Niagara-on-the-Lake

We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake over the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Our first stop was Cow's for ice cream, since it was such a memorable and enjoyable part of our trip to Halifax in 2007. In Halifax it was the perfect complement to dinner on the harbour and a stroll on the boardwalk. Perhaps it was a case of my memory inflating and exaggerating the deliciousness of Cow's, or maybe it just isn't as good in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

To be honest, I actually preferred Port Dalhousie and our return to our favourite romantic spot, Webster's Falls. We stopped at Port Dalhousie because a horribly out-dated website reached through the iPhone told us that Anna Olson had a bakery there. If only we'd checked Wikipedia we'd have known that she sold the Port Dalhousie bakery over a year ago ...

Webster's Falls in the evening was exquisite, as always, although the water level was a little low and the park was crowded. The popularity of the site seems to have increased since we first visited it in 2006, perhaps we have been too good at advertising. We also nearly got locked into the parking lot, and we were leaving at 8pm with the sun still up. Someone was a little overzealous on gate duty and apparently had places to be.

But back to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a moment. What struck me was how amazingly picturesque a small town it would be if it weren't for the hundreds of annoying tourists waltzing up and down Queen Street. Herein lies the problem. Without the thousands of visitors that roll through N-o-t-L each year there wouldn't be the same kind of money to put into development, restoration and heritage preservation. Success is its own worst enemy.

The entire weekend proves that I'm someone who should either work harder at finding places off the beaten path, or learn to travel in the shoulder season - which conveniently works with our travel budget!