Fall Foliage Trip to Niagara Falls: October 17-18

For weeks, we had been planning to use the October 17-18 weekend for a fall foliage trip. On Friday morning, we realized that neither of our two possible destinations (Vermont and Tennessee) would work due to bad weather. So we decided to head to Niagara Falls. In hindsight, a last-minute trip to Niagara Falls was ironic. During our time in Manhattan, we twice planned trips to Niagara Falls, both of which fell through for various reasons.

We left at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, so the drive through Washington, DC, Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania was completely in the dark. But once the sun started coming up, we realized that all the trees were covered in snow--not exactly the best way to start a fall foliage trip.

But by the time we got into the Finger Lakes area of New York, there was no longer any snow. We loved the views along the wine trail of Seneca Lake, complete with grape vines, changing leaves, and calm water.

We then continued north to see some of the church history sites. The colors on Hill Cumorah (the hill where Joseph Smith received the gold plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon) were beautiful.

We also enjoyed the peaceful feeling in the Sacred Grove (where Joseph Smith, as a 14-year-old, first saw God the Father and Jesus Christ).

It was a nice spot to get some pictures of Olivia.

 We then continued north until we hit Lake Ontario (which is a little hard to see in this picture).

We then drove west along the coastline to the Niagara River, which we followed south to Niagara Falls. We crossed the border into Canada where we spent Saturday night.

The view of the falls from the Canadian side is much better than the view from the American side. Here are the American falls.

And here are the Canadian falls.

One of the highlights of the trip was watching the water pour over the Canadian falls up close. If it hadn't started raining, we probably would have stayed there for at least an hour. Being that close to the edge of the falls gives you the sense that you'll be sucked in at any moment. The constant roar of thousands of gallons of water is mesmerizing.

On Sunday morning, we drove north in Canada to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where we attended church. The 25-minute drive was another highlight of the trip. Winston Churchill once said that the drive along Niagara Parkway was the prettiest Sunday drive in the world. We completely agree.

We stopped several times along the way to admire the Niagara River.

 At Niagara-on-the-Lake, we even caught a glimpse of Toronto in the distance across Lake Ontario.

After church, we began the long drive home. First, we had to cross the border back into New York. Coming back into the United States always makes us proud to be Americans.

We took a different route home on Sunday than the one we had taken on Saturday. We went through eastern New York, through Buffalo, and down to Pittsburgh. At one point along this stretch, Olivia had a meltdown in the car. Even when we took a break with her outside, we could tell that she had had enough driving.

Contrast that with the Olivia of just 24 hours earlier, who was excited to be on a fun road trip.

We stopped in Pittsburgh to visit my college roommate and childhood friend, Matthew Memmott. While it was great to see Matt and Renee again, it was especially fun to meet their two-month-old son, Jaeden. It just about killed Olivia that we wouldn't let her play with Jaeden's face.

We took the scenic route home from Pittsburgh, in order to avoid the toll roads. While taking Route 30 added about 30 minutes to our extremely long drive, it was worth the views. We stopped for a few minutes to soak up this view from Mt. Ararat in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania.

As we rolled into Virginia at 9:00 on Sunday night, our trip odometer passed the 1,000 mile mark. That is a lot of miles for a 42-hour trip. But we didn't view the long hours in the car as getting to and from our vacation: The car ride was our vacation.