Niagara Falls

Hi all,

I ended up watching the pies play on delay today as 2.30am was the middle of my sleep. So I woke at 6am, watched without knowing the score and enjoyed our big win!

My friend Heather picked us up in her car about 9.15am and the three of us set off for Niagara Falls. I met Heather on a trip to Latvia in 2015 when I lived in London. We've since met up when I last visited Toronto, and I'm looking forward to her visiting Australia one day. We chatted away the 90 minute drive down the highway to the falls.

When we arrived, we parked and Rob and I went up the Skylon Observation Tower which opened in 1965. We had a great view from above of the falls, and were able to gain a perspective of the area. I came to Niagara Falls by myself in January 2017, but it was snowing, freezing and most things were closed due to it being Winter. Today we were lucky as despite the cloudy forecast we had sunny and blue views from above (apparently on a sunny day you can see 130km). We could see Buffalo, USA in the distance, and the town of Clifton Hill in Canada. We could also see all the tacky casinos etc right near the falls. As we walked around the observation deck we read some interesting information. I wrote a big post on Niagara Falls in 2017 but I'll summarise some facts we learned today too. There are actually three sections to Niagara Falls - American Falls and Bridalveil Falls which are on the USA side, and then the part that people actually associate with Niagara Falls which is Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. Horseshoe Falls is 56m high and the horseshoe part is 670m long. Nearly 3 million litres of water per minute pour over the top of the horseshoe crest during daylight hours in Summer. That is insane!! I remember being impressed by the falls last time, but apparently the flow is halved during that time of the year so the power of the falls was even more impressive today, and the mist huge. As well as being a tourist attraction, Niagara Falls is also functional. It has a hydroelectric power plant and generates enough electricity to power 3.8 million homes. This was built in the early 1900s, and apparently there are a series of tunnels behind and underneath the falls that you can tour. At the end of the tower's information there was a display of 'Towers of the World', and I counted and had been up 19 of 54 of them which I thought was pretty good! Apparently the tower we were up was the first in the world constructed using the concrete slip method, which meant cement was poured continuously, one inch per ten minutes, for 38 days straight 24 hours a day.

Once we descended, we had lunch at TGI Friday's and then caught the funicular down to the Welcome Centre. I remembered coming in here last time to shelter from the cold and snow (upon reading my blog from last time Toronto got down to -8 that day apparently with a windchill of -20!). Today we came outside to the lookout and the sun was still shining, and the paths were lined with daffodils and tulips. I will say though, visiting in Winter did have its benefits. I remember there being only a few people on the paths and lookouts when last I was here. Today you had to wait your turn to get to the fence and have a look. There were people everywhere! Apparently 14,000,000 people visit per year. The only time they would scatter from the fence was when the mist would blow upwards.

We took in the views of the boats in the falls, birds circling, people emerging from the tunnels below, Americans on the USA side (which doesn't have as good a view as this side) and then walked down to the boat tour on the Canadian side. I had booked us a tour as it was the one thing I couldn't do last time that I had wanted to, as it was obviously closed in Winter. The 'Maid of the Mist' company started the boat tours to the falls in 1846, but in 2012 'Hornblower' fought and won the right to be the sole operator on the Canadian side. So these days you have 'Maid of the Mist' on the USA side with blue ponchos, and 'Hornblower' on the Canadian side with pink/red ponchos. We had so much fun on our boat cruise despite it being busy! We donned our ponchos and went right up top to the side, embracing the mist from the powerful falls. We didn't actually get as wet as I thought we would thanks to our ponchos, but the mist sprayed us in the face and it was hard to look up for too long. As the boat turned towards the left, we had a front on view of the falls where we were standing and it literally took my breath away. The falls were so powerful and impressive. Apparently due to their power, they used to erode back 1m per year until in the 1950s when strategic water channels were put in place to slow this erosion down. And apparently the foam you can see around is dissolved limestone due to this erosion. We got a bit wet but not too wet, and laughed our heads off. It always makes me happy doing something Nan and Pa recommended to me when we would chat about travel, so today was special. Rob had a great time too which I was glad of as he hadn't been before.

We drove back and the traffic was pretty bad, so Heather and I chatted away in the front seat while Rob napped. Once back in the city, I had some takeaway sushi and Rob had a kebab. We then shared some Timbits (donut holes from 'Tim Hortons').

Our time here has gone so fast, it's making me sad how fast this trip is flying by. But tomorrow we head off to Quebec City which I'm really excited about, as Nan and Pa always said it was gorgeous. Can't wait!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox