Julie Reilly: Maid of the Mist!

Click to go straight to photos.

If you’ve read about our elopement and wedding day, you already know that our entire 7 day wedding trip was like a honeymoon, but Thursday and Friday were our last official. post-wedding honeymoon days at Niagara Falls before heading home on Saturday, and we packed them full:

Thursday, September 19:

We spent most of Thursday hiking Devil’s Hole State Park and Whirlpool State Park. Absolutely beautiful whitewater rapids. The water there, and also at the falls is crystal clear, and the most beautiful blue-green color! They have high speed boat tours up the river to the whirlpool that twist and turn and get everyone soaked. You could hear the passengers screaming with glee! We hope to ride one on our next visit! Here’s a video we took from the trail:

We did some serious climbing on this hike, and our dogs were tired. That evening we had a relaxing pizza dinner in our suite from a place across the street from the hotel.

Friday, September 20:

We started by visiting Three Sisters Island, then re-visited some of the beautiful spots by the falls that we enjoyed while searching for a wedding site. After that we took a cruise on the Maid of the Mist, right into the heart of Horseshoe Falls. It was incredible! Here’s a video we took from the boat:

We then checked out the casino, where Julie tried her hand at some of the slot machines (Rob’s Mom would not have approved) and lost. We had never been to a casino before, and found it kind of creepy. There seemed to be hundreds of slot machines, lots of noise, and lots of older folks, some with cigarettes with 2 inches of ash in their mouths, sitting at the slots with dead, glazed eyes, playing them over and over. Depressing- we didn’t stay long, but enjoyed frozen raspberry lemonade that gave us multiple brain freezes. We walked back to the State Park and took the trolley bus ride to the parking lot and headed back to the hotel to take a break. As the sun began to set, we headed back to view the illuminated falls and get some night photos. After that, we found another Chinese Restaurant and enjoyed carry-out back at the hotel.

Saturday, September 21:

Saturday was the start of our first leg home, and it was gray and drizzly, because, according to Julie, Niagara Falls was crying because we were leaving. We stopped at an auto parts store for new wiper blades, so we didn’t have to listen to the old ones squeaking all the way to West Virginia. The weather wasn’t nice enough to make any stops along this leg of the trip home, but we made it back to the nice motel near New River Gorge, that serves the free waffle, egg and sausage breakfast! We enjoyed the rest of our Chinese carry-out from the previous night, and crashed hard!

Sunday, September 22:

We began our final leg of the trip home with a visit to the New River Gorge Bridge, which was pretty spectacular, but everything after Niagara Falls pales by comparison. We made another stop at pretty Camp Creek State Park, then headed back home to Raleigh, with the usual rest area stops. At one of the prettier ones, we improvised a picnic. Heading home was sad, but all we had to do was think back on all our wonderful wedding adventures and ponder that we were actually, finally, really married, to bring big smiles to our faces!

Here are photos of our fabulous honeymoon at Niagara Falls! Feel free to leave a comment below- we love to hear from you!

Click here to see photos and details of our Elopement.

Click Here to see photos and details of our Wedding Day.

Click here to see an amazing aerial video of Niagara Falls.

[Show as slideshow]