Hey friends! On the second day of counting down to the New Year your best friend Misty gave to you… details on our stay in Niagara Falls! Our favorite adventure in February. This trip was the first long road trip I took ALONE with Maddux. He was just about 18 months old and it was an 8 hour drive. Shockingly, he did GREAT. He did squeeze a little container full of some chia seeds all over the car that took an hour to clean (so 9 hour drive I guess 😰) but it was my fault for being a total NEWB and giving it to him in the first place.

We stayed at a Best Western on the Canada side of the falls. We found it on Expedia, and although we were technically crossing in to a foreign country in the middle of the night with only my son and myself, I felt totally safe there. It was well-lit and made me feel safe as a mom traveling alone. It was right in the heart of the town which was convenient and a total plus. When we got to town around 10 PM I tried to be a cool mom and take Maddux swimming since he had been stuck in the car forever— worst idea ever 😂 he screamed and whined the whole time. I also made a complete rookie mistake and only brought one change of jammies…. during the night, his milk cup spilled - soaking him and all his bedding. He was too young for me to feel comfy sleeping in the bed with him not having someone on the other side so I had to figure out a place for him to sleep at 4 AM while he was running around the hotel screaming 😳. Got NO sleep that night. Traveling alone with a baby is not easy, to say the least.

HOWEVER!!! The next day we walked down to the falls (less and 1/4 mile) and saw one of the coolest things I had ever seen in my life. Hands down, absolutely worth the rough night beforehand. Even cooler was that everything was frozen because it was February. Look at the pictures and/or watch the video! SO SO PRETTY! We spent the day exploring the falls and the bizarre town of Niagara Falls. It really is so so bizarre if you have 0 expectations on what this town will be. It’s literally like Las Vegas and a creepy carnival had a baby that turned out decent despite the strange combination. There’s a Ripley’s Believe it or Not, lots of little carnival games (right out on the street like a normal store?), a big eye you can ride and other random little things like that. It was pretty neat, just not AT ALL what I was expecting!

We then headed over to the New York side which was a huge mistake because it’s completely lame and gross in comparison (get it together, America! I can say that, because I’m American….). It was dirty and run-down and kind of abandoned. So sad! Overall, it was absolutely incredible and I WILL go back on day. The things I wish I would have known before are:

Since we drove over the border, the border patrol in to Canada almost didn’t let me cross because I didn’t have written consent from my husband for my son to leave the country. Even though I had all the right paperwork for both of us to travel internationally, the agent was unbothered and spent 10-15 minutes spit-firing questions at me to make sure I wasn’t on the run with my own child. Next time, I’ll just have my husband sign a dang piece of paper! (When I offered to call my husband, the agent said “how do I know it’s the father you are calling” and I wanted to fire back “if I had a signed piece of paper, how would you know I didn’t write it up and sign it myself?????” but I kept my cool…)
Although the falls are absolutely worth going to in the winter to see while frozen, NOTHING in the town is open that time of year. We couldn’t explore all the funky stuff I described earlier because none of it is open in the winter months, wah-wah.
That’s it! It was an amazing adventure and I truly can’t wait to go back someday!