Life Outside the Inbox

It was Canada Day long weekend and I made the excellent decision to look into going to Ottawa…that’s like booking a New York City hotel a week before New Year’s Eve. After numerous of emails and responses saying, “We do not have accommodation a week before the long weekend”, I pulled up Google map. Living in Toronto, across the border from USA, my options were relatively open. There was no way I would be able to find anything in Ontario so I resorted to the south. My boyfriend had suggested Michigan again to go shopping (their outlets are recommendable – I also stayed in Flint – an area I later found out has the highest homicide rate…), but I wanted somewhere new.

I looked southeast and thought, Rochester, NY, why not? I did a quick Google search and found a few places to eat and a few places to go and booked my hotel. I sent off a tweet to @VisitRochester who retweeted me to help me get recommendations.

Our long weekend arrived and after being stuck at the border for 3.5 hours (yes – 3.5 hours), we got to Rochester. On our drive to downtown Rochester, we passed by a neighborhood that was a tad intimidating. We saw many closed down shops, and in the midst of all that was a restaurant called Nick Tahou, where one tweet recommended us to try the “Garbage Plate”. We walked in and there was absolutely no one except the cashier, the cook and the busboy. We managed to make our order after being stared at by the cook for what seemed like hours. Anyway, the food was decent but nothing compared to what we ate later that evening – Dinosaur BBQ (another tweet recommendation). The “Extreme Platter” was a hit – ribs, brisket, wings, mash potatoes and coleslaw enough for two people for $22! After we munched that down, we went to walk by the high falls which was worth a visit. The next morning we were off to the Public Market which was a nice outdoor flea market. Afterwards we drove to the Waterloo outlet which was just an hour away and spent the rest of our day there.

Overall, Rochester was a decent experience. Although it has a small downtown core, there were a lot of hiking trails if you’re not afraid of the area – which can be intimidating for a Canadian.

Total spending:

 Hotel: $100 at Holiday Inn by the airport (always look for the CAA discounts and I discovered its cheaper booking on holidayinn.com than Hotwire)

Food:

$8 – Nick Tahou
$22 – Dinosaur BBQ
$10 breakfast sandwiches at the Market Place
$27 at Applebee’s
Gas: $75 (I usually go with half a tank and fill up across the border – much cheaper!)
Outlet shopping: ….ya…lets not count this in…

Total: $242

 $242 for a little weekend getaway for two? I think it was well worth it!