Niagara Falls

see all photos »

We couldn’t head home before seeing the great Niagara Falls. Although it did not disappoint, it was not exactly what we expected. The falls are very wide indeed and technically there are two – one American falls and one Canadian falls, but they are not as high as we pictured them to be (the highest of the two falls, the Canadian Falls, falls 170 feet). The other surprising thing was the surrounding area. It’s more like a mini Canadian Disneyland of sorts with all sorts of cheesy shops. Who knew?

see all photos »

One nice thing about the area was that this is wine country and there are more than sixty wineries. We hit the Inniskillin winery as I had tried their ice wine when it was given as a gift from a friend and absolutely loved it. If you haven’t tried it, you must. It’s a very sweet wine – paired with desserts. It was interesting to learn about the ice wine process. They harvest the grapes – frozen on the vine – in December and January. Because they are frozen off and on throughout the early winter, the sugars are very concentrated. The grapes then yield only 5-10% of the wine that a normal wine harvest would bring – thus the higher cost of ice wine.

see all photos »

Well it’s time to make our way back home. We drove north through Michigan stopping for one fun round of golf at Treetops in Gaylord, Michigan, which is very similar to the Brainerd, Minnesota area. We then made it over the Mackinac Bridge into the Michigan UP (upper peninsula) – great fall color drive before making our way home.

Will pick up the blog again later this month as we head to Asia for our five month long leg!

Tidbit of the day: The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere and the third longest in the world.