Friday, September 27, 2013

Pennsylvania to Niagara Falls

I can see my travel posts becoming increasingly 'behind', so to speak, as we visit more places and eat more food and take more photos. Fortunately, my travel blogging is driven by a desire to document our experiences (and share them!) rather than any timeline around when that happens. Thus, today I am posting about our travels from a week ago, when we left Washington D.C. to drive north through Pennsylvania. Lest you think a week isn't very behind at all...it will only extend out from here!

Pennsylvania driving. 'Twas a sloping road, not a mis-angled photo.

Our Pennsylvania visit was, in our plan, just a means of getting from Washington D.C. to Canada. We stayed the night in Altoona, a small town that was roughly the right distance between D.C. and the Niagara Falls border crossing. What I hadn't expected was how beautiful the state would be, especially with leaves starting to turn red and yellow. It was a gorgeous drive and Altoona itself was a surprisingly scenic spot.


Altoona, Pennsylvania

That drive was also my first taste of 'small town' America - and it was a lovely one. The roads were wide, the people friendly, and the scenery unfailing. We even survived driving on what is, to us, very much the wrong side of the road.

When we reached Canada, we managed an easy border crossing before arriving in the tourist chaos that is Niagara Falls. I had visited once before, on my previous North America trip, but the gaudiness of the casinos and tourist attractions still grated when set against the wonder of the falls themselves.

So much water!

The truth is, though, that the man-made part of Niagara Falls can get away with gaudiness because the natural part of the area is so awe inspiring.

Spot the boat...

The sheer volume of water is just incredible.


We met some of my Canadian family at the falls, in the form of the aunt that is my Mum's sister, her husband (my uncle), and one of my three Canadian cousins, along with her fiance. They live about 20 minutes north of the falls and kindly hosted us for the night, giving us what Mr Bite joked was his authentic Canadian family experience. My other two (boy) cousins joined us for dinner too, along with their wives and the first baby born to a cousin on that side of my family. You may recall that my Mum's family is incredibly scattered, with her parents and two siblings in the U.K., one sibling in Hawaii, and then this sister in Canada. It was nice to see them again after what had been many years for me - and to make an initial introduction to Mr Bite.

After our night with them, we continued up the road to Toronto, which was the northern most point of our travels and the turning point for our time in Canada. That shall come in another post, but because this summary is lacking in food, I shall leave you with my vegan apple-cranberry muffin from Urban Herbivore in Toronto.


Pretty it isn't, but tasty it was.

Have you been to Niagara Falls? Or spent much time in smaller US areas (or live in them!)?

23 comments:

  1. You are such a globe trotter. I love reading about your fun adventures. Niagara Falls really is breathtaking. I would love to visit that part of the country someday. Glad you had a fun trip and survived driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

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    1. It is starting to feel like globe trotter is an accurate description! I think after this we'll settle into home routines for a while so it's really great seeing so much on this trip :)

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  2. wow! what a beautiful view.. - spot the boat - gosh...

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  3. I really enjoyed this post. You describe this topic very well. And blog picture are very impressive.

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  4. That muffin description could be exactly the same for mine WHICH I ATE WITH YOU THE NEXT DAY WHAAAAAT. :D

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  5. I've been to Niagara Falls several years ago when we spent the Christmas with my sister-in-law (Tim's 2nd older sister) and her family who lives in Buffalo, NY. I like how you put it - "tourist chaos" is exactly what we walked into. I didn't mind it though. How could you when standing in front of such magnificent view. I would LOVE to visit them again soon. It was just wayy too cold for this Texas gal.

    Haha. I can't imagine driving on the "wrong" side of the road. I would kind of freak out too ;). I'm glad you got to spend some time with family. Thank you for sharing your experiences along the way!

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    1. It was cold when we were there by my standards (about 55'F I think) and my Canadian family were like, "no, this is not cold"! There were people in t-shirts and I wanted a winter coat ;)

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  6. So far you've done more exploring in the northeast of the US than I have since I've never been to Canada and have barely been to Pennsylvania! Crazy.

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    1. I've done none of the south and hardly any of the west though!

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  7. I haven't been to Niagara Falls but I definitely have it on my list of places I must visit. Thanks for showing me your images. It's great you've been able to spend time with family and introduce them to your Mr Bite xx

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    1. Thanks Charlie - I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures and hope you get there yourself before too long :)

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  8. I've only been in cities in the USA and would love to have explored the countryside - but driving on the wrong side of the road just sounds hard and discombobulating - though perhaps worth it to drive up to niagra falls and see family - sounds great - am looking forward to hearing about toronto

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    1. I will confess to making Mr B drive the hardest bits. I'm also glad we've got rid of the car now! Most of the roads were actually pretty easy but one downside is that America doesn't really do small cars, so despite requesting a small hire car we got a medium sized one - which complicated driving on the other wide of the road!

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  9. So excited that you went through Pennsylvania! I grew up about 3 hours Northwest of Altoona. We used to drive my brothers there for hockey tournaments. Pennsylvania is a gorgeous state to drive through (especially during summer and fall). I miss the change of seasons!

    The Niagara Falls are also beautiful. I've been there a few times. Definitely magical.

    Sounds like you had a great time with your family. It's always nice to catch up with those you haven't seen in awhile. :)

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    1. Oh, how cool that you grew up in the area! It is just beautiful in the area and the fall colours were just appearing as we drove through - definitely part of the beauty. No wonder you miss it!

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  10. We are headed to PA so this was very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Wonderful! Thanks Lail, I'm glad it helped.

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  11. Pennsylvania is really lovely - shame you missed out on Philadelphia, which is a surprisingly cool city! But Niagara Falls is really awesome.

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  12. I've wanted to see Niagara Falls ever since I saw Niagara with Marilyn Monroe. It looks absolutely breathtaking in the film and I can't even begin to imagine how awe inspiring it would be in real life :D

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    1. It's pretty breathtaking that way too - so you definitely have to get there!

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