4) Niagara Falls and Green Mountains

At the evening we arrived at Niagara Falls. We were eager to see the falls and drove directly to them. A hefty parking fee didn't stop us from parking close to them. We quickly realized why everyone says that you can see the falls much better from the Canadian side! The view is amazing along the promenade. Visitors on the American side could only see the smaller American Falls but hardly the big Niagara Falls. After a first photo session and watching these amazing falls, we drove to Simonida House, where we were to sleep. The next morning (09.08.) Franzi enjoyed her run along the promenade overlooking the Niagara Falls a lot. And she was super lucky spotting a beaver! Wild life that we were hoping to see at Algonquin National Park^^ Simonida, a Serbian expat, made us a nice breakfast. We walked along the promenade to join a Hornblower Tour - a boat ride to the Niagara Falls. It was awesome to experience the strength of these Falls and we had a lot of fun there taking pictures while it rained upon us :) Some souvenirs later, we went to Behind the Falls. As the name says, it brought us behind Niagara Falls. However, that was not exciting at all. But we were able to get a great view from an outlook next to the Niagara Falls, which in the end was worth the trip. Lunch at Tim Hortons and then we picked up our car at Simonida House.

Niagara Falls at night

Franzi's good morning view while running

Franzi's beaver encounter

expect to get wet on the Hornblower Boat Tour :)

American Falls (left) and Niagara Falls (right)

sweeeeeeeeet :)

view from Behind The Falls outlook

also from Behind The Falls outlook

From Niagara Falls we drove to Bennington, Vermont to visit the Green Mountains. Border Crossing to the US was not complicated, visa on arrival was available to Dirk and Anne, Franzi already had a valid ESTA stamp and my J1 makes life easy anyways^^
On the way to Bennington we stopped in New York at a town near the interstate for dinner. At midnight we then arrived at Catamount Motel. Very convenient the concept of motels^^ The next morning (10.08.) we bought breakfast at a nearby grocery store and were then looking for a picnic spot. However, the lakes were charging entrance, so we went to Equinox Visitor Center. The old lady there was not very helpful as she only wanted to sell us to drive up to the mountain. After picnic we found a way to trek up the mountain thanks to our guidebook. The climb was longer and more exhausting than we thought (1175m height)^^ However, due to all the car driving we really needed some hiking and the views up hill were not bad. As so often, the way down was much less convenient than the way up. For some swimming after the hike we drove to Gale Meadows Pond. After some struggles of where we were allowed to swim and where not, we enjoyed the sun and a short swim in the cold pond until the sun started to set. We then drove back to Boston.

successfully climbed Mount Equinox (1175m)