That's A Lotta Water!

Wow! Amazing! Pretty incredible! All things we said upon seeing the power, beauty, and majesty of the Niagara Falls. Definitely a sight to behold that leaves one nearly speechless.

After relaxing on Tues. and researching the many options on seeing the falls, we drove to Niagara Falls State Park on Wed., only 15 min. from the campground. As we approached the visitors’ center, we could see a portion of the Niagara River behind it. What a powerful force that rapidly flowing water is.

We had decided on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, and after taking the observation tower elevator 175 ft. down to the dock, we donned waterproof ponchos for an unforgettable 30 min. ride past the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and directly down to the basin of the Horseshoe Falls. The force of the falls and the wind generated are so strong that I could take no pictures as we got closer to the Horseshoe Falls. All I could do was enjoy the ride and the view. It almost felt as we can only imagine a low category hurricane must feel. Did you know that 3,160 tons of water flows over the falls every second?? The water plummets at 32 feet/second over the falls hitting the base with 280 tons of force at the American and Bridal Veil Falls and 2,509 tons of force at the Horseshoe Falls!!

After the boat docked, still in our blue ponchos, we walked up the stairs alongside the American Falls. Up near the top of the stairs, which is only a fraction up the side of the falls, is when our shoes and socks got drenched! The mist was so strong! I took this picture showing where we had been once we got back to the top of the observation tower.

That night we went back to witness the Lighting of the Falls. Massive spotlights are beamed from the Canadian side onto the falls in a rainbow of constantly changing colors. And as it turns out on Wed. night during the months of July and Aug. there is a fireworks display that is normally only done on Fri. and Sun. We watched from the top of the observation tower, and what a beautiful sight to behold.

Over the last few months whenever we would mention we were going to Niagara Falls, every single person told us that we must see them from the Canadian side. Well, shoot, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a trip to Canada to our travels since we were so close, eh? So Thurs. morning with passports in hand (though you don’t really need a passport to enter Canada by car, but you do need two photo IDs), we headed off across the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Our wait in line wasn’t too bad, but when we arrived at the border agent’s window, we were kind of surprised at one of the questions he asked. After the initial why are you coming in, how long you going to stay, what do you have in the car, where are you staying (Russ told him we lived in our RV), etc., he asked if we were carrying any firearms in the car. Now that wasn’t the strange question, the strange one was “Do you have any firearms back in your RV?” We don’t, but found that odd since we didn’t have the RV with us and what difference would it make if we had any back at the campground? Oh, well, probably just checking to see our response and just doing his job.

As we approached the falls, Russ was beginning to think that from what we could see from the car, there wasn’t going to be any real difference from what we’d already seen. We paid our $20 USD to park (it was $10 on the U.S. side with in and out privileges) and walked across the street towards the falls. OHMIGOSH!! Everyone had been right….the view was incredible!! We were right at the top edge of the Horseshoe Falls and could see up the river that feeds into them. Besides finally getting some pictures of the Horseshoe Falls, I also took a pic of one of the Maid of the Mist boats down below. The Canadians definitely have this tourist thing figured out and with the view they have, definitely seem to get the bulk of the tourist trade as this side seemed way more crowded than the U.S. side.

After spending some time enjoying the sights and sounds of the falls, we drove along Niagara Parkway heading back to the states. On the way, we stopped at the Niagara Spanish Aero Car Ride, a cable car that travels across above the whirlpool gorge. We had stopped at Whirlpool State Park stateside on our way to the border in the morning, and the water was such a beautiful shade of blue-green. We had seen the car further down from where we were but didn’t realize it totally traversed the Canadian side. We also stopped at the Floral Clock (www.niagaraparks.com/garden/floralclock.php), a unique, huge timepiece consisting of intricate designs that are changed twice a year and created with up to 16,000 bedding plants.

The wait returning to the states was much longer (about 20 min.), but before crossing we stopped at the duty free shop and picked up 5 bottles of liquor. We hadn’t planned on getting that much, but they were having an unbelievable special on a 4 bottle pack of Crown Royal plus we picked up a bottle of gin. The average cost for each was about $16, a considerable savings. Looks like we’ll be stocked up on bourbon for awhile!

So now we can check Canada off our list and say we’ve been to every country in North America (since we had been to Mexico a couple times before we hit the road). Fri. morning we left for Mercer, PA, our longest drive in quite awhile. Nothing special about going to Mercer…just another stop on the road at a Coast-to-Coast campground (meaning we only pay $10/night).