiful? It is so surreal in person.

 I couldn't get over how amazing this was. Look at all those layers and colors! When I read about it online it said that Isaiah has redone this house over and over. It is just stunning. I was hoping he would be there because it said he is very nice and likes to talk to people, but we missed him.