Ontario

The campground in Niagara - below is the typical camper.

Most people have a portable satellite dish they set up outside the trailer. 

Friday was spent being tourists 100%.  A beautiful clear (chilly) morning.  (The inside of the van windows soaked with condensation.)  We still had to pay for our night so went to the front office.  A very nice Japanese man was behind the desk.  One look at the van 'what year?' and we were off and running with VW talk.  He told us that he had a restored super beetle from 70s sometime I think.  He scooted us over to see it in his garage just next door to the campground office.  A lovely metallic greeny sea glass blue.  With a black convertible top.  He was so pleased with it and it was very nice.  Completely redone with original parts from the floor up he kept telling us.  Then he had to see the van - all the cupboards and details. I should have taken a picture of him with his car - he was a lot of fun. 

Then off to the falls we went.  Parking attendants waving flags, huge buildings advertising souvenirs, large buses of tourists (mostly Japanese) pulling in.  So we parked for $5. (a further walk than the $10 parking) and off we went to see the falls.  The money I quote is important because I was determined to see the falls and spend less money than anyone else.  So many opportunities to spend way too much.   The view of the falls you first get is of the river before it falls over the edge.  Big wide glistening river with lots of rocks and rapids in it.  And then you get to the side walk and the railing (with lots of warnings about not leaning on it or climbing over it) and holy cow, there it is!  The viewing area is level with the river so you see this tremendous amount of water just disappearing over the edge and huge plumes of mist and spray coming up from below.  Move a little along the pathway and you can see the whole thing.  What to say.  It's huge.  It's a lot of water!  And beautiful.  And loud.  And powerful.   You can look across and see the Canadian side - but only a part of it. 

The top of the American side just as it heads over the edge.  The Canadian side in the background with all the hotels too.

Plumes of mist and spray.

I hadn't realized before that the falls keeps working it's way upstream.  Big chunks of rock break off - I think maybe the last time was in the 50s - and so over a long, long time the falls have moved up river.   Under the American side there are tremendous boulders in a big tumble and that accounts for some of the spray.  I don't think the fall height is as much as on the Canadian side because there is this pile of rubble at the bottom.  There is an island in the middle of the falls so the river splits and becomes the American side and the Canadian side.  The Americans have build a huge tower with an observation deck so you can walk right out over the river some 200 hundred feet up in the air and look upstream to both falls.  (Cost of $2.00)  Sam had a view through one of those view finders for .25.  (Yes Mary, it was a view finder from Tower Optical [a company that Cabot Creamery used to send gifts of cheese for to all the attractions that have the viewers]).

Over 200 feet above the river.

We took an elevator (where Sam was accosted for wearing a Red Sox sweatshirt - 'take the stairs' said the elevator attendant - in jest of course) to the river level.  Below the falls.  Then you can walk up a path and stairs to get right beside the falls and all the tumbled rocks.  A view that I love is looking up through the round edge of water as it comes over the falls - a wonderful blue green against the sky and sunlight.  And the noise is amazing and the spray is - wet.  It was windy and we would get doused every one in a while. 

The view of the walkway from the observation tower.  Long ways down.

Views from just below the falls.

Turns out there are many Maids of the Mist.  I thought there was one.  I saw one marked VII so there are at least that many.  Both sides of the border have them.  A lot of people fit on each one and they fight their way up into the mist at the bottom of the falls. 

Everyone gets a Maid of the Mist plastic poncho in blue.  That's why they all look the same.  See if you can tell which country it's from. 

I can see by re-reading my text and looking at the pictures that nothing adequately describes what we saw. 

Then off to the Niagara Falls aquarium.  A small aquarium but we got to watch a training session of a sea lion.  I studied a flounder for quite a while.  It looks like a mistake of course.  It looks like how a child that can't accommodate perspective would draw a fish.  They know there's a mouth and two eyes and fins so draw them all in.  And the underside is odd too.  I thought it looked like it had been dropped from a height, Sam thought it looked like it had been smashed with a fry pan.  And the eyes move independently from each other.  And the mouth opening the other direction below the eyes.  How did evolution ever decide to go that route?  We also had fun watching an octopus. And other exotic sea creatures.

So then in the van and off to the border, the Canadian side of the falls, and Ontario.  No trouble going through the border - we happily had all the right stuff.  My enhanced driver's license, Sam's notarized birth certificate, a letter from 'the other parent' giving permission for travel.  The lady did ask what was on the roof and with a sigh I described the filtering process for the oil.  She bought it.  Too odd to have been made up she probably thought. 

So suddenly we were in the land of gardens, topiary, cannas, everything spiffy.  Niagara Falls USA is dismal.  A place I don't have much interest in seeing again.  But Niagara Falls Ont. seemed quite nice although loaded with hotels overlooking the river.  So we parked and headed for the falls.  They are about 3 times as big on the Canadian side.  And again you see it from the river level.  There is a lot of noise from the falls but there is also the silence of this vast amount of water slipping over the edge into the void below.  Little does the water know that it's about to crash hundreds of feet below.

Just upstream.

The far side of the Canadian side.

Really close - Sam's hands.

And over the edge we go!

Again, tons of Japanese tourists.  I'd say about 80% of the tourists were Japanese.  And you certainly get the feeling like English is not the dominant language in the other 20%.  We heard some French, some German, and lots of thing I don't recognize. It is certainly a destination for many travelers.

We are collecting a list of license plates we see and we have 35 I think.  Including Canadian provinces.  Got West Virginia, British Columbia and Nova Scotia in the Ontario parking lot. 

After the falls we went to an aviary.  They had reptiles too and we patted some lizardy thing - very scaly.  Saw ibis and a toucan and lots of birds I don't know.  Parrots, finches, owls, some bats, a huge python. 

Then it was after 4 and we still had to drive to Paris, Ont. to stay with our good friend Tricia Nunan and her parents, Jo and John.  But first we went the wrong way - just a little ways - got righted - then went the wrong way on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way).  We were to go north or west but of course when we got to the signs they said nothing about north or west and only about Toronto or Fort Erie.  What to do in a split second of decision time?  Go towards Fort Erie of course.  Wrong.  Finally got off the throughway - no more cell service and my maps not adequate - found a man lugging things out of a church - got the right information and off we went having lost about 40 minutes.  No trouble finding our way from there as our directions were great.  But the wind was tremendous.  There was a NE wind blowing in across Lake Ontario and it was scary.  I thought I might have to stop.  The wind was coming from the side and literally moving us on the road.  I had to compensate steering and be pushing to the right all the time.  Any time there was something blocking the wind I would veer to the right from the compensation.  Really no fun at all.  My eyes were glued to the road, my hands were losing circulation and I don't have much sense of what we passed but I did see the ends of lots of vineyards that ran right down to the lake.  I was worried about us but also worried about other people losing control.  Finally we turned SW away from the lake and were relieved from the wind. 

We landed at Tricia's farm late, exhausted and vastly relieved.  Welcomed by hugs, a great supper, the best apple pie Sam has ever had, a baseball game on tv, and beds.