Niagara Falls Date with Ben

Ben and I went on a double date with Alex and Jason. We had lots of fun. My date, Ben, fell asleep on the drive up, but I didn’t let it offend me too much. He’d had a late night the day before playing with his cousins. When we arrived at the American Falls we parked and walked over to the falls. The whole state park area is sort of like an ice city. The falls kick up so much fine watery mist that blows around, falls and freezes everywhere. Lots of places are closed entirely to walking traffic but seeing the falls in the winter is a totally different and beautiful sight than the falls in the summer. Ben enjoyed picking up ice chunks and smashing them in a million pieces and throwing them over the edge of the cliff into the river hundreds of feet below.

We crossed the border into Canada without much trouble this time and went to see the other side of the falls. We found some prime parking about as close as you can get to the falls and walked across the street to see the sights from the other side of the river again. I’ve been there lots of times now and I’m still blown away by the sheer volume of water going over the falls every second of every day. Seems like it should run out sometime. It’s just hard to fathom that much water could be anywhere.

We took some good pictures of the falls and each other before we stepped inside the tourist trap shops. J and Alex found some sweet t-shirts as souvenirs. I decided that since I was on a date, I could get Ben something small too. He selected a tiny teddy bear that cost $25. I steered him to another section of the store where he picked out a more attractively priced large bouncy ball with a boat in the middle for $2. He was happy and so was I. I found a shot glass for my friend Angie that collects them (or at least used to) and am totally excited to mail it to her. Then we chose one for Maddie and one for Parker before we headed back into the cold.

Ben tried his hand at photography and tried to capture the rainbow in the mist above the falls. Then we headed back to the car and tried to get back to the USA. I was pretty sure I knew where I was going, but then we saw a sign directing us “TO USA” and an arrow pointing the opposite way as I had expected. We figured we’d follow the sign. Probably a routing thing the city did to control traffic. No problem. We followed farther and farther away from the bridge. After about 10 minutes the signs just disappeared. Eventually we turned around and headed back the way I knew we needed to go. We tried to short cut through the tourist area with all the hotels and restaurants and hit a dead end almost every turn we made. Eventually, we found our way back to where I recognized the buildings again and I took us directly to the border crossing. Jason is going to write a letter to Canada and tell them they need better signs and that he would also like a suggestion box at the border crossing.

All in all, a pretty good date and a fun time with special Ben time. He is such a great guy. I love spending time with him alone where I can focus on what he has to tell me and wants to do. I love the smile on his face when he knows he is the center of my attention.