Sloooowly I turned............

We are in Niagara Falls, NEW YORK U.S.A!

This weekend is the busiest of the year and crowds are really bad.

Last night we drove downtown to check out parking and it's every bit as bad as people say, so we took a tour today instead of fighting traffic.

The first stop was the Maid of the Mist boat trip to the falls. You arrive and walk out on a tower, ground level to you but 47 floors up from the river.

This is the view from the tower, looking down at the line you'll be in. The white tent is where you get your poncho.


The boats are a lot bigger than I thought they'd be. They hold quite a few people. Everyone in the two "corrals" will get on one boat. There aren't any benches - everyone stands.

We were told by our guide that the wettest part of the boat was the top deck......duh!

This is looking up at the tower I took the photos from earlier.

Boats have been giving tours here since the 1850s and they claim to never having a serious accident.

Yep - you get close.

The picture looks grey because we are in the mist at the bottom of the falls.

And yes, you will get wet!

I had to put the camera away after this shot.

The boat really bobs around in the turbulent water so you have to hang on, too.

We were much, much closer than I thought we'd get.

At a later part of the tour I mentioned how wet it got up front and the guide said "Oh, yeah! That's the wettest place!"

After taking the elevator back up the tower I stopped for photos.

The American Falls are on the left and the (Canadian) Horseshoe Falls are on the right.

There are several places where you can get a good look at the falls.

This is on Goat Island, the island in between the falls.
The name, supposedly, comes from the early settlers putting their goats on the island to protect them from predators. The island is also the access to Cave of the Winds.
We were issued another poncho and
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Foot wear!!!!!!

Thanks to Michelle and Mark from Florida for helping me model.

The sandals were really pretty comfortable and everyone on our tour kept theirs.

The walkways are slick, and these had spongy soles.

Your shoes are soaked by the end of the trip.

My hair after the boat but before the cave.

The buildings behind me are in Canada, and the Horseshoe Falls is curving off to that side.

A look at the top of Horseshoe Falls.

Looking down through the mist at a tour boat.

It's dizzying looking over the edge.

The water is moving around 35 mph.

After another elevator ride down you walk out a tunnel to a series of decks and steps.

I didn't think I'd be able to make all those stairs, but Michelle offered to back me up if I claimed a heart attack.


I'm so glad I did it. What an amazing experience it was.

We waited over an hour for this, and oh yeah, it's worth the wait.


In the back of the picture you can see the Observation Tower.

Mid-way up, hair a little wetter!

Seven miles below the falls, in the Niagara Gorge. For a short time rafters were allowed to go down the rapids, but after disastrous results that was stopped.

Just below the rapids is the Giant Whirlpool. In the above picture it's spinning counter-clockwise, but in the evening power plants from both countries block more of the flow over the falls. The resulting flow causes the water level to drop, and the whirlpool changes direction.

A tram over the Giant Whirlpool.

The water looks blue in photos but in fact the river is green; a chemical reaction to the rocks and minerals in the river bed. Charles Dickens visited here and wrote of the green river.

When I visit a place for the first time I like to look back and consider if it met my expectations. I think of what I saw that I expected to see, and what I saw that surprised me.

I expected crowds and cheesy souvenir shops. They were there.

I expected older buildings downtown; after all this has been a tourist destination since the Erie Canal made trips to the area easier in the 1830s.

I was surprised at the shabby look of many areas downtown.

I'd thought there would be upper end condos and apartments along the river, and up-scale restaurants lining the streets. They don't exist.


But Niagara Falls took my breath away.

I was surprised by my reaction, much like my first visit to the Grand Canyon.

It is impossible to describe.

I won't try.