Niagara Falls!

Sunday, June 25. Lockport, NY to Niagara Falls, Ont. I have never been to Niagara Falls; never seen this natural wonder from either side of the border. This may seem heretical to those of you (and you know who you are) who own the Niagara Falls snowglobe, keyring and commemorative kewpie doll, but I wasn't paying attention all that well during my elementary-school geography and history lessons, and somehow got the falls confused with Hoover Dam.

For starters, I didn't know that there isn't a falls named Niagara. There's Horseshoe Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls. Collectively they're called Niagara Falls and Great Gorge. And, I didn't know that Canada has the good view. Stand on the American side and you're on top of the falls, looking down. Go get your passport so you can stand on the Canadian side and you can have a great view of both the top of the falls and the actual waterfall, too. And if you've been spoiled like me, you can see the fireworks display over the lighted falls from your hotel window (tent? camp?).

We're here for 2 nights, after a relatively short day from Lockport, NY across the Canadian border to Niagara Falls, Ontario (I didn't know that they named the city Niagara Falls, either). Before we left Lockport, we took the Lockport Lock and Cave tour. At 10am on this Sunday morning, we were the entire tour group, so we could interrupt our tour guide, Ian, with every inane question that popped into our heads. And because we'd slept in and I didn't get coffee before the tour, there were a lot of those. But Ian had answers for every question, and we enjoyed our tour. Just FYI, the cave that we toured is a 1600-foot, man-made tunnel that would divert water from the nearby Erie Canal to power the machinery of three manufacturing plants. The tour includes a short boat trip into the tunnel itself, and visitors can see the tunnel becoming a real cave with stalactites and stalagmites. For Halloween fans, the tours become haunted during weekends in October.

It's a really nice ride from Lockpoprt to Niagara on good roads with big shoulders. Part of the route goes through an Indian reservation, but except for the signs written in two languages, there's not much difference between reservation and not. Our border crossing into Canada was uneventful--we got into the truck lane because it was empy and farthest to the right. The customs agent was slightly amused, and didn't even look at our passports. FYI: the customs agents in the truck lanes sit up about 6 feet higher than the car booths. He could barely see us, but I guess he could tell that we weren't much of a threat to Canada. Once we got into town, we rode along the canalway and stopped on the promenade near Bridal Veil and American Falls. The promenade here is really beautiful--well-kept and planted with lots of colorful plants and flowers. Then we turned up toward Fallsview, and I had to walk up the last quarter-mile of a really big hill. After checking in at the hotel, we took the incline rail back down to the top of the falls, and I had my first close-up look at Horshoe Falls. From the Canadian side, at the Table Rock area, you are at the same level as the top of the falls. You can see the flat water moving toward you, heading for the cliff to join the waterfall. As the water nears the edge of the cliff, it's a dark, emerald green color. As it gushes over the cliff, it becomes opaque and has the color of deep seafoam green. As it froths on the cliff and descends as part of the waterfall, the seafoam color washes out to a pale green. The water never stops, and the noise of the rushing water continues unabated. I already understand the lure of these waters. We're here for 2 nights, and will be able to do all the tourist-y things that Niagara has to offer.

More later--I have to go watch a waterrfall now. Cheers.