Settling in

Woke up today, eager to explore Niagara falls a little more and to make sure I actually got onto the Maid of the Mist.

Walking down to the falls, it because crystal clear why the shopping strip needed a dinosaur themed Putt Putt and tacky signage ... in the face of unrivalled natural beauty, man's best defense is to counterpoint this with something utterly ridiculous and unnecessary.

The power and the majesty of the falls through the day is absolutely incredible, seeing these huge sheets of water cascading into the depths. Apparently, the face of the falls moves around one metre per year due to the force of the water.



The first trip of Maid of the Mist departed at 9.45 so I really wanted to get on it to make sure I could fit everything in. I arrived at the ticket counter at 8.45 but there was no one there so I walked off to take some more photos of the falls.

I came back around 9.15 and there were a few people waiting for the ticket counter to open so I thought it best to wait there rather than get caught in a crowd.

Just as well because a couple of minutes after I lined up a lot of tourist groups arrived so second in the queue wasn't too shabby after all.

Maid of the Mist was brilliant! To see the power of the water and to be amongst it was breathtaking and exhilarating. Certainly put our small place in the universe into perspective. Everyone was given a blue poncho and just as well.

After going past the American Falls I thought that that was as wet as we'd get, but then going into the Horse-shoe or Canadian Falls it was like being in the midst of a downpour, knowing that the downpour there would never end.

Maid of the Mist ran every 15 minutes from both the Canadian and the US sides. Most of the time there were two vessels in different parts of the trip. The trip took just under 30 minutes.

Paul picked me up from the Hotel and we had a nice lunch at the Niagara School Board's district office. Good to catch up with Peter and Kerry and some of the other LEAPers.

It was a 3-4 hour trip back to Paul's place but the scenery was just superb. The trees are just starting to get their Autumn (Fall) colour and Paul reckons we'll see a significant difference in the colours in the week that I'm here.

Got back to Paul's for the night, good to catch up with Gayle and they really have a wonderful view from their backyard. Actually taked a little bit of "shop", Amazing Race then hit the pillow (after writing this) ready for "school".