Friday, September 14, 2007

Tips for Niagara trip

Hope the following notes I compiled would help you.

Hotel Stay:

Book Hotels for one night stay well in advance.
You can either stay near to Niagara Falls or away at about 50-100 miles depending on your convenience.
Second night stay is optional to you based with how much time you spend at each attractions.
Roughly if you start at 11AM, you should be able to cover all attractions in 6-8 Hrs.
Maid of the mist and Caves of the winds will be open till 11-30PM in night.
Other attractions close at 7PM. Dont forget to see the night view which is open till 12AM (midnight).

Tickets :
Preferably plan to reach the Niagara Visitors Center at about 10-11AM where you will purchase Tickets ($28 for adults and $21 for Kids) to see all the attractions.
These tickets are valid for 6 months. You can cover remaining attractions on next day also. Plan your time well.

There are tickets from other private agencies also which are costly and time constrained. (Approx. 65$ for 4 Hrrs trip)
Do not go for them.

List of Major Attractions:
Ø Cave of the Winds (2 Hrs)
Ø Maid of the Mist (2 Hrs)
Ø Adventure Theater (1 Hrs)
Ø Observation Tower (1 Hrs)
Ø Night Vision (1 Hrs)
Ø Niagara Scenic Trolley (1 Hrs)
Ø Discovery Center (1 Hrs)
Ø Aquarium of Niagara (1 Hrs)

Other Notes:
Ø Lots of Indian restaurants are available. Really no issues on food!
Ø Take sufficient warm clothing for yourself and kids in particular.
Ø When you go Maid of the mist and Caves of the winds, it will be very cold out there. However sufficient rest rooms are available every where. Nothing to worry.
Ø Follow all the safety measures while taking snaps.
Ø Do not leave your children unattended.

Gates' Rules

Recently I got this mail forwarded from one of my friends.I felt these rules are quite invaluable.

-Arun


Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school . He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.