On the short trip from Utica to Niagara Falls, we found license plates from Maryland, New York, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, California, Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Ontario. Akalena easily found them all on the map except Massachusetts, which was labeled Mass.
We arrived at Niagara Falls around noon, which was too early to check into the motel, so we spent a few hours walking around the park, getting a preliminary look at the falls, along with thousands of other people from all over the world. The park seems very unprepared to deal with the number of people who are here. The website said we could buy vouchers, then get tickets for the boat ride. That is not exactly what happens. You buy the vouchers, then you stand in line for two hours to get on whatever boat is leaving when you get to the front of the line. You order food at a kiosk, then wait while they fill the twenty orders before yours. Finally, you get the food and go sit on the rocks to eat because all the tables are full. There is barely room to walk along the paths and you have to fight for a spot at the rails in the viewing areas. Maybe visiting Niagara Falls on the Fourth of July weekend is not such a good idea. They aren’t even having fireworks displays because the fireworks are generally set off on the Canadian side by US employees, but US citizens can’t go to Canada right now. The website didn’t tell us that when we made our plans.
