Aug 20 – Our trip from Chicago to Niagara Falls was full of small towns and old houses. We absolutely loved the drive. We try to take as many secondary roads as possible: you don’t see much from the freeways. Southern Michigan looks really quaint in the summer. Don’t think it would look as welcoming in the winter.

We visited both the American and Canadian sides of the falls. There are crowds of people from all over the world there; absolutely amazing. I have to admit the Canadian falls are nicer to look at. We all thought that the falls would be bigger than they were. We expected them to be taller. Took a lot of photos; see attached. We walked across the bridge so we didn’t have to wait in the long lines to get back to the US. Did you know they charge you to cross the bridge? We had to pay 50 cents each to get back to the US. What a deal. The price we pay for freedom eh?

The next day we visited some botanical gardens that were filled with a huge variety of plants and cacti. Maggie and Gary enjoyed looking at everything but not like Val did. She loves that stuff. Afterwards we went to a small local diner and got to hear the waitresses say “Yous guys want sometin to eat?” It was classic. The food was even good. Tomorrow we’ll start heading further east and make our way through the Adirondacks.