I don't so much 'speak' a foreign language as I took several different ones in high school due to the requirements but barely passed because they just don't stick in my head. If I've got a traveler's dictionary with some base phrases I can at least try at them, though, and I've found that a lot of people have the opinion that tourists don't bother trying and think that everyone should just speak English so it tends to surprise people when I actually bother to try which is always a bit nice. Or rather, when I say in their language "Excuse me, I don't speak much of [insert language here], do you speak English?" and they are happy enough that I tried :)

On that count I do know that I'm lucky, some people don't get to travel like that. Niagara Falls can be a bit touristy, but that's kind of what made it nice? We took the boat trip up to the falls, went behind the falls, all that good stuff. Really powerful experience that, standing in a cave under this huge waterfall so close you can literally almost touch it and just hearing the roaring all around you. And we took a bus tour to get to know the area and the history and stuff, which was really nice. Speaking of vineyards, that's a good place for them. I don't really drink but the icewine was really good and my mom came away with a few bottles. I even got some icewine flavored tea that's really amazing and a little more my speed.

That's alright, sometimes stuff happens. I've had a crazy few days myself so I know how that goes :)