Yesterday morning, my last full day in Niagara Falls, Ontario, arrived. After a busy schedule the day before, including a wonderful presentation at the Imax Theater, I met the Great Falls on a Traveling Over Waterfalls and an entertainment show in Oh Canada E? Dinner Theater, I prepared for another full exploration at Niagara Falls.
I had already started the day when Kevin Kilpatrick, a gourmet chef and co-owner of Kilpatrick Manor, prepared an absolutely delicious breakfast for me: after a delicious fresh fruit dish with yogurt and freshly baked banana bread, I feasted on ravioli breakfast, "one of the unique culinary solutions Kevin. In this light but tasty breakfast dish there are scrambled eggs, bacon and old cheddar cheese surrounded by thinly spread pasta and homemade tomato sauce with garlic, white wine and leek. Kevin, with his outgoing and outgoing manner, sat down it made me entertain myself with stories about his international hospitality events in France, when he and his wife Nance ran a big chalet in the French Alps.
After this great start, I rushed to return my rental back to Budget Rent-A-Car, since my husband came from Toronto to join me in Niagara Falls. Although I drove a total of 78 kilometers in two days, my little Toyota Yaris really helped me get around Niagara Falls at a reasonable price.
On this sunny, but very cold day, we started with a pleasant walk at the foot of Clifton Hill, walking west along Niagara Boulevard towards the Canadian waterfall Horshekho. The brilliant blue sky flooded the Niagara River with a bright light, and some iron railways near the path were covered with sparkling ice formations from the mist formed by Horseshoe Falls. Dozens of other tourists also took a day walk and took pictures of their friends and relatives against the backdrop of the mighty Niagara Falls.
Our real destination today was the area of Clifton Hill - the main tourist promenade of Niagara Fall. Clifton Hill, a street that stretches from Niagara Boulevard near the Niagara River to Victoria Avenue on top of a hill and has dozens of restaurants, souvenir shops, fast food outlets, hotels and various attractions, such as haunted houses, wax museums and other tourist entertainment. This popular tourist trap is often packed in gills with people strolling up and down, soaking up in the noisy carnival atmosphere of this area.
Clifton Hill has a long history as an entertainment zone: hotels have existed since the late 1800s. During the 1920s, the area became a popular tourist destination, and several additional hotels and tourist camps were built nearby over the next several decades. Since the 1960s, several museums have been built, including the Houdini Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Wax Museum, the Frankenstein House, the Guinness World Records Museum, Ripley, Believe It or Not and some others.
We decided to make our first stop at Niagara SkyWheel, the newly built giant observation wheel, from which 42 climate controlled gondolas provide a wonderful view of all the main attractions of Niagara Falls. During the 10-minute ride on this 53-meter ferris wheel, we had a magnificent view of the Canadian and American Falls, as well as all the other sights and residential areas of Niagara Falls. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for this experience, and our 360-degree panoramic view extends for miles.
Due to the brisk weather, we decided to go inside and went to the Guinness World Records Museum. Previously, it was called the Guinness Book of Records, this institute has a colorful history: the managing director of the famous Guinness brewery in Ireland accidentally asked himself at a hunting party in 1951, which bird was faster - a caper sack or a golden plow? Unable to find the answer to this question in reference books, he decided that there should be thousands of other questions that could not be resolved through consultation with the reference book and decided to create a book to answer these questions.
The book became an unexpected hit, and the historically updated version with new records was published on an annual basis and turned from a text book into a colorful, richly illustrated publication. In recent years, some small museums have been created in places such as Tokyo, San Francisco, Hollywood, Atlantic City, Myrtle Beach and Copenhagen to demonstrate worthy and sometimes strange world records. Niagara Falls has photographs and descriptions of many examples of world records, including such rarities as the tallest man in the world and the smallest woman in the world.
We explored many interactive exhibits, which present world records in the fields of entertainment, art, literature and sports. Natural disasters and scientific advances are also covered. Some of the records on the display really scare the mind, and this makes you wonder who has the time to come up with some of these rather unusual ideas for world records, and who may have time to carry out these ideas. Images of record holders, such as a man with long ear hair (4 inches!) Were a bit scary, to be honest.
Our next destination also showed uneven human holidays: “Rilli believe or not!” Built to see how the ruined Empire State Building collapsed with King Kong at the top, is a real collection of human oddities. Robert Leroy Ripley (1893 to 1949) was a cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist, whose series of newspaper panels featured strange but reliable facts from all over the world. Ripley traveled a lot and became a collector of unusual items from a variety of exotic places around the world. Since 1929, Robert Ripley has fascinated readers of seventeen national newspapers with his Believe it or Not series of newspaper panels. In the midst of his popularity, he was told that they had received more letters than the American president. Ripley became a real media giant of his time and expanded to radio and early television until his death from a heart attack in 1949.
In Niagara Falls, Ripley is believed or not! we continued our study of strange and exotic things and were immediately met by the three-dimensional sculpture of the largest woman in the world. True oddities, such as vampire killing kits, a collection of creepy, but ridiculous tombstones, double-headed pigs and a variety of optical illusions in full size, brought us to the country surrealistic and bizarre. To unify the collection of oddities, Ripley also runs the Magic Theater and wax figures of Louis Tussauds in Niagara Falls.
After these strange and unusual studies, we decided to return to our cozy bed and breakfast, Kilpatrick Manor B & B. Cooled to the bone, we decided to relax on a comfortable double bed, turn on the fireplace, watch a bit on the TV and warm up under soft cotton covers. A luxurious shower in a multi-jet neptune shower helped warm up my frozen bones. Now I understood what the owner Kevin Kilpatrick was talking about when he told me that guests simply love to “nest” around their bed and breakfast. It was a really comfortable relaxing atmosphere that prepared us for our last evening at Niagara Falls.
We decided to have dinner at the Frontier Grillhouse, which is located next to the Best Western Fireside Hotel with a beautiful view of the Niagara River. This modern, casual restaurant has an extensive menu with a variety of fresh breakfast items or breakfast you can eat. The dinner menu has a large selection of appetizers, soups and salads, as well as a wide selection of grilled dishes, including the main rib, a striptease in New York, Mignon fillet, t-bone steaks. Pasta, seafood and desserts complete the offer on the Frontier Boundary terrace. I liked my hot French onion soup and garlic escort with roasted mozzarella, while my husband treated Fettukin Alfredo’s very generous plate. We could not add dessert, even if we wanted.
We could rest even longer at the Frontier Grillhouse, but another adventure awaited us: some gambling at the casino Fallsview Casino. Niagara Falls has long been a popular place for gambling. On the Ontario side there are two large casinos: Casino Niagara, located in the area of Clifton Hill, and the recently opened resort Fallsview Casino, which has since attracted players. Since we have already studied Clifton Hill, we decided to visit the casino Fallsview, which is an impressive hotel, shopping, gaming and entertainment complex, located on a hill with a stunning view of the majestic Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
The whole complex is amazing - a gaming floor of 100,000 square meters. Feet that impresses even the most experienced casino viewer. Since this was our first time here, and yet one of us is a regular casino, we were amazed at the seemingly endless gaming floor, which has 3,000 slot machines and 150 board games. Lights are flashing everywhere, and the sounds of slot machines fill the air. My husband is a rather talented hobby poker player, and he checked out an amazing array of board games, including such poker games like Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud. Other board games include Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and Spanish 21, as well as more exotic varieties, such as the ancient Chinese game Sic Bo for playing dice, Pai Gow Tiles - the Chinese version of dominoes and Pai Gow Poker, which combines elements of Asian Pai Gow and Western-style poker.
I decided to just watch the action and sit back when my husband tried his hand at various types of poker. Lady Luck beamed on him for some time, but as the evening progressed, he returned all his victories and lost some money. But I could see from his face that he fully enjoyed and spent a wonderful evening. We decided to come back to Niagara Falls again, and the next time we were going to attract my mother-in-law, who loves to love to play slots from time to time.
Superb tired of a full night of entertainment, we went back to our cozy B & B and just fell into bed for a good night’s sleep. We have to leave this morning, but before we left we enjoyed another tasty breakfast at B & B Kilpatrick's estate. Chef Kevin made absolutely delicious strawberry crepe with Grand Marnier sauce (absolutely heavenly!) While my husband enjoyed Kevin “to the full fire ”, which presents eggs of any style, bacon, sausage, potatoes and toast.
We regretted having to leave Niagara Falls, but unfortunately our adventures continued with a trip to Buffalo and a subsequent flight from Buffalo for a quick tropical walk to Puerto Rico. But this three-day adventure at Niagara Falls was a great winter entertainment from the city. As my tightly packed schedule at Niagara Falls, I just scratched the surface of things to see and do, and I plan to return some time in the summer to see some of the outdoor activities that Niagara Falls and the surrounding region can offer.
