6-10-15 Wednesday (Free Sandals)

We started the day with a buffet breakfast at the Casino Hotel.  Our table had a view of the falls.  This buffet was yummy and actually a lot less $ than the IHOP at our hotel.  Eggs cooked to order.  Over easy for me and an omelet for Jim.  We only needed to walk through our hotel to an enclosed connector bridge to get there.  Very handy. 

Jim bought a Clifton Hills Fun Pass prior to our trip.  We rode the Niagara Skywheel which is a large Ferris wheel offering views of the Niagara area.  Awesome.

Above: Inside the gondola. 

Above/Below: Taken from inside the gondola.

Above: Another from inside the … yes, gondola. 

I’ve been excited to get to the Hershey’s Chocolate store since I love chocolate.   It wasn’t all that great and I just felt guilty for eating it.  BUT, I can say I did it.

Next up, Niagara Falls State Park on the US side.  The facilities/property was overall run down.  Not very impressive.  I definitely prefer the Canadian side.  We went on Maid of the Mist which is a boat that runs very close to the falls.  Everyone is issued a rain poncho.  It’s very much needed and appreciated.  This was a great up close and personal view of the falls.  Pretty cool.

Above: US side, observation deck.  Quite windy!

We explored the park a little and then continued on to Youngstown, NY to catch a Jet boat tour/adventure. First it was time for food.  The Youngstown Village Diner hit the spot.  I had a fried baloney sandwich.  I haven’t had one of those in eons.  After that, it was on to our tour at Niagara Jet Adventures.  This was very fun.  Exhilarating. 

We went into class 1 and 5 rapids.  It was so frickin’ fun.  Jim and I paid a little extra to be in the front seats!  It was worth it.

There’s still more.  Next? Cave of the Winds.  Which isn’t really even a cave anymore.  Due to falling rock, they purposely sealed it up with controlled dynamite blasts in 1955 but the name remained.  Now it’s stairs and walkways up close to Bridal Veil Falls.  It was exhilarating.

Aside from ponchos, they supply sandals.  They’re cheap, serve the purpose and can be kept as souvenirs. 

We got back in the car and drove around the park some more.  We saw an interesting trail, parked the car and explored.  It was along the river so there were some nice scenes.

Below: Jim had to pee and the restrooms were closed:

Later, we ate dinner and then went to Clifton Hill again to use up some of the Fun Pass attraction tickets.  Some arcade fun, a 4D wild west cartoon ride which was cute, a shoot ghosts ride, and back onto the Skywheel to see everything from above at night this time.  We also had the displeasure of touring the Movieland Wax Museum.  OMG.  It was bad.  Not very life like.  I’m glad we didn’t actually pay for this.  It did provide Jim and I with many a laugh though.