Every time I come back around to this corner of the internet, I want to talk about how long I have been gone for and how I promise I'm going to be back regularly, but the key for the next year is consistency that will hopefully evolve into a schedule.
BUT, today I'm here to brag a bit about how wonderful my boyfriend is and how he surprised me with a birthday trip to Cedar Point and Niagara Falls.
Day One
Our first stop from Chicago was Cedar Point, which I haven't been to since I was maybe 9, and it was so fun! My closest theme park is Six Flags Great America and being at a park that's a bit cleaner and feels overall a bit safer was great.
The reason behind this stop was because I love Snoopy and the whole Peanuts group SO MUCH. My grandma really was the driving force behind my attachment to them, but I hold them so sentimentally to my heart and we went to meet Snoopy, but he didn't come out. :(
It was Halloweekends, so there were characters walking around you could take photos with and spooky treats themed for the holiday. I bought a stuffed Snoopy that is made out of a pumpkin fabric and then a Snoopy Squishmallow (obviously).
A couple extra details!
We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Sandusky. I don't think much needs to go into hotel planning if you're going to spend most of your time in the park, and this was perfect for us.
We also stopped in the Pop Shop to look at Funkos since we both collect them, and it doubles as a shop and a place people can get together to play games.
Day Two
The next day, we finished our drive into Buffalo and decided to wait and see the Fall at night. We spent the day checking in, stopped at Music Matters where I found a Post Malone album I've been searching for forever, visited the outlet mall (Jorge and I are both big mall people), and made our way to the Falls.
A huge surprise that was really cool were the fireworks on the Canada side. It was the last weekend they were doing them, so the Falls were PACKED. But, it was beautiful.
Day Three
One of my 30 Before 30 goals is to visit all five Great Lakes, and we checked Lake Erie off of the list. Jorge went out of his way to get me to a small piece of Lake Erie near the Buffalo Naval Park. I bought a small jar a few weeks back and he filled it with water for me. :)
We headed over to the Walden Galleria, again, two big mall people. We played some Pokemon Go and walked around before heading back over to Niagara Falls to see it during the day.
In the back of this photo is a viewing deck that you have access to with a ticket on the Maid of the Mist boat tour. We skipped the boat tour and opted for Cave of the Winds, a self-guided tour through a scary elevator into the side of the falls where you walk these terrifying wooden stairs up the side.
As you can imagine by the name Hurricane Deck, you get soaked. There was a man and his wife in front of us and he was wearing a full rain suit and he was drenched underneath. I was not in a full rain suit, but how many times can you say you were at the Hurricane Deck at Niagara Falls?
While it doesn't look like a lot of water, I assure you it's a LOT.
After the Cave of the Winds, we walked around the remainder of the state park and I didn't realize how massive it is and we didn't cover about half of the ground of it. We discovered this on the trolley we took to get us back to the front of the park. I'm not sure what we missed, but the park was beautiful and it made me wish we had some more time to explore around.
A small, personal highlight. We ate at the Hard Rock and this was at the front door:
This was my first concert EVER when I was nine and it was so cool to see this in person.
A couple more extra details!
We stayed at the Niagara Riverside Resort, which is south of the falls. It was clean, quiet, and I'm grateful it wasn't in the heart of the downtown area because of the high traffic tourism.
We were only on the US side. I'm not sure what there is to do on the Canada side, but I have heard great things about it.
Once you've seen the Falls, there isn't much else to do unless you make the 20-minute drive down to Buffalo, and even down there I'm not sure what is on the table. But, you could spend an entire day or two exploring the grounds and taking in the views, plus the boat ride and the Cave of the Winds.
If you're a tchotchke person like I am, there is no shortage in the vicinity of the falls of gift shops. I recommend saving your money for the gift shop inside of the park that we found at the end of the Cave of the Winds tour.
There will be film photos coming as soon as I get them developed. :)
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