Niagara Falls: USA and Canada--June 29

Kathy here:  Jeff and I were up and out the door by 9:15 on Monday morning.  We stopped for a fill-up of both gas for the car and food (from Corky and Lenny's traditional Deli) for us, and hit I-90 for the trip to Buffalo  NY.  We passed through a bit of Pennsylvania and into New York state.  My first time in these two states.

At the last rest stop before Buffalo.  A pedestrian overpass over I-90

Zooming cars go under us.

We got a sandwich to eat later and continued our journey.  After following the signs and making lots of exits and turns, we found Niagara Falls State Park and after a short walk, suddenly the falls were there in front of us.  They were not quite as tall as I expected, but massive and impressive with two main falls.  The USA falls are straight and tall, but the Canadian Falls are horseshoe shaped and further up the river.

American falls looking at the Canadian Horseshoe falls in the background

No caption necessary other than "Wow"

The Rainbow bridge that links the U.S. to Canada

Jeff and I really wanted to go on "The Maid of the Mist".  I know it seems kitchy and old fashioned, but we bought our tickets and down down down we went in the elevator to the river below.

There were lots of folks in search of "kitch"

We boarded, but the usual suspect Asian tourons who had pushed in front of us in line, in the elevator, in the ticket counter line, and as we boarded the boat, got in front and on the sides of the vessel.  But there isn't a bad seat in the house and we had a nice fence to lean on when we were inevitably tossed from side to side.  Water and mist rained down on us as we steamed past the American falls and hovered in the middle of the arc of the Canadian Falls.  It was a deluge, and we laughed and laughed.  What was truly amazing was being so close to the falls that it felt like you were in the midst of the heaviest downpour ever - ice cold water pelting you while the Falls roar sounds like you are standing on the rail while Amtrak barrels towards you.  Exciting, scary and exhilarating all rolled into one!

Very wet but happy as I got to keep my XL  blue sandwich bag

Fellow shipmates

That smile says it all

The falls from the observation platform

From the water line

After our drenching, we exited through the souvenier stand (they learned something from Disney) and walked back to the car.  What a fun time!  But we were ready for a rest after all that walking and drenching.  After a fruitless search for a SIM card for my phone, we got directions to the Rainbow B and B.  We found it on a quiet street within walking distance of the casino and hearing distance of the falls.  It also had a nice quite peaceful balcony.  We promptly decided to stay another night.  But first we had dinner at the buffet, lost some "loonies" at the casino and walked down to see the falls at night. 

The Balcony.....so peaceful

Red White and Blue falls

 Our first day on the border of the USA and Canada was a rousing success.