Kupitero's Keep Travels Page

Buffalo, New York, Niagara Falls & Toronto in the Ontario Province of Canada, Oct. 2009:

Ah, Canada! U.S.A.'s border-brother on the North always reminds me of a place with very few people, French-speaking denizens and a relatively quiet place with one of the best social services in the world.

The trip was to see beautiful Niagara Falls -from both the US & Canadian vistas- while taking advantage of the fact that a cousin - Tinoy Lopez - on my father's side of the family tree, happened to live in nearby Toronto. Our planning was a logistician's dream.

We planed-in from SFO to the Buffalo International Airport in a drizzle at about 9:30 pm (EST) but we're able to clear all hurdles and got our rental car for the 30 minute drive to our hotel just close to the US-Canadian border. My trusty Garmin NUVI GPS guided us with ease as we traversed the smooth roads of Buffalo unto the border crossing. And, I noticed, driving in this part of New York was relatively less stressful than the Bay Area!

How was the US-Canada border crossing experience? It was relatively easy if you have all your paperwork ready. We showed our valid passports, answered a few questions and in 5 minutes, we're already on the Rainbow Bridge en-route to our hotel! At about 11:00 pm, we're already in the comforts of our beds!

Our hotel was right across scenic Niagara Falls and from the windows, we could also view the activities at the border crossing. And so, the following morning, after we had our breakfast, we walked about a mile of the span of the River Road-Niagara River Parkway and stopped briefly at the 'Journey Behind the Falls' to do some window shopping and ate a snack of burger, fries and coffee. After all, the temperature was about F 40 degrees and we were a soaking wet not only because of the light drizzle but also from the water sprays coming from the Falls!

It was on the walk back to our hotel when we decided to take the plunge and take the falls 'head-on' by getting on the 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride. We were fortunate that we were able to get on this once-in-a-lifetime boat trip because in two days - Oct 25, 2009 - it will be the last day of their 2009 operations!

The following Saturday morning, we ate early inside our hotel room and packed our gear. We headed for Toronto on a crisp and clear day and arrived at our cousin's driveway just past lunch hour. After all the well-wishing and the hearty lunch (layered salad, chicken adobo, baked sweet yams and leche flan), we drove about 10 minutes to the Scarborough Center to hop into the light rail train operated by the Toronto Transit Commission to get into the heart of downtown.

Toronto's transport system is a good mix of subways & elevated light-rail trains but some of the stations have very narrow walkways and escalators. It could get intimidating if you're traveling alone. Otherwise, it is a very good means of seeing the entire city on a budget by getting the C$9 TTC Day Pass ticket which is good for two adults.

After feasting our eyes on the cityscape which featured a super-fast elevator ride going up the famous CN Tower, we capped the day by eating a sumptuous eat-all-you-can dinner buffet in a restaurant just near my cousin's house in the suburbs of Scarborough, Toronto.

Merci beaucoup, Canada (and, thank you, Tinoy & Tessie Lopez in Scarborough (Toronto), Ontario) !!!

TECH NOTES: Some images were scanned from actual prints (hence, the scan lines) while others were taken using a Canon or Casio Exilim digital camera and were batch re-sized to 640 x 480 - or, lower - to speed up page loading (using IrFan View), as well as to accommodate the image handling capability of the 3COM Audrey (handles only JPEGs) - from which all these images are also viewed in our house - that I had transformed as a digital picture frame/MP3 player. Most pictures were captioned using good-old, Adobe Photoshop.

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