Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls has been on my bucket list for a while, and I am not entirely sure why. The natural beauty? The staggering power of the water? Wearing ponchos and getting soaked with mist? That romantic episode of "The Office" when Jim and Pam get married at the falls? Whatever the reason, it is one of the few times that such a tourist attraction was TOTALLY worth visiting. 

And now I am going to post a gazillion pictures of the falls, even though you could just google better ones. Google images won't have our goofy faces, so for those I hope you stick around. 

While we were in Niagara Falls, NY I decided to take the opportunity to walk to Canada... mostly because I could, and I had heard that the view of the falls from the Canadian side was stunning. I learned a lot during my border crossing that I won't go into here, but I can say that it did leave me feeling extremely lucky to have the option to pass freely between countries just because of the country that I was born in 30 years ago.

Everyday I think about how lucky Steven and I are to be able to take this trip, thanks to flexible employment, steady income, physical health, and a country that has ensured that land is protected and preserved. This week was a great reminder of how amazing this opportunity is for the two of us, and how lucky (in so many ways) that we are to be here. 

Before I hurry off to our next stop, Chicago, I will mention that we stayed at Four Mile State Park for our week in Niagara. We had a nice spot in the tent section and thanks to Steven's directional skills we booked a spot that positioned us with great solar power so we could be off grid the whole week! It was incredibly quiet in the park the week we were there which meant we rarely had neighbors. And the park sat right on Lake Erie, so it made for a beautiful spot for our daily runs! 

The park was a little ways from town, so we ended up spending most of our time getting work done, completing chores on the trailer (we actually cleaned our solar panels finally) and enjoying the view of Lake Erie. This was a good choice as well because it was mildly stressful to be so close to the Canadian border all the time and know that with a little wrong turn you could end up having to go through customs just to go to the grocery store. Not even worth it for the duty free!

Next up, The windy city!