The Garden of His Turbulence
September 6, 2024 — Day 6
KOA Niagara Falls, Ontario CA
Today was the “wet” day. On deck was the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the falls. Except we didn’t since they leave from the American side. This is new because until a few years ago they left from both sides of the falls. It’s the same company still, but in Canada it is called City Experience and in the US it’s called Maid of the Mist. We were meeting with our friends Yasmin and Hussein for lunch afterwards so we didn’t want to have the extra hassle of a border crossing in both directions as coming to the US can be much slower than going into Canada. To that end we bought a second pair of tickets for the Canadian side.
We parked about a mile away from the boat launch site. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. It was a perfect opportunity to walk along the gorge and see the falls from all the perspectives. The falls were impressive, even at first peek.
Warning: this blog is going to be picture heavy (susan here: Paul, do you think they’re breathing a sigh of relief?) There was so much to see everywhere and words really don’t describe it well. Here’s the boat we’re going to be on soon. When Paul saw it topside he was a little disappointed. He thought “You don’t get very close.” Here’s a jump ahead, you get close enough…
On the way we found a caretaker mowing the lawn.
Yes, he was pulling the rope to move it left and right. One tourist was really amused at us watching him and not the falls.
Susan called her Dad from the falls.
Soon we were issued our rain ponchos, the first of three we would get out the next two days. Just like that we were were on the water. This shot is as we were approaching the falls. We we’re wet from the rain and the mist, and the tie on Paul’s hood was broken already.
This is about as close as we got, which was very close.
The mist was insane, the waters were boiling, the captain was using the engines to hold us in place but still the boat bobbed left and right and up and down. We were inside the horseshoe at this point, see above, that’s where we were. It was amazing and a lot of fun. (susan here: despite my ball cap, and despite lashing my plastic poncho down about as tight as I could I got soaked. Less than Paul though.)
On the way back we got a good view of the American side of the falls, they are spectacular in their own way. If they weren’t right next to the Canadian side they would be a wonder, right now they are just “The Afterthought Falls.”
We walked back the mile to the car, seeing the sights again, really, you just don’t get tired of the views and headed “off campus” to meetup with Yasmin and Hussein for lunch at a really great little brewery who’s name we’ve forgotten. The menu was really interesting. We were early, and hungry, so we ordered poutine, which is french fries with cheese curds and gravy. We know, it sounds awful but it’s rather yummy, however this place really salted it a bit too much for our liking. (susan here: Still. Poutine. Bad poutine is like a bad day fishing. And this poutine was pretty good!)
After lunch the four of us visited the Aerocar over the whirlpool. This was the only attraction we visited where they didn’t try take your photo in front of a screen then try and sell you pictures afterwards. (We declined them all, BTW. It’s standard procedure for us no matter where we go. We get enough pictures on our own, thank you very much.)
The whirlpools forms at the oxbow where the Niagara River makes the bend. This is Lake Erie emptying into Lake Ontario and the flow is such that the water is exchanged every 4 years. The pool is over 100 feet deep, maybe 150 feet. We can’t remember what the tour guide said. Let’s just say it was deep!
It also reverses direction in the evening. There is a power generation station down river and during the day they let the whirlpool fill and in the evening they literally open the floodgates and it reverses. That would be a sight to see, it was pretty turbulent already.
Next we all walked up Clinton Hill which is ground zero for touristy stuff. It was all pretty wonderfully kitschy, it reminded Paul of the Jersey shore boardwalk where his parents would take him in the summers. There was even a Halloween Taylor Swift and wow was it ever scary looking.
There was a lot to see, but the Upside Down House was pretty cool. We all decided to not go in as we were all getting a bit “tourist trapped” out. That part of Niagara can be overwhelming with the lights and noise and traffic and people.
All in all it was a great day, great sights and seeing great friends.