Every year in the summer, work gives us a couple of floater days around the long weekends. Usually that means I just take one less day when I go off on a summer vacation, but this year we weren’t travelling so it is just an odd day where everyone else has to go to work but I don’t.

We used this to our advantage on Tuesday to head down to the US for some shopping. Normally the trek down to the US is torturous as the QEW is busy with both cross border shoppers and construction. This time, there was only construction which meant smooth sailing to the border. We crossed at Rainbow Bridge and (still) had to wait about 20 mins to get across at 10AM. We headed to the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls and Walden Galleria. I wouldn’t say that they were bare, as there were still people around (and you could tell they were from Canada) but it was definitely much more comfortable. It’s kind of like going to a town vs going to a city.

For dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Usually this involves a 2 hour wait unless you do some reservation acrobatics. On this random Tuesday, the hostess still quoted us 20 minutes for an inside table at 7:30PM! But we were able to sit outside without much wait. Here’s an obligatory cheesecake shot (this one is the pineapple upside down cheesecake):

We headed back across the border around 9 at Fort Erie. They had a total of 2 custom guards open! But we still didn’t have to wait (just one car ahead of us). Best of all, even though we bought more than $100 worth of stuff, they border guard didn’t ask us to go in and pay taxes (although he did ask to look in our trunk). Going cross border shopping on an off day is definitely an easier experience.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: buffalo, niagarafalls