Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: 5th Anniversary at Niagara Falls

December 21, 2012 --- I always wanted to have a honeymoon at Niagara Falls when Nathan and I got married, but it would have been too expensive to fly from California to Buffalo or Toronto. Also I was working three jobs the summer after our wedding, so time was an issue then, and we decided to get a travel package to Grand Canyons and Las Vegas instead.

Now that we live in Pennsylvania, and it takes only 6 hours to drive to Niagara Falls, so we decided that we would celebrate our special 5th wedding anniversary at the falls.

I really wanted it to be special, so I used my $250 cash-back credits I earned from Bank of America to book a fall-view, whirlpool suite at the Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa for our anniversary night. The hotel package also included a hot buffet breakfast and a wine-tasting tour. Of course we couldn't afford to stay in the luxurious room for two nights, so we spent our first night at Country Inn & Suites and then moved to the Marriott on our anniversary night.

On our anniversary day, we had our special lunch at Sheraton on the Falls Hotel. It was a lunch buffet. We went there early and got a good seat right by the big glass windows where we could see both American Falls and Horseshoe Falls very well. It was snowing outside while we were having lunch, so we just stayed inside waiting till the snow stopped.

It didn't seem like the snow would stop that day, so later we just decided to walk along the Falls in the snow. It wasn't too bad because it didn't snow hard, and the wind was very mild. I loved the Horseshoe Falls more than the American Falls, and I could see that the view of the falls from the Canadian side was better than from the American side . We got a lot of good photos of both falls.

The disadvantage of visiting Niagara Falls in winter is that there isn't much to do other than walking along the Niagara Pkwy. It's a wide walkway along the tall cliff of the river where you can see the big rivers suddenly collapse and create the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. There were a lot of touristy businesses along Clifton Hill, but it was too cold to enjoy any outdoor stuff.

Nathan and I walked from the Sheraton past the American Falls and all the way to the Horseshoe Falls where the Marriott is located. We stood right above where the majestic river falls down the cliff and creates a huge mist and loud stream. It felt very powerful! I could imagine how horrible it would be to go swimming or boating above the falls and fall over.

Once it was about time to check in at the Marriott, Nathan and I walked all the way back to Country Inn&Suite to pick up our car and drove to the hotel. It was fast and easy, and we got all the tickets for our package. The room was very nice and had a fascinating view of the falls. We were so tired of walking in the cold snow and rain, so having a whirlpool tub was a treat after that long walk. We didn't go wine tasting because we were too tired. We just spent time in our room sitting on the comfortable chairs by the tall, glass windows and enjoyed the view of the falls.

At night it was snowing really hard that the ground turned white and nothing seemed to move. The falls were lit up in colorful lights all night, and there was a fireworks display at 9 p.m. Too bad it was still snowing when they did the fireworks, so we couldn't see them well.

However, the snow stopped around 9:30 p.m. and the world was pretty again. Niagara Falls at night was gorgeous, and we were glad that we had a nice fall-view room.

Nathan and I had a great time at Niagara Falls, and we would like to go back there in the summer to see the falls from the American side and explore the state park. We also want to ride on Maid of the Mist toward the Horseshoe Falls. It will be great fun, and I'm really looking forward to that! :-)