Blame Canada

It's been a busy few weeks in Blogtari country, with most of the busyness stemming from a trip out of the country.

Ma and Pa Blogtari (the LA parents) came for a visit East, and the family hauled up to the glamorous Niagara Falls area to gamble with a foreign currency and see some nature (in that order). I had never been to the Falls before and was mildly excited for the trip. While a good time was had by all, especially my father-in-law who was overjoyed that a gambling woman had married into the family, Niagara Falls is not a trip I would recommend.

Niagara Falls is sort of depressing. Granted, we visited during the off season when tourism is low, but the "town" felt just shy of deserted. And I can't imagine things improving in the summer. Aside from the casino and the 2 nice restaurants I scrounged up, all Niagara Falls activities decidedly fall into the category of budget-priced family fun. There was an indoor (?) waterpark, 2 IMAX theatres and countless haunted houses and wax museums. Honestly, hundreds of wax museums. I had no idea that the art of wax was so popular with our neighbors to the North. After seeing warped wax portraits of Angelina Jolie and Robert DiNiro all over the city, the "Criminals Hall of Fame Wax Museum" had a whole new appeal.

The Falls themselves are ridiculously cool, but the kind of cool that you can experience in a 15-minute moment of reflection while driving up to a sweet weekend in Toronto. Without the casino action, the 2-day trip would have been painfully long. Yet another great reason to support gambling in your community.

The entire trip, my family and I kept talking about how cool it was that we were witnessing one of the 7 Wonders of the World. As if this alone made the trip worthwhile. Sadly, my curious mind led me to Wikipedia to recall the other wonders of the world ('cause that mini golf course from Overboard may not have covered them all...), where I learned that Niagara Falls is not on any Wonders list at all. But then again, I was a fan of Andre the Giant, so maybe that can count instead.