Niagara Falls Road Trip with Friends

Niagara Falls Road Trip with Friends

We arrived in Sodus, a small town of under 10,000 people that has its northern border on Lake Ontario. Just pulling into the driveway we could see what a perfect all-American experience it was going to be, with the beautiful homes and their wooden front porches. Stepping inside the front door, we were greeted by Ian’s mother and a sign that said “Welcome Paolo, Ian, and Friends. Make yourselves comfortable.” The six of us and mama had a nice early pasta dinner, the cuisine possibly chosen for Ian’s mother’s love of Italy as well as for Paolo and Allie. Soon, mama went off to bed, and the rest of us enjoyed some relaxation time away from the Big Apple. Other than me and Ian, the group had never even made s’mores before, so we gathered the ingredients together to do so. We couldn’t make a fire on the lawn, because we were a bunch of city boys, but we decided to use a candle. The first candle that we tried lighting wouldn’t start, no matter how long we held the lighter’s flame to the wick. It was soon understood that this was an electric candle, battery-operated, and only resembles a candle in its form and function. Oops.

We made s’mores finally on a real candle, and then prepared drinks with orange juice and the Polish vodka Allie and I brought from Canada before retiring for the night somewhat early. The next morning, we slowly got ourselves together for our return trip to New York City, delaying as much as we could so that this simple and relaxing time could last just that much longer. Following a light breakfast of cupcakes and coffee, we packed up and left Sodus for Chimney Bluffs State Park, a park in Huron, NY on Sodus Bay. The park has these rock formations that have been shaped into sharp spires, formed from heavy erosion from the elements. It is right on Lake Ontario, so we hiked around for several hours and jumped into the water to cool off. Then it was back to the car to head to dinner before finally reaching home.

After that hike, hunger set in amongst us fairly quickly, and we drove an hour to Syracuse before stopping. The city of Syracuse was dead for some reason; it felt like some large ghost town. Food was hard to come by on that Sunday evening, but we finally stumbled across a vegan restaurant which we had to settle for. It was delicious, to my surprise, and sufficient enough to quell our hunger for the remainder of the trip. As we finished and headed back out to the car, Allie asked for the keys and said she wanted to try driving this “big American car” in the parking lot. I gave it to her, and she performed many awkward little donuts in the confined space under the bridge where we had parked. The other guys caught up to us, and Gian, my Chilean friend who recently moved to New York City, asked if he could drive. Gian is a diplomat for the Chilean consulate in New York, and he had just moved earlier in the year after finishing a stint with the Chilean embassy in Warsaw. So Gian had a Polish driver’s license and an Italian one (he’s half-Italian), and we agreed by majority vote that he should be fine.

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2 responses to “Niagara Falls Road Trip with Friends”

    • Jason, if you were not a part of this trip, there would be much less to be envious about! Hope we can do it again sometime, perhaps in your part of the world!