Whatever happened to …

… Niagara Falls?

Normally, when I sit down at the keyboard on Saturday mornings, I know what the topic will be for this regular Sunday morning post. This morning, I drew a blank. My friend, Peter McAsh, had thrown out an idea and we both forgot what it was. What to do, what to do…

Then, I read this article this morning…

Niagara Falls rated biggest ‘tourist trap’ in Canada: ‘Everything is a scam’

And I was off with a couple of memories.

First one, when our kids were much younger, my wife and I would slow down in Clinton and toss them out of the car door to their grandparents and then head for a week alone in Niagara Falls.

I’m not sure that we did a lot to spur the economy being mostly poor at the time but we’d walk Clifton Hill and the neighbourhood and head to the Falls to view things. We did hit every souvenir store to look at things with a purpose. Sure, we saw all the pricey things but our old daughter’s name was Gillian and we were bound and determined that we’d buy her anything that had her name on it. We’re still looking …

Beyond Niagara Falls, there are winery tours, the Welland Canal that you can go beside, over, and under and the Niagara Parkway that takes you to beautiful Fort Erie. By dumb luck, we ended up at the racetrack when the Prince of Wales Stakes were run. And, I left my tuxedo at home.

The biggest takeaway was knowing that there was always something that you can do.

Years later, my friend Cyndie Jacobs and I were asked to co-chair the ECOO Conference in partnership with OASBO-ICT and renamed it the BIT Together Conference. (Bring IT Together). We were encouraged to check out the newly opened Niagara Convention Centre and we did. It was short on breakout rooms at the time but was the right size for a conference of the size we predicted. And, we were right – there was a large number of attendees. The Convention Centre IT guy was confident that they had enough access points and bandwidth but had a bit of a panic when he looked out at the audience of 1500 in the main hall, each with at least one device open. And that was only the people that got there early for a seat. Many others were in the corridor looking in.

What was intriguing about Niagara Falls was that there was always something to do – even for computer conference people. The conference only runs from 9-4 on the days and then people were left to their own plans to do something. Sadly, some just went to their room after supper but we wanted to fix that with all kinds of events. Even in the morning, at the previous year’s conference, I noticed all the runners coming down first thing and then went running by themselves. We had a runner on our committee and she organized and took them for a run by the Falls.

My friend Peter and I went to one of the “Outdated big chain restraints” – the Outback Steakhouse – and had a great “outdated” meal and blooming onion. My steak seemed fresh enough.

My wife and I also did the Las Vegas thing. The sheer size puts Niagara Falls to shame but you can’t walk to a different country over a bridge there.

For a Sunday, how about sharing some of your thoughts?

• Do you agree with the article’s opinion of Niagara Falls?
• Have you ever been to Niagara Falls?
• Have you ever been to Las Vegas?
• What would you consider the biggest reason to visit Niagara Falls?
• What famous wax museum burned down in the 1990s?
• Why didn’t Niagara Falls, NY turn itself into a tourist destination as well?
• Do you have a favourite holiday destination that you’d return to over and over again?
• What do you think of Bing’s AI drawing of Niagara Falls above?
• Do you know where I can buy a “Gillian” coffee mug? These days, if it had a moose on it, that would put it over the top.
• What are the other races in Canada’s Triple Crown of horse racing? Where are they run?
• Have you ever been to a conference where the internet access was slow and sketchy?
• What would your Sunday mornings be like if I wasn’t able to come up with an idea for a post?

I’d like to hear your thoughts. There are no wrong opinions so let them fly.

This is a regular Sunday themed post around here. You can check them all out at that link. There is also a Padlet where you can leave suggestions for ideas so I don’t get stuck again! Please contribute.