Day 14 (Aug 27)

Our final ascent back up the Niagara Escarpment, from Queenston to Queenston Heights Park again. Not a bold uphill charge this time, but a winding bike/hike path, the Niagara River Recreation Trail, which follows the Escarpment up the Niagara River toward the falls, along the sheer cliffs above with occasional views of the tumultuous rapids and whirlpools below. Across the river, New York State, USA.

Other nice sights as we head upriver are the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Niagara Falls heliport, busy with tourist sightseeing flights around the falls. Too loud, says Deb, inherently obnoxious bordering on apocalyptic.

We leave the trail at Victoria Avenue, the main drag of the city of Niagara Falls. Marching past scores of hotels and attractions, we make straight for the pedestrian border crossing at the Rainbow Bridge. 

It costs us 50 cents each to leave Canada this way, via an unmanned turnstile. The view of the falls from the bridge is worth the price.

We're prepared for a bit of scrutiny at the border control office on the American side. After all, we flew into Toronto with one-way tickets weeks ago and now we're showing up at the pedestrian crossing carrying huge packs stuffed with who-knows-what Canadian (or Cuban!) smugglables. At least they should run us through some sort of invasive scanning machine or have a dog sniff us. But after showing our passports, we're waved though with hardly a glance.

Strange to be back in the USA. Doesn't quite feel real, maybe because the city of Niagara Falls, NY is a bit of a bizarre no-mans-land. We've already made hotel reservations nearby so we have more time to kill here than we'd guessed, with the fast morning's hike and border crossing. We fill it with a lunch at the local culinary school, where they served Deb a bold but successful Asian tuna taco, improbably paired with a side of fries. Also a New York wine, Konstantin Frank's rosé, good stuff from the Finger Lakes -- where we'll soon be hiking. We won't get too close to Dr. Frank's place, but hopefully we'll walk by some Finger Lakes wineries to see how they compare in craft and trailside hospitality to their Niagara cousins. 

Our room for the night is at the Red Coach Inn, a Tudor-style hotel and restaurant highly recommended by our Canadian kin. It's pretty good, I guess, except the food was so-so and the curtains fell off the wall in the room. The tub's nice, though.