Niagara Falls from Above

Seeing Niagara Falls from All Sides

I both love and loathe Niagara Falls. The roar of the falls almost compensates for the schlock that humanity has allowed to surround it. On my most recent visit, I can’t help but wonder how much better this place might be if it were in the center of a national park rather than in the heart of a tourist destination. Do we really need wax museums and casinos here to give us a good time?

Yet I am also in love with Niagara Falls’s carnie past, with those fellows in barrels who took the plunge over the falls, with circus performers of all sorts. I suppose gambling becomes a part of that adventure seeking. I suppose those gamblers by tossing their money to casinos are funding better efforts. I suppose what I really am is ambivalent about Niagara Falls.

I’ve been on the Maid of the Mist, walked beneath the falls, been to the wax museums, lost money in the casinos. I’ve indulged in all that Niagara Falls offers. I am grateful to have found a place more recently that made me just want to sit and stare.

Continuing our road trip from Westchester County, N.Y. to Hamilton then on to Rochester, the Brawny Sherpa and I land at the Fallsview Hilton on the Canadian side of the falls. We score a two-bedroom suite on a high floor with a view of the falls, a fake fireplace, and a whirlpool tub.

Nothing in Niagara Falls could be better. We have to drag ourselves from the view to go to an even better one at the Watermark restaurant. We venture down to the falls themselves for a while but indulge for hours in the distant view our hotel room affords. This is a place I will love to come back to.

—Lori Tripoli

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