Niagara Falls

On the last Friday of our vacation we woke up early and drove to Niagara Falls. We arrived about 2:30 and had just planned on looking at the falls for awhile and going on the Maid of the Mist. Instead we decided to have a tour bus take us around to several of the different attractions. They were only going to charge us for two adults and one child. Since we saved a bunch of money on our hotel for the night by getting one on Priceline, we decided to go for it. Plus it saved us from driving and walking all over, and we didn't even know about the whirlpool and the Daredevil museum (more on those later).

We first started by taking a little driving tour of some of the islands around the falls. We learned that Canada and the US share 18 gates that take water from the Niagara River and convert it to power. They don't use all 18 gates at once, but during the day they take about 50% of the water. At night (after midnight), they take closer to 75%. So imagine what the falls would look like if 100% of the water was going over it!

After the little driving tour we went to the Cave of the Winds. There they give you disposable raincoats and sandals. The Cave of the Winds isn't actually a cave. It is just a boardwalk that takes you to the bottom of the Bridal Veil Falls. Every winter they take down the boardwalk.

Here they are towards the beginning of the walk. Natalie is being a pill at this point and isn't interested in having her picture taken. Plus she wasn't too keen on having the water sprayed in her face.


We continued on the boardwalk and got much closer to the falls (hence, no pictures). Ellie, Kara, and Dan even went up to the hurricane deck where you are almost under the Bridal Veil Falls. There's a reason they call it the hurricane deck. They were all soaked, but Ellie and Kara thought it was great.

After this we went over to see the Horseshoe Falls. The best view of these falls is from Canada, but we didn't have passports so we didn't go over there.

Dan and the kids in front of the Horseshoe Falls:






When we were done here we went to the Maid of the Mist for a boat ride. They also give you disposable raincoats--they call them souvenir raincoats.




The American Falls:

In the early morning and late afternoon/early evening the sun is just right and will produce a rainbow in the mist.

Here we are at the end--soaked from the Horseshoe Falls!! They really get you right up into the Falls. They can't get you as close to the American Falls because there are just huge rocks at the bottom of those falls. The Horseshoe Falls is a 180 feet drop but at the bottom the water is 200 feet deep.

The American and Bridal Veil Falls:

After we were done at the falls the tour guide took us to the whirlpool. After the water travels over the falls it travels down the river through the gorge until it reaches the whirlpool. There it swirls counter-clockwise, dips under itself and travels out the other side to Lake Ontario. The kids were thinking that the whirlpool would be more of a tornado action, but the whirlpool motion isn't that fast.

Again, Natalie being a screwball.

At some point we also went to the Daredevil museum (can't quite remember the exact order). Here they have collected all sorts of things that have to do with people jumping over the falls. One guy went over the falls on a jet ski and had a parachute, but something happened with the chute and he died. They have the actual jet ski that he rode. They also had a huge barrel that two people rode in over the falls and survived.

By the time the tour was done it was around 6:30 or so. Shortly after the tour bus departed for the dispatch office, Dan realized that his cell phone must have fallen out of his pocket on the bus. So we eventually were able to contact our tour guide and she was able to drop it off after she dropped off the bus. We were very thankful that she found it and that she was willing to bring it back to us.

Now we were really hungry. We didn't want to eat in the main Niagara Falls area because it was not such great food and really overpriced. So we walked a little bit and found a place called Donatello's. It looked decent enough so we went in and ordered a pizza. They had a great patio out back and the weather was nice so we sat outside. It took a little bit to get our food since the place wasn't huge and they'd just had a softball team come in, but eventually it came. However, we had forgotten when we ordered to ask if the mushrooms they used were fresh or canned (I was going to say real or not, but I guess they are both real--just one is really gross!). Yep. They were canned. So we took them all off. The rest of the pizza was good. Then we walked back to the falls to see it lit up and to watch the fireworks. They have fireworks over the falls on Fridays and Sundays. The skyline in the background is Canada.