My Vacation Time in Niagara Falls, Ontario In May 2017 - by Anne Shier

My Vacation Time in Niagara Falls in May 2017

From Sunday May 7 to Friday May 12, 2017

Very early on Sunday morning, May 7^th, I woke up and started getting ready for the busy day ahead.  This is the day of my departure by bus for Niagara Falls – a trip I have done many times before.  This time is different though - I’m doing it as a retiree.  That means having to plan ahead and watch what I’m spending.  In fact, I have always made it a practice to plan my trips ahead of time.  So, I’ve  booked my hotel room at the Days Inn, Clifton Hill, and then booked my bus ticket via Greyhound.  Since I am now a senior (62+) as far as Greyhound is concerned, I can take advantage of their seniors’ discount, which amounts to about 20%, I think.  I also got a good rate on my hotel room, mainly because I didn’t book any weekend days, which tend to be more expensive.  The only thing I didn’t plan well at all was the route I was going to take to get to the bus station at Bay and Dundas in time to get my ticket.

For example, I decided to go to Union station on the subway and take a taxi to Bay and Dundas from Union.  That did not work, however; there was a marathon race going on downtown and many of the streets were closed off at Union.  So, I had to instruct my taxi driver to drop me off, finally, at Front and John Streets, which was nowhere near the bus terminal.  I now had to walk with my suitcase, a big bag, a smaller bag, and my purse several blocks north and east until I finally arrived at the bus station.  As it happened, I was just in time to obtain my bus ticket.  It was already paid for though.  I just had to get the person at the Greyhound counter to print it off after she saw my identification and a reference number corresponding to my ticket.

After that, I had a quick lunch in the terminal, visited the bathroom, and boarded my bus without any further problems.  Although the bus left a little bit late, we were soon on the Gardiner Expressway and onto the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) westbound.  We were to arrive at the bus terminal in Niagara Falls by 1:50 pm, and I would then take another taxi to my hotel.  Once I did that, I got settled into my hotel room.  It was a nice room – not with a king-sized bed that I’d asked for initially – but, with two queen-sized beds, however, I only needed one.  There was a fridge and microwave included and so, I ended up paying a bit of a premium for those items.  And, of course, there was a coffee-maker – standard operating equipment for vacations as far as I am concerned.

I asked at the front desk when I registered as a hotel guest about the available TV channels, but they didn’t have HLN or the Discovery Channel or any of the sports channels that I was used to watching these days.  Oh well, no problem.  I knew then that I’d have to do some other things instead of watching my regular TV shows and, hopefully, fit the sports channels in by going to the bar at Boston Pizza around the corner from my hotel.  You see, the Stanley Cup playoffs are halfway done and I wanted to see most, if not all, of the games, specifically, the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals in Round 2.  If things go the way I expect, the Penguins will prevail and the Capitals will soon be out of the running.  That was Sunday.  Hopefully, Monday will be a better day for me.

But, before Monday could arrive, I decided to go for dinner at Boston Pizza on Sunday so that I could watch at least part of a hockey game.  There was going to be two games – one in the afternoon, which I wanted to see, and one at night.   The afternoon game was between the Nashville Predators and the St. Louis Blues.  I didn’t stay for the whole game, but apparently the Predators ousted the Blues from Round 2 and will advance to Round 3.  Now, the remaining three series have yet to be wagered this week, and the length of those series depends on whether there are six or seven games per series.  It should be very interesting.

On Monday morning, May 8^th, I woke up by about 8:20 am and made myself a pot of coffee.  I was going to watch a movie for the second time that I had already seen last night.  I had seen two movies for the first time last night:  “A Dog’s Purpose”, and “The Girl on the Train”.  Although they are both very good movies, I wanted to watch “The Girl on the Train” again.  It’s a deeply suspenseful psychological thriller, just the kind of movie I love.  I’d been reading the book, but still haven’t finished it yet.  The ending is what I wanted to find out about in the movie.  And, still, it surprised me.  That’s what all good movies do, right?  They surprise you.

After drinking two cups of coffee and watching the movie again, I finally decided to get up, get washed and dressed, and go down to the restaurant, Applebee’s, which is attached to the hotel, and have a good breakfast.  While I was eating, I started writing a short story, an original one that I got an idea for yesterday.  It’s going to be dedicated to Sidney Crosby, No. 87, the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team.  After that, the waitress, Lauren, and I started talking and I told her some stuff about my authoring career and activities.  We had a very interesting conversation about drug addiction, something I like to write about.  I promised to give her an autographed book whenever I see her next, which I am able to do since I brought only one book with me on this trip.

I plan on going to do some fun things today:  go to Louis Tussaud’s Wax Works, a museum just down the street; and to Ripley’s Moving Theater (the American spelling of theatre) – two three-dimensional movies that you need those special glasses to view.  These are really fun activities that I’ve done before here – nothing new.  After that, I decided to walk down to the falls.  It’s a rather lengthy walk along the escarpment, but it’s very beautiful and picturesque in the spring and I love to take pictures with my camera phone. 

When I got tired of walking almost to the Canadian Falls, I turned back and on the way, picked up a chocolate sundae at Dairy Queen, took it back to my hotel room and ate it while watching a third new movie, “Sully”, which is also very good, a fictional movie based on a factual account of an airplane accident that ended up with everyone, crew and passengers, staying alive.

Now, after journalizing my way through the last two days, I plan on going back to Boston Pizza tonight for dinner, this time to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins win Round 2 over the Washington Capitals; that’s what I hope for tonight.  Then, I’ll come back to my hotel, maybe watch another movie, and get ready for bed.  Tomorrow, I’ll do some more creative writing and journalizing and, of course, watch movies.  It’s really easy and enjoyable watching them on my brand new portable DVD player, which I just bought before this trip began.  And, in the afternoon when it’s nice and sunny out, I will do some more fun things on Clifton Hill.  That’s the thing about Niagara Falls – there are literally hundreds of activities to do here, so I will never get bored during my Niagara Falls holidays.

Well, after watching Game six between the Penguins and the Capitals, I could see very clearly that Pittsburgh was outclassed by Washington until the closing minutes of period three.  Then, the Penguins scored twice, but Washington had already scored five times, so the outcome was obvious tonight.  Too bad for the Penguins.  I felt especially bad for Sidney Crosby who was targeted throughout the game.  On Wednesday night, game seven will determine who advances into Round 3.  I only hope that the Penguins will prevail as I know they can.

On Tuesday morning, May 9^th, I got up fairly early again.  These things are never predetermined for me.  I made my customary pot of coffee and drank two cups before considering breakfast.  Then, I got washed and dressed and was going to go to Applebee’s downstairs again, but I found out it’s closed till Wednesday afternoon.  Why, I do not know.  Anyway, I had my usual substantial breakfast at Perkins restaurant nearby, and then left to go back to my hotel room, put on my makeup, and got ready to go out.  Today, I plan to do some fun things again on Clifton Hill.  I am going to go to Ripley’s Believe it or Not Odditorium (a museum with various oddities displayed in it), and then to Movieland (another museum with movie stars and famous musicians in it). 

After doing these things, I returned to my hotel and on the way, picked up another chocolate sundae at Dairy Queen, took it back to my hotel room and ate it while starting to watch “Law and Order: LA”, which I have never seen before.  I am trying to pick movies and shows to watch this week that I’ve never seen so that I am doing something different from my daily activities at home, and this is different enough for me.  There are six discs so it’ll take me a few days to get through them all.  For now, I’ll stick with discs one and two. 

Tonight, after journalizing my way through the last two days, I plan on going back to Boston Pizza tonight for dinner for the second time, this time to watch the Ottawa Senators win Round 2 over the New York Rangers.  That’s what I hope for tonight.  And, I was not disappointed.  Against all odds, the Senators vanquished the Rangers in Game six and have now earned the right to advance to Round 3.  Hurray!!!  At least one Canadian team is in Round 3 this year.

Now, it’s Wednesday May 10^th.  I did pretty much the same thing as yesterday, except that, in the afternoon, I went to the Imax Theatre to see the “Niagara” movie, and then visited the observation deck at the Skylon Tower, and finally, saw a relatively new movie:  “The Falls:  3D/4D Movie”, which was very well made; I’ve only seen it once before, so that experience was also different for me this week.  And, I’m also onto “Law and Order: LA” discs three and four at my hotel.

Well, Game six on Tuesday night was a wash for the Penguins, as we all know, but tonight, in Game seven, one of these teams must advance to Round 3 and I hope it’s the Penguins that prevail this time.  So, tonight, after journalizing my way through the last two days, I plan on going back to Boston Pizza tonight for dinner for the third, and maybe the last time this week, this time to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins finally and decisively win Round 2 over the Washington Capitals.  Sidney Crosby must play a pivotal role in this game, as well as other hot players, like Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin, who can each score a lot of goals.  But, the Penguins will also need good, solid defensemen who don’t back down from a fight if that’s what it comes down to.  I am positive that it will not be an easy task to win this series – it will be a fight right to the bitter end.  Do the Penguins want the Stanley Cup badly enough?  We’ll see.

As it happened, the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled out all the stops in Game 7 and managed to score twice vs. the Washington Capitals who could only score once.  So, now Pittsburgh will advance to Round 3 vs. the Ottawa Senators.  This is going to create a kind of conundrum for me though.  I like Sidney Crosby very much (and not just his ability on the ice), but I am a true blue Canadian hockey fan, so my allegiances will have to lie with Ottawa in Round 3.  However, I will be keeping my eye on Sidney for the duration to see how his abilities stack up against the best of the Ottawa Senators, No. 65, defenseman and captain, Erik Karlsson.  Again, we’ll see.  Round 3 will start this Friday night and it should be very interesting indeed.  I’ll be back home in Toronto by early Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in the late game last night, the Edmonton Oilers were ousted in Round 2 by the Anaheim Ducks, which means that only one Canadian team made to Round 3, and it wasn’t the Oilers, although I had hoped it would be.

On Thursday morning, May 11^th, I woke up at a more reasonable time, but I hadn’t gotten to sleep until the early hours, so I’m still kind of tired today.  During breakfast at Perkins restaurant, I am contemplating going on the Maid of the Mist boat ride under the Canadian Falls, but still haven’t made up my mind on that yet.  By 2:00 pm, if I’m not too tired, I may decide to go.  If not now, I will try to do it during the summer when I’m here with Brent and James.  But, we haven’t decided to come to Niagara Falls then either.  Today, Applebee’s re-opens at 4:00 pm.  That’s when I will drop off a copy of my book to Lauren, the waitress I met on Monday morning when I was there for breakfast.  Also, I’ve been invited for a drink by one of the managers at Boston Pizza and I may go there once more tonight, this time to see the Toronto Blue Jays play and maybe I’ll stay for an hour or two.

I didn’t end up going on the Maid of the Mist boat ride this afternoon after all.  Instead, I watched a few of my old standby favourite movies:  “Overboard”, “Obsessed”, “Pacific Heights”, and “Fatal Attraction”.  All I really wanted to do today was to relax on my last full day in Niagara Falls.

Brent just called me at my hotel this afternoon to invite me to dinner this Saturday night for Mother’s Day.  Dinner would be with James and Dave and Brent.  These guys are my core family members even though Dave isn’t related to us.  He’s just been around for the last twenty-five years or more, so that makes him family.  I think we’re going to eat dinner at East Side Mario’s like we normally do.  Brent, James and Dave will pick me up at Yonge and York Mills and, after dinner, drop me off at a bus stop on Eglinton near Victoria Park (at my request).  I’m looking forward to spending Saturday evening with them.

Tonight, I went to Remington’s of Niagara to have dinner.  That was a treat for me.  I had two lobster tails, with wild rice and cooked vegetables, a glass of Wayne Gretzy’s Pino Grigio white wine, and dessert, which was crème brule and a hot chocolate drink called Peppermint Patty.  It was a pricey meal at $81.96 before tip was added, but since I don’t go there very often, I didn’t mind.  As it happened, I went to Boston Pizza after dinner to get that promised drink and ended up staying for a couple of hours.  And, I also chatted for a while with Jamie, the manager who’d bought me my drink.  He’s very nice, young, and attractive.

On Friday morning, May 12^th, I will be checking out of the Days Inn, Clifton Hill and boarding my Greyhound bus at 11:30 am to return to Toronto.  I only hope that my trip home will be much better than my trip to the Greyhound bus terminal in Toronto and then to Niagara Falls was six days ago.

That trip home turned out to be unlike my usual trips home from Niagara Falls.  For one thing, our bus driver seemed to be confused about where St. Catherines was located.  I guess he doesn’t do this route very often, if at all, because it seemed like he got lost.  There were two very full buses, so maybe Greyhound ran short of drivers for these two Toronto-bound buses.  Also, I met a very nice young man named Anthony from Switzerland who was doing a tour of Ontario.  He is a university student who had done a semester of study here in Ontario, then decided to tour around for a week or so before returning home.  We talked all the way to the bus terminal in Toronto, so it was a very pleasant trip for me.  He said he enjoyed our chatting too.

When I arrived back in Toronto, I decided to take the most direct route home – on the subway from Dundas and Yonge to Davisville and Yonge.  Fortunately, this time it was a smooth trip and I arrived home in good time.  I guess I should take this route to the Greyhound station next time I want to go to Niagara Falls on the bus.

ADDENDUM:  The Stanley Cup playoffs will continue in Round 3, beginning Friday May 12, 2017 with the Nashville Predators playing the best of seven games with the Anaheim Ducks.  That will be their Game 1.  On Saturday May 13, 2017, the Ottawa Senators will begin playing their best of seven games with the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I’m looking forward to watching all these games in May. 

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier