US Customs can be quite the experience. One time a border guard noticed Cote D’Ivoire on my son’s passport and asked, “Cote D’Ivoire, what’s that? Is it an island somewhere?” Upon being told it was a country in Africa he countered with, “Why would anyone want to go there?” It’s not always that bad though, and being frequent crossers of the Canadian border we sometimes don’t even get the “usual” questions - esp in my hometown.
Canadian customs, for us, has never been a problem anywhere, any time. Middle son tells me some of his juggling friends had problems when they were heading to a conference in Quebec City as they thought they would be performing for pay (or something like that). He and his car of passengers didn’t have problems. We’ve no idea if it goes back to our being frequent crossers or not.
We haven’t had any problems coming back into the country, but US guards definitely ask more questions than the Canadians do.
We were a little worried when we took a German exchange student to the Canadian side a couple years ago. But no issues. It was here second visit with us. We had planned a weekend trip to the Falls the first time but she preferred going to NYC. She actually found NYC to be overwhelming (other than a few hours we spend strolling around Central Park and she did like Wicked). She liked the Falls. We just spent a weekend there. We have visited the Falls 3-4 times. 2-4 days at a time.
This was one of our favorite vacation trips when our pups were in grade school. After a long enough drive to the American side of the falls, we had just finished listening to one of the Harry Potter audio books as we pulled in. The Cave of the Winds tour was so much fun to do as a family, on a warm late June day. I look back fondly at the trip because it was one of the few trips without the regular sibling bickering…
D saved her cheap plastic raincoat/smock as a souvenir because she loved the trip so much, and dressed up her oversized teddy bear with it, she didn’t want it to get wet if she left her bedroom window opened, and it rained. Then, when she got to high school, she decided a better use for the raincoat would be when she dyed her own hair green.
If the weather is pleasant, Niagara is one of the nicest places on the planet. DH and I went on a long weekend several years before we had our pups, and the rain/fog made visibility impossible.
I am glad we went back and had a glorious few days there with the whole family.