We went to Niagara Falls, Ontario Tuesday morning. We had purchased a package "tour" on line Monday night. We paid our $18.00 parking fee - shouldn't have paid anything, more about that later - and walked around enjoying the views and getting wet.
Our first adventure was Niagara Fury. For those of you who don't "click around", here's a quote from their home page:
"Experience the Creation of Niagara Falls in 4-D! The temperature will drop 20 degrees. Water will bubble and spray while snow falls all around. Standing in the mist on a massive platform you will feel the full wrath of Mother Nature as the floor tilts and trembles beneath you. You'll never look at the Falls the same way again!"
It was impressive, informative and the first place we got really wet. We should have figured it out when they passed out rain ponchos for a movie.
On to Maid of the Mist, The boat ride up the Niagara river that has been astounding and drenching tourist since 1846. Again, we got ponchos. While on the cliff above the falls watching the boats we noticed that every third or fourth one went into the "mist" and stayed what seemed like forever. We could hear the screaming above the tremendous roar of the falls. Carol and the kids called him the "mean captain." I called him "the one who gave you your money's worth with a much longer ride." One chance out of four, guess who we got! It was probably something like being in a Class 4 hurricane except the wind swirled and blew water at you from all directions. Facing the falls with your hood off made it almost impossible to breath. And the ponchos were blowing around so much that there was as much water inside as outside.
Here are pictures taken after the drenching. It was impossible to take pictures during the "mist" part of the ride without a waterproof camera.
Then we got on the bus - which was included in our package price and rode down the river to White Water Walk where we found lots of FREE PARKING. Where we could have parked FOR FREE and rode the FREE bus to all the attractions. Oh well, at least we learned in time to use our new found knowledge before we left. This walk, after an elevator ride down 229 feet of sheer cliff, is along the wildest rapids in the Niagara Gorge.
After a 1/2 mile round trip hike on a boardwalk right on the riverbank, we took the elevator back up the cliff and hopped the bus to what I knew as the "Spanish Aero Car". At least that's what I remembered from when I was here 50 years ago. Sometime in the last 5 decades it's been renamed the Whirlpool Aero Car. It's a great ride high over the whirlpool where the Niagara River hangs a 90 degree turn in the gorge.
That was the first day. Six more to go !
