Canada Day in Niagara Falls, ON

Gord and I took the train to Niagara Falls today to spend Canada Day. It was a great day ... the weather was perfect!

The train got in around noon. The station is about 30 minutes walk from the Falls.

The line-up of cars to get across theRainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, NY

Around noon, cars were barely moving to get across the
Rainbow Bridge to the States.  About 2:30, cars were
whipping across to get into the States but 
barely moving to get into Canada

Soccer fever had hit Niagara Falls!
Here's the street patio of the Hard Rock Cafe
where they had two TVs. There's Gord watching the
end of the England/Portugal game

The American Falls

The Canadian Falls

Gord and I with the Canadian Falls behind us

Gord in front of the Canadian Falls

Me in front of the Canadian Falls

There didn't seem to be many people at the Falls, which we found strange. When we walked up to Clifton Hill for supper, we discovered why ... that's where everyone was! The street was packed!!! There were 30 minute line-ups at the restaurants so we headed towards the Fallsview Casino (it was going to be our last stop before we headed home) and ate at Hooters. Not the healthiest choice but by then we were hungry and cranky and there was no line-up.

At the casino, we played roulette. I'm not much of a gambler and find the slot machines boring. Roulette is Gord's favorite game and he's taught me how to play so that's where we headed. There was a $15 minimum bet and my number is always 26 (Gord's is 32). I was prepared to lose $105 ... I ended up losing $205! Gord, on the other hand, was hot. He was prepared to lose $150 but came away with $566! Whoohoo! I can see why people get addicted to gambling because I was tempted to pull out another $100 to keep playing. But I didn't, which was good because I would have lost it anyway.

Time to head back to the train station to catch our 9:20 train. We expected there to be a line-up of taxis but there were none. Plus traffic was crazy because of Canada Day festivities. We finally got a taxi at 9:12. The cabby got us to the train station at 9:20 ... just in time to see the red tail lights of the train rounding the corner heading for home. No more trains 'til tomorrow.

We crossed the street to the bus station and asked for tickets for Toronto. We mentioned that we had just missed our train and the guy said they would honour our tickets. Whoohoo! The bus was boarding so we got in line. But then the bus ran out of seats so left ... with us and 20 others still standing there. When's the next bus coming? Could be five minutes, could be a couple hours. Traffic was crazy and the bus that had just left was running two hours behind. Another one was stuck at the border in Fort Erie. There was another one missing. Plus no guarantee that there would be empty seats. Amazingly the next bus pulled in within ten minutes and we got on it. We ended up getting home 1.5 hours later than we would have on the train but at least we got home. Yay!!