Summer Break - Niagara Falls

We left Chicago, and broke the trip to Niagara Falls, staying the night in Detroit.  On Saturday morning, we crossed the Ambassador Bridge which took us from the USA to Canada.

As you cross the bridge, the flags change from USA to Canadian, which was novel.  I had some good photos of customs too, but as we went to the booth at the border, the woman asked if I had taken any photos.  I must of hesitated as I said no, cause she asked for my camera and told me that I had to delete the two photos I had taken of the booths.  She was pretty full on about it - and I deleted them, but the boys had both taken pictures on their i-pods from the back seat, and were panicking!  I had to take my sunglasses off, and we had to open the back door so that they could check the boys when we handed over the passports.  It is a wonder she didn't search the car for any other people, considering I seemed to pose such a security threat!

Anyway, they let us into Canada, and we headed to Niagara Falls.  We went to the Falls on Sunday, and it was a beautiful sunny day, and really busy.  I was surprised at how built up it was close to the Falls, but I guess that is their bread and butter.

This is a picture of us in front of the Canadian horseshoe falls.  It was an amazing green, as it went over the falls.  Below is the Maid of the Mist, which is a big boat that is constantly touring up to the falls.  I don't know that you get a better view, just wetter from all the spray, and we got wet enough just walking along the top!

 Below are the American falls (crazy, I reckon, but there is a big rivalry between the two countries, and owning different parts of Niagara Falls).  A lot of people advised that you get a better view of the falls from the Canadian side, and I think they are right.  If you are on the American side, you are pretty much behind the falls.  You can see in the photo below, they have built a viewing boardwalk on the American side that you can walk out on to get a better view.  This is the big green pylon on the left of the photo.

 The water is coming over at an amazing speed, and you can see all the spray from the sheer force of the water.

 A view from the side, gives a bit of an idea of the amount of water - it is pretty amazing...

 We chose to do the 'Journey Behind the Falls'.  You go down 150 feet in an elevator, don these attractive yellow ponchos, and get very wet!  It was fun, and you walk about 1/3 of the way around the back of the falls, and get to see out from behind the Falls.

 The tunnels behind the Falls, are very damp and cold (obviously!)

 I got a bit snap happy, but some lovely photos in front of the Horseshoe Falls, at Niagara.

 Each evening, they illuminate the Falls, so we decided to come back for that.  That happens around 9pm,  and then on Fridays and Sundays, they also have fireworks at 10pm, weather permitting.

 I even managed to take my camera off Auto mode, to take photos which actually showed the colours of the Falls - I was pretty proud of myself!

 The fireworks were pretty spectacular, too.  As I had the slow shutter speed for the night photos, Quinn helped me get these somewhat artistic shots below, as he was standing very close and jumping around, as he had to go to the bathroom.  These are the shots I got!

 

The next day at Niagara Falls, it was a bit rainy and overcast, and everyone was pretty tired from our big day, and late night - a great day just to hang out and play at the caravan park.  We had a few swims at the indoor pool, the boys loved shooting hoops at the basketball court, and were pretty stoked to hire a go-kart.

 Even better, it started to rain during the hour that they had the go-kart, so not only did they get to drive around the park, they got to do it in the rain.  They were pretty happy!

On our last day, we spent the morning at the Niagara Falls museum, learning about the war of 1912 in Niagara.  It was a fun little museum, and the boys got to dress up like the red coats, and play with some imitation rifles.  Then upstairs they had some memorabilia of souvenirs from Niagara Falls over the years, and narrative about people who had tried to cross the Falls - tightropes and barrels seemed the favoured mode of transport.  They had a beam set up, so everyone had a go to test their balance.  I don't think any of us would have made it across!

 

Below, is a shot of the Niagara Whirlpool, from the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve, where we stopped as we were on our way to Toronto.  The lines you can see, are for the Whirlpool Aero Car, which traverses the river above the whirlpool.