On the Way to College We Stopped at Niagara Falls

Thank goodness both kids are light packers, or I don't know how we'd have gotten them both to college at the same time. As it was, we fit four adults, two Frakta bags, four Frakta bag knock-offs (I can't believe IKEA discontinued this college move-in staple!), one duffle bag, and three backpacks into a compact SUV with a canvas car topper.

Oh, and in Cleveland we added a few bags of candy, as well... College kids need their snack hauls!

Geography is weird. Do I understand why the route that looks like it detours so far north is only 20 miles longer than the route that looks like it goes pretty much straight to Massachusetts? 

No. No, I do not. I picked it, though, because it's the road less traveled, AND because it includes one of my favorite overhyped but iconic detours into Americana:

The last time we visited Niagara Falls, we HATED the Canadian side, but parking in Niagara Falls State Park on the US side and walking around Goat Island is always a good time:

It's always SO crowded, though!

It IS kind of the perfect roadside stop, though. For the price of parking you can just wander around and get some fresh air, take photos, maybe buy an ice cream, and also, there's a natural wonder right there!

We did a bit more hiking than the kids technically agreed to (one of my many annoying traits, according to my children, is how I constantly goad everyone into sightseeing beyond the agreed time/geographical range by exclaiming that who knows when we'll ever come here again! We should seize this moment that has been gifted us, because our time here together is precious! These poor kids have been to Niagara Falls three times in their lives so far, and every time I act like it's going to disappear forever the second we drive away)--

--so much so that my older kid and I, having paused to look at a weird bird, looked up to notice these two criminals CUTTING A SWITCHBACK!!!

I guess I can't guarantee that my partner knows any better, but that teenager who's tugging him along is a Girl Scout who has listened at least once, and more likely four times, to my lecture to the troop entitled "Do Not Cut Switchbacks Let Me Tell You a Story about a Boy Scout Who Did That Once and Was Never Seen Again."

The two criminals looked up to notice us gasping and exclaiming and clutching our pearls and thought we were trying to gesture to them to pose for a pic. So... cheese, I guess!

Do you think there's ever an off-season for Niagara Falls? I feel like I would like it so much more if I had it all to myself, ahem. Like, forget taking a book and sitting on a bench and enjoying the view while reading and eating a snack--I had to wait in line in a crowd of tourists just to take these pics!

As beautiful as Niagara Falls is, eventually the groceries back at the car start to loom ever more appealingly in one's mind, so we walked the long way back to our parking spot, and continued our family road trip tradition of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of the back of the car, balancing paper plates and bread bags precariously on top of Frakta bags and backpacks, then hopped in and noshed our way the long way through New York, because we'll generally be damned if we take a toll road.

Next stop: the East Coast!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!