{Day One} Niagara Falls

The Falls in all of their glory with Canada in the distance. 

Our first adventure in New York was visiting Niagara Falls. I have always wanted to visit the falls and I am so happy to say I have. I am an outdoor girl, give me mountains, rivers, waterfalls, forests and fresh air any day. But for the record I still enjoy the city, I just choose nature 95% of the time. I was beyond excited to view Niagara Falls and one of the wonders of the world 

{Maid of the Mist}

One of our first stops was the boat ride on Maid of the Mist. Maid of the Mist takes you out into the Niagara Basin and past the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. When you go on Maid of the Mist they give you these great {read: ugly + usless} ponchos to wear. It was so windy that day that the ponchos seemed to just want to fly off or 'collect' air that made for humorous pictures! One of the funny things about the one-size fits all ponchos is they seemed to cover Amanda, Justin & I pretty well but Tyler (our tall friend) - it barely went to the bottom of his shorts. 

The gang sporting our trendy blue ponchos. 

A beautiful view of Niagara Falls from the Maid of the Mist - it's simply breathtaking. Just look at the color of the water, a beautiful aquamarine - more beautiful that I can even describe.

{Cave of the Winds}

A view from Maid of the Mist of Cave of the Winds. 

Cave of the winds was my absolute favorite activity at Niagara. Each spring a team of builders build the stairs and deck right next to the falls and in front of the Bridal Veil Falls. As we were walking to Cave of the Winds to get our ponchos we kept seeing everyone in these attractive sandals - little did we know we would get our very own commemorative sandals and yellow ponchos to remember our time at Niagara. 

The area around cave of the winds & the 'hurricane deck' is absolutely gorgeous with water gushing all over, mossy rocks and the thundering sound of the falls just feet away to experience a tiny taste of the hurricane deck checkout the little video I made via the vine app.

 

Standing in a waterfall is a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

{Goat Island}

After our wet adventures near the falls we walked around Goat Island and enjoyed the scenes. We ate a late lunch over looking the upper falls and then headed toward the aquarium (because we had time + a free pass). I loved all of the colorful flowers I found all over New York, especially since I had just left a dreary rainy Minnesota where spring was still three weeks out. 

The upper falls.