23 Jul 2021

Road Trip to East Coast ～ Buffalo, New York ～

by Yuki | posted in: American journey, Great sightseeing spot in the US, Hidden spot in the US, Holiday in America, Nice food in the US, Real life in America | 59

We left Chicago, Illinois, on June 29. We started driving towards Buffalo, New York. We want to go to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, eventually. However, it takes about 17 hours, so we planned to stop somewhere between Chicago and Cape Cod. My husband’s cousin suggested stopping in Buffalo, where we can see Niagara Falls. So that’s why we decided to stop there.

The distance from Chicago to Buffalo was about 540 miles. It took about 9 hours, including the rest time. After that, we just drove straight on Interstate 90. We crossed five state borders, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. This is an exciting experience for me to travel to many states.

We crossed five states, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, within one day!

The rest areas which we stopped were clean, and they had eat-in counters, as well. I didn’t expect it, so I was surprised because we don’t have these nice rest areas in California.

The rest area is like in Japan. There was a rest area for truck drivers and fast food shops like Burger King and Italian Pizza store.

We found some grape farms and winery signs after we entered Pennsylvania.

We found a winery’s sign after we entered Pennsylvania.

The town of Buffalo was not that big. I didn’t know about this town and where it is. So I searched on Google map then I found this place is close to Canada. So this time, we decided which location to stop at, using Google Maps. We also check the route with Google, and I am learning each state location.

Buffalo downtown. The middle is Sahlen Field stadium, temporarily used by the professional baseball team Blue Jays of Toronto.

Niagara Falls

As we got close to Niagra Falls, we could see these signs everywhere.

Buffalo was not a big town, and it seemed like there were no unique sightseeing spots without the falls. After following the signs, we parked the car. We found much more tourists than I expected in the state park.

I asked my husband as a joke that we should bring our passport to visit Canada. However, after that, one of our friends told us that we would need to take covid tests and quarantine. After that, I still felt it hard to visit outside of the U.S.

This is Niagara River. Half of this river is Canadian side.

We found that the high splashing water from the falls from the further when we were driving.

When we entered the park, we heard loud water flowing sound, and the water was flowing extremely fast. Also, the splashing water from the falls made us wet. First, we saw the famous Niagra “Horse Shoe” Falls from Terrapin Point. Then, we could see the massive amount of water close to us. I was fascinated by that scene, and I felt how incredible nature is!

This fall’s size is 2,500ft wide, and its height is 167ft. Summer daytime waterfall is 675,000 gallons per second! How big this fall is!

This is the view of Niagra’s “Horse Shoe” Falls fromTerrapin Point.

Another fall is called American Fall & Bridal Veil Falls. It was close to Terrapin Fall. There were several tour boats near the basin.

This fall size is 1,100ft, and its height is 176ft. Summer daytime waterfall is 75,000 gallons per second! So this fall is smaller than the other, but still, it was a significant fall!

Great sunset view with the slashing water from the falls.

A hotel in Buffalo

We stayed at Hilton on this day which is closed to Buffalo airport. We could see some airplanes from our room. The room was nice and clean, but the pool is the best thing about this hotel. So, I could lap swim. I had been driving for a long distance every day so that I could refresh.