Niagara Trip I

My mother-in-law came to visit from Hong Kong last week so we finally took a vacation.  It had been a long summer so it felt good to get away from everything---get away from the house, get away from work, get away from Jersey.  We drove up to Niagara Falls for a couple of days.  I had visited Niagara Falls before, but that was years ago and so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I guessed it would be super touristy and outrageously expensive.  And part of it was---there were the usual souvenir shops, wax museums, and chain restaurants.  But Niagara is probably one of the places where there is something behind the cliche. 

The Falls themselves are impressive.  But besides the Falls, there are also other attractions worth visiting, such as the Butterfly Conservatory.  It's only a short drive from the Falls, but it's worth the effort.  It's essentially a large greenhouse that holds hundreds of different species of butterflies.  The butterflies are freely roaming throughout the Conservatory---once you enter, they can flutter all around you.  I don't think I've ever been so close to so many butterflies at the same time.  We ended up just sitting there for a while and letting them land on us.  It was a pretty peaceful moment and we could have sat there for hours and forget about the world.