In early May, Conner had a meeting in Massachusetts. We had talked about going to Niagara Falls, so he had the wonderful idea that we drive after his work meeting and make a long weekend out of it! Massachusetts was on the way, so we set out on a Wednesday after work. We arrived that night to Pittsfield, MA, a small town, which I explored the next morning while Conner went to his meeting.

After his meeting we set out on our way to Niagara Falls. Through research, we decided we wanted to stay on the Canada side. We had read that the views were even more astonishing on the Canada side, so we booked a room overlooking the falls at the Hilton. A few hours into the 5 hour drive, it suddenly hit me- we hadn’t packed our passports. “Um, babe—“, I said anxiously- “We didn’t bring our passports!”. My husband’s face dropped- “Oh my gosh, what were we thinking”, he replied. We both could not believe that the thought hadn’t even crossed our minds! I think because we were driving we weren’t thinking of the fact that we were actually crossing the border into another country. We debated the idea of just turning around and going home. Then we thought about maybe just staying on the New York side. Conner didn’t want to do that, and was upset to lose the money for our nights at the Hilton. I called border control and the officer basically told me it was “luck of the draw”. He said us getting across into Canada all depended on what border officer we happened to get. We had our driver’s licenses, our work IDs, proof of our vehicle being registered in Virginia. Technically, if you don’t have your passport you are supposed to have some other proof of US citizenship (i.e. a birth certificate). Well, we certainly didn’t have that. We did however both know or passport numbers by heart.

As we approached the large border crossing area, we both became really nervous. It would really stink if we drove all this way, took off work, booked hotels and didn’t even get to see the falls. As we inched toward the Canadian border gate hubby looked at me and said , “just let me do the taking”. Ok, no problem there. Conner politely said, ” Hi sir, I apologize we forgot our passports”. The officer looked at him sternly and unimpressed. “What do you mean you forgot them?” he replied. Conner’s response, ” We rushed and just didn’t even think about bringing them. We do have our licenses, IDs, vehicle registration”. The officer looked at our drivers licenses. He went in his office, typed some information into a computer. He asked details on what hotel we would be staying, how long we would be in Canada, and what our plans were. He then inspected our car, walking around it. We told him our memorized passport numbers. He looked at me sternly, “Mrs. Conner, where were you born?”, to which I replied “Fort Lauderdale, Florida”, immediately realizing this was not my place of birth. Dumb! Why did I say that? I was born in a city near Fort Lauderdale. I sat nervously for what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably only 30 seconds. He handed us back our ID’s and said  “Proceed”.

We slowly drove through,  immediately laughing and cheering that we made it through. “We did it!” I said. ” Of course babe, I told you to let me handle it”, Conner said confidently ( remember he wasn’t so confident 2 hours earlier when he almost turned the car around. He couldn’t believe I said the wrong city of birth, but we could laugh about that now too.

A short drive took us right to our Hilton Fallsview Hotel. We had an amazing room with spectacular views of the Falls.  We arranged our falls tour the next day through the Hilton concierge. We opted for a fabulous deal that included the Hornblower boat tour through the falls, behind the falls, the whirlpool and the daredevil museum. We had a delicious dinner that night at the Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse in the hotel. The Hilton Fallsview was huge and gorgeous! Very similar to a smaller scale Vegas hotel. There were many shops, restaurants and a casino. We hung out at the casino some after dinner. I am not much of a gambler, but Conner taught me how to play a couple of games and we won some money!

The next morning we had an awesome breakfast in the Watermark restaurant of the Hilton. We had some time before our tour so we checked out the daredevil museum. It was pretty interesting. It is crazy that so many daredevils through the years, attempted to go down the massive falls. We watched a cool IMAX movie as well.

We then met our tour guide and set off on our tour. Our first stop was the Hornblower. It was a cold and rainy day, but they said it wouldn’t matter because we would be getting wet sailing through the falls anyways. We were given ponchos and led to the area to board our boat. We had a large group and ended up waiting in freezing cold rain for quite some time. Conner wasn’t happy. I wasn’t either, but what could we do?

Once we were on the boat, we forgot we were cold and annoyed with the wait. The views of the enormously powerful Falls were unlike anything we imagined! Pictures and videos just don’t do it justice. This should be on everyone’s bucket list!

After our breathtaking boat experience, we made our way back to our tour bus meeting place. We rushed to get there at the agreed upon time by our guide, not wanting the tour to move on without us. Come to find out, we were the only ones on time. Nobody else from our group showed. We waited and waited. Our guide realized that the others got on a different (later boat than us). We had to wait quite some time and our guide kept apologizing. He ended up giving us complimentary passes to the Skylon tower as a gift for our patience. Unfortunately, we never got to use the passes- but I still have them and they don’t expire, so on our next trip to Niagara we can use them 🙂

We finally then ventured on to “behind the falls”. Now, this was cool! I highly recommend doing this as well! We were given new ponchos and free to walk through different caves which led us out to views actually behind the majestic falls!

The explosive power of the falls is just glorious!!

Our next stop was the whirlpool view which was also neat!

After our fun filled, but chilly day, we headed back to our hotel to rest a bit. I took a hot bath in the huge whirlpool tub! This Hilton was definitely impressive!

View from our room–

We had a fabulous dinner that night at the Watermark restaurant, and then enjoyed some more time in the casino.

The next morning we set out early to Toronto! We figured “eh, we’re in Canada, eh, we should go see Toronto!” The drive was not bad, taking us less than 2 hours.

We checked into the beautiful Intercontinental (using hotel points), and immediately ventured out to have lunch and explore!

We had a really great day just walking around the city. It was a bit windy and cold (keep in mind this was May)- so definitely dress accordingly if heading to Canada that time of year. Toronto is a pretty clean city. There were musicians, and peaceful protests and a lot of great shopping! For a big city it seemed not too chaotic, and easy to navigate.

We loved St. Lawrence market, and of course had to try real Canadian bacon!

Our one night in the Intercontinental was great! The hotel has a very nice lobby and bar/ restaurant. We watched the Kentucky Derby , and literally 2 minutes before the race I convinced Conner to put money on “Always Dreaming”. He was the underdog but I liked the name. And guess what? He won! Yay!

We set out back home the next morning. A bit nervous and unsure if the US border patrol would let us back in without fuss. The officer definitely drilled us and seemed annoyed when we explained we just plain forgot our passports. Eventually, he let us through. A pretty long drive, about 8 hours. It was so worth it! We just loved Niagara Falls and Toronto! Niagara falls should be on everyone’s bucket list! Canada is a beautiful country and we would love to explore it more in the future! The people are so incredibly nice. Like almost ridiculously nice! Every person we encountered (besides border patrol officers), were over the top friendly, helpful and just nice! But just don’t forget your passport 😉

<3,

Kinz