After our taxi driver from last night took a massive detour and refused to drive over Paradise Bridge overlooking the falls due to queuing traffic, we decided to head back this morning and see what we’d missed. Sounds bizarre travelling back to where we were yesterday, right? But the subtlety is this, yesterday we were in Canada and today we’re in the US. And the amount of the falls you can see from your chosen location is dependent on your angle of view.  You’ll be oblivious as to why it matters until you study a map and realise the horseshoe falls aren’t set at an angle from both the US and Canadian rock faces, to offer an equivalent view from both sides. 

The falls from the American side

Paradise Bridge. The falls are behind and to the left of the photo,
so you can see how it would have provided an unique view of the falls.

The American Falls, shown from the Canadian side – this is what you’re seeing in the above video

Having scratched that itch, we got back in our car. Oops, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about the car. This morning after a modest breakfast bagel, minus egg, we took a taxi to the airport to collect our rental car. The lady who served us took one look at Liz in her wheelchair and promptly offered us an upgrade, which I pushed back on. And when you see the picture below you’ll understand why I didn’t want to go any larger.

Our Nissan Armada

Our car next (left) to a Kia Soul (right), for size comparison.
Unfortunately the image doesn’t convey the height difference as it’s parked behind it.  

Now we’ve cleared that up, let’s resume our yarn. From the falls we headed to Rochester. And fulfilled one of the red-letter entries on our must-do list with a visit to Olive Garden. Knowing how large the portions are, we opted for a lunch rather than an evening meal so we could avoid lying in bed feeling stuffed to the gills. To further mitigate the stonking portion sizes we ordered two mains and one pud and shared them. Rounding it all off with a Scillian Cheesecake topped with strawberries. And for me an iced tea, and yes dear reader, you guessed right – a lager for Char. 

Starters – soup and salad with warm garlic batons

Mains – Chicken with spinach and mushrooms in a masala sauce, and spaghetti and meatballs in a tomato sauce.

Dessert – Scillian Cheesecake topped with strawberries

How I’d missed the joy of the interstate and the massive brain sizzle you experience while you’re trying to steer your “minuscule” vehicle safely to the group’s chosen destination. 150 miles later, yes that was 150. I know, that’s a lot of driving! We all suffer from small-country syndrome and assume 150 miles from is a long way, due to it being the total distance to Birmingham. Jason, our upbeat, easy-going, chatty taxi driver from this morning was laughing at us for this. 

We made it safe and sound dear reader, but I must confess to needing a short break part way here so I could get some air, cool off a bit (I was in a T-Shirt in the car, and yes the aircon was on), use the facilities before my bladder dialed 911, or I could squeeze in another drink. The Air B&B we’re staying in here is another timber construction building, (no surprises there) but it means the floors bounce a little as you walk over it. And you can hear the folks upstairs / downstairs pacing around. The deacor has been thoughtfully chosen and the effort and care applied to each room  is abundently obvious. Two things of note were the organiser unit on the wall of the bath shower, which added a series of shallow shelves to the wall over the bath. And the sliding wardrobe door in Char’s room. Due to space constraints the flat owner has removed the door from the built in wardrobe and added an external sliding rail on the wall above the wardobe. What do you think Sophie & Will, would it work for you?