Friday, September 19, 2014

Niagara Falls: the Falls themselves

 
I have always wanted to go to Niagara Falls. It was a bucket list trip. Finally things aligned, and my friend, Cindy, went with me. It was AMAZING. It is difficult to convey the immensity, power and overall awesomeness in photos. I tried loading some video clips, but it isn't working. Maybe I can do that later.
I had always heard "the Canadian side is better" and so we stayed on the Canadian side and all of our activities around the falls were on the Canadian side. As we walked up, it was so loud, but this is all you really see at first. Horseshoe falls is on the Canadian side and they are huge.  Lots of white water leading up to the falls. The water is a beautiful color. And there is so much power and volume that it creates a huge column of mist that goes way up into the sky. If you happen to stand where that mist is going, you get completely soaked. I was soaked pretty quickly.

 Pre soaking picture.
 We bought an adventure pass to do all the activities at the falls. On of them was a behind the falls experience. There is a viewing platform, where you can take photos from the side, and then a couple of these portholes. the water is rushing over and it is really, really loud.

 A lot of the activities dispense ponchos. they are really thin and are truly just cheapy trash bags with a hood.

 This is a view towards American falls. It is a separate falls  a little to the side of horse shoe falls. the tower is a viewing platform. There are two boats that take you out to the base of horseshoe falls. On the American side it is Maid of the Mist. On the Canadian side, it is the hornblower. We took the hornblower.

 After getting soaked, my hair was such a mess, I was desperate for something to comb it with. This is all that was available at the gift shop. I am now the proud owner of a very snazzy Canadian brush.
 Wet head.
 Another part of our adventure pass, was Niagara's Fury. A silly little movie/ride combo that threw water at us again.
 This panoramic photo gives you a little bit of idea of where American Falls is in relation to Horseshoe falls.

 Amazing Horseshoe Falls!

From the Hornblower level.





 It was Cindy's birthday the day we were doing Falls things. We went for a nice dinner in the restaurant that overlooks the falls. While we were there, we got to see this amazing rainbow in the mist!
 View from the restaurant.
 At night they Illuminate the Falls for a little while. We came back for a later dessert to see the illumination.



 I think Cindy got some better pics of this.
 Last view of the falls the day we were leaving. More posts on our other activities!
 

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