A Long Weekend in Niagara Falls and Toronto - June 2022
Outside of a few weekend trips to the Hamptons and a weekend in Washington DC and Philadelphia we haven’t done a lot of local travel. Our list of these getaways is still quite long with jaunts to Nantucket, Cade Cod, Newport, Boston, and Montreal still on the list. However, this past weekend, which also happened to be Juneteenth, we took advantage of the long weekend and drove from Manhattan to Niagara Falls, ending the trip in Toronto.
Day 1 - Creek Side Dining (June 16, 2022)
After packing that morning we left our Upper West Side apartment a little after 9 AM and dropped Frasier off at NY Tails before jumping on the highway and crossing the George Washington Bridge to make our way to Niagara Falls. We stopped along the drive at a drive-through Dunkin Donuts got a few donuts and a coffee and kept driving. A few hours later when we were just about to finish driving through Pennsylvania and back into New York we stopped at a McDonald’s where we grabbed a hamburger, double cheeseburger, and two fries before getting back on the highway and making our way to our first stop Buffalo, New York.
We arrived in Buffalo a little before 5 PM and met my Grandma and Ron at a beautiful restaurant on a creek aptly named Creekview Restaurant. We had a table on their covered patio overlooking the creek. Jenn had the vodka pasta, Grandma and Ron had the scallops, and I had the jumbo shrimp. We were so engrossed in conversation that the time flew by and I completely forgot to take photos of the meal. Luckily before we said our goodbyes two hours later we remembered to take a group photo to remember the great evening.
From there we filled up on gas and crossed over into Canada driving across the rainbow bridge into Niagara Falls. Crossing the border took only a few minutes thanks to the pre-crossing app and from there a few minutes later we were dropping off our car at the valet at the Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa. After taking a video of the room and settling in we made our way back out and walked down to the falls. At first glance, they weren’t nearly as big as either Jenn or I pictured in our heads but as we got closer the sure magnitude of the power coming from the falls was tremendous.
We walked from the falls back through town which was a mix of Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Las Vegas with shops, arcades, rides, and casinos. When Jenn spotted the massive Ferris wheel I knew I was in trouble and sure enough a few minutes after securing tickets we were loaded onto the wheel and took a few revolutions getting views of both the New York and Canadian sides of the waterfall as well as the small surrounding town.
From there we made our way back to the hotel walking through a casino and mall before getting back to our room and watching Niagara Falls light up and the 10 PM firework show. What a great start to the weekend trip.
Day 2 - Can We Call that Wine? (June 16, 2022)
With only a day in Niagara, we decided to hit the ground running and take in the falls as quickly as we could so we booked the first Niagara City Cruise out at 9:30 AM. We left our hotel a little before 9 AM and walked back through the mini-golf and Ferris wheel and down to the docks where the boat left directly at 9:30. From there we did a 20-minute loop next to the falls where we got absolutely drenched even in our plastic ponchos. The ride though was beautiful and put into perspective the sheer magnitude of the falls. We took some video and pictures and by the time the boat was docking, we ditched the ponchos and did our best to let the warm weather dry us off. We took the long walk back up to our hotel and stopped and grabbed Jenn a Niagara Falls Starbucks mug and went back to the hotel to shower up and get ready for the rest of the day.
Based on some of Jenn’s work team recommendations we drove from our hotel to a town 30 minutes away called Niagara-on-the-Lake. We parked our car and had lunch at Treadwell one of the highest-rated restaurants in the area. Jenn had a glass of sauvignon blanc and I stuck with sparkling water. For my entree, I had their duck confit and Jenn had the salmon, shrimp, and mussels in a bouillon base. Both were incredible and well worth making the reservation ahead of time. From there we walked around the town and stopped at several shops including a year-round Christmas store where Jenn bought an ornament for our tree. We spent a little more time walking around the lake before going back to our car and off to our first of three wineries for the day.
Along with with the small town there are a series of wineries in the area, making up the bulk of the Canadian wine production. We did our best to choose some of the top places including Peller Estates Winery, our first stop of the tour. We arrived about 30-minutes early and got a beautiful table overlooking the vineyard. We each got their standard tasting which was 3-tastings each along with a welcome drink. We both did a couple of whites and reds and although none were great they weren’t too bad.
From there we drove about ten minutes to try one of the most famous wines in Canada, “ice wine” and what better than to try it from one of the biggest producers? Well, when we arrived at Inniskillin and grabbed our three tastings of their ice wine I almost gagged at how bad each of them was. I’m not sure I could even pick which of the three was the worst but they reminded me of a cross between medicine and rubbing alcohol. We didn’t stay long at the winery which although gorgeous was not going to have us running to buy any wine anytime soon.
Our final wine stop was at Chateau des Charmes a beautiful estate on the way back to Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, they had a wedding going on today so we didn’t get the full run of the property but we did get a nice window table on their second floor where we got to try their sauvignon blanc before we both ordered a glass of wine. I went with their Rose Brut and Jenn had a Pinot Gris. Both were fine but by this point, the bad taste of the ice wine just wasn't going to leave our palettes.
We made our way back to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went down to have dinner on the second floor at Morton’s Steakhouse. This used to be “the place” for us in Orange County when we wanted a nice steak in Costa Mesa. I’m not sure if it was just the Niagara Falls version or if the brand has degraded a bit over the years but our 16-ounce rib eye, tuna tartare, baked potato, and salad were not nearly as good as we were hoping. Luckily we had a seat at the window overlooking the falls which made for a great evening. After dinner, we made another walk down to the falls and stopped at Dairy Queen. Each time we had passed DQ over the last two days Jenn would reminisce on her family trips there, so I knew we had to make a stop. I had the chocolate-dipped cone which was great and Jenn had her patented Strawberry shake. Both hit the spot and gave us a little more pep in our step on the walk back to our room and fell asleep right before the fireworks rang over the falls at 10 PM.
Day 3 - The Circle of Life (June 17, 2022)
The following day we leisurely woke up, showered, left our room a little before 8 AM, and grabbed some coffee at Starbucks in our hotel before getting our car from the valet and making our way to Toronto. Without traffic, the drive from Niagra Falls to our hotel should be around an hour and a half but with a lot of traffic, we got there in a little over two hours. We found the parking structure around the corner from The Omni King Edward, dropped off our bags, and were back out in Toronto.
Our first impression of the city was that it was denser than we thought it would be. From our hotel, we walked around the block to Hothouse to get a late breakfast. It was packed but we were able to get a reservation on our drive and were seated right away. Jenn had the Corned Beef Hash and I had an omelet, both were fine but nothing to write home about, pretty standard fare.
From breakfast, it was time to explore Toronto on a beautiful 80-degree sunny day. We walked from the restaurant to a nearby coffee shop and I grabbed a cappuccino before we kept on. We both love the feeling of walking in new cities and nothing beats it on a day like today. We walked to St James Park and then to the famous CN Tower. As we arrived at the CN Tower we were right across from Rogers Centre where the Blue Jays and Yankees were just about to play. After some photos, we kept on our way.
Our next stop this afternoon was the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) located in central Toronto it turned out to be one of the nicer surprises of the trip. AGO had a good mix of modern and more contemporary pieces throughout its five floors. We spent about two-hours walking from floor to floor taking in every nook and cranny of the museum. One of our favorite spots was a 360-degree music exhibition where to sets of twins would sing and walk in a circle with you fully immersed in the middle. Jenn and I loved it and we were absolutely mesmerized for at least ten minutes. Even when our feet started to hurt we powered through and finished off the museum’s final more modern exhibit on the top floor highlighting the new social media age.
From AGO we made the walk back to our hotel where we were able to check in and get a little rest. Speaking of rest, within five minutes of finishing our video of the room Jenn was in a robe and fully asleep on the bed. After I had caught up on writing this post I went out and grabbed another coffee and enjoyed a bit more of Toronto while Jenn caught some shut-eye.
Our final destination of the evening was dinner, probably the most important step of them all. Before we went there though we had drinks in our hotel bar. Jenn had a glass of white wine and I had a very nice old fashion. They even brought over some mixed bar nuts that were out of this world.
From our hotel, we walked ten minutes to George Restaurant a beautiful spot that we both were excited to try out. When we arrived we got a very nice table near the window and ordered their five-course menu. Before the food arrived though Jenn started with a glass of white wine and I had a vodka martini. From there we embarked on the multi-course adventure where although we both didn’t get to choose our menu we were given different items for each course. It’s the first time I’ve seen a restaurant do it that way and I have to say it was the only bad part of the night. What ended up happening was that both of us would prefer one of the two dishes (usually the same one) leaving the other person feeling like they missed out on that course. Luckily we did our best to share and from the opening chef’s amuse-bouche to the dessert we enjoyed every moment of the two-hour meal.
I had one surprise for Jenn before we closed out the night. I had noticed while she was taking a nap that the actual convenience store in the show Kim Convenience was only a ten-minute walk from the restaurant. What I didn’t realize was that it wasn’t in a great part of Toronto so as we were getting closer it became pretty obvious where we were going. We made it safe and sound and got to see the place that gave us so many great laughs over the four seasons. After snapping a few photos we walked back to our hotel on a beautiful Toronto evening.
Day 4 - Coming into the Station (June 18, 2022)
From the moment we left New York we have been moving non-stop, trying to soak every last ounce out of the trip. This morning it caught up to us and we slept in and made our way down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. It was pretty standard hotel breakfast in that the coffee was bad and the food was fine. Jenn had waffles and I had the eggs Benedict.
We had an Uber come pick us up and take us to our first stop of the day, Casa Loma. When we were doing research on things to do in Toronto all articles kept pointing us to this castle that was built on the hills overlooking Toronto. Today was as beautiful as day as ever so it felt like the perfect time. When we arrived we were immediately blown away by the beauty of this castle built in the early 1900s. We had purchased tickets ahead of time so made our way and grabbed an audio guide and spent the next two hours walking through the exhibits and grounds. They were having a Princess Diana event so much of the castle was filled with imagery from her life. The rest of the castle was random other memorabilia from films that had been shot there like X-Men. It was a really odd amalgamation of stuff, some interesting, some not so much. We ended our tour walking through the gardens and down the hill through a park into central Toronto.
We made our way down and were walking to another museum when we stopped to grab water and coffee at a beautiful little shop called KX Coffee Bar. While we were sitting there cooling off from the walk we decided that we were tired and wanted to relax for the rest of the afternoon so we looked for nearby movie theaters. We found showings of Top Gun: Maverick but they were sold out so we decided to go see Jurassic World Dominion in a luxury theater. We arrived a few minutes before showtime, had popcorn and waters delivered to our seat and enjoyed/endured the two and half hour runtime.
From the theater, we walked back through Toronto and to our hotel where we started to pack up for our journey back the following day. Our last adventure of the trip was dinner at Richmond Station the restaurant I was most excited to try on this trip. The good news is it didn’t disappoint. Jenn started with a glass of wine and I had a pilsner. We started off with a duck pate that had some nice Asian flavor profile that was out of this world. Jenn was not happy with the choice when I ordered but even she came around to it. For our entree, I did their burger and Jenn had the halibut, both were out of this world. We couldn’t decide on dinner so we got two, cheesecake and ice cream cake, a perfect way to end dinner.
We walked back to the hotel, finished packing, and got ready for bed. Although the trip was short, I’m so glad we got back on the road and did this road trip. It was perfect.
We left Toronto on June 20th at around 5 AM and were back in the city picking up Frasier a little after 1 PM with a few quick pit stops on the road back. It was a decent drive back but it was so nice to just listen to music and see parts of New York and Canada that we hadn’t seen before. I hope this trip inspires us to do more road trips in the future. Until the next one I’ll have to rest up my singing voice.
