USA Holiday 2, September 28 (The Falls)

First thoughts about Toronto: coloured money (great), one and two dollar coins (great), metric system (great), taxes added at the cash register (not so great). Not perfect but they made an effort at least.

Only got two full days in Toronto, and similar to Las Vegas using the first to visit the Canadian side of Niagara Falls (yay no customs), but the weather outlook was looking a little poor. Got picked up by another one of these small tour bus things, this time about 8 other people I think. Personally I'd prefer a bigger bus than that and a larger group. We made *so* many stops along the way I can't even remember them all: some pointless wine tasting thing, some Niagara town with a lake, some worlds something-est clock made of flowers, some worlds smallest wedding chapel, some place where people could take an optional helicopter ride, some kind of whirlpool river spot with a cable car. Took forever to get there, also we had to just wait around at the whirlpool place while some people went on their helicopter ride, not ideal.

Niagara Lake.

Niagara Lake Town. Not actually near the falls.

Some clock.

Cable car ride.

Kind of whirlpool thing, but not really.

Finally we made it to the Niagara Falls area. There's actually a surprising amount of stuff around, I thought it would just be the waterfall and a few overpriced fast food stores. Instead there's hotels and a street (Clifton Hill) with a whole bunch of restaurants, fast food stores, gift shops and attractions (haunted house, mini golf and stuff). When I first spotted the hotels I was wondering why anyone would want to spend more than a half day here, but I guess you could stretch it out a bit more than that.

Went out onto the boat that does a loop around near the falls and comes back. I didn't fancy getting soaked so didn't go up on the top deck, although a good amount of spray still comes in at the bottom deck too. It's a shame (but probably a good idea) you don't get to go right up to and under the falls.

Clifton Hill.

More Clifton Hill.

One half of the falls.

The other half.

I'm on a boat.

After getting back to Toronto we went to this place called Burrito Boyz for dinner. The burritos were pretty good, but the reason I mention this is because they were the first and only place I went to where their listed prices were set so they would come out right *after* tax. For example, a burrito might be listed at something crazy like 6.12 on the wall, but it will actually cost 6.50 when you get to the register. Brilliant! You just need to know what the approximate tax rate it (say 8%) and it's pretty easy to guess the real cost. You don't even need to be a qualified statistician.