Our train to Niagara Falls was scheduled to leave at 820 am, and hence we rose by 515 am, and were out of the hotel
by 715. The station was less than 5 minutes from the hotel, but with all our luggage, we decided to keep a buffer in hand. When it rolled in, the train turned out to be an Amtrak rake, bound for New York. Amma met a Tamil speaking couple, who had been based in Canada for 10 years, and were visiting their son who was doing medicine in the States. Thanks to Avi, we were granted priority boarding. The train started exactly on time, but proceeded at a decidedly leisurely pace, losing one hour on a scheduled travel time of just two hours. We then boarded taxis to the Embassy Suites. The road to the hotel afforded spectacular views of the Falls, but I could not take them in since Avi was vehemently protesting the fact that Radhika was in the other taxi.
Our suite was on the 2
2nd floor, and the view of the falls simply took our breath away. We ended up spending over an hour trying to take pictures of the falls from our room, and it was 130pm by the time we headed down for lunch. On the way to lunch, I stopped at the hotel's tours desk, and was told about a special 4 hour private tour that would show us everything there is to see in just 4 hours, and that the last departure of that tour would be at 145 pm. The only hitch was that this cost CAD 130 pp + taxes!!!! In the meantime, everybody else joined me, and seemed enthused by the idea, and I left my sensible (or perhaps stingy) self behind and signed up for the tour. The only other group that had signed up for the tour was a Filipino family of 4. The tour bus took us several miles away along the ravine to a spot where the falls had originated, which was now almost half way down to the point where the Niagara river meets Lake Ontario. It then took us to see several other sites including the Whirlpool rapids (which is a spot where the river makes a more than 90 degree turn through a whirlpool), a floral clock, a butterfly park (IMHO better than the Singapore one), and a gift shop where we finally managed to grab lunch.
After that, it took us to the main attractions, the Maid of the Mist boat ride, the Fury 4d movie on the origin of th
e falls, and what was perhaps the highlight of the trip, the Journey behind the Falls. The Maid of the Mist boat ride was great, but feeling the spray from the falls from the observation deck was even better. We then went to the visitor's centre and spent almost an hour taking close range photos of the falls. I was rather surprised to find that only a relatively low fence separated visitors from the rapidly flowing river upstream of the falls. The trip had been wonderful, with the only sore note arising from the fact that a ticket for the three main attractions was priced at just CAD 45, implying we had spent CAD 600 on the bus ride along the ravine and the other attractions. (I obviously threw a tantrum about that, blaming everybody other than myself -:))
Day 5- June 1, 2011
I had developed a rather severe cold the previous day, and did not sleep very well. Hence after breakfast, I headed back to the room for a nap, while the three girls and Avi went down to the Falls, for one more photo session. I was still fast asleep at about 1115 when they returned to the room. We quickly packed some lunch for Avi and Amma, and by 1215, were on our way in two taxis for Buffalo Airport. While planning our itinerary, I had decided to fly from Buffalo to NYC at a time when we planned to visit the US side of Niagara Falls. Somehow, I didn't think of changing this even when we decided to visit the Canadian side. We had a 405 flight to NYC, and the actual driving time was only about 1 hour. But we had been warned that the border crossing could take some time, and hence left with almost 4 hours to spare.
We made swift progress till the Peace bridge, which we were to cross to get into the United States. But traffic was backed up on the bridge, and we lost close to half an hour crossing it. At the other end, we were told to get down from our cabs, and wait at the US border station. When we entered, there were only a few people waiting, and we hoped to be swiftly on our way. But for some reason, we ended up waiting for well over an hour before our turn came up, in which time the border station waiting area had filled up almost completely. Fortunately, once our turn came, the process was swift but we ended up reaching the airport with only one hour to go for our flight.
Check in was smooth, but our flight boarding was delayed by almost 45 minutes (which gave us time to grab lunch), and the actual take off was over an hour behind schedule. When we reached NYC, it was murky and hot, but the excitement of the city lifted everyone's spirits. Our rooms at the Westin Times Square were fabulous, extremely spacious by any standard, and with the added benefit of a connecting door between the rooms.
Despite the nice rooms, we did not dilly dally, and headed out to grab a quick dinner, and then set out for Times Square.
The bright lights and glitz of Times Square were truly amazing, even for someone like me who had seen it before. After taking what seemed like hundreds of photos, we went into the huge Toys-R-Us store, and then to the Disney Store which remains open till mid-night. It was close to midnight by the time we headed back to the hotel.
Day 6- June 2, 2011
After our late night, we woke at only around 730 am on June 2nd. We found that it had cleared up overnight, and the temperature was a very pleasant 20 degrees C. We had made reservations for visiting the Statue of Liberty by a 2pm ferry from Battery Park, which is located in downtown (viz the southern tip of) Manhattan. Hence we decided to tour downtown Manhattan including the WTC site and the Financial District before heading for the Ferry. We started by heading for Toys R Us, where Avi got a chance to ride the Ferris Wheel (with Amma and myself tagging along for the ride), before we picked up a super light weight umbrella stroller for just USD 20. We then took the metro down to Chambers Street and headed for the WTC site. The redevelopment of the site is now in full swing, with the Freedom Tower more than 50% complete.
We then decided to head for the World Financial Centre (the former site of the ML office), with the intention of having a quick dekko before heading for Wall Street and Battery Park. On our way, some of the pedestrian crossings were closed due to WTC site construction, and we needed to use a bridge across the road. This being America, there was an escalator to climb the bridge, but poor Amma missed that and ended up climbing well over 40 steps. We finally reached the WFC, which is located by the Hudson River. Close to the WFC, we chanced upon a pretty memorial to the victims of the Irish Famine, and spent some time there, before deciding to pack lunch at one of the restaurants in the WFC mall.
By the time our order was delivered, it was past 115, and we realised that we needed to rush to get to our Statue Ferry on time. We stepped out of the WFC, and found that the direct footpath to Battery Park was closed, and that we would have to detour around the WTC site to get there. We spent another 5 minutes looking fruitlessly for an alternate path, before taking someone's advice and flagging cabs to go there. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since the distance to the ferry point was much more than I had anticipated, and we would likely have been late if we had walked.
The Ferry to the Statue was very crowded. We were indeed lucky to have booked Pedestal tickets (and thankful to Nana for that), as only a small number of people were permitted there, and there were no spot tickets available for love or money. The Pedestal ticket allowed us to go through a museum that described how the Statue was built (I was surprised to find that it is a Copper structure supported by a steel truss inside), and then go up to the Pedestal, which did not afford grea
t views of the Statue itself, but provided a fantastic vantage point to view NYC and New Jersey. There were not many people up there, and the pedestal gave both Radhika and me plenty of opportunities to experiment with the new EOS camera. We had planned to leave by the 415 ferry, but by the time we came down from the Statue, and grabbed some Ice Cream, we were only able to take the 515.
On our return to Battery Park, we headed for the Financial District, saw the Wall Street Bull and the NYSE, and then headed back to the hotel. Avinash slept on the train, while we were headed back to Times Square.
We were left with just enough time to change and rush towards 51st street and Broadway, where the Winter Garden theatre is located. Mamma Mia exceeded our expectations. While all of us had loved the movie, we had been a little apprehensive about watching it as a play, and chose it primarily because we did not want to see The Lion King without Avinash (and because we were not adventurous enough to see something very different like The Phantom of the Opera). Our seats were located in the front row, and we had to crane our necks a bit in order to see the play.
From the very first scene, the play took our breath away. The production values and quality of acoustics were astounding. The play had two acts, and lasted till about 1030. When we stepped out of the Winter Garden, it had become extremely cold. We headed back to the hotel, to grab some sweaters, and planned to spend a late night out at Times Square. We headed to the Hard Rock Cafe at Times Square for dinner. Our food took almost 25 minutes to arrive, and as we were tucking into it, a call came from Amma saying that Avi had woken up and was looking for Radhika. Hence our plans for a night out were abandoned, and we rushed back to the Hotel.
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