Flip Flops & Time Off – Adventures in Travel & Every Day Life

Friday, June 24

Early in the week, Marcus asked me to take Friday off.  Having been with the man for 16 years, my natural response was – “I can take it off, but you’ve been warned – I am not burning a PTO day to work around the house or in the yard.”  😉

Flash forward to Thursday night – I ask Marcus, what are we doing this weekend and he responds with “I don’t know, what do you want to do?”  Luckily for him, I had a plan – road trip!  We busted out Google Maps and looked at the places that were a reasonable drive from Central Ohio, 6 hours max:  Chicago, DC, Nashville, Niagara Falls or Silver Lake.  After weighing out the pros and cons of each, we slept on it.  Friday morning, we landed on Niagara USA.  Were up early so we packed an overnight bag, headed to the bank and we were on the road by 9:00am headed North East.  With no plans, no hotel and no idea what we were getting into – what could go wrong?!

Once we hit the OH/PA line, I was on my Hotwire app booking a hotel.  The plan was one night – Friday, and we’d drive back home on Saturday.  When I checked hotel prices, it was $116/night for one night, or $83/night for Friday and Saturday night.  Let’s think about this – $116 for one night or $116 for two nights?  That’s an easy one – I booked both nights.

Have you ever used Hotwire?  Do you get that nervous feeling or rush of adrenaline before you hit the book now button?  Or am I the only weirdo like that?  Most of my Hotwire purchases have worked out, but I’ve had a couple of epic failures.   I love a bargain, so I just can’t help myself.  In any case, as I wait for my booking to go through so that my hotel can be revealed, I say “I really hope I get a hotel in the USA, not Canada!”  DH looks at me and says “me too, since we don’t have our passports.”  Silly guy, has he not been traveling with me for the last 16 years – how can he not know me better than that?  Of course we brought our passports.  I grin and pull our passports out of my purse.  Finally, I learn of our booking – Sheraton at the Falls, Niagara USA.  A quick little pop over to the SPG website to learn what I can about the hotel and I am pleased to read the hotel contains two restaurants and the mecca of all travel needs – Starbucks.  That should work.  Quick pass over the Trip Advisor site to see what recent travelers have said about this hotel and I learn of the construction going on at the hotel.  Nothing else alarming speaks to me, so I’m pleased.

We continue our drive to Niagara, trading places driving about every 2 hours.  As we are passing through upstate PA and headed into New York, I’m thinking we should stop and check out one of the wineries or farmers markets for some fresh fruit, veggies or baked goods…but I get out voted by the person currently behind the wheel.  In an attempt to distract my desire to pull off the highway for yet another stop, Marcus points out Lake Erie on the horizon.  Growing up in OH, I’ve spent many a summer exploring Lake Erie Shores and Islands, yet I always forget how vastly large Lake Erie is.  I absolutely love being on the water – Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, it doesn’t matter.  Plant this country girl near a body of water and I’m a new person.  I really enjoyed the rest of that drive, being able to see us getting closer and closer to the lake.

We rolled into Niagara, NY around 5pm and checked into the Sheraton.  We were given a room on the 4th floor, facing the convention center.  It was a lovely view of the tree lined street and you could see the mist from the falls when you looked to the right.  The room had recently been redone, and was well appointed including a mini fridge and single serve coffee pot.

It was Friday evening, and there would be fireworks over the falls.  So we headed down for some dinner before heading over to the falls.  The Sheraton did in fact have two restaurants on site – TGI Friday’s and The Rainforest Cafe.  We’ve eaten at both before, so neither one would be a new experience, so we went for The Rainforest Cafe.  Thanks to my SPG membership, we had our drink coupons in hand as well as the coupon for our meal from the coupon book.  Service was a little slow, but the drinks and food were delish.  Total after coupons, with tip was right around $45.

With full bellies, we were headed down to Niagara falls for the fireworks.  Marcus had never been to Niagara before, but I had been as a kid – at least 20 years ago, only I had never been on the USA side as my previous stop was on the drive to Toronto.  The park was only a couple blocks from our hotel, a very easy walk.  It was just dusk as we arrived and the park was hopping.  We walked straight to the waterfront and were amazed at the roar of the falls, and how close we could actually get.  I’m always amazed at how powerful water can be.  We found a spot to sit and watch the fire works, so we spent the next hour or so sitting on some rocks, soaking up the sights and sounds around us.  When it was dark enough the fireworks were launched.  After the show, we enjoyed a very humid walk back to our hotel.  To bed we went, thinking about what we would get into tomorrow.