Ernie and Wanda, our hosts for the Niagara Falls gathering warned us they had three fully packed days of adventure and we would hit the ground running. Ernie and Wanda had negotiated a great price for a bus tour and guide which picked us all up at 9:00 at the campground and would return us about six hours later.
The tour included both the Canadian and US sides of the falls, the Maid of the Mist cruise, lunch at the Sheraton and as it turned out much, much more. I took so many pictures it was hard to sort through and determine which ones were best! Half way through our day, my old pentax ran out of battery power and I had to use my IPhone for pictures, so some of the pictures are not the best. My Canon G9 is still being repaired and hopefully will catch up with me at our next stop.
From the US side of the falls you get an up close and personal look. The roar of the falls is sombering. You don't realize how powerful the falls are until you get this close. The water at the edge is only a few feet deep but the water is flowing really fast and ferious.
Rainbow bridge is in the back ground.
It's hard to get all of the falls in one picture. Horseshoe falls is the farthest and then there is the American and Bridal Veil Falls.
We all took the Maid of the Mist cruise, which was included in our bus ticket. The day was really hot so we didn't want to put on these ponchos until the very last minute. Joel is analyzing the best way to approach putting the poncho one. Nancy is almost there with hers.
The Maid of the Mist boat gets pretty close to the Horseshoe Falls. You can catch the cruise from either the Canadian or the US side. Our cruise left from the US side.
This is a picture of the boat taken from the Canadian side.
We were soaking wet from the boat ride, but did feel good. We walked to to Prospect point which over looks the river and is adjacent to one of the falls. It is a popular place for photos, so the lines get a little long.
Then we went over to the Canadian side. Going through customs was easy. We all got off the bus and walked through the custom building and the officers checked our pass ports. Since it was a week day it didn't take very long.
These are some nice views of the falls.
The skyline of Niagara Falls.
These are some of the rapids up river from the Falls taken from Three Sisters Islands. This part of the river is pretty high and looks like ocean waves.
This is the Devils Whirl pool. The river flows into a box canyon and then whirls around. We will be taking a jet boat ride into this pool. Are we crazy or what?
The jet boats have to maneuver through these rapids to get up to the whirlpool.
More pictures of the Falls.
Pretty powerful. I do need to learn how to load video on to the bogs. I did take some video and the sound is incredible.
More pictures:
This gives a little more perspective on how close the Maid of the Mist gets to the Falls.
You can see how wide the gorge is from this vantage point.
We took the Skylon which is and outside elevator which takes you up a large tower to a balcony and you get a 360 degree view of all of Niagara.
The Canadian side has a nice parkway along the water front with lots of flowers. The School of Horticulture does all of the grounds keeping in Niagara Falls.
We stopped at a gift shop on the way back to the US and there were more photo ops. Pretty touristy, eh?
Towards the end of the day, looking towards the rapids.
The mist from the falls
This is a Northern Black Squirrel.
Our tour guide Thomas is telling us about the Indian word that became Niagara. It was actual two words meaning thundering water.
Nichola Tesla, inventor and his theories formed the basis of modern alternate current (AC)
This is the famous flower clock. Too bad all the power lines are in the picture. The clock is suppose to play chimes on the hour, but it didn't perform today. We waited until a few minutes after the hour but nothing happened.
The workings of the clock are in a little room under the clock.
We ate lunch at the Sheraton near the top. Some of the picture were taken from the top and other were taken from the Skylon tower.
This is one of the power plants that generates power from the falls.
It was a long but good day. We didn't get back to our campground until well after 8:00. Thanks Ernie and Wanda for a great job!
Stayed tuned for more adventures in Niagara.
It looks like a really great tour! Ernie always does an amazing job. Thanks for the report. I really, really loved the picture of you all going over the falls in a barrel!
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