Niagara Falls Weekend Trip

Since having Evelyn, we really haven't traveled anywhere far or stayed overnight. Half of it was logistics/stressing out over the planning and the other half was money... and also she's not likely to remember anything either. But I was so used to going somewhere every year so we decided to do a little weekend trip to Niagara Falls since we were familiar with the area and we thought Evelyn would enjoy the butterfly conservatory there since she loved the one in Cambridge. We decided now was the best time since it was off season, so the hotels were cheaper, there was less people and we could do things at our own pace. And it would probably be better for me to go now instead of later cause it'd be easier to move around. The weather wasn't the greatest but we made the most of it and we had a great time!! I was super proud of Evelyn and I think she also had a great time as well. I was so anxious about her sleeping away from home for the first time overnight but she slept through the night (even with all the noise outside our hotel room from the other guests!). I'm very glad she didn't take after me since I'm a very light sleeper. haha...

But let's backtrack a bit. We started off our trip by having lunch before heading out at a local retro style Hong Kong cafe. We had to run some errands in the morning so we ended up getting out of Toronto pretty late and got hit with rush hour traffic... It was awful but Evelyn did surprisingly well with that too! (I was the one suffering, haha) What was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive almost ended up being 3 hours... we didn't check in until almost 5 pm! After settling in, we went to grab dinner near the hotel and walked around the falls afterwards. Because it was kind of cold and breezy still, there weren't very many people. Besides the falls there were many other things to see, I suppose... She's in her dinosaur era I guess, haha.

Our hotel had an amazing view but had a lot of rowdy teenagers so I wasn't able to sleep very well the first night. The sound of the falls was rather soothing as white noise but it was the people returning back to their rooms late at night and screaming in the hallway that kept me up since our room was very close to the elevators.

The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at Wendy's (I've never tried their breakfast before but it was nothing special). Unfortunately they replaced all their fountain drink machines with those automated ones that just dispensed flavoured drink syrups and carbonated water so everything was artificial and tasted like crap (they didn't even have proper juice???) so that was disappointing. We headed to the butterfly conservatory afterwards.

It was a little bit of a tourist trap to be honest, and the one in Cambridge was much better. I read online that this one was bigger but personally it felt like it was the same size to me. They definitely had a good assortment of butterflies but the one in Cambridge definitely had more things to see, like displays and other bugs and creatures that you can learn about. There was nothing like that here, barely any staff were available to interact with any guests. There were some kids but definitely not as interactive and they don't really put an emphasis on learning. I would say the one in Cambridge is much more kid and family friendly. Although Evelyn did have a close encounter with a moprho - it landed on one of the guests and he was kind enough to transfer it onto Evelyn's arm! 

Afterwards we went to have lunch at a local pub, where Evelyn ate lots of bread... I was excited to try this place but the pictures online definitely made the food look better. The steak wasn't too bad though. Then after lunch we headed back to walk around Clifton Hill. By then it was raining harder but we managed. This stretch of Niagara has definitely not aged well. Very tacky, outdated and reminded me of the Las Vegas strip a little bit, only more gaudy and for families. We went back to the hotel so Evelyn could nap and we could rest up as well.

We went out for dinner at a cute little Italian place a bit further away called Zappi's and had some amazing pizza. Unfortunately, Evelyn just ate more bread... We ordered a bit too much so we had to finish the rest back at the hotel. I ended up sleeping a lot better that night since we put Evelyn to bed first and slept a bit later. Or it was just me finally getting used to the bed!

We checked out on Sunday morning. The weather cleared up a bit so we went out on the balcony to take some last minute photos before leaving. I'll definitely miss waking up to that view! 

     

We arrived around 10 am to The Flying Saucer, which was a UFO/alien/space themed restaurant (literally shaped like a UFO) but it was so busy we had to wait 20 minutes. And unfortunately we didn't even get to sit at the main UFO area since they only had the side tables facing away from the main seating area available... plus the food took another 20 minutes to arrive (Evelyn even had a little crap nap during this time). The food was just average and Evelyn didn't even touch the French toast... we ended up eating it all. It wasn't cheap either and I was so looking forward to it since we don't have many themed retro style diners here but the whole experience was just rather disappointing... the theming was a little weak too and the food wasn't anything special. It really made me miss the theme cafes in Japan even more...

Anyway, we headed home after brunch and it was such a smooth drive, we were able to make a pit stop at Sherway Gardens mall before heading home. Honestly this was what our ride there should have been!! We made it home in the afternoon and I was able to unpack and put in a load of laundry. Overall, it was a fun trip and I can't wait to go on another one!! Until next time!