Day 20 - Friday, June 20 - The Falls

After a restful night, with all the laundry done we woke early - well we thought it was early as it was just getting light, but really it was 6:30 am.  Really not that early.  Anyway we are finding the days are actually shorter here.  It starts to get dark about 9:00 - Hmmm back home it probably is still light till almost 10 pm.  

Anyway it's an exciting morning - we have our bus and attraction passes and we are off to see the falls.  The bus stops right here by the rv park so that's great - it's only just over a 5 minute walk.  The ride downtown is about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the time of day.  This is a really a nice park we are staying at, it is called Campark, as seen below.  

The drop off point or bus exchange is at Table Rock and that's where we get our first shock.  We get off the bus and it's raining - well no it's not rain, it's the mist off the thundering falls carried by the wind.  Here's our first glimpse of the falls - right bedside the bus stop.  

Off we go to the Welcome Centre to see about our attractions.  We get our bus pass - WeGo it's called and with this package it's good for 48 hours from the first time it's used.  Today we are going to do the White Water Walk.  Hop on the bus and you get dropped off right at the attraction.  The bus runs down the Niagara Parkway.  The walk takes you down an elevator a long ways until you are level with the gorge.  The water runs from the falls at a speed of 106 mph and creates waves in this gorge of 5 meters high!  Powerful.  The waves are Category 6 - that is the highest in the world.  The force and power of the water is amazing.  The walk is quite long, but very interesting there are many viewing points along the way.  

Dan is standing at one of the points with the Niagara Gorge behind him.

We grabbed some popcorn after this and caught the bus to get dropped off at the Hornblower, the boat ride that takes you as close to the falls as possible.  I thought it was the Maid of The Mist, but they lost the contract this season to the Hornblower.  The Maid of The Mist is still running but from the US side.  As we enter they give us red slickers to put on over our clothes - first clue that we might get wet.  The boat is big with two decks and can hold up to 700 people.  It seems full - we are last on and can't find a place near the railing on the upper deck.  Off we go for our tour - the first set of falls we see are the American Falls - Bridal Falls.  They are split into two distinct falls due to erosion and the bottom is full of jagged rocks that have broken off over the years.  

They are amazing as well, but not as grandiose as the Canadian Falls called the Horseshoe Falls.  The boat gets closer to the falls and the closer it gets the wetter we get, until it is raining and the wind is blowing and we are soaking wet now! But so amazing to be that close that you can feel and smell the water!  Our Red Canadian Slickers are stuck to our bodies - of course I didn't put my hood on as I don't like hats and my very short, very thin hair is plastered to my head!  With my sunglasses on and the red slicker I look like a bug!  As we turn around and head back Dan notices some cement windows off the side of the gorge - it used to be the generating station for power but got moved downstream some time ago.  Then we also notice a ledge with people on it and it has a sign "the Journey Behind The Falls". The people look so small on that ledge, hmmm - we are doing that tomorrow.  

Well wet and laughing we get off the boat and decide we are hungry - so we are looking for some lunch, a little late in the day, but heck it doesn't matter what time it is.  We find a market place and Dan buys two beer, I get some sushi and we park ourselves where we have a great view of the falls.  After lunch we wander around and do some shopping, then we catch the bus back to camp.  We are tired and we did a lot of walking today as well - we make it to camp and crash into a lawn chair.  Gidget is glad to see us! After a light snack we play a round of crib - which I win and then we are off to bed.  Tomorrow is another day.