That 70's Vacation - Niagara Falls

We were advised to skip the "historical road" to Niagara Falls and to take the highway to the bridge to Canada. Pretty quickly, we found ourselves on the bridge and waiting in the Canadian Immigration lines around 10:30AM that Saturday morning. 

It used to be possible to cross into Canada with just your driver's license as ID, but they since tightened those rules and require an official passport.

Luckily, we could pay for the bridge tolls with our New Jersey EZ-Pass. Unfortunately, there was a lot of other Americans in line, so we waited for about 30 minutes as each car was questioned by the Canadian immigration officer.

My father quickly turned off our cell phone data plans. So frustrating that we were just a few hundred feet from America, but were being charged exorbitant rates for our data plan.

After checking into our hotel (Radisson Fallsview), we found our way onto the WeGo bus and went down to Table Rock where we could see the Niagara Falls from the top.

The town of Niagara Falls, Ontario (not to be confused with Niagara Falls, NY) was definitely lost in time. Parts of it really reminded you of the days of Motel glory in the 1950's and 1960's and part was very modern, but retained the seedy tourist trap feel. Very similar to Las Vegas.

Overall, it was nice to have gone to see the powerful waterfalls and experience the flurry of kitschy activity around the town, but we only spent about 30 minutes total at the waterfalls. My father didn't think I was ready to go on the Maid of the Mist or head down to the gorge to experience the waterfall up close. So we just enjoyed it from the top with the hundreds of other tourists.

Since we were in town for 48 hours, how did we spend the rest of our time? More to come over the next few posts but spoiler alert - we really enjoyed some of the lesser known experiences such as High Tea at Queen Charlotte's Tea Room and the wine-tasting town of Niagara-on-the-lake where I got some tasty ice cream.

That 70's Vacation - Griffon Pub

We like to try local food whenever we travel somewhere. It doesn't mean we always go to expensive restaurants, but we do check out the ratings on Yelp! and Local Eats.

Since Niagara Falls, NY isn't exactly the most popular foodie city, we didn't search long before we settled on The Griffon Pub. It was clearly the best place in the area and they took reservations for Friday night.

We arrived at 8PM after checking into the Four Points hotel. The place wasn't as crowded as we the full parking lot would have suggested, but it was also pretty spacious.

After checking in, we were seated right away in a tall booth.

The menu looked great. It had so many choices that all looked so tasty, we had a hard time deciding. Ultimately, we went with the Buffalo-style Deviled Eggs for our appetizer.

My mother went with the highly touted Bacon Jam Burger for her entree...

...and some poutine (since we were so close to Canada).

My father was torn, but ultimately chose the Beef on Weck. The roast beef sandwich on a kummelweck roll with a side of au jus and horseradish wasn't a Griffon Pub specialty, but it was a popular Western NY sandwich. When in Rome...

Everything was delicious and since it was a gastroPUB, we had some tasty craft beers they had on tap.  No IPA's for me, but the waitress suggested a Shirley Temple for me - my first one ever. I was an insteant fan.

That 70's Vacation - The Finger Lakes

There's a region in Western New York called the Finger Lakes for their resemblance on a map to long skinny fingers.

Some of the lakes have downtown areas that are well-suited for tourism, while others are better used as base camps for wine-tasting trips.

Since my father was driving, we skipped the wine and went for the quaint downtown of Skaneatles, NY.

Skaneatles has a charming little commercial area where the houses and shops maintained their old historic charm and teleported you back to simpler times.

Of course, there's a lovely grassy area near the lake where you can sit in the shade, jump in for a cool swim, watch the ducks or take a lake boat tour.

Since it was a few hours after lunch, my father started to get hungry. We decided to take in another local Yelp! favorite, Doug's Fish Fry.

While you might not think of fresh seafood in the middle of New York State, Doug's apparently trucks in fresh fish from Gloucester, Mass each morning. This no-frills joint was a perfect for us as it was delicious and low-key. With no wait staff, you just order from the counter and seat yourself. It was definitely a nice treat, especially since we don't really eat fried seafood much in New York City. We had the fried scallops, and they were delicious.

That 70's Vacation - Four Points x 2

Hotel Details 
Hotel: Four Points Scranton & Niagara NY
Dates: September 3-5, 2015
Rate Paid: 3,500 SPG points/night
Regular Cost: $157/night 
Redemption: 4.5 cents/SPG point

Since we didn't want to spend too much money on our long weekend trip to Niagara Falls, we used our SPG points for hotel stays to save cash.

Fortunately, we found availability at Four Points Scranton on Thursday night and Four Points Niagara Falls NY on Friday night for 4,000 and 3,000 SPG points, respectively.

The Scranton location was pretty underwhelming, even for a Four Points. When we checked in, the staff seemed distracted as if we interrupted their game of Candy Crush. They were kind enough to give us our room keys and after my father asked, we were given vouchers for a complimentary breakfast (per our SPG Platinum status benefit).

Technically, SPG Platinum members should have also been upgraded to a King Suite, but we didn't push since an extra 70 sq ft wouldn't make a difference for a single night.

The room we had was fine, pretty clean and had working AC. Nothing to really complain about as we dropped off our things to head to the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Railriders baseball game.

The hotel did have an indoor pool, though we didn't use it on our stay. The lobby area was nicely appointed and would have been a nice place to lounge around if we were with a larger group of friends/family. But since we didn't get back from the Railriders game until 10PM, we were ready for bed to start our day early the next morning.

The next morning, we used our vouchers at the restaurant downstairs, The Electric Grill.

While SPG Platinum only guarantees you complimentary continental breakfast, this Four Points gave you a voucher for any item on the breakfast menu. We ordered the Fritatta and the Breakfast Sandwich while they were nice enough to include my kid's order of Pancakes for free.

The next day, we made our way up north towards Niagara Falls. Instead of heading into Canada on Friday night, my parents decided to stop at the border and enjoy a Friday night in the United States where our Verizon cell phone data package would still be free.

Unlike it's Scranton counterpart, the Four Points in Niagara Falls (really just outside Buffalo) was quite packed when we arrived Friday night. Apparently, there was a wedding. But despite the heightened level of activity, the front desk at this Four Points was super friendly and welcoming. This staff was exceptionally trained in the art of hospitality!

Our room was fine, pretty standard for Four Points. While there were no suite upgrades available, the Front Desk did upgrade us to a River View room on the 4th Floor. The bathroom was conveniently set up with the sink outside of the room with the toilet and bathtub.

The pool area looked like it was enclosed subsequent to the building being built, which made for a much nicer swimming experience in the evenings when the temperature got cooler.

But the best part of the Four Points Niagara Falls is the outdoor patio and deck overlooking the river. Simple but beautiful in the late afternoon and in the evening where they light up the bridge.

The best part was, since it was during Labor Day Weekend, the cash rate for a night here was going for $214 including tax. But since it was a Category 2 Starwood hotel and a weekend night, we only used 3,000 SPG points! At 7 cents/pt, that's an A+ redemption!