Mini-Vacation: Cuyahoga Valley National Park & Niagara Falls

Well, so much for staying up to date! The summer has been a wonderful whirlwind of reconnecting with friends and family and continuing to settle in at the house (plus a bit of work here and there), and I've fallen behind on posting here. I'll pick back up in chronological order. :-)

After our visit from Mark's parents and sister, our next big event was a mini-vacation in early June. Once we were both vaccinated, we knew we wanted to plan some kind of trip, as travel was one of the things we'd really missed during the previous long year. (We were so, so thankful, though, that we had travelled in January 2020, not knowing that WDW trip would be our last for so long!). We decided to keep things simple and go back to a couple places relatively close by that we'd been to before--easy planning and easy travel. 

So we left BG on a Sunday to drive to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, about two hours east. We got there in time to hike the Ledges trail, one of our favorites there, then drove into the small town of Peninsula for lunch. After that, we drove to another popular trail to see Brandywine Falls, then checked out the Beaver Marsh. We stopped by our hotel to drop off our things and rest for a bit before going to Chili's for dinner. It was so wonderful to have a day totally out of our normal routine in a different place--a getaway we really needed! 

We arrived! (selfie in the parking lot at the first trail)

tall trees on the Ledges trail

Mark and some cool rocks

Amy and a giant tree growing in the rocks

Mark, rocks, trees on the Ledges trail

Mark near the edge at the lookout

We made it to the lookout! 

Mark with more great rocks on the trail

...and more great rocks!

fried mac & cheese bites

fish & chips for lunch

at Brandywine Falls 
(thanks to another hiker for taking the pic!)

selfie with Mark closer to the falls

me on the trail, by a nice calm spot in the river

with the beaver & otter statues 
at the Beaver Marsh

we spotted this majestic great blue heron
(but no beavers)

me at one of the viewing spots on the marsh

The next morning, we drove about 3.5 hours to get to Niagara Falls. We figured the crowds would be lower than usual, since we were there on weekdays and lots of international travel was still on hold. But we were really surprised by how few people were actually there. For the most part, this was a good thing, but there were also lots of restaurants still closed or only open for limited hours, so we did hit some snags with our food plans. The most disappointing one was that the Top of the Falls Restaurant (one of our favorites) closed just a few minutes before we got there for dinner on Monday, and they weren't open again till later in the week (after we'd be leaving). So we were pretty frustrated (and hangry...). 

Otherwise, we revisited our favorite spots and explored some new things on the US side. Although we knew going in that we wouldn't be able to go over to the Canadian side, we missed it more than we expected. And Ontario was still locked down at that point, so it was really eerie looking across the river and seeing almost no people or cars on the other side (which is usually packed!). There were no fireworks, either, but the illuminations were still going on at night.

Mark with the Niagara Falls State Park sign

me at Terrapin Point

selfie with Mark and the Horseshoe Falls

me on Luna Island with the American Falls 
and the observation tower in the background

looking down at the Cave of the Winds walkways

rainbows in the American Falls

at the base of Cave of the Winds

squinty selfie at Cave of the Winds

Mark & me at Cave of the Winds with 
American and Bridal Veil Falls in the background

another view of American and Bridal Veil Falls

more Cave of the Winds: 
me with the American Falls

more Cave of the Winds:
Mark with the Observation Tower

view from our hotel room--toward the Canadian side

another angle from our hotel room--historic buildings

Mark pointing toward our hotel
from a bridge over the Niagara River

panoramic view

selfie with Mark from the other side
of the American Falls

we discovered a frozen custard place:
Twist o' the Mist!

illuminated falls

more illuminated falls

Niagara River 

me on a bridge over the river,
Canada in the background

looking over Mark's shoulder at the river

Mark & me on Three Sisters Island 
(thanks to a Canadian tourist for taking the pics!)

another view of us on Three Sisters Island

another view over Mark's shoulder toward the river

me at the Horseshoe Falls

a Maid of the Mist boat 
(we considered doing this again, but didn't)

hiking along the Niagara River Gorge

panoramic view of the river gorge

a beautiful meadow along the trail

me along a new trail we explored

Mark at an overlook along the river

another selfie with Mark!

me at an outlook on the river

Mark's ice cream with sprinkles :-)

I had blackberry vanilla
(and some hotel coffee)

back at the falls for another selfie

me with the Nicola Tesla sculpture

a view we'd never seen--the Niagara River 
illuminated at night (from a bridge on the US side)

The weather was also notable--perfectly warm and sunny the first day, but very misty/foggy/cloudy the other days. At times, the mist/fog was so dense that we couldn't see across the river at all! And there was a pretty big rainstorm on our last day--we avoided it for a while, but then had to get a bit wet in order to make it to a restaurant for dinner. 

very misty view across the Horseshoe Falls

more misty falls views

those clouds look ominous...let's head for the 
visitor's center!

watching it pour from inside

another giant cloud of mist at Horseshoe Falls

hard to see the illuminations with all that mist!

We left for home first thing on Wednesday morning, getting back around 1:30pm. It was a quick trip, but definitely a good one overall. I've probably said it before, but the pictures of Niagara Falls really don't to it justice--we'd highly recommend going if you ever have a chance! 

Mark & me with the falls and Canadian 
skyscrapers in the background
(I'm wearing my Niagara Falls, Canada hat :-)