Our anniversary is always the most special day of the year for Robbie and I, so we try and get away each year, even if for an overnight. Last summer we wanted to get to Niagara Falls, but we realized that their boat tours were halted due to COVID, so we revisited the idea this spring, and their tours were back up and running! We thought that being in Niagara Falls for our anniversary was the perfect getaway! We also wanted to pair Niagara with another city, and we decided on Cleveland! We had only been there for an afternoon and saw it was a really great city, so we did an overnight there to start our trip!
There was a lady at the front door checking our tickets, and she noticed I was wearing a t-shirt with a musician on it. I told the lady it was Neil Diamond (I have been a huge fan of his since I was little -thanks mom- and Robbie got me his shirt for Christmas a few years ago and I thought this would be the best time to wear it). The lady then tells me that Neil Diamond had not been inducted to the HoF yet. I was pretty shocked because he has been, and still is, a great performer and his music spans decades. But, I wasn't going to let that disappointing news ruin the day.
The HoF had several rooms dedicated to the big RnR influencers like Elvis and The Beatles. These rooms had tons of memorabilia including guitars, set lists, original lyrics written on napkins, contracts, among other things. It was fascinating to get a peek into their careers behind the scenes.
One of my favorite rooms was the Superbowl Halftime Show room. This room hilighted the more popular halftime shows and National Anthem Singers. Performers like Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson had their own displays, as well as Anthem singers like Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross! Luther Vandross sang the National Anthem before Superbowl XXXI when the Packers beat the Patriots in 1998! He donated his Superbowl jacket and there was also a picture beside it. It was cool that the Packers were hilighted in this room too! This exhibit is ever-changing, and I found that out by the way that there was the Hall of mirrors that Bruno Mars used during the most recent Superbowl Halftime Show!
As we wandered into more rooms, other Rock n Rollers were hilighted, including my favorites like Prince, Elton John, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Cher, and more!
The last room in the exhibit was the Induction Room. This room had all the inductees since the inception of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Plaques lined the walls featuring all the inductees of that given year. As I'm walking along, I get to 2011's inductees, and guess who's there??!! None other than Neil Diamond!! I was so happy that he had been inducted, and to be honest, I was skeptical when that lady at the front door told me he wasn't in the Hall!
After we left the HoF we checked into our hotel, the Drury Plaza Downtown. We were introduced to the Drury brand when we visited Cincinnati for the first time to look for houses. Drury hotels offer a full hot breakfast, a full dinner menu that rotates each night, and a daily happy hour. And all this is packaged into the already reasonable room rate! Drury hotels are mainly a Midwestern brand, so whenever we go somewhere regionally, we look for those hotels first! Below is the view from our room at night!
We had a bunch of daylight left after we got settled, so we decided to walk to Progressive Field to see what there was to see! Progressive Field is home to the Cleveland Indians. They were on a roadtrip while we were there, but we walked around the stadium, and peeked in when we could. The Brewers visit Cleveland later this season, and you better believe we will go!
On our walk back, we ate at Shake Shack, a staple of ours when we lived on the strip in Vegas! It was just as good as we remembered!
On Friday we woke up and drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls! We were excited for the next few days! There were 2 ways to get there: take the freeway and pay tolls, or take the scenic route along Lake Erie. This was a no-brainer. The scenic route had several turnoffs where we could park and walk to see the lake. We did this once, and the views were gorgeous, even on an overcast rainy morning! The scenic route took about a half hour longer, but it was worth it! The rest of the drive we read about the history of Niagara Falls, and before we knew it, we were close!
As we approached the city, I knew we were almost there because of the mist I saw rising into the sky! If I didn't know where I was, I would've mistook it for smokestacks!
When we got to Niagara, we went right to the Falls, and parked at Terrapin Point, the closest lookout spot we could get to the Falls on the American side. I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw, or heard for that matter! Horseshoe Falls (the most famous) was beautiful and it took my breath away! The surge of water going over the edge and then bursting back up in the air was just something I've never experienced before! And the sound! It was LOUD! When technology advanced, engineers figured out a way to divert the water at certain times of the day, but I was certain that the Falls weren't diverting any water at this point! All I could do was just watch in awe! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Wow!
We then checked into our hotel, the Seneca Resort and Casino. When we made the reservation, we paid extra for a Falls View room, and they delivered! Even though we couldn't see the actual Falls, we sure were able to see the mist rising from it! It was a cool sight, and I couldn't peel my eyes away from it for a good while! Below are views throughout our stay:
After we ate dinner and when it turned to dusk, we went back to Horseshoe Falls to see it lit up at night, and boy were we glad we did! When we first got there, the Falls were illuminated red, then changed to blue and green! The nighttime view brought a different look to it, almost more serene and calmer than earlier when it seemed to be raging! Not only were Horseshoe Falls lit up, but so were American and Bridal Veil Falls, which I'll talk about more later. We stayed to watch the Falls at night for a good 45 minutes! It was so worth battling the cold!
Saturday was the big day, our anniversary! And our tours! When we confirmed that the boat tours were back up and running while we were planning this trip, we thought we just signed up for the Maid of the Mist tour, but it turned out we confirmed a whole excursion! This excursion included hotel pick up and drop off in a bus, transportation to several sights in Niagara, and our very own tour guide! This was a pleasant surprise because now we didn't have to drive everywhere, and we probably would go to places that we would never think of on our own! Our excursion didn't start until 12:30pm, so we had plenty of time to sleep in, get ready, and even order room service for breakfast, which was delicious!
We were picked up by a tour bus at 12:30 and headed off to our first destination, the Maid of the Mist!! I was so excited! Even though we already paid up front for the whole tour and all the tickets, we still had to wait in line to actually GET the tickets. It didn't take too long, and before we knew it, we were walking over a huge bridge, descending down to the river level, and getting our ponchos! Robbie had already been to Niagara Falls and did the Maid of the Mist, but he said he was already enjoying it more now as an adult, especially with his love of waterfalls!
While waiting in line, Robbie and I developed a strategy to do all we could to get an outer spot on the upper deck of the boat, and luckily we were able to secure just that! It was also a weird feeling as we were on the boat waiting to depart. We could see Canada from all vantage points, but because of COVID, the international borders are still closed so we couldn't get over there. When Robbie was in Niagara in high school, he stayed in the Canada side. Sadly I couldn't get over there, especially when I've heard from everyone that the views are much better from Canada. However, we were technically over international waters on our boat ride, so that counts for something!
The boat took off soon after we got on, and just to our left was American and Bridal Veil Falls! They were much smaller, but still beautiful and powerful!
After we departed the boat, we got back on the bus, and it transported us to and area under Bridal Veil Falls, called Cave of the Winds! We started by descending into the earth and then walking down a long tunnel. It really did feel like we were in a cave! We walked out to an elaborate deck that literally took us up into the Falls! It was totally awesome!
There was a point as we were ascending the deck that part of the waterfall created a second waterfall over the deck, and we had to go through it! I felt like a little kid again playing in the rain and jumping in puddles! Towards the end of that exhilarating experience, our tour guide advised us that there was a deck higher up called the Hurricane Deck. It wasn't open yet this early in the season, but I'm sure you get the idea of what you would experience up there, given the name! Robbie and I had so much fun prancing through this! Rain played a big part in the beginning of mine and Robbie's relationship, so it's fitting that we would spend our 11th anniversary in a version of rain! One of the other tour guides who was with our group joked that the Hurricane deck is how he showers and does his laundry! Haha! We learned that they have to take down and re-assemble the deck every year, otherwise the ice in the winter would ruin it all! The Cave of the Winds *almost* beat out the Maid of the Mist as the #1 attraction. Almost!
After Cave of the Winds, the tour took us to Terrapin Point, the area we were at the day before, just as we arrived into Niagara. Being we had already seen Horseshoe Falls from that vantage point, I walked down the trails the opposite way to the top of Bridal Veil and American Falls. This was a much more calm perspective than being IN these falls just a bit ago! The trails and water were satisfyingly serene! I had just enough time to hit up the gift shop before we were onto our next location!
Three Sisters Island was our last stop. Three Sisters Island was named for the three daughters of one of Naigara's earliest settlers, General Parkhurst Whitney. The islands were connected by a continuing bridge, and are located behind Horseshoe Falls maybe a quarter of a mile. It was such a quiet place, and I could've stayed here for quite some time! We could see the mist rising from Horseshoe Falls, with the Canada side in the background. At Three Sisters Island, there were small rapids heading towards the Falls, and we could tell that not too far away the waters really picked up speeding! It was a cool perspective!
The tour did continue from there, but we opted to head back to our hotel. It was nearly 5pm, and we had 7pm dinner reservations that we had to get ready for. The tour was an accidental yet excellent booking we made, and we got every cent out of it, and saw and did things we never would've been able to see or do in our own! I'd give our tour guide a C+ overall though. We knew more than he did about Niagara, and he could've used our downtime to give us a history lesson, but he was unusually quiet for a tour guide.
Our dinner reservations were at a steakhouse called Prime, and it was delicious. It had views of the river, but not of the Falls, which we were ok with. At dinner, we reminisced about our time at Niagara, our previous 10 anniversaries, and of course, our wedding day!
We were both tired when we got back to our hotel! I watched the Brewers win while Robbie read about tragedies that have happened at the Falls. That would be a big nope for me! I was also able to watch a beautiful sun set on our beautiful anniversary!
Sunday was our travel day back home. But first, we had a few things to seek out. Two episodes of the tv show The Office were taped in Niagara Falls, where Jim and Pam get married! There are a few cool things to note about this. On Saturday, our anniversary, when we were eating breakfast in our hotel room before our tour, we were flipping through the channels and happened to stumble on The Office. And wouldn't you believe it, the Niagara episodes were on! This was so perfect, especially on our own anniversary! So, we watched it of course, while looking out onto the actual Falls! It was just so perfect! Secondly, it got us wondering if any of the locations that were shown were really in Niagara Falls...and they were!
First, the hotel that the characters stay in is very real, and it's actually a cute little Inn in real life! Below is a picture of it on TV, and the picture I took:
Next was the church that is depicted in the show to hold their wedding. Although the interior is in LA, the exterior is supposed to be the Presbyterian Church in Niagara, and below is my picture of that:
After our mini TV tour, we sadly left Niagara in our rear view mirror. We took the non-scenic route back home as we were driving straight through. It was going to be a cold ride back, but we didn't know there would be snow! Just east of Cleveland it started snowing, and the outdoor Temps were 30 degrees! This is also kind of a parallel to our wedding because it was snowing the night before our wedding. I would rather not have been driving through this, though! When it wasn't snowing, it rained the rest of the way! On the way, we picked up the dogs from the sitter, and we were home by 5!
Niagara Falls was the perfect weekend getaway for our anniversary! We had so much fun that when the borders re-open, we want to go back and stay on the Canada side, go up on the Hurricane Deck, and take a helicopter ride over the Falls! We both have a great time no matter where we are! I'm so glad I have a partner in life to do all the things with! Here's to hoping we have 60 more years together!
